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08/22/2005: "pulling back the veil"
Ever since Not From Toronto began way back in 2002, it took on the same tone as many blogs and article still have: one of friendly anonymity. I don't know if regular readers or passers-by noticed, but I've made a very conscious decision not to mention names, places, or any specifics that may reveal who I actually am.
Now that the era of weekly Not From Toronto articles has long passed, and this has instead turned into my personal space, I'm no longer under the delusion that there might be hundreds of readers eagerly following my progress through life. I also realize that with the number of friends and family that regularily read (and comment), being wholly anonymous no longer serves a purpose.
It's actually becoming quite tiresome, when describing events in my life, to talk about "my wife" or "my 4-year-old daughter" and most especially "the company through which I was contracting previously". While I don't feel the need to completely rip the veil of secrecy away, the total ban on identifying information doesn't really serve a purpose anymore. Thus, I'd like to introduce myself.
My name is Andrew. The name "Mr. Ska" came into being early on in my university days, thanks to an irreverent bunch called Chill and the 4 Brothers Fresh. A detailed explanation really isn't worthwhile, but suffice to say that CatFBF had a couple of skits with a Mr. Ska character, and I liked the name. Only a couple years later did I realize that Ska is also a kind of music. Anyhoo...
I'm married to my wife of nearly 5 years Jannette, and together we've had two children, our 4-year-old Isabelle who is the most outgoing child I've ever met, and our up-and-coming 1-year-old Isaac, who is likely going to be equally sociable. Isabelle is a little clone of her mother, and Isaac seems to be a little clone of me, although it's not as apparent as it is with Isabelle and her mother.
As I've mentioned before, I'm a product design engineer. Jannette was a child development studies graduate and nanny until we started having kids (yes, I married a professional mommy), and now she works way harder than I do and stays home with the kids.
There. Now you know. I don't feel the need to open every facet of my life in this forum, but at least now I can reference people by name. I'm still going to keep work-related stuff hush-hush, as there is always the chance of accidently burning a bridge by spouting off online and assuming no from work reads what you write. I'll still rant and vent, it just won't directly implicate anyone (no matter how richly they deserve to be outed).
I've been considering doing this for years. Why it took me so long, I can only guess. My bet is inertia. Who cares? In any case, from here on out you can enjoy reading about events in my life with actual names instead of anonymized descriptors. Except for "the company through which I was contracting previously". Oh well...
