Welcome to my little slice of the internet. My name is crsh (pronounced crash). You may see me use the name ‘crsh27’ in certain spaces.
As a young child, online pseudonyms and alter egos propelled me into creating during the early days of the internet. When I was eight or nine, my family purchased our first home computer, and I began browsing gaming and Pokémon forums under an assumed identity. There was something freeing about commenting, creating, and discovering under a make-believe persona. It led me to learn many advanced technical skills before the age of fourteen. Then I killed that original identity I had built.
Pseudonyms also provided me with a sense of safety. As life got a bit more ‘real’ and I got older, I began trying to unify my online identity with my actual one. I’m not sure if it was the extortion from shady Canadian characters, the racial slurs from folks in Pennsylvania, or the rise of ‘cancel culture’, but somewhere along the line, associating my name with my opinions and my work became a bit scarier for me.
This blog, and the birth of this new pseudonym, is an attempt to reclaim some of the freedom and creativity I once enjoyed.
Long past my childhood days, I’ve been blessed to build a life with passions in multiple areas: education, technology, civics, video games, and music, to name a few. I teach in one of the largest school districts in America (and boy, do I have a lot to share about that…). I’ve probably bought more gadgets in the past year than underwear. I’m a huge political data nerd and a recovering ex-voter. Above all, like a true teacher, I love to share knowledge and opinions. So this, again, is my attempt to reclaim some of that agency and reconnect with those passions after a tumultuous few years.
Let me be clear: this is not an education blog, a tech blog, or a political blog. This identity is the voice and thoughts of someone who was once passionately on the left, but has grown disappointed by the indecision of our citizens, the inaction of our leaders, and where our society is heading overall. It’s the voice and thoughts of someone who is fascinated by technology and systems, but terrified of where artificial intelligence is headed and the impact it — and the internet — is having on our young people. It’s the voice and thoughts of someone who won a teaching award and then, as the result of a false accusation, became a victim of the very system that built them up.
Yours, from the first page,
crsh