Clever Title Goes Here

Hello, and welcome to the Sidereal Daily Mentioner, a blog devoted to culture, fun, and posting 12 times a day in AP format. This blog will officially begin on Monday as a bet with myself based on a truly ridiculous job listing birthed into the world at a major newspaper last week that promised a salaried staff position to the right candidate if only said candidate would post 12 times daily.

This infuriated me and several other young and young-ish career journalists who felt, perhaps unfairly, that this was a hilariously extreme level of work to expect from a young staffer and perfectly encapsulated all the stupid ideas old media have about new media—that blogging is easy, that you owe your employer your entire life, that you should consider yourself lucky to get paid doing what other people do for free.

Blogging is not easy, of course; your employer is entitled to a mutually acceptable level of work, not every moment of your time; people who blog for free are generally not good enough to get paid doing it.

Which brings me to the point: is the only difference volume? If I made myself write 12 times a day, would I be a better writer and reporter?

I don’t know. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep this up, but I will try, and maybe it will improve my work.

Obviously, the work for which I am being paid will take precedence over this project, but before work, after work, and on breaks, I’m going to be here, cranking out a pithy insight here and a joke there, and who knows? Maybe you’ll have fun, too.