The Soft Launch

A blog is an interesting thing. It can be used to express relatively
private thoughts. Yet the fact that it's sitting out there on a
publicly-accessible web server means it's about as secure as grafitti
on the bathrrom wall down at the local Timmies.

Which brings me to my current conundrum: when to out myself.

No, not THAT outing. Silly you! Not that there's anything wrong with
that, of course.

I'm talking about when I tell everyone I know about this little
literary experiment of mine.

See, I've been building this journal for the past couple of months in
a bit of a bubble. I've told a few family members, friends, and
colleagues. But the inner circle, such as it is, numbers barely half a
dozen people. The relative anonymity has given me pretty good leeway
when deciding what to write.

With that in mind, I'lve been wrestling with when to yell it from the
proverbial mountaintop by including it in a mailing to my e-mail list
of around 450 names. What I gain with a larger audience could be
offset by the topic-based constraints I might feel from having that
same larger audience. In other words, when more people read you, you
typically want to be a little more careful about stepping on toes.

To wit, I've been kinda hard on some folks who have crossed my path in
recent years. No names are ever mentioned, of course. But the targets
of my wordy rage would clearly know who I'm talking about. And they
wouldn't be pleased.

But life isn't always about neat beginnings and endings. If my words
tick them off, they perhaps shouldn't have been such bozos in the
first place. They can always start blogs of their own. In fact, I'd
even offer to help them get going. Assuming they're still talking to
me.