The other day Rowan made a post about why he chose his blog’s name, and challenged us Blaugust-ers to do the same. We’re coming to the end of the month, meaning the end of this event, and some of the posts have made their way through the ranks. This is one of them, with at least one other blogger taking part (apologies if I missed your post). I do have a brief history of this site that you can find at the top of the page, but it doesn’t go into the reasons behind my naming conventions, so I’ll take care of that here.
Me vs. Myself and I isn’t my first blog name, or first blog for that matter. I had various names throughout the years, but it started off as more of a personal journal, that I doubt many people read. I remember using the name Strife and having a blog called Strife’s Homeworld, that was all about Starcraft. There was a personal blog called Jorge’s Pad, when I thought having a pseudonym was stupid (my name is George, if you didn’t know, so using the Spanish variant was easy). I had a collaborative blog with my best friend when we were just out of high school called White Boyz. Then there was another collaboration with multiple authors called Oblivion. After some stagnation and time away from the Internet, I came back with my own blog again, this time called The Lost Souls. It was supposed to be a collaboration as well, with a former Oblivion co-author, but that bit fell through. I didn’t ever drop the pluralization for whatever reason (probably laziness). That was the beginning of this iteration of this blog you’re reading now.
The Lost Souls is a song by the then-punk or post-punk band (depending on your definition) AFI. This was one of my favorite songs of theirs, a sort of love song to an old girlfriend. I also have part of the lyrics tattooed on me, so it was meaningful at the time. I also related to the title, being a younger 20-something and feeling lost in the grand scope of things. Being a personal journal style blog, it all seemed to fit and make sense in the scope of my life at the time. It wasn’t until 2010, after 5 years with that title that I decided it was time for a change. By then I had already gone through a change (mostly) to blogging about MMOs and other games I was playing, but there was still bits of my personal life sprinkled in (moreso than these days).
Me vs. Myself and I was born. I don’t have any exact reasoning behind it, but here’s a quote from the time period: “It is, after all, a blog about me, my sad little nerdy life and my consistent conflict with life and myself.” I must have been feeling angsty. The best way I can describe it these days is to equate it to the constant change that is a part of all of our lives. We are always changing in opinions and attitudes, and I can honestly go back and read things I’ve written and disagree with them now. So I’m always fighting with myself. These days, it’s more about what game to play, whether or not I really want what I say I want, and then doubling back on myself. It’s a moniker that reflects the solo nature of the blog, where it’s not me vs. you, or me vs. them, but rather me vs. myself and I. It’s also got that play on words feel in respect to the phrase Me, Myself and I.
At this point I’ve spread the brand recognition to social media and the podcast so it’s sticking and I don’t forsee another name change ever. That is unless I was to close this blog altogether and start something new, or retire from blogging. I don’t see the latter happening though, as I’ve been doing this for more than half of my life. It’s had its rough patches, but I’ve never let it die completely.
So there you have it. Have you answered the challenge yet?
#blaugust #ihavetouchedthesky #mevsmyselfandi
Me Vs. Myself and I 