Brandice.net

What’s sad about the photo below is that it is a VAST improvement on my previous driver’s license (and I mean, REALLY vast), despite the fact that I look someone who is about to (or already did) murder someone.

I swear that those little cameras take and distort my face into some miserable expression every time I have a license photo taken. I am destined to look unhappy on plastic:

The positive points:

1. I am now legally Brandice Schnabel, in addition to being legally married. Social security card on its way, bank account changed, new debit card ordered, and now new license acquired.

2. I am an organ donor. Are you? (I hope so.)

3. My hair does not look nearly as horrific as it did on my old license.

4. There were no children at the BMV (in my experience, children I encounter at the BMV are obnoxious and frequently throw plastic picnic tables at each other).

So… now I just have to slowly get all of my bills in my new name (phone calls, I believe… no more fancy paperwork, etc.), and I’ll be good.

I have to say that all the instructions online for changing your name make it sound terrifying, and the three big things (bank, SSN, license) took 48 hours total, and could’ve realistically been done in one full day. Piece of cake, seriously.

Recommendations for anyone who ever has to do this stuff:

- Go to your local Social Security Administration office instead of mailing in application. MUCH faster and they don’t keep your important documents and lose them (birth certificate, etc.). I got a temporary SS card/letter on the spot. All I needed was marriage license and driver’s license.

- All the bank asked for was my old ID (I didn’t have my new one yet) and my marriage certificate. Took five minutes and they ordered a new debit card in that five minutes.

- Smile in your driver’s license photo, even if there are signs saying not to, and once again, all I needed was the marriage license and my old driver’s license. Go during a business day and it’s not too busy.

- Don’t read online guides to changing your name. They’re stupid, and will just scare you. Just go in this order - Social Security card, driver’s license, bank account, everything else. Done.

Tags: brandice, drivers license, license, lol, marriage, names, pics

What is the appeal of anonymous commenting on a blog?

I’ve only had two on this main blog, but the only time I’ve ever received an anonymous comment on the LiveJournal version of the blog was in an instance when the person leaving the comment did want their name attached to what they had to say, because it was just passive-aggressive silliness.

On this blog, all comments have to be approved, unless you’ve had a previously approved comment, and I haven’t approved the two anonymous comments I’ve received. I actually deleted them entirely yesterday, after a long period of letting them just sit there. This might seem non-kosher, I don’t know… but the more I thought about it, the less interested I was in allowing a comment that can’t be responded to and didn’t seem to have much importance to the person commenting.

I have a plugin that allows threaded commenting on this blog, and when you comment, I reply directly to you, in a way that is emailed back to you and you’re aware of. One of the biggest problems I have with almost any blog is the fact that I can’t easily be updated on follow ups to my comments, so it’s important for me that people aren’t expected to subscribe to my comments to be aware when I reply to theirs.

Maybe it’s the fact that I think comments are supposed to be part of a conversation, and anonymity takes away my ability to respond or continue the conversation, or maybe it’s my own personal views on a person who doesn’t have the balls to put a name behind criticism (I don’t think I’ve ever had an anonymous comment that wasn’t passive aggressive criticism), but I think I plan to continue my recent policy of just deleting anonymous comments.

What do you think about anonymous commenting? I know that a lot of people don’t allow it at all, but you can still end up with fake information along the lines of “Anonymous” with email “anonymous@anonymous.com,” which was the case with my two received comments. What do you do with anonymous comments on your blog?
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Internetiquette is an ongoing series of writing that contain my thoughts on internet etiquette and how to reduce your jerk footprint on the web.

Tags: anonymity, blogging, brandice, comments, internet, Internetiquette, livejournal, replies

There’s a lot of great buzz on the web right now for Dr. Horrible (which is completely awesome… just finished watching it today), and I was really excited to see Felicia Day on the show with such a great overall cast.

If you enjoy Felicia Day and you’re also a gamer, you’ll probably like The Guild. I used one of Viddler’s new Vidgets to create this player that will play all the episodes for the first season, and I’m eagerly awaiting a second season!

What web shows are you watching these days?

Tags: brandice, dr. horrible, felicia day, internet, podcasts, show, the guild, viddler, Videos

I’m curious about this (click image to see blog announcement):

Is blogging dead? I really don’t think so, but there’s a lot of talk about Calacanis’ move to the newsletter as his new way of interacting with his audience. Steve Hodson thinks Calacanis is “full of shit” and Allen Stern of CenterNetworks did a write-up with an accompanying video:

Allen also linked to Jason’s first email/newsletter, and I want to respond to a few things…

Continue Reading »

Tags: blogging, brandice, calacanis, Internetiquette, jason calacanis, newsletters