Jason Calacanis, fresh off his resignation with AOL, was presented as the keynote speaker for day two of SES Chicago on Tuesday.

Calacanis went to work for AOL after they bought his company WeblogsInc. just over a year ago. At the same time, he has helped transform Netscape from a tired browser of yesteryear to a Digg rival - a social blog and networking site. However, the relationship with AOL became strained.

Calacanis has been accused of trying to put rival Digg out of business - an accusation he denies, and held the line on Tuesday by quipping "all ships rise and fall with the tide." This is Calacanis' official stance, that Digg's success will continue successes for Netscape. But his cooperative demeanor has been held suspect, most recently because of his offer to pay top Digg contributors $1,000 for every month they publish 150 blog posts or more - seemingly attempting to steal Digg's top writers and moderators. It was a move that incensed many, may have aided his abrupt resignation from AOL and caused bloggers and industry insiders everwhere to wonder, "what was he thinking?"

That may remain a mystery, but a quick word association shows what Calacanis was thinking on Tuesday morning - along with some choice comments about SEO ("it's bullshit"), his motto of the day, "making it suck less ... like Yahoo," "evil stuff like that," (referring to PayPerPost) and considering himself "...part of the forces of good."

Q: Digg
A: Brilliant.

Q: Google
A: Brilliant. Unstoppable. Good.

Q: AOL
A: (deep breath) Transition.

Q: SEO
A: Keep it simple.

Q: Podcasting
A: Addicting.

Q: AdSense
A: I love you.

Q: Netscape
A: The future.

*Calacanis also announced his new job today, hired by Sequoia Captial to build a yet-determined company.