Ithacating in Cornell Heights

I figured that I would do two posts in the upcoming several days – one would be for the fifth anniversary of this blog, on the 18th.

The other, well…I decided that I might as well introduce myself. I’ve tried to write the history articles with an impartial view, because I always wanted the focus to be on the events themselves rather than the person writing them.  The Ithaca developments articles, I have my opinions as much as anyone, and I don’t shy away from expressing them, because whereas historical facts can be skewed and misinterpreted, the beauty of a built structure lies with the preferences of the viewer.

Earlier on, when I was a Cornell student, I had reasons to keep a low profile. I didn’t want my college, my major, or my affiliations to be things that people used to look for perceived bias when I wrote an entry. More importantly, a couple articles make references to my work at the Cornell Store and some of its procedures (ex. how it ran the daily gift card giveaway), which could have put my job at risk. I don’t know if any of my superiors ever came across this blog, though I assume they didn’t. However, the Quill and Dagger folks got up in arms about it, as did my editor at the Sun (this blog was hardly related to anything I wrote – I did the weather column for two years, before they ditched it the year after I graduated). If people had issues with things I did/wrote, it didn’t take long for them to find me. So the anonymity was always more of an image portrayed, rather than anything real. With that realization, my sentiments have been to acknowledge the blog if approached about it in email or in person, but most of my friends have no idea, a few even know of this blog but think the writer is someone else. Ithacating in Cornell Heights has never been something I’ve gone out of my way to promote.

On that note, that has always bothered me. I remember being at an alumni event about two years ago, where two other young alumni talked about how they started blogs, with the primary purpose being just to get their names out there, to yell just a little louder into the raucous crowd of the internet, as if that was something to put on a resume. “I am important, look at the important things I say”! That has never appealed to me. I’m not an attention seeker (which isn’t to say I don’t like receiving credit when credit is due), but I enjoy sharing Cornelliana and Ithacana on this blog, as a labor of love and devotion rather than self-promotion.

So it’s been almost 5 years. Might as well shake things up a bit.

Hi. My name is Brian Crandall. Thank you for dropping by this blog.