Over lunch, I was discussing some trivial subject or another with my girlfriend Cate. The exact topic of the conversation has been lost to the sands of time, but naturally I had strong feelings about it. (Generally, the intensity of my feelings about a given issue is the inverse of the importance of it.) I summed up the discussion by saying, “Now I’m going to go blog about this, as if my opinion on the matter was valuable enough to publish on the Internet.” Cate looked at me from over the rim of her mug and said, “I think everyone’s opinion is valuable enough to publish on the Internet.”

There are two ways to interpret her statement. The way she intended, I think, was “Everyone’s opinion is equally valid and important.” But I interpreted it as, “The Internet is a cesspool, so your thoughts are at least as palatable as the shit already lining the bottom of it.” And I thought that was a pretty apt way to sum up this blog, and online self-publishing in general. And especially Twitter.