Bloggers anonymous

Taken from PropterDoc, I shall expand on my take on the blog, blogging, being a blogger, and pseudonyms. Not in that order.

The question of using your real name or a pseudonym is a perplexing one to me.

Firstly...I don't know whether this is a Japanese thing, but writing under pseudonyms is not an uncommon thing. Many Japanese writers do it. Dazai Osamu, Edogawa Ranpo and even Mishima Yukio did it. Probably not because they don't want to reveal their identity, but more that it was common (e.g.) in Haiku circles to have a "writer's name", or for painters to have a "painter's name". Maybe their real names didn't particularly sound catchy. Oh, and modern writers do it too, like Hase Seishuu and Kyougoku Natsuhiko.

In the net world, it is more common to use pseudonyms anyway.

I used to have a website, which I ran under a pseudonym. I used to have a diary on that site, which detailed things like movies I saw, random thoughts, what music was good etc. Then I closed the site.
When I decided to go for a more open type of diary, blogging, in a sense that you have no control of anyone who is watching, anonymity and using pseudonyms was a no-brainer. If it is a diary, it will be a personal recollection of your life - so to me, it doesn't make sense to advertise who you are. And for me, it is a way of building a boundary to what is accessible or allowed, and what is not.

I also made the decision then not to publish any photos or pictures. Again, this is to ensure anonymity. I have heard of people who were "stalked" because they were publishing photos of their environment, even if they used pseudonyms. Better to be safe than sorry.

This blog started out (and still is) a venting blog, primarily for myself, because when something or someone bugs me, I ruminate on it for ages unless I get it out of my system (by the way of this blog). It still is a venting blog (if and when I work!).
I don't have a high readership according to my site stats, and that's probably because I don't blog particularly about science, more on a scientist's life (exactly as it says on the tin!!). So a person who visits, and re-visits this blog, will be a person interested in a scientist's life, and not the science the scientist carry out. Or, according to Google Search terms, people who are unsure about a PhD, or are dissatisfied with their postdoc position.
And maybe you understand and appreciate my warped sense of the world and sarcastic sense of humour.


I think the only time when I mentioned what I do, was when I said I was going to a conference in Boston, and actually linked to the conference page.

Anyway, you'd be bored if I blogged about my science. My scientific life (when there was one) is really not that interesting. I do lots of westerns. I do a bit of molecular biology (i.e. use plasmids, cut them, etc). I culture cells. That's about it. People around the labs are far more interesting than what my cells get up to before being lysed.

I don't have a delusion that my life is interesting, but I think that I have a few interesting and/or controversial things to say. Like I support capital punishment.
It's nice to get hits. It's nice to know from the comments that some people find my posts funny and entertaining. But my science certainly isn't that interesting; it was in a niche corner. I certainly won't be making noises about curing cancer in a broadsheet.

Okey dokey, rant over.