Image via Wikipedia

You know, for as politically inconsequential as our betters in media tell us Sarah Palin is, I can’t help but notice how much coverage she generates.

It reminds me why I always correct those who describe me as a “citizen journalist”. I don’t consider myself a journalist, never have, and this post illustrates the distinction very well.

When mainstream media declares someone to be inconsequential, they write over 4,600 stories about them.

When I consider someone to be inconsequential, I don’t write any at all.

“Thousands Cheer Palin”

I don’t believe Kate has ever written about the Toronto Maple Leafs……..hmmmmm…….

Popularity: 26% [?]

The rest of us are suckers.

Image by Somewhat Frank via Flickr

The best studies we can find say we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income. That’s almost 2 million Americans getting paid by the word, the post, or the click — whether on their site or someone else’s. And that’s nearly half a million of whom it can be said, as Bob Dylan did of Hurricane Carter: “It’s my work he’d say, I do it for pay.”

This could make us the most noisily opinionated nation on earth. The Information Age has spawned many new professions, but blogging could well be the one with the most profound effect on our culture. If journalists were the Fourth Estate, bloggers are becoming the Fifth Estate.

What started as a discussion forum for progressive politics and new technologies has now been applied to motherhood, health care, the arts, fashion, dentistry — and just about every other imaginable area of life. What started as a hobby and an outlet for volunteers is becoming big business for newly emerging sites, for companies that now depend upon their reviews and for the people who work in this new industry.

More:
America’s Newest Profession: Blogging

Update: Megan McArdle calls bullshit:

I still don’t understand why common sense did not keep him from publishing this article. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that almost all of us know many more computer programmers than professional bloggers–this is true of me even though I am a professional blogger, as are half my friends. Or he might have called some professional bloggers, who would have (sorrowfully) told him that no one is making $75K a year off of 100,000 pageviews a month, that being about how much traffic I pulled when I was starting up in 2002. Or, hell, he might have noticed that in the very BLS survey so nicely transformed into a table for his article, there is not entry for “blogger”–but that if you add up every writer, reporter, editor, PR person, technical writer, or “media and communications worker, other”, there are only 499,890. Since Penn says that there are 452,000 paid bloggers, this implies that 9 out of every 10 communications workers are professional bloggers.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Things are quite busy quite now (despite the fact that we are supposedly in an economic cataclysm) so I won’t be blogging much for the next three weeks.

In the meantime enjoy my blogroll particularly:

Ezra
Kate
Kathy
Blazing Cat Fur
Flea
Right Girl
WWTDD

Popularity: 13% [?]

The left wing chick blog 2008 bloggies are out.

Here’s a fun game: can anyone find any other right wing blogs other than the token Instapundit entry under political blogs? Seriously, how can a blog award have 5 political blogs nominated and only one of them isn’t a hard left blog? And no disrespect to Instapundit but he is hardly a political blog like the others in this group. He is a great filter blogger but not necessarily a political commenter (although he does throw the odd comment in here and there).

Click on the link above to see a bunch of blogs you’ve never heard of (mostly) and marvel at how easy it is to win a blog award if you’re a left wing mom writing about your kids or some other boring shit.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Lots of work this week so blogging will be light. So enjoy some early B-52’s doing one of their greatest songs.

Popularity: 10% [?]

I suggested to Ezra Levant that he post a “defamation law for dummies” on his blog. This was in response to his post about creating a legal fund for bloggers.

This is something like what I meant: For bloggers: A stay-out-of-jail card

Via: Instapundit

Popularity: 6% [?]

As mentioned in my first entry last week I will put work before blogging and due to some deadlines this will be the case today. So click on the blogroll above and partake of the people who are too lazy to work but not too lazy to write.

Popularity: 5% [?]

High winds knocked out power here this morning (it just returned). So no big post today.

I did catch Kathy and Mike on the Michael Coren show last night. It was all very civil and what was surprising was the whole panel agreed that the complaints against Ezra and Mark were contrary to the intent of the HRC’s.

Mike - has gained some weight! Last time I saw him I was teasing him that he looked like a meth addict. Maybe the camera adds 30lbs? Either that or he has been hitting the gym. Although I would recommend a suit or sport coat for future TV appearances. And stop folding your arms it makes you look too defensive.

Kathy looked great and was remarkably restrained. But then again the show did have an exceedingly polite tone to it.

