I was christened into the jizz biz in May of 2002, at 18, with a day of shooting softcore porn in LA.  (I wish I could remember the exact date.)  I opened the doors of my first porn venture in January of 2003, at 19, and over the next few years years, gradually moved away from socializing in forums for amateur pornographers, and towards more politicized and woman-friendly spaces.  So, while I didn't start my own blog until last year, I lurked, I read, I occasionally commented where The Smart People were.  These bloggers I followed were "my people".  At last!

The amateur porn scene contains a lot of conservative swingers - a subset of which I once heard candidly (or drunkenly?) described as a bunch of ignorant hicks who "very accidentally got rich" by profiting off their wives.  Not all of them, of course - I admire many of the pioneering porn amateurs like Jen N Dave for seizing the day and starting the very first adult sites 15 years ago while the big porn companies were still mailing out wank material on VHS tapes.  (And, as far as I know, Kat Vixen was the first porn site with a leading lady who declared herself a feminist in her bio page, probably before most of today's renowned feminist pornographers could even legally appear in a porn.)

So, to hell with fighting with Fox News-loving people on adult webmaster boards, and desperately trying to connect with like-minded people - I was going to start a blog!

One of the things I knew about getting into blogging was that it would mean I would undoubtably have falling outs with other bloggers.  It's hard-coded into the sex blogger community to have epic public drama with one another - drama that can dangerously bubble over into the offline world.  After having circulated a bit in the sex worker and sex blogger scene, both online and offline at a few events, I felt reasonably liked by pretty much everyone, or at least tolerated.  I liked most of the people I met, too.  I was aware that I had some significant ideological/political clashes with some of them, but they weren't aware they had those clashes with me, so we could all share a meal together in peace.  I knew that peace would end if I started blogging my thoughts about things - most specifically, about feminism - and was sad to acknowledge that some of these people I'd happily guzzled pitchers of booze with would some day be people with whom I'd have dramatic clashes.

Such is the price you pay for telling the world what you really think about everything.  I've been accused by many of having "no filter" and needing to learn how to be fake-polite in the interest of facilitating smooth social interactions with assholes I want nothing to do with.  (Why I would want to do that is beyond me.)  I'm happy to have a career where I can pretty much disregard such advice, resting soundly in knowing that while my real self drives some people away, it also attracts more genuine friendships with the people I actually like.

So, it's with my caustic, cunty self in mind, that I introduce my ten most popular/controversial/commented-upon blog posts from the last year.  (Topping the list with the most divisive thing I'll probably ever utter in the American sex worker scene.  I don't regret a thing I said, but I don't want to keep re-hashing it either, so I'm listing it for completeness rather than a desire to re-open the fight.)

* Speaking of faux ho bloggers, what about Amber Rhea? [December 2009]

* I want to read a book written by someone like me, except smarter and better at writing [April 2010]

* Want to play BINGO with the antis? [February 2010]

* Three out of four ain't bad: my thoughts on Audacia Ray's post on the dominant narratives of sex work [April 2010]

* Does everyone actually want to be an escort, given the right circumstances? [April 2010]

* What's so "feminist" about being anti-sex? The 2010 Feminist Porn Award nominees and the "porn for women" niche [March 2010]

* Religions on sexuality: same-same, but different (the Dalai Lama and Buddhism edition) [February 2010]

* Biography of a pornographic polemic [May 2009]

* Daddy's little capitalist [October 2009]

* Somewhat disjointed grievances on porno pay rates, transparency, and a pinch of boring labor politics [September 2009]

Some of these don't develop fully unless you read all the comments.  If you have something to say about any of these past topics, please comment in those post's own comments area, not here on this post.

As for what's coming next, I'm currently interviewing a bunch of my favorite indie pornographers for what I think is an important piece about the realities of queer/feminist/"different" porn.  It's been floating around in my head for a while, but I want to devote a big blog post to screaming at a certain elephant in the room.

I've kept up the habit of posting around something once a week, which I hope to stick with as I enter year two.  We'll see how things go.  Writing, for me, is a time-consuming project with almost no financial rewards.  It would be nice to be able to change that, because it is something I enjoy.

As always, if you want to properly congratulate me on how awesome my blog is and how brilliant I am, I will continue to shamelessly solicit gifts from my Amazon wishlist.  (Sort the list by priority to see what I want most.)  If you hate me and all that I stand for, you should apologize for such insolence by donating money to my favorite charity, San Francisco's St. James Infirmary, a clinic that serves sex workers.  Either way, I win!  Mwahaha!