And here... we... go!

Considering this is my first post ever, I'm thinking I should probably start off by writing something witty, eye-catching or even remotely funny. But after thinking long and hard, I've decided I'm going to share a rather random fact about myself: I am a technophobe. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Wikipedia lists technophobia as "the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers". Now that's not to say I'm some John Connor figure holed up in some bunker, ready to wage war on machinekind. But I am one of those people who doesn't own an iPhone (I'm 24 and I still use a Nokia 3510, just to give you an idea of how painfully retro I am) and who screams at the computer screen whenever the Firefox home page refuses to upload or if blogger.com accidentally erases all of my previous posts (hint hint). So you can see how starting a blog is kind of a big step for me.

But I also happen to be a massive film buff. I have always been hopelessly, ridiculously and unapologetically in love with the movies for as long as I can remember. I try to go to the cinema every week and I feel an odd sense of disorientation whenever I don't go for more than two. I plan my monthly budget around rent, food shopping and trips down to the local Showcase Deluxe. I enrolled in an American Studies course at Leicester Uni so that I could take modules such as Science Fiction Cinema and Hollywood & Melodrama. And I fought a long bureaucratic battle with the American Embassy just so I could spend my year abroad in Long Beach California and attend the same college Steven Spielberg went to.

So yeah, I'm that retro. My passion for films has proven to be so big that I am now trying to become a professional film reviewer. However, I was told during a recent internship that if you want to make it big in the world of journalism nowadays, you kinda need to have a blog...

... Thus here I am, sitting in front of a computer screen, trying to get a blog started. I guess what I was trying to say with that overlong monologue is that this is going to be my own personal movie log, where I'm going to be uploading reviews of the films I have seen and possibly every once in a while post the odd rant (after all, there are going to be another couple of Twilight films released from now). I can't promise Mike's 2 Cents will be as visually stunning as other blogs out there, at least not yet. I am still taking baby steps with the whole web design malarky. What I can promise is that I will do my best to deliver the best-written, reasonably informed film reviews. I will start by uploading some of the work I've concocted over the past five years or so. I hope you'll like it :)

Michael