some rules to blog by

Scott raised a good question in the comments section of my last frank post:

"Do you ever worry that your employer or future employer will see posts like this? I'm asking because I do, which causes more self-censorship than I care to admit on my own blog."

Perhaps our employers are different, and it depends on the workplace environment. Or our assumptions about what they think about what you wrote. I know a few of my coworkers might check in on the blog here or there, or perhaps none of them care at all. Granted, a blogger should ALWAYS assume a coworker, teammate, friend or family member will read it. I guess it just depends on how you think coworkers will take it. It's always a gamble.

I think the question is if I am worried I'm going to be Dooced or not. I have learned a few lessons during my time blogging for many years, and here are a few suggestions and rules of thumb for those of you who still blog and worry about what would happen if the others found out:

1. Don't blog from work, during work hours.
2. Don't ever mention what you do for work or where you work.
3. Don't speak ill of your friends, family, teammates or coworkers.
4. Unless you blog anonymously, don't recount dating horror stories (or successes for that matter).
5. Avoid blogging after you've had too much coffee.
6. Assume they will find your blog no matter what.

Of course I don't always follow the above rules, and the rules can be flexible if you blog anonymously. And these days there are different kinds of blogs...if you're just posting or re-organizing Tweets, news or topic links, who cares what people read? It's the opinion or journal-type blogs that run the risk of being offensive or incriminating. This blog is sort of a journal with facial hair news sprinkled in here and there, and I've learned through experience what you can and shouldn't do.

There are a lot of things I blog about, but there are also many subjects I am careful to not write about. Despite these limitations there is still a lot I can write about, and that is the challenge that can make a blogger a better writer. Everyone has limits on what they can write about, and increased limitations will actually help you write better. I see these topic limitations as challenges where I can show a different angle on an issue I thought was originally uninteresting.

So in the spirit of not speaking ill of my friends or teammates, I had a nice rugby-filled weekend. All the rain last week made for a very muddy Saturday match that we won, which we topped it off with a friendly b-side match. On Sunday I picked up my high school buddy Tina from the airport and took her out to the New Zealand Ambassador's Shield matches, which we both enjoyed. In the photo below, the ones in white are our local MARFU all-stars, and the ones in dark jerseys are from New Zealand:

Seated in the foreground is Skip the Evil Veterinarian. He knows he's evil so I'm not speaking ill of him. Anyway, with the sun finally out after such a long absence it made for a great day outside.