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Assorted reflections on the nature of blogging: Blogging provides a kind of safety valve that bleeds off pressure in the day to day insanity of life. First danger is to make sure blogging doesn’t spoil your appetite for real life contact with real people... you have to avoid the rock on the one hand and the dragon monster on the other!!!

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Forget the Beast, Let’s Deal with those Ducks
Old San Francisco Examiner had a newsroom culture that was equal parts Sun Tzu, Homer Simpson and Hunter Thompson. When I became metro editor, my management training consisted of this advice from a predecessor: This job is like being nibbled to death by ducks. Don’t let them get to you.
That was many years ago, and the old Examiner is gone. But the ducks are thriving in newsrooms across the country, biting the ankles and nipping at the shins of front-line editors, quacking up a storm about budget lines, weekend shifts, seating arrangements, the company car and so much more, distracting those editors from what they were hired to do: Good journalism.
It’s not a fun place to be, in the middle. Bosses want long-term vision converted to daily reality. Reporters have needs and idiosyncrasies. The news beast is ravenous around the clock.
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