No, not that kind of coming out. (Am I the only one hearing Jerry Seinfeld's voice?) By "coming out" I mean that I have decided to stop blogging anonymously.

I've been thinking about this for a little while now, ever since my boss decided to start blogging. His questions -- or rather my paranoia -- led us to the topic of balance: The balance between maintaining a personal blog that is true to oneself while at the same time avoiding trouble professionally. After all, people have gotten into some hot water for blogging. People have lost their jobs for blogging. I, for one, love my job. Besides, over the years, I've grown rather fond of being able to pay for silly things like food and shelter. Anonymous blogging seemed to be the answer.

My boss thought otherwise.

I countered that there was an excellent chance I might say something which would not go over well with management, our board, or a potential funding source. (It is amazing how touchy folks can get when you suggest that they very well may be one of the horsemen of the apocalypse....)

He responded that the management team (of which he is a member) and board realize that the staff have lives outside of work and cannot be expected to represent the agency 24/7, as long as we don't do anything that reflects badly upon it.

(Note to self: Take down those nude photos) Kidding, sir, just kidding!

I do indeed work for a cool agency.

What really got me thinking about "coming out," however, was Saturday's Blog-Con. Nothing reminds you that you've gone on a bit of a hiatus like attending a bloggers' shindig.... It's not that I haven't had anything to say -- far from it! It's simply that much of what I've had to say lately has been about my involvement in an awesome, but work-related, project. And, as I alluded to last week, if I mention what that project is, my cover will likely be blown.

Is the project top-secret? No. The complete opposite, actually.

Then is it getting lots of attention? Alas, it is not.

Then how can it blow your cover? Trust me.

Don't trust me? Fair enough. I've decided, therefore, to make this an exercise for you, gentle reader. The project in question is called Orca. If you're a regular visitor to Grain of Salt, then you know my first name -- or my nickname, really. (If you're new here, look in the comments as Janice usually calls me by my name.) Set your timer and pick your search engine. Using those two pieces of information, and ONLY those two pieces of information, time how long it takes you to obtain my:

1. full name
2. career
3. place of employment
4. work blog
5. work email address
6. home email address

On your mark, get set, go!

I'm guessing under two minutes. It's a side effect of being in a rather small, specialized field....

Thus the question I found myself confronted with this weekend was do I continue to compartmentalize my life into artificial boxes (i.e. blogs), keeping my work life separate from my personal life, remaining silent about something which I find so meaningful, so important, so compelling? The answer was a resounding "no!" That isn't the nature of blogging, nor is it my nature. Hiatus is over.

Looks like I have an About page to update and a disclaimer to write.... Janice, can we talk about some more banners?