A Local Attorney and Blogger

Again I say, if Akron wants MSM love it will come in the ABJ. Today’s paper runs an editorial about school funding which once again name-checks me. The editorial is pretty much what I would have written. The fun part for the blogosphere comes in the last graph:

Recently, a group of parents (including Scott Piepho, a local attorney and blogger) and school administrators announced a new organization, Next Step for Akron, to help raise public understanding of Ohio's school funding system and support for a school levy [emphasis added].

So now I should expect to wear the “blogger” gloss going forward. Far enough. It’s become a pretty big chunk of my self-identity as well.

Meanwhile, the backchannel of the blogosphere is still buzzing about the PD tagging Tim with his rap sheet. One of the latest threads is about anonymity on the sphere. Anyone who didn’t know my real name before the above has had plenty of routes to run me down. Still, let me reset the Story of Pho here.

When I first started this thing – first blogiversery in three days, BTW – I had no idea what it would be. The original concept was my personal howl at the moon, a place to download the discussion that ran in my head as I pursued my workaday dad chores. No one was supposed to actually read it, but because I am involved with a number of organizations who guard control of their message, it made sense to put a buffer between this blog and my real life. I had been using the username “Pho” on various groups for some time, so it fit.

Now the blog has pretty much been branded, both with Pho and with the avatar my daughter drew. Though at times it seems a little ridiculous, I started as Pho and Pho I shall remain.

The remaining question presented is why my name isn’t frontpaged somewhere. Blame residual paranoia from a former prosecutor. It doesn’t make much sense as easy as it is to track me down, but I still minimize how much the real name is out there. For the same reason, I do all my bar correspondence through a P.O. Box. It would be easy enough for an ex-con with a grudge to find me, but having my name and home address in legal directories just seems excessively loose. Does that make sense to everybody? Probably not, but it’s how I choose to roll.

Finally, if you are interested in the aforementioned school funding advocacy group, here again are the particulars for the next meeting:

Wed. June 14
7:00
Akron Summit Main Library
Meeting Room 1

You can contact me through the blog -- pho187[at]hotmail[dot]com -- for more information.