athenaltena | On online handles

So I was talking with my dad over lunch and I realized something interesting: As a couple of you might know, I go by Rose online but my real name is Rosemary, and for some reason it's just never felt right to use Rosemary in internet activities. I thought about it for a bit, and then I realized that the two names have someone different connotations to them. Rose is shorter and (to me) a bit more agressive sounding, and my online "voice" is a bit more agressive than my real life personality and doesn't have the same subtlety or shyness. Rosemary I think sounds softer somehow, like the "mary" gives it a different edge and somehow conceals the sharpness a bit. Granted, according to my dad I'm a "iron fist in a velvet glove" *or my varient "a blade wrapped in velvet", kudos if you know where that's from ;)* but in real life the velvet is more visible than the blade even as you can feel the blade through the cloth (paraphrasing a friend).

It could be because through online communication, not being face to face, some of the real life subtlety I have (the "velvet") doesn't come through as strongly and more of my brashness (the "blade") is visible. Though I act hyper online I very rarily do that in reality (not that the internet isn't reality, it's just a different type) and I think is an outlet for that part of me which is often not appropriate to show or feels uncomfortable to express.

And a quick question to you folks out there: When you read my writing, what type of "voice" do you hear? This may not apply to other people, but I oftentimes hear a voice when reading someone's writing, usually male or female and sometimes with an accent. Purely out of curiosity, what do I "sound" like?

*Addition* And does the icon seem to effect it in any way?