blogging under your real name--is it worth it?

Someone I know told me I had given up on this blog.

Probably true. I don't come around here very often, that's for sure.

More and more, I just feel like the truth can't be told. I can't say what I really think and feel; or, if I do say what's actually on my mind, I'd better make sure my commentary is not attached to my real name.

I hold a lot of unpopular opinions on a wide range of topics. I could hurt a lot of feelings among people who know me personally. Past, present, and future employers might not like things I have to say (the Thought Police are all too often corporate rent-a-cops). There is very little room for carelessness. Bridges burn so easily.

There are places on the Internet where you can supposedly go to keep an online diary and really let it all hang out.

And then I read things about how information analysts can identify supposedly anonymous bloggers by mathematically breaking down and analyzing their writing (this of course assumes they have a sample of writing they know for sure belongs to a particular person).

Pretty scary.

Which means that posting to this blog becomes one of those things I just somehow skip over. If I have to water everything down or "code" it, it loses the charge for me somehow. It's not fun anymore.

Still, there's no hurry. Fools rush in and all that.