About The Names

The nicknames I use for people at work have gotten a bit of attention lately. Or at least several comments. I figured I would reiterate some of the stuff I said early on when I was first starting this blog to quell any confusion.

I suspect that if I came right out from the beginning and said "My name is John Jones and I work at the Steven King Correctional Center in Derry, Maine" (except using my real name and the real name of the prison) that the administration could find a way if not to force me to quit blogging than to make it really uncomfortable for me to continue. They are real touchy about people making public statements aside from their duly appointed PR people.

There was another blog.... well, it was actually a message board, run by some folk from the prison up the road that occasionally got confused with mine. Most of the people who commented there used handles, but when they were talking about staff and offenders there, they used real names. They named names and places and posted pictures (oh lawsy) and were very blunt and tended to be rather derogatory. They made no bones about who they were talking about and where they worked and what they thought.

It got kind of ugly, there for awhile. I'm a big believer in the freedom of speech, but you gotta use some sense. It didn't take too long before they got shut down a couple of times and then I believe they got closed down permanently by the big cheeses up in the capital.

I didn't want any part of that sort of action.

So I am just darev2005 or "Rev" for short. I work at the Raccoon City Correctional Center and I am an employee of the Umbrella Corporation. And every single name I use is a made up nickname. I started blogging because it looked like fun and a good way to vent off some steam now and then.

Sure, some days it's a chore to come up with something to write about five days a week. I'm sure you can tell the days when my attention is elsewhere or my meds have kicked in sooner than I thought they would.

Most of the names I use are in some way evocative of the person they represent. Either some physical or attitudinal trait or something that person does consistently. Most of the people who work here can look at the names and say "Oh yeah. I know who that is." right away. Some of them are a little tougher. Once in awhile someone will come up and ask "Who is so and so?" and when I tell them they'll nod and laugh.

Everybody there "knows" that I blog and alot of them have read it. But if someone official were to come up to me and say "We know this is your blog and we don't like it. Shut it down." I can say with a straight and completely truthful face that there isn't a blog anywhere on the internet with my name on it. They would have to get a federal warrant to link me with this blog for any legal purposes and I don't think any judge in his right mind would sign such a document.

I may be deluding myself, but it's what protection I have.

I have said for quite some time that I should have been keeping a list of which nickname I assigned to who, but I never did. So once in awhile somebody's name gets changed just because i couldn't remember what I called them last time. It's all good.

So that's where the odd names come from.

On to the calendar. Didn't need an umbrella today but I did spend the day working for Umbrella, so I guess it all worked out.

Tomorrow is another two-fer! It's both White Tee-Shirt Day and Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day. Hmm... are you allowed to cry if you spill milk on your white tee-shirt?