Posting (and the lack there of)

A few of you (and there are very few) may have noticed that I have not been posting anything recently. I don't have an especially good reason for this other than to say that I haven't had much worth posting about. You may say "How can you say that with all that has been going on in the world." Well let me take this opportunity to give my perspective on blogging.

My father has given a lot of advice over the years, those of you who have met him can attest to how good his advice is. Regardless of the merits of what he told me one thing he said was always very clear:

RULE #1: "Never put it in writing."

The corollary of this is one I learned in PR that is, before you do or say anything imagine it being a piece of evidence being used in a disciplinary hearing, malpractice suit, or indictment by the government.

Hence we come to my theory of blogging. Many people use these sites as a journal of their most intimate thoughts and feeling, which if fine if they want to do that. Others just post links to other stories without giving there own thoughts on the matter, which is fine if they want to do that. Personally, I want to do neither. I never write about my personal life, work, or school. The reason for this is mostly rule #1 but it is also out of respect for the people in my life. I don't want to bitch about the things going on in my life out of respect for the people in it. If I talk about work it would be either boring, depressing, or a violation of an ethical duty (See corollary to rule #1) so I don't talk about that. I suppose I do talk about school but only because I find something that relates to life in general and I have something to say about it. But if I really went over what I learned in school it would just be really boring and uninteresting.

So what I'm I really doing here? I suppose the easiest way to explain is to say that I'm playing a character. The anonymity of this medium allows me and I think most people to divorce themselves from the people they actually are and thus allows them a certain freedom to say things that perhaps normally they wouldn't say. I suppose the paradox is that, as far as I know, I know everyone who reads this page. So perhaps a qualification...I'm playing a character but it is one who I created and maintain. So perhaps it really is me and I'm just kidding myself...Perhaps that is right, most of the things I would say here I would say anyway. But maybe it is the potential that if anything ever came up that I would be unable to voice elsewhere that I could here. (As long as it does not violate rule #1 of course).