The case against anonymity

or 

'Another kind of tweetgret'

I know, coming from me, not exactly what you'd expect to hear.

[Disclaimer: Tongue not in cheek for this post]

As a few of you already know, late last week I met with one of my 'follower/friends' (and no, I'm not naming names unless they give the the nod).

Anyway, for those of you who know why I keep my anonymity (and that I'm pretty strict about it) you can imagine this is/was a bit unnerving.  Of the thousand or so of you out there, up until a few days ago, there were exactly zero that had ever (knowingly) seen or met me.  

The mini-meet went great (IMHO).  We talked about twitter (and its weirdness), our significant others, how we ended up in our professions, non-work related projects, etc. 

An interesting side note -- this person, notwithstanding evidence (i.e. the meeting itself) that I might actually share it with them, respected (wc?) my anonymity enough that they didn't ask me who I really was and as far as I could tell the thought didn't even cross their minds (that might not be the case though as I'm not psychic).  Then again, they just might not care (entirely possible as well).

Overall this was the type of person I would enjoy getting to know better - trustworthy (I believe), smart, funny, kind, etc. - and likely would if we were in the same office or met under different circumstances.

And there's the wrench - of the hundreds of you I've had conversations with, odds are there's a significant number that I would enjoy real-life business or personal relationships with (in the platonic sense - seriously people - happily married w/ Coglings, remember?).

Of course, without my anonymity there's little chance I would've ever met a fraction of you, or if I had, there's little chance the relationship would be the same.

This mask I voluntarily put on every day, gives me the freedom to spew hellfire about my clients and co-workers, make inappropriate comments, and do what I do (not sure there's a suitable word for it).  At the same time it keeps me in the shadows (at least while at this place of employment) when it comes to really interacting and taking anything to the next level. Quite literally this persona (with the exception of #Masquertweet) is 99% talk...140 character talk...but talk nonetheless.

It'll be interesting/challenging to see how this progresses....

5 of 25 real things

Yes, this was inspired by the stupid FB trend.  

I thought would be more interesting here since, quite literally, 0 (zero) of you know me IRL (in real life) and sometimes 140 just isn't enough.  

Presented in the occasional 5 bullet segments (that way when I've been ignoring the blog for some time I can throw another five up here to buy myself some time...:)

1. I've never been west of Las Vegas, and before that (since it was for business and all I saw was the inside of the convention center and the place we rented (so it doesn't really count...)) Colorado.
2. I haven't owned a car for nearly 9 years.  The only time I miss it is when I rent one.
3. Notwithstanding my flirtering I am very happily married w/ little coglings.  (Sorry twitter-ettes).
4. Politically I'm 90% bleeding heart liberal.
5. I'm a Google Ho - if I can use Google for a service I do: mail (for my real accounts), docs, applications, maps, video, phone ...(except subway maps...just doesn't work well).

WTF's a #Masquertweet

Some of this info in this post has been updated - after reading, please check here for more info.

Well it started innocently enough...

For those of you who have been following me for some time know I tweet anonymously for numerous reasons. As does @prdude and @aerocles recently became more open with his id (check his blog http://aerocles.blog.com/ as well as prdude's at http://www.indefenseofpr.com too!).

And so we went here

and here...
Along the way @jessisjuicy hopped on (w00t!) and we came up with a name:

(Because #twitterade sounds like something you drink after a long tweeting session.)

Unfortunately @prdude refuses to sing Broadway show tunes and snuggies have been banned. But we are expecting cupcakes (and cupcakes ? men! ;)) and have a few leads out for booze distributors.

We believe it might be the first masked tweetup (though we may be wrong). There's also been some talk of mixing it with #tweetnaked.

And so where are we now? Here's what we know:

• The #Masquertweet will take place in NYC
• It will take place sometime in July (not the week/end of the 4th) July 16th
• We do not have a venue yet, are seeking one and have been in contact w/ Heather Dueitt @hdueitt who's got some great leads.
• We're happy to consider vendors, anyone wanting to provide promos, etc. drop one of us a tweet or email.
• To be kept in the loop, RSVP yes or maybe at http://twtvite.com/0cv35v http://tinyurl.com/rsvp09
• We'd love to make this totally free/open bar - so sponsors very welcome. Or buy this apartment and I'll put all the bounty money into the event (Please send any other reward arrangements our way, we're happy to advertise...).
  
• This is not a flack only event...assistants can come too ;). No really, any and all are welcome, even journos =]
  

If I've missed anything (pretty sure I have), drop me a note or a tweet.

--PRCog

Some of this info in this post has been updated - after reading, please check here for more info.