False Identity Crisis

So I’m told that it is a Good Thing for budding writers to have a blog. Goes against the grain a bit as Grumpy Old Men like myself tend to wonder why on earth anyone would want to read a blog; but one thing I have learned as I have got older is that one should keep an open mind (even if one’s gut remains defiantly closed).

So here we go.

First thing that crosses my mind is that I’m really not sure whether I’m supposed to use my real name or not. Up to me, of course, but what is the ‘done thing’ among the blogging community? Now I’m supposed to be good at research so I dedicate a full ten minutes (maybe even eleven) to an examination of online opinion.  Well, Penelope Trunk (who is, apparently, a ‘brazen careerist’) tells me I should use my own name.  However, somebody by the name of Amanda Chapel seems to have made herself terribly unpopular on Penelope’s page by daring to suggest that such advice is akin to ‘go play on the highway’. No agreement there, then.  MetaFilter also seem to favour revealing the real you but as I have no idea what a ‘community weblog’ is (and probably don’t want to know), I’m not sure I’ll take much notice of them either.

So let’s think about it. People’s big fear seems to be about their employers finding out. But as I am currently many things but not actually working for anyone else, why do I care? What am I going to put in a blog? Well, I could tell you about my local’s new management’s attempts at organising a pub-quiz last night. The fail was, as they say, epic.  Ah, now I see a problem already. I am ‘known’ in my local. Actually, I appear to be surprisingly well known throughout my neighbourhood; it’s amazing just how much of a z-list celebrity you can become in your local micro-world when you’re a Pub-Rocker. So do I want the new management (or anybody who knows them) seeing me mercilessly laying the boot in on their lack of pub-quiz wherewithal? I suspect I do not. In fact, the more I think about this, the more of a no-brainer it becomes.

Anonymity for me then. I might change this in the future (on the assumption that I can work the settings to do so) but for the moment, I shall remain JK, The Blogger from 20,000 Fathoms.