Whim was what probably led me to sign on to MSN messenger with my tiragem passport. I so very rarely do that since there is no good reason to really; it is not as if there are several people on my MSN list with whom I can chat away the day. But for whatever reason, I signed on, and as I did, I realised that 2 people had added me to their MSN messenger list.
My first instinct was to lock up immediately, although neither of these persons’ email addresses (which comprised of their names) appeared familiar. It is simply that both addresses obviously belonged to creatures of the male gender, and it is often the case that guys add to their MSN list by doing a search on all “females” with an age range of “18-24” within their country. Frankly, if some non-Trinis added me to their MSN list because they found my website was perfectly fine with me. The idea that these persons are Trinidadians, however, was not too appealing. Trinidad is a small place, where everywhere is a stone’s throw from everywhere else. Once you live on this rock in the Caribbean Sea, it would take minimal brain power and half-hearted investigative work to figure out who I am.
But I did not lock up yet. Perhaps I was simply not as paranoid as I ought to have been. More likely, it was due to lethargy – the thought of having to lock my diary, assign a password, and then perhaps unlock it due to a false alarm was not altogether too appealing. First, I decided to enquire as to who these people were and why they had added me.
I later found out that one of these guys was from India, and had found my website while looking for information on the ACCA papers 1.1 and 1.2. That is very, very unlikely, but I suppose possible, so I let that one slide.
The other guy disturbed me. Although his name rang no bells, not even distant, broken ones, his contrived username led me to believe that he was affiliated with a particular website. At the time, I did not remember that I had linked this website in my diary. I only knew that the website belonged to 4 persons, two of whom I knew. Of those two persons, one knows that I have a blog, but not where. I have not given out the address of my blog since… since… Flez. Yup, he was the last one, and perhaps after that experience, he may very well continue being the last one until this diary dies.
Anyway, this guy started off by bullshitting me, asking me if I was the rocker from t.s. Although I had no fucking clue what he was talking about, and told him as much, the initials T.S. do hold some significance to me (did not reveal that part), and my lock-up finger was itching. He responded by saying that, in that case, he could not remember why he added me, and that it was a long time ago.
A couple days later however, he ended his charade by revealing how he had found me and why he had really added me – while searching for stuff about his website on the net, he found my website as I had linked his site on mine. (Note to self: never link local websites again *especially* if I know the sites creators personally). He wanted to know who I knew on his team.
At that point, I locked the door, I slipped on the latch, bolted that down, slammed on a few boards, nailed that sucker up, brought out the heavy duty chains, threw on a combination lock, installed the digital passcode system, swipe card, eyescanner, and finger print reader. The voice recognition thing is giving trouble though.
It would be very easy for him to simply ask the other 3 members of the group which chick they know has possession of a blog. After that, it will be all downhill.
I told him to leave it alone, “it” being discovering my identity and who I knew. He had read enough of my diary to know that I led “an interesting life”, according to him, so I told him that if he had read more, he would understand my need to stay unknown to the Trinidadian world. He said he would leave it alone, but of course, it would be naive to trust him just like that.
So I shall remain locked up for the next six months, as I am counting on the failing human memory, and transitory interest. In the mean time, I am renaming the entry I had named after his website, and taking down that link within the entry to his site.
Six months locked up. Seems like a long time sure, but hey, if I can keep my legs closed for 7 months, I think I can keep my diary locked for 6.
“Time bears away all things, even the mind.” - Virgil