My blogging cherry has been officially popped

FOR years I have said to myself, "I am going to start a blog..tomorrow."

I don't know why it has taken so long, but there are a few reasons that spring to mind. I guess, first and foremost, there was the whole laziness factor "I write all day for a living so why should I write for fun?" A very good question - well, here is my answer. I do write for a living, but as anyone who has ever worked in a newsroom will tell you, writing for a newspaper is not writing. Unless you are writing features or something semi-interesting. This is especially the case when you are writing for a News Limited tabloid. You are conforming to a style designed to suck all creativity out of you. The main part of the job is news gathering. Once you have gathered the required information you are merely just filling in a couple of generic lines in between quotes. Fun. That is not to say I hate my job. I enjoy it, mostly. I am one of those few people who are doing exactly what they always wanted to do. It is not everyone's cup of tea, but I love AFL football. I was born in Melbourne and my earliest memory was my dad taking me to watch Collingwood at Victoria Park. I remember madly waving a Magpies flag every time the team kicked a goal. From that moment, I was hooked. And still am. I could not imagine life without AFL - it is my passion. I also love that it provides a wonderful distraction from the problems of life. For me and for everybody that follows the game. In this sense, I am blessed to writing about it.

Sure, there is a lot about the job that annoys me. Mostly the fact that I am underpaid for the amount of copy I produce compared to some in other departments who churn out just one picture story a day and yet get paid more. Recently we had redundencies in the editorial department. Having to reapply for my job was a very pleasant experience. We have eight sports writers and THREE were sacked. This is despite the fact not one news journo was sacked, even though there are 1000 of them and a lot of them fly under the radar doing basically fuck all. This has meant that the five of us left get raped up the arse. And God help us if someone is on holidays or off sick. Last week for example, I wrote a combined total of 14 stories over two days. This is after I found out that all of news got called in to tell them they must come up with three stories a day. I remember them whinging about it. Jesus H Christ on a fucking unicycle! I would kill to get away with three yarns a day! But that is going off the point. The point is that this place will give me a great opportunity to write without any rules or style restraints.

I guess there was also a large part of me that did not want to give away too much of myself on a blog. I don't know why. It is not like I am ashamed of my beliefs or opinions, but I guess I was worried about revealing too much of myself on a blog. I used to care about that, but not anymore. Fuck people and what they think - that is my motto! Looking back, I think it is because I was still finding myself. I remember being 18 back on 2003 and people would tell me - "you will change so much between now and the age of 23 or 24." As a bulletproof, TSS graduate wanker, I thought "pfft! I know everything now! I won't change at all!" Oh how I was wrong. The journey from then until now has been amazing. I have certainly found my place in the world. I know how I feel about issues, what type of person I am, the type of people I like to be around and where I want to spend the rest of my life. I will give you a hint, it is NOT the GC! It starts with M and ends with "elbourne". Oh please, Universe, let me get a job there soon!

And last but by no means least, there are a lot of things and a LOT of people that piss me off. I WANT A PLACE TO WRITE ABOUT IT! Oh how I look forward to venting. In this sense, I have been inspired by the likes of Rick and Seema - both of whom write wonderfully. If you want to read something of value, visit their blog and then stumble back here if you are in the neighbourhood. Warning - I will be very rusty at start. But hopefully after a while, my entries will be somewhat readable.

Phew, I feel better already!