So I tried out this online face recognition gizmo that examines a photo of your face which you upload, and then tells you what celebrities you look like. Technology being as accurate as it is these days, I quite naturally figured this would provide everyone with an accurate picture of what I look like without actually posting a photo of myself. The results:
Now I must say, I’m not entirely sure about what to make of this… the most alarming part is trying to figure out how Oskar Schindler and Drew Barrymore could both look like the same third party. Come to think of it, what on earth is Drew Barrymore doing in this mix??
Maybe I should just tell people I look like Cary Grant. I don’t, of course, but you know… who wouldn’t want to be able to say they look like Cary Grant or Sean Connery, or someone like that? I mean, no matter how highly I esteem them, it’s not the same to go around saying I look like Ken Thompson or Jon “maddog” Hall.
As for the lookalike contest, I guess we still don’t have a winner.
Update: I just did my wife’s face — she came up as Steffi Graf, Christie Brinkley, Monica Seles, J.K. Rowling, and Sharon Stone. I have to say she came out much better than I did… which is rather to be expected!
Out of curiosity, do you think you’ll ever reveal your identity down the track?
I have to a number of folk, just not on the blog. I was going to do a reveal post a year or so ago, and some people told me not to — they kind of liked the unknown mystery, I guess. I think I will at some point as a practical matter… for example, I’ve been asking myself lately if I publish in print, which name I should use. Most of my reasons for anonymity have passed, and the “secret” i out in several circles now anyway. I was thinking the other day that when the time comes, I could publish the reveal somewhere besides this blog, and then run a contest to see who would find it first.
I wonder how people feel about it now — if they’d rather I did or didn’t, or don’t care?
I’d be curious what others think about this now. I completely respect people who blog anonymously for personal reasons, such as yourself and Emerging Grace. But my preference is that I know people by their actual name when possible, and a picture is nice too.
I love blogging, and have made many great friends in the blogosphere, but one of the main drawbacks is the lack of personal contact. And anonymity exaggerates this even more for me. Though I follow anonymous blogs like yours and Grace’s with every bit as much interest as any other non-anonymous blog I like.
Maybe you could go to http://www.meez.com and make your own little 3D figure! So, would you say you look most like from the above? We’ll still come and read you even if it is Ken Thompson! I don’t really mind if I know peoples identity or not – maybe I should put a picture on my blog?
I knew Brother Maynard back in the day when he was known as…
Actually, he used the “maynard” pseudonym when he wrote for the school paper 20 years ago as well!
Hey Bro. Maynard, look on the bright side: when I did the same photo sample thingy, I came back as Gene Simmons from KISS. So, count your blessings! :)
Bigfoot didn’t come up? ;)
I started blogging with my full name and then changed it to my nickname. It wouldn’t be that hard for people to figure out who I am as I occassionally post pics of my kids. In my line of work, though, a lot of my opinions could count against me (e.g. when I talk aout my pro-life beliefs) in certain places of employment, so I go low key. I don’t want anyone to be able to Google my name and come up with my blog. Right now if you Google my name you come up with a lot of equesrian sites, so all’s good.
I remember doing this before too. I turned out to be Joan Collins. (I’m not that old!) I posted a picture on my blog for about 2 days. I have a hard time with photos of myself, so it didn’t last long before I replaced it with the feet.
My anonymity is more about the people I know than everyone else. I wouldn’t mind if you all knew my name, but I wouldn’t want to be googled by people that I know and have them snooping through my blog as if they were reading my diary.
Although I have considered somehow editing the blog so that I could switch to my real name. Perhaps in the future, I will use my real name, and let the association to my blog happen indirectly.
Actually I was surprised at how freely people use their real names. I was taught to not use your real name online, so I usually don’t. On forums, message boards, and e-mails I’ve always gone by katie. So really grace is an alias of an alias. Not that I’m paranoid.
If you knew my name, you wouldn’t know any more about me than you do now. It’s not like I’m famous or anything. ;) Really!
Lyn, I think I’d just create one that looked how I wish others could see me… after all, why create an overweight fantasy character? ;^) Thanks for the link back here from the post with your photo, btw.
Robbymac (or should I call you Gene?), you remember well. Back in college it was kinda fun — only one person figured out who it was outside of a very small circle of people that I told. Noting the reaction from one person over what I’d written in one article about “keener-cases”, I decided I’d best keep it to myself for the good of my health!
Jude, Bigfoot? Isn’t Ken Thompson close enough? I hadn’t connected the dots, but yes, in your profession an unlisted number and a pseudonym would be de rigeur, I’d think.
Grace, I can relate.
I’ve just Googled myself and come up with 715 results for my real name in quotes. After poking around the results sufficiently, I believe they’re all me. On the other hand, “brother maynard” has 927,000 results. I get half of the first page, and while I’m sprinkled throughout the remainder of the results, I think it’d be fair to expect that the bulk of them belong to the Eric Idle character from whom I took the name.
Anyway, if I posted my real name here, you would be able to find out a bunch more about me. None of it bad (I hope!) but as I thought a bit about the question, I think there are some references here in the personal updates that I would have to go and edit or remove. I hate changing things once I’ve written them, but in order not to have things said in one sphere reflecting badly or wrongly on the other, some edits would need to be done. Unlike the reasons I first adopted the pseudonym, this now has more to do with business concerns than with my CLB.
I am so impressed! I only had about 200 results and none of them were me. I remain successful in my quest for obscurity. :)
In my snooping around, I ran across the newly redone website for our CLB and listened to the latest message from the apostle. I’m tempted to link.
BTW, my real name is Linda, but you can still call me grace.
(This hot scoop may increase your blog traffic.)
okay – that’s a bizarre tool. I ws fully expecting George Carlin, but instead got Chuck Norris & Kofi Annan. Clearly Salem Bland wasn’t in their database.
When I started blogging, I just used my first name. But that got confusing when I commented on other blogs because there were several “Steve” comments, and they weren’t all me. So I changed it to “Steve S”.
I can’t remember why I finally took the plunge to use my full last name, but for well over a year now, I’ve been “Steve Sensenig” and Googling that (even without putting it in quotes) will give you my music website and my blog (usually #1 and #2, respectively), as well as a slew of comments I’ve made on other blogs.
So far, it’s not been a problem, but I’m sure it could turn out to bite me at some point.
Overall, I’m with John Smulo, though. I’m not real crazy about anonymous bloggers, although you (Bro. M) and grace are two of my favorites. Fortunately, with grace’s amazing revelation above, I now know both of you by your real names, too. :)
okay so maybe i’m a bit obsessive, but after the strange results on the face recognition thing, i thought it might be interesting to see how Our Lord makes out – i used 3 familiar portrayals 1) the Sacred Heart [anyone who’s been to any catholic church has seen it]. 2) Rembrandt’s and 3) Raphael’s. Sacred Heart came out as Lucy Liu or Monica Bellucci. Rembrandt’s came out as Albert Einstein or Calista Flockhart. And Raphael’s interestingly came out also as Albert Einstein, but also as Sharon Osborne.
Bill, that’s scary! “No stately form or majesty,” okay… but Einstein?
Okay … but might we assume from this that Albert Einstein is in their database, and apparently Jesus is not? It’s really alternatingly funny and … ummmm … I don’t know. Maybe, scary??
for the record, I wouldn’t want to to be able to say I look like Cary Grant or Sean Connery.