The Hybrid Journal

August is almost upon us- and with august comes Blaugust. This year, i wanted to take part- to get back into the groove of blogging and to slowly phase out the summer break.

So this year, Blaugust will be a relaxed affair- you don’t really have to commit to a schedule and you “win” by participating. Seems easy, right? All you have to do is fill out a small form. But what is that i see?

A name? My blog needs a name?

See, when i made the move from wordpress.com to self-hosted, of course i thought about names, URLs and such. I liked my previous name, Party Business, but to be honest, not too much, because it can be misunderstood- after all, Party Business is all about hats, balloons and clowns. I also thought about going with an alternate name- Mersault’s the one i’ve been carrying in online gaming for almost 20 years, but it’s not mine. The search for names and URLs went on for hours, but in the end, i decided to make this site not only about MMOs and gaming, but all my entertainment write-ups and more of a personal space. Of course, it turned out that i don’t write much about books, tv and such, but it was intended.

So in the end, i went with mersault-online.com. The more i saw it, the more i disliked it- especially when i was lucky enough to get a mention on someone else’s blog or site- there i was, with all the cool kids’ blogs named “Kill ten rats”, “Tales of the Aggronaut”, “Waiting for Rez”, “Wolfyseyes” and so on and mine was “Mersault Online”.

There’s Aywren, of course, but she’s got a cool name for herself and even then she has a sub-title, “Geek Life”.

Since yesterday, i thought about a name- i thought in the direction of travel, like “Wanderlust” something- especially since it’s an english lean word coming from the german language. I could oh-so-subtly hint at my location in the real world while writing about traveling inside one MMO, different MMOs and also the real world. The problem is that “Wanderlust” is first and foremost a very popular travel blog and also a word that, of course, comes up very often in those kinds of blogs.

I considered “Fernweh”, the word germans use in the way americans use “Wanderlust”, and it would’ve been a bit better.

Then i stumbled upon “Hybrid” in my thoughts, and the more i thought about it, the better it seemed to fit. Of course, there are hybrid cars, but i don’t care in the end, as this is not a brand but a name. And here’s why i like it:

• i love to play hybrid characters in MMOs and even single player games. Hybrid as in “can damage and heal at the same time”, not the WoW-definition.
• this blog is “hybrid” in nature, even now. Sometimes i’m writing about ingame travels, sometimes about real-world-travels
• i don’t seem to be a “one game” guy. I made it work in ESO for six months, but it all came crashing down on me in the last couple of weeks. I’m still looking for “that perfect MMORPG”, but i’m not forcing my hand- and also, MMOs have become “just another genre”.
• “Hybrid” can also mean something related to “half-breed” (i’m so hoping this isn’t an offensive word), and as i’m married to a chinese woman and we have a son who is an “half-breed”, that makes me and our family a (cultural) hybrid, as well.

So in the end, with “Hybrid”, i wouldn’t have to use specifying words like “Virtual Wanderlust”, “Fernweh in fantastic worlds” to seperate me from travel blogs while also restricting myself thematically. By using “The Hybrid Journal” i can be as flexible as the name suggests.

I had to change it around, though. First, i wanted to go with “The Hybrid Chronicles”, the sound of which i really liked. But alas, there’s a book series with that title. “Hybrid Diaries” strays off in the direction of vampire fiction, so while i think “Journal” might be a bit over-the-top, i like it nonetheless.

So that’s the name of this blog, now, for what it’s worth. I won’t change URLs again, this is my place now and i want to make myself comfy here.

And with this name, i’m finally able to fill out that form for the totally relaxed edition of Blaugust 😉