Welcome Aboard

When I was a kid, my dad was an aspiring writer who focused mostly on science fiction but dabbled in lots of subjects. I remember going to his Writer's Club meetings and listening as he and his friends discussed the books/stories/whatever they'd been working on. As such, I came by whatever talent I have as a writer quite naturally. I was a very smart kid (everyone caught up to me by 6th grade but I dominated elementary school academics like a boss) with an active imagination and a love of story telling and as a result I started writing at a very early age. Over the years I have gone through periods during which I did not write anything that wasn't related to school but I always found my way back eventually and this proclivity took on a new life when these things called "blogs" became a major part of our society. Over the last three years, virtually all of my writing has been dedicated toward film criticism. I've written somewhere around 300 reviews in that time at my site (The Soap Box Office) in addition to a number of lists, news pieces, etc. all pertaining to the world of cinema. Recently, though, my desire to write reviews and such has begun to wane and I've found myself contemplating bringing my run to an end. I wouldn't want to quit writing altogether, however, and film criticism is such a convenient field to write about. In fact, that's the real reason (beyond my love for film) I started The Soap Box Office in the first place: it served as a purpose, as inspiration. Before I got into the review business, I wrote when the feeling struck me and while I always enjoyed writing about life or whatever crossed my mind, there were plenty of days and even weeks where nothing sprung up that desperately needed to be written about. With film criticism, there's always something to write about. Five new movies hit theaters every week, big news comes down the pipes every hour, and major trailers drop every couple of days, not to mention the scores of films that have existed for years but have evaded my attention. There's never a lack of content that needs your attention in the film criticism game and that makes for prolific writing if you want to take it on.

(By the way it should be noted that despite my frequent use of the term "film criticism" I hold no grand illusions about my place in the film world. My little site brought in, like, 100 hits a day most of the time and that makes me perhaps the 1 millionth-rated movie blogger in the world. I'm cool with my place in things.)

But now I do, in fact, have something to write about. Later this week, my wife and I will welcome our first child into this world and I can't even begin to fathom how much more interesting my every day life is going to be now that this kid is involved in everything. I now have a built in platform from which to write and this life change has given me an out to set film criticism aside in favor of this new adventure we're about to embark on.

Now, what sets this site apart from the literal millions of other parent-related blogs out there? Probably nothing. Again, I have no pretense concerning my place in the digital space. But, at the risk of sounding brash, I'm a pretty solid writer if I do say so myself and I'm a relatively funny dude (or so people lead me to believe). Also, having spent a bit of time looking around the parenting blogosphere, I feel like there's a decisive lack of male voices in this field and by golly, I'll do my best to fill that gap.

What you can expect from Can Babies Drink Red Bull is a (hopefully) humorous take on parenting from a personal perspective, written in a semi-professional, cohesive manner that will put all other parenting blogs to shame, huzzah! (No, I'm kidding about that last part; this'll probably be fairly mediocre.) The idea here is to tackle the big questions about parenting, such as the site title and "Can my insane beagle babysit this kid so I can go to a movie?", in a sort-of funny way as I attempt to overcome my baby stupidity (this lack of knowledge CANNOT be overstated) and keep from screwing this kid up too badly. I also plan to touch on life events as well as film, sports, and other pop culture-related topics as I see fit, partly because I'm just not ready to set that side of my writing aside entirely and partly because IT'S MY BLOG AND I'LL DO WHATEVER I WANT.

Here's what I need from you: if you're here and you're reading this or any future posts, join in the conversation. I can't stress that enough. Insecure bloggers like myself feed off of your comments and interactions. It's what keeps us going. You get coffee in the morning, Emperor Palpatine draws his energy from Jedis coming over to the Dark Side (this will not the be last Star Wars reference you see on this site), and I feed off of your comments. So join in. Subscribe to the mailing list (sidebar on the right) so that A.) You're always aware of what's happening here and B.) I can stop posting my stuff to Facebook and annoying all of my friends who want nothing to do with this. If you really like something, then share it. Facebook, Twitter, whatever the heck Reddit is, etc. Let people know about this place even if the main reason for doing so is so that you and your friends can make fun of me together. I'm cool with that. Just engage with this site in some way if you enjoy what I'm doing.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope to see you around here in the future!

This kid better like Star Wars, Brian