Whimsical Wednesday

I figure this is a good day to talk about secret identities. Batman has one, Superman has one, even I have one. Of course I’m not putting myself in the same category as a superhero, but I find the whole concept of a secret identity interesting.

Way back when the internet was young and people were using clunky dial-up modems, I was told by my daughter that I had to come up with a user-name if I was going to surf the internet. Who was I to argue with the wisdom of a thirteen-year-old. Especially one who regularly surfed to a chat room in Hawaii to talk with her friends from school.

Choosing a name was a lot harder than I thought it would be, especially trying to find a name that wasn’t already in use. Finally, the daughter suggested Nite Orchid, which was actually the title of a time shifting romance I was reading at the time. And so I became Nite Orchid. I used it as my ICQ identity (anyone remember ICQ? Is it even still around?), I used it for my e-mail address and I even created a web site. I’m sorry now that I let the site lapse. It was pretty big, with many pages linked together and had all kinds of interesting information as well as a good sampling of my writing. I learned to do html coding, and to animate gifs; I even did a lot of my own backgrounds.

Anyway, I’m getting off track here. Fast forward about ten years to my first blog called “the Long Road to (In)Sanity” and I can’t even remember where I had it listed - it wasn’t Blogspot, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t MySpace. My identity at this time was Earth Mage. I have no idea why.

When I signed up on Absolute Write, I became Lady Cat. And honestly? I have no idea why I chose that name either. I think the first couple I came up with were already being used and I was starting to panic.

My blog at that time was Earth’s Fire, to go along with the Earth Mage. Then I changed my blog to Firecat’s Lair and it’s been that ever since. That’s also my MSN identity. One of these days I’ll change my AW identity to Firecat too, but I just haven’t got around to it yet.

Confused yet? How about this: as you know, I have a list of blogs I visit on a daily basis, my own two included. My every day blog shows up about number three, while my writing blog shows up about halfway down my list. I comment as Firecat on the blogs preceding my writing blog, and as myself on the blogs following.

About now you’re probably wondering what all this has to do with Whimsical Wednesday. Okay, you were probably asking that after about the first paragraph, but now I’m ready to answer.

When the daughter and her fiancé were over for dinner last weekend, the daughter told me about this website you can go to to register your superhero identity. Seriously! So of course I had to check it out.

Just to pique your interest, I’ll even quote directly from the site:

A Real-Life Superhero must meet the following minimum criteria to be considered for the registry:

Costume: The purpose of a costume is not simply to protect the identity of the Real-Life Superhero from criminals that might seek revenge, but to make a statement both to the evil-doers that you fight against and to the world at large: you are not simply someone who happened upon crime or injustice and made an impulsive decision to intervene. You have vowed to actively fight for the betterment of humankind and to serve as an example for others. The costume of a Real-Life Superhero must be of sufficient quality to show some care went into it's creation.

Heroic Deeds: The purpose behind becoming a Real-Life Superhero must be for the benefit of mankind, and the Heroic Deeds must be of sufficient degree as to exceed normal everyday behavior. If proof of Heroic Deeds is not present, a listing may still be added to the Registry, however, it may be marked as "inactive" or "unconfirmed" in the description.

Personal Motivation: A Real-Life Superhero cannot be a paid representative of an organization, not even a benevolent one. The motivation to become a Real-Life Superhero must come from the individual: not an advertising gimmick or a public relations campaign.

Now that you know about the registration, you need a proper Real-Life Superhero name. I checked out several different generators and THIS ONE was the best pick. According to them, my superhero name is The Tartalum Kitten. Trust me, it’s much better than some of the ones the other generators came up with, like The Enigmatic Suicideette, or Fabulous Stink Ferret :-)

Avoid the rush! Register your Real-Life Superhero name today! Go HERE