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Monday, May 16, 2005
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BLOGOSCOPY “My wife and I agreed to be ‘guest bloggers’ - the online equivalent of what David Brenner used to do for Johnny Carson - for Dan Drezner, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, who runs a popular libertarian-conservative blog, DanielDrezner.com. How hard could blogging be? You roll out of bed, turn on your computer, scan the headlines, think up some clever analysis while brushing your teeth, type it onto your site and you're off. But as I discovered, blogging is no longer for amateurs or the faint of heart. Blogging - if it's done well - has evolved into an all-consuming art. …I knew I wasn't going to master the art in my few remaining days. And the vicious replies were wearing me down. I've gotten nasty responses to my articles before, but blogging is somehow more personal. …By the end of the week, with other deadlines looming and my patience exhausted, I began to post less and less. …To succeed in blogging you need to understand it's a craft, with its own tricks of the trade. You need a thick skin. And you must put your life on hold to feed an electronic black hole. What else did I learn by sitting in for Dan Drezner? That I'm not cut out for blogging.” BLOG BADE ME WELCOME Blog bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back, Guilty of sloth, and thin. But quick-ey'd Blog, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning If I lack'd anything. “A guest blogger," I answer'd, "worthy to be here." Blog said, "You shall be he." "I, the amateur, the faint of heart? ah my dear, I cannot post on thee." Blog took my hand and smiling did reply, “Who set the template if not I?" "Truth, Blog, but I have marr'd it; let my shame Go where it doth deserve." "And know you not," says Blog, "who wrote the code?” "My dear, then I’ll upload." "You must sit down and check your log.” So I did sit and blog. |