Welcome to The Hot and Bothered Effect

Hola, Party People. And welcome to The Hot and Bothered Effect. This is my third blog in the last five years and I'm really hoping that this one can stick. I've put myself on a more relaxed schedule and am less ambitious with my content. However, my personal opinion is that if you aren't updating a blog at least once a week then you don't have too much business having a blog. My goal is to provide interesting content that friends and associates of mine will want to read on a regular basis, but if this just ends up becoming a storage bin for my excess thoughts, then I'm OK with that.

I would like this to become a way for me to interact with people that I haven't seen in a while or that live across the country from me. Therefore, I will consistently be reaching out for content from my readers for different segments. I am constantly in need of guest bloggers and e-mails to answer, so please drop me a line. Once I reach 50 followers I also plan on hosting a contest with a cash prize...so stay tuned. Here is a look at some of the segments that I plan on recurring within this blog:

The Ray Way: Ray will drop some knowledge regarding how he would handle a certain occupation, situation, or aspect of life while putting his classic Ray O'Brien spin on it. This will be a Quarterly Segment.

Guest Blogger: Somebody other than Ray will write a post for The Hot and Bothered Effect. Sometimes this will be exclusive content written by a friend of Ray's or sometimes posts will be taken from a guest's own blog. This will be a Monthly Segment.

Ray's Contrarian Opinions: Ray will wax profoundly and profusely (in about 25,000 words) about something that most of the population loves that he despises and something that most of the population decries that he must defend. This will be a Quarterly Segment.

Better Know a Ray's Friend: Stephen Colbert will interview one of Ray's friends in the hopes that you will get to better know them. This will be a Quarterly Segment.

The Lush Life Chronicles: A holdover from his last blog of the same name. Ray will reveal, one by one, the twelve pillars of the American Dream that make up the Lush Life. This will be a Monthly Segment for the first year of this blog and will then be replaced by some other segment.

Ray's E-Mail Bag: Ray will answer a handful of reader e-mails submitted by anybody who reads this blog or e-mals him a question. If you are interested in sending Ray an E-Mail with a question, feel free to do so at raymond.v.obrien@gmail.com. This will be an Annual Segment.

Point-Counterpoint: Ray and a guest will argue back and forth on an issue of the day and the transcript of this bickering will be laid out for you as a thought-provoking blog post. This will be an Annual Segment.

A History Of...: Ray will take a social concept or construct and follow it through history from it's very first origins all the way through it's present value within our society. This will be an Annual Segment.

Thank you for your readership. Please subscribe and know that my first actual content post will go up on September 7th, 2010.