I was paid to play football today.  Since part of my job involves video production, I was paid not to instruct web programing as usual, but to play a two-man game of football while the students practiced filming.

Despite the money, I still hate playing football.  I can’t throw a football, I can’t tackle anyone, and I suck at kicking things.  About the only good ability I possess for football is dexterity.  Pay me to play ultimate frisbee or free run and I’ll never work another day in my life.  But football…no thanks.

On the plus side, I started writing a post here and it turned into a longer article, much more suited for What’sWithLife.  I’ll edit this post with a link to that article when I publish it.

At least my shin splints were not aggravated in vain.

I’ve started several blogs and sites in my day.  Out of sheer boredom before my freshman year of college, I tried it.  I tried another one where I could write about something that interested me, technology.  I currently run one jointly with a friend, What’sWithLife, where we write about financial tips, fitness advice, and life musings.

There are two sides to the act, or rather art of blogging:

• What most people think of as blogging - the online diary of attention-starved, depressed for no good reason, white kids.
• What I’ve learned it can be - a tool for providing interesting and useful content to readers while providing a steady, substantial income to those who invest the time and effort.

All the Emo kids who ruin the image of blogging need to take a long, deep look in the mirror and realize that just about every problem they have is in their head. Stop giving the world anti-blogging fodder.

Blogging for income is a demanding job.  You can’t dump your brain onto a page, post it on the internet, and expect it to be worth millions.  Revenue blogging means writing top-notch content that is useful and relevant to readers.  That takes a lot of time, research, and planning.

No, I don’t want THIS blog to become either of the two I just mentioned.  I think I finally found what I was looking for though:

• Somewhere to dump my “internal dialogue,” as a friend of mine would say.

I want this site to be a place for the random, interesting, and often inappropriate thoughts and events I encounter.  I don’t intend to get rich off it, I don’t plan on having millions of readers, and I honestly expect this will turn into nothing more than a retrospective tool I can use for some internal reflection later down the road.

Laugh if you dare, cry if you must.  If you enjoy it, leave a comment.  If you’re offended, too bad.  Otherwise, stay tuned!