One thing that I find pretty shocking here is how open people are with their furry identities. I don't mean the sexual openness I commented on in my last journal--I'm pretty used to knowing any users deepest sexual fantasies upon a glance at their page. What I'm remarking about is how often users make no effort to separate their real lives from their furry ones. I'm sure there are many reasons for this--perhaps these individuals are simply confident enough in themselves to make such connections apparent. Or maybe certain individual's don't have enough of a "real" life to warrant separating it from their furry lives. Or maybe some of these folks don't work, and therefore never have to worry about a potential employer somehow stumbling on their furry scat fetish.

I, however, definitely keep "eorpheus" far removed from my real life. I'm pretty sure I touched on this before, but this is primarily due to the fact that I do work in the arts (music, specifically). If I share my "real life" works here, there is a chance someone I don't want looking at this page will find it, make the connection, and not hire me. Let's face it folks--musicians are a dime a dozen. It doesn't take much to lose a gig. There are a few things I've posted (between journals and submissions) that could allow for someone who knows both sides of me to make a good educated guess as to who I am in real life, but for the most part, the only people who know about both of my identities are the ones I've told.

But, especially after moving to the middle of nowhere for grad school, of course I'm going to get curious and want to know if there are any furries around me. Luckly, pretty much every state has a page on this website, so it wasn't hard for me to starting finding out what furries live near me.

But here's the kicker--it wasn't hard for me to figure out who they were in real life, either (with a few exceptions). In one case, it wasn't terribly difficult to find one person I knew in real life (whom I didn't know well, but could have while he was still around) on this website, and discover all of the sexual things that, well, I don't know about them, but I wouldn't want people at school knowing about.

The reason this came up is because while I was at a concert I was performing at tonight, I looked to my left and saw someone I had discovered here. It was pretty funny to me--seeing somebody in the flesh, but also seeing all of the fetishes, character oddities, and porn he looks at as well. I've spoken with this guy before (actually, before I found out he was a furry), and would have never guessed anything beyond his orientation.

Granted, this also puts me in an awkward situation. I suppose I could confront these people ("Hey, I've been stalking you on furaffinity!"), but I hold a grad assistantship at school. Therefore, though still a grad student, I've got some significant teaching responsibilities as well. Bringing something like this up with another student--particularly an undergrad--could be construed as harassment and put my position in jeopardy.

But what's the likelihood of that happening? More likely than you think--I know way more than I ever thought I would about somebody who almost took one of my independent studies, thanks to this website. Boy, that would've been weird.

So yeah. I'm sure that someday I'll meet one of these people that I've found, and if I ever become good enough friends with them, perhaps I'll share my secret too. But, it's not something I'm particularly worried about. Just remember: if you go to my school, I know who you are :)