The Death of a Pseudonym

I admit, I've been gone way too long. I'd like to blame the dissertation, teaching, job apps, etc., and that's been the legitimate reason in no small part, but to many, that's not a good enough reason. That said, after many threats to return to blogging, the dissertation is in and I feel I can finally write about things not-dissertation-related, and do so guilt-free. At the same time, I also feel it's time to fess up - my real name is not Mr. Trend. It's Colin Snider.

I have decided to move away from pseudonyms (as proud as I was of it - anybody who's met me personally can appreciate the irony and sarcasm in my adoption of "Mr. Trend") for many reasons. The first and most important of these is that I genuinely want to be more serious, critical, and analytical on this blog. That certainly hasn't been my M.O. in the past, and I regret nothing about that. Writing under a pseudonym allowed me to play with different "voices" and styles while blogging, to figure out what I liked and what I didn't, and what worked and what didn't. That said, after years of blogging (I've technically been here since 2006, after all), I've finally settled on what I'd like to do as a blogger. Sure, the music commentary, random observations, and other matters may persist, but following Erik's lead (and my own efforts on occasion), I've come to see just how useful even a small blog like ours can be in terms not only of formulating my own ideas, but in exchanging serious discussion with others whose insights often exceed things I could come up with in the isolated vacuum of my own head.

To expound a bit more (though hopefully not as wordily as my writing can often become): I'd really like to return to making Alterdestiny a useful forum for discussions on Latin America. It used to be that way periodically, and I realize my return to the game is extremely late (Boz, Greg Weeks, Randy, and others do an outstanding job as it is). That said, hopefully I can enter into that arena again, this time without pseudonyms, and use Alterdestiny to put forth my own thoughts on Latin America while also engaging others in a very-cliched-yet-still-earnets attempt to broaden my own horizons and understandings. I'm not going to pretend that my return will skyrocket our readership, but I'm not really concerned with that end anymore, either; my interest is to expand the forum that Alterdestiny provides as a smaller blog that still has something to say.

With that said, this post isn't some hollow "I hope to return someday" observation. I'm Colin Snider, I'm back, and I hope to get some good conversations going here once again.

The Big Time

Make sure you check out our own Sarah J's first article (I think) for The American Prospect. It's a good one too, profiling a very promising South Carolina progressive.

I've been interested over the years how this blog has served as a bit of a farm system for the progressive major leagues. Of course, it's all about the hard work of Sarah (and Matt before) rather than the blog itself. I've been happy to host some really great new voices in the progressive movement.

To expand the baseball metaphor, any connections between myself and Crash Davis will be left to the reader.

Welcome Chad Black to Alterdestiny

As you can see from the previous post, we have a new writer here at Alterdestiny. His name is Chad Black and he is an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He specializes in colonial South America. He'll be writing about all sorts of things, including Latin American politics, women's rights, and any number of other topics. I've known Chad for years and am very excited that he has joined our team here.

New Comment Record

For the third consecutive month, we have set a new comment record. Last month, we had 604 comments. As of right now, with 4 days to go in the month, we have had 607 comments.

I probably said this last month, but you all have no idea how great it is to have people read what we write. The comments make doing this worthwhile. It's all exciting to be writing for a site that is steadily gaining readership. Certainly it would be nice to get some attention from the big sites. But we have developed a really great community here and for that I want to thank you on behalf of all of us.

And of course, you readers out there who don't comment--join the conversation!

Note: Final total was 638 comments.

Welcome to Our New Blogger, Yann Kerevel

Alterdestiny is continuing to expand. The post below on voting in New Mexico was written by Yann Kerevel, a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of New Mexico. An expert on Mexico, Yann will expand our coverage of Latin America, making us one of the best Latin American blogs out there if I may say so. He will be discussing other matters, political and nonpolitical as well.

Personally, I am hoping for some posts from Yann on Roky Erickson and Santo films.

We have at least one more amazing new blogger coming on board as well and I will introduce her after her first post as well.