My life would be complete

Well, not quite, but that would be awesome, wouldn't it? It would be awesome for me, which shows you how much of a sci-fi/fantasy nerd I am. Or how much of a sports nut I am. Maybe both.

I finally decided to start a blog. I've been littering comment boards over at Shysterball , ESPN.com (mainly Rob Neyer's blog - Insider only), Joe Posnanski's blog, and a smattering of others. I like commenting on blogs because it gives me a sense of interaction and discussion. Then I realized that my comments were always WAY longer than anyone else's. Why? Let me tell you why (apparently I can do that on my own blog).

I'm an opinionated guy. Anyone who knows me personally can tell you that, but at this point, Craig Calcaterra (who writes Shysterball and who I have never met) could tell you that just as easily. The problem isn't that I have opinions, or even that I want to share them, but it is that I have been usurping others' forums for my own purposes (by which I mean my long-winded, multi-faceted dissertations on anything related to baseball or hockey). So here I am.

With a blog.

I am not at all sure what format this is going to take. It could run the gamut (there's a good word that's not used nearly often enough. Gamut. Reminds me of Gambit from X-Men) from a few brief comments on a linked story or blog post that I find interesting, to a rambling, semi-structured point of view that explains in detail and with some kind of research exactly what my opinion is on a certain subject. I'm leaning towards the latter, but we'll see. As for the aesthetics, right now it's probably ugly as sin, but my wonderful wife is going to help me with that.

A few relevant points about me that you will want to take notes on, in case there's an exam later, or in case you want some sort of frame of reference for my ramblings:

• I'm a follower of Christ and a family man - I have a wife, Julia, and two young sons, Ben (2) and Micah (6 months)
• I love playing baseball, watching the Angels, playing fantasy baseball, watching other teams play baseball, reading about baseball, and talking/writing about baseball in roughly that order
• I enjoy almost all sports, especially hockey, but also including college football (University of Oregon alum) and water polo (which I played for 6 years)
• I'm an accountant, which means I have to a spreadsheet ready to alt+tab onto in case my boss walks by while I'm reading about baseball on the interwebs
• I love to read, especially sci-fi fantasy books (Tolkein is my favorite, I mean "favourite," obviously) and baseball books, but I'll read anything that's interesting and well-written, so I'm always happy for suggestions
• My sentences do end at some point, although it often takes them awhile. Just be patient - I have an infatuation with dependent clauses and conjunctions (Schoolhouse Rock!)

The other stuff you'll learn as we go along, and I may learn as we go along as well. I really do hope you'll stick around. If you like baseball and good baseball discussions, I think you'll have a lot of fun here. If you just need somewhere to hang out because your girlfriend kicked you out of her blog, you are most welcome. And I almost assuredly will be making a few random posts every week about movies, books, life in general, so even if baseball's not your thing, hopefullly there will be something here for you.

Please post comments frequently and openly - mild cussing is allowed (damn and ass are okay), but other than that the only rule is to keep it civil. I invite disagreements with my point of view whenever you care to share them. As I mentioned, I love discussion, especially the intelligent kind.

"If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you." First person to ID the origin of the quote gets 5 points.

Peace,

Daniel

PS For those of you who are especially baseball inclined, I recommend all of those blogs I posted above. All are excellently written and usually have some great informational nuggets of some sort.