Hello my fellow beerians! (or something)

Man, was I elated to find this site yesterday! A social networking site dedicated SOLELY TO CRAFT BEER!? BRILLIANT!

A tip of the hat and a raise of the glass to Rich Gallagher.

I started my foray into web 2.0 with MySpace, like many of us. I quickly became sick of it. The incessant messages from scantily clad "women" who, for no reason I could figure out, were REALLY interested in talking to me, the retina burning, seizure inducing glitter text, the horrible rap music that would blast from my speakers without warning... I needn't go on... they really got to me. (Oh, and a note to those who listen to rap... turn off the Kanye West, or the Soulja Boy, and try Tribe Called Quest, Glue, or The Streets. That's where the REAL stuff is.)

Then, I found Facebook. Back then it was still college student only, which I liked, because it kept the creepy stalkers and porn-bots out. The simple, unassuming layout and the original features like networks really appealed to me. Then the site was opened up to the whole of the internet. Sure, I bitched and moaned at first, but time proved that this changed little (besides, now that I'm not in college I can still use it). But then... THEN they added applications... the simple layout was destroyed by countless quizzes, games and other useless things. This about sums it up for me:


Ok, sure I use a couple, like the blog app, but I don't let it get out of hand so no one can find the meat and potatoes of my profile.

Then, there's the Newsfeed, or as I like to call it, Stalkerfeed. I primarily use Facebook to keep in touch with college friends and other people I don't see often, so it's nice to know what they're up to, but I don't need to know EVERY SINGLE THING you do on Facebook ALL THE TIME. Plus, I'll comment on someone's photo or something, and five minutes later, I'll get some sort of message from someone I haven't spoken to in MONTHS or more commenting on my comment!

Now, I hear they're removing the network pages. I thought this was part of what made Facebook unique. Plus, this will make it harder to find people that you aren't already friends with. I've been able to find friends from high school that I hadn't spoken to for years. Now how will I do this?

Anyway, then I found this site. I love it because it's a simple layout that still allows for a level of customization without getting out of hand, and it revolves around one of my favorite things in the whole world.

I've always loved good beer, but I've really started to get into the craft beer movement over the last year or so. I decided to trudge further into the movement by starting a beer blog. I also started it because I love to write but it's been hard for me to get into the swing of things lately and I feel like a blog is a good way to jumpstart myself again.

I wasn't sure what to do with my beer blog. There are plenty of general beer blogs and beer websites, and I didn't want mine to get ignored. I could never compete with Beer Advocate or other such sites. So then I thought, what else do I like? Well a lot of things, but I love Metal (the music not the mineral), and Chaos Magick is a subject that has long interested me that I've been dying to delve into more. Plus, I love to ramble about politics and things our government does that pisses me off. Thus, Beer & Blasphemy was born. Another contributor is my friend Peter. He and I have a lot of similar interests, but come at them from different angles, so you'll get some diversity of opinion. Eventually, if it gets more popular, I would like to have others contribute as well.

I think our friend Rich Gallagher said it best, in reference to this site:

"The logic behind creating a social network just for beer drinkers simply came from the fact that MySpace and Facebook are doing such a good job of being everybody’s home on the web so that the only real opportunity left was serving niches."

But I'm not just writing for beer drinkers who love metal, or beer drinkers who practice chaos magick. I'm also thinking of Metalheads or Chaotes who may not know of the craft beer movement. Most metalheads I've met drink nothing but PBR, so maybe I'll convert a few in the process. And vice versa. Even if you're not into the Blasphemy part of Beer & Blasphemy, I hope you'll read occasionally. I'll have beer reviews and other beer news that might interest you.

Don't think I'm using this site just to plug my blog, though. I'm excited to be apart of this site in its "ground floor" stage, as it were, and I intend to be an active member. I look forward to watching, and helping it grow.

Prost! Slainte! Cheers!

PS. If you like Beer & Blasphemy, digg us on digg.com here