So I was complaining to Matt Busse, one of the people who handles our Internet intricacies, about not getting any comments on my blog posts, and he said maybe it was the headlines I was putting on them.

“You need something that’s going to jump out at people as they scroll down through the titles,“ he said.

“I can do that,“ I told him.

Thus, I arrived at the above headline after first considering “Read my blog or I’ll kill you” (probably not legal), “Read my blog or I"ll kill myself” (too pitiful) and “If you don’t read this blog entry, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life” (too long).

Posting a blog is a lot like fishing—and apparently, my bait has fallen off the hook.

Nevertheless, let me say at this point that I don’t want you to read my blog because my opinion is that important. It is, in fact, just my opinion.

Rather, what I’m hoping is that my opinion will trigger your opinions. I see myself as the person at a social gathering who walks up to a group and asks: “What do you guys think of that oil spill down in Louisiana?“

That’s the beauty of the Internet. Now, everyone can express an opinion, for better or worse, and make it public.

Some of those opinions can be valuable (“As a former oil company engineer, here’s what I think British Petroleum did wrong ...“), some not so much (“I think the explosion on the oil rig was actually caused by a laser beam from an invisible spacecraft”).

I’ll take all kinds. You don’t even have to be nice.

Or maybe it’s just that my opinions are so carefully crafted, so dazzlingly original, and so right on point that no one can possible disagree with them.

Nah ...