First Post!

Yes, I did it. I got a blog.

This may come as a real surprise to many of you, for as many of you know, I have always in the past been a sworn enemy of the Blog. I thought blogs were nothing but cries for attention; often annoying testaments to somewhat boring lives. I assumed bloggers were egocentric, bothersome, and narrow-minded . Truthfully, the Internet is still dominated by those people, and always will be, but recently I came to the realization that maybe - just maybe - I was wrong. Yep, I said it. I realized that there was, and had been, something beautiful salvaged from this train wreck that was the so-called "Blogosphere". Maybe there was a way to take the trash of the Internet and turn it into treasure, maybe I too could be one of those rare technological alchemists who can turn the leaden Blog into gold.

And so, welcome to the safe intellectual haven that is Open Mike Nite. It is here that I wish to plant the seeds of debate; to spark interest in controversy, to get people riled up and discuss things we deem important, ridiculous, unfair, and insulting. I want to talk about everything, from politics to religion to science to the superiority of Coke or Pepsi, or why Jurassic Park was the best movie ever made. I want to foster debate, a return to the intellectual clubs of the Enlightenment, I want people to get interested and fired up. I want to invite everybody from every possible point on every possible spectrum; the Atheists, the Socialists, the religious Republicans, the people who are wishy-washy about everything, heck, even the Canadians. All you need is an interest in anything ever, and a willingness to back up why you think it's awesome.

I want to try to get a few threads going by the end of the week, and this Blog will only be as good as you all want to make it, so make sure you leave ideas for topics in the comments section. The way I think this is going to work at the beginning is that once we have some topics, I'll write a post about it and then my views on it (it's my blog after all.). Then we start a chain of debate flowing from the initial topic. Make them as inflammatory, interesting, contested, or just plain ridiculous as you want, this is Open Mike Night, after all. Don't hold back, and tell everyone you know!

Look for more updates really soon.

-Mike