I created Dauntless American because (as of 2012-12-06) I became very suddenly and unexpectedly unemployed. When I was given the news from my at-the-time supervisor I felt deceived and like the rug had been pulled out from under me. However, through perseverance I was able to qualify for unemployment benefits through my home state and began a detailed job search.
As I’d indicated previously, friends have suggested for several years now that I start my own blog. As a Technical Writer it has been recommended that I create a blog to boost my “digital footprint” and to share my opinions in the hope that a groundswell of strangers will find common solidarity in what I have to share.
My belief is that anything I create should be of quality, accessible in terms of understanding, and entertaining (or at least informative and engaging). This belief extends to the creation of all written content, including my blog (which you are reading).
In researching how best to create Dauntless American, video blogs or “vlogs” appealed to me (Ian and Anthony from “Smosh”, Waynooooo from his eponymous vlog, and others) but it wasn’t the right medium for me. Perhaps because I have a “face for radio”—or a voice that makes Ben Stein from the “Clear Eyes” commercials sound like an animated orchestra—but there is something calming and reassuring about the keyboard instead. It is a qualitative, accessible format for content.
A pianist can create virtually all the “standardized” music in the Western lexicon from only 88 keys. In the United States a basic keyboard has between 83-109 keys, allowing for the creation of every possible word, combination of numbers, and document developed (or that will ever be developed), rewritten, or edited in the English language. Each font reproduces each character identically each time, allowing for a precision appearance in hundreds (or even thousands) of pixels of data, droplets of inch, or fractional grams of toner. The computer, then—and the electronic written word—remains a powerful medium available now digitally to more people than ever before. A blog is therefore a cost-effective, nearly limitless creative medium for realizing this potential. Therefore this satisfies the need for being entertaining (or at least engagingly informative).
Like any would-be conscientious author I feel compelled to write about topics that I am both interested in and (at least somewhat) informed about. As I know nothing about exobiology (for instance) this isn’t something I’m interested in commenting on. Conversely, topics like the challenges of being part of Generation Y, mainstream politics, history, biomedical ethics, and job-hunting are all topics I feel comfortable writing about in an “armchair philosopher” capacity. Finally, please bear in mind that I don’t equate my work on-par with the authors of academic journals or newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle or New York Times, and neither should anyone else.
