The Boston Diaries

Saturday, August 22, 2009

If Corsair can break his hiatus, so can I

Sometimes I think about having a public journal, like Spring or Sean. In fact, Sean just asked me today if he could reference my journal in his using my real name.

Sean, after reading this article, the answer is a resounding no. I'll take my chances and try to remain anonymous.

Some kind of encouragement

The article in question is your standard anonymous blogger comes out and gets fired story. I don't begrudge Corsair for wanting to remain anonymous as we as a society attempt to figure out new social norms when suddenly everybody has a global soapbox.

Heck, I found out the hard way that information tends to find its way to the very people you don't want it to reach (back in college, I wrote a rather scathing humor column about my high school English teachers, and of course it got back to them—sigh). [And it wasn't all that funny either. —Editor][Thanks. — Sean][No problem. —Editor]

The approach I take towards blogging (or journaling, or whatever you want to call this) is to keep the private stuff private (much like what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, and that's all I'll say about that trip to Las Vegas, or any other trip I've taken to Las Vegas), along with stuff that happens to friends (it's their story to tell, not mine).

Work—well, when I worked at Negiyo (which isn't the real name of the company, and yet, nine years after working there I still won't call it by its real name) I didn't say anything bad about the company, nor what I really did (which wasn't much different than Tom Smykowski's job when you get right down to it) and I never mentioned names of any fellow cow-orkers.

Now I tend to write more about my job, but mostly it's notes to myself, and a way of letting off steam. I've yet to name the company I work for now (here it's known as The Company), and I haven't named my fellow cow-orkers. I never mention customer names and when I do mention projects, I give them different code names than the ones we use at The Company.

It also doesn't hurt that Smirk, who not only owns The Company, but signs the checks I cash, gets on my case when I don't post often enough. (See! I'm blogging! I'm blogging!) But I realize that not every blogger has that luxury. In fact, of all the people I do know in Real Life who also blog (or keep online journals), I think I'm the only one who even mentions work.

Don't worry Corsair, I won't reveal your true name to anyone.