The First Post (with apologies to The Format)

"You should start a blog!"

 This breathless pronouncement from a lovely otaku girl sounded like a perfectly brilliant plan to her.  To me, the idea needed to be mulled over.  A blog can be an insightful if unappreciated voice among the echo chamber of the Internet.  It can also be a pile of narcissistic drivel.  I tried explaining this to her.  She nodded and smiled and cheerfully ignored my reservations.

"You should do it!" she told me with glee.  "You're one of the best writers I know!"

An appeal to my vanity.  Not an easy thing.  I've always been a fairly modest sort of guy.  Maybe a little too modest.  Shameless self-promotion isn't something that comes naturally to me.  I'd rather let my work speak for itself and let the reader decide whether or not it's good.  Still, I'd like to think that I'm a pretty good writer, all things considered.  And, as my otaku girl pointed out, it gets more of my writing out there to be seen.  More people seeing it means more people knowing about it and probably even telling their friends about it.

"It's possible somebody could read the blog and use it against me," I told her cautiously.  This is not an unreasonable concern.  I've been out of work since mid-October.  HR types seem to be looking for damn near any excuse not to hire somebody, or a cheap and easy reason to fire somebody.  Some would argue that handing HR ferrets the ammunition needed to kill a job application is almost criminally stupid in the current job climate.

"Do it!  You'd be so good at it!"

Otaku girls, I'm finding out, are exceedingly difficult to argue with when they get all excited about an idea.

As I thought about it more, the more the idea made sense.  While I've been writing for The Armchair Empire for a few years now, and slowly accumulating press credibility, even my editor couldn't possibly keep up with the stuff that does everything from irritate to infuriate me.  I like my editor too much to flood him like that.  The longer I thought about it, the more the contrary streak in me liked the idea, not seeing the wisdom in it, but seeing the opportunity to stake out a position and spit in the eye of the first person who thought it would be a good idea to argue with me.

It's no longer a question of "if."  It's not even a question of "when" anymore.  For years now, I've been calling shenanigans when I see them, and doing so in almost excruciating detail.  It's time to escalate my efforts.

This is my blog.  I will always tell the truth.  I will not apologize for my writings.  I will not fear the consequences for speaking my mind.

That crazed op-ed writer for that Canadian game website went and got himself a blog.  The Internet will never be the same.