A domain by any other name would...

So, I feel like I’m following a trend in some ways.  I’m going to create a website for myself.  With some help of course.  I’m a bit of a neophyte where some of this is concerned.  But I also just spent several months prepping for the launch of my work’s new appearance on the world wide web, so I’ve got some perspective.  And self promotion is going to be a necessary task if I want to do this thing of which I write so frequently.

But I’m already stuck.  My name as a domain is already taken.  But that… well, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.  It just begs the question, if not the obvious, then what?

One of those amusing anecdotes I like to tell about myself is that I am often called Jesse Owens by mistake.  No joke.  And it frequently occurs in February when Black History Month puts African Americans of note in the forefront of everyone’s brain.  I am not African American.  I do run, but am no where close to Olympic qualifications.  Let alone a gold medal.  Let alone male.  Or dead.  It’s amusing – and flattering.  Geez, the guy competed in Nazi Germany as a black man.  It was a big deal in America, never mind Nazi Germany… but I’m still not Jesse Owens.

                                                                   


I had a pretentious stage in my youth when I would include my middle name on programs.  It added three more syllables to my name and actually links better to my Irish appearance than the Ellis Island alias my great grandfather took upon his arrival in this country.  I am more Brennan than Olson.  So maybe… I could just drop the Olson.

In fact for years, I hated Olson.  Nellie and her mother made me want to bury my name under a rock.  I wasn’t that shrewish or spoiled.  Nils was a fop.  Little House didn’t do much for Olson pride.  Then, ugh, there are those twins.  Who are Norwegian and use an ‘e.’  But people still have to ha, ha, ask if we’re related.  Um, no.  Olson is like Smith in Sweden.  Sorry folks.

But it’s my Dad’s name.  My dad gave me the passion for words and the love of writing.  He gave me the critical eye for grammar and spelling.  He gave me the delight in a good story, old and new.  He is the reason I want to write and have my name on a book binding.  How better to thank him than have his name on there?

Hmm… maybe I could drop the Ellis Island alias and go back to Ronander.