Most impressive was the woman from the Canadian Free Speech or Civil Rights (I forget the name of the organization as I have her name). She was obviously a left winger but her arguments against using the HRC to police speech and thought were as “cogent” (get it? ha ha) and well articulated as any I have heard from the right.

The lawyer guy made completely spurious arguments and examples and didn’t do anything to disprove Kathy’s contention that lawyers are a major part of the problem here.

Unlike some commenter in Mike’s blog I didn’t have to run out an buy a TIVO to get the show. I PVR’d it on my hd box and watched it after the Leafs game. Considering what passes for hockey these days in leaf land it was a pretty decent palate cleanser.

Update: Welcome Five Feet of Fury folks. For the record Kathy I wasn’t lying - but I am not going to sue you for suggesting I was

Popularity: 25% [?]

It seemed years ago (back when Pat Quinn was still coach and GM of the Leafs) that I was the only one blogging about the horrendous antics of the Toronto sports media. There even seemed to be a dearth of Leafs blogs despite the prevalence of many other blogs devoted to NHL teams. Not that there weren’t any - they just seemed to never sustain themselves.

In fact Battle Of Ontario ( of which I was a founding member BTW) is one of the few Leafs related blogs that has continued and has actually thrived.

But since my hiatus there have been some new blogs pop up and some of them are fantastic. Take for example Cox Bloc. With a tag line like “the centre of the bad sports writing universe” you know that this one has got to be good. And sure enough they deliver, skewering such moral and intellectual giants as Steve Simmons, Howard Berger and of course perpetual grouch Damien Cox.

Just how bad is the sports media in Toronto? Well consider the fact that many players refuse to come to Toronto because of the intense media coverage in the city. Sports reporters will often phrase this in such a way that it makes you believe that any given player would prefer to have fewer reporters asking him questions after a game. For some reason or another 4 mikes in your face is good but 8 is enough to send them running. But if you read between the lines what most NHLers are really saying is they won’t come and play somewhere where the media will thrash you in an unmerciful fashion just for having a bad game or two. Ask Brian McCabe and Pavel Kubina how they like the “intense media scrutiny”. Better yet ask Pat Quinn and John Ferguson.

There is a media generated myth out there that Toronto fans won’t stand for a rebuilding. In fact it is the media themselves that won’t stand for it. At this point in history the Leafs for the first time seem to be on the verge of actually tearing the whole thing down and starting with a fresh slate. This could mean another three years of horrible hockey teams. Not just mediocre but downright horrible. Remember all the teams that are now looked upon as future dynasties (Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Chicago) were truly awful for a number of years. In fact Buffalo and Pittsburgh were so bad the viability of the franchises was in some doubt for a time. While the Leafs will certainly never teeter on the edge of financial ruin you can bet that if they stay at the bottom for another two years the same scribes who were screaming for a rebuild will dig out their “how can they charge that much for a crappy product, they are lining their pockets and taking the fans for suckers” columns and then a week later complain that the fans are too impatient and aren’t willing to wait for a rebuild.

Currently the Leafs are searching for a new President and General Manager. There are a lot of good hockey men out there who would do an admirable job but there are a couple that everyone seems to acknowledge as being truly top echelon. They are Brian Burke of the Anaheim Ducks; Ken Holland of the Red Wings; and Jim Rutherford of the Carolina Hurricanes.

These are the three that are almost always mentioned when people talk about who would be a great candidate. I am 100% sold on Burke, somewhat there when it comes to Ken Holland and not necessarily a believer in Jim Rutherford (his teams have been wildly inconsistent).

One name I would like to see right at the top of the list however is Lou Lamoriello of the New Jersey Devils. Lamoriello has consistently fashioned a competitive team year in and year out and has even managed to win a few Stanley Cups. But more importantly Lou runs his organization with an iron fist and doesn’t tolerate any leaks to the media. Pat Quinn sorta tried that here but wasn’t too successful and the local media hated him. I would love to see how they react if Lamoriello becomes the new sheriff in town. The problem in Toronto is that the hockey media actually believes that it calls the shots when it comes to the team. Someone like Lamoriello (and lets be fair also Brian Burke) would put that to rest in a hurry. So Toronto hockey media here’s my wish for you: I hope you the Leafs get the best GM out there. Not the one the team deserves; not the one the fans deserve, but the one that you (the media) deserve.

And for those of you who are wondering just how bad the hockey media can get in this town? Here’s Crazy Uncle Bill Watters and punch drunk ex NHL goon Nick Kypreos displaying their exquisite analytical and debating skills recently:

Popularity: 7% [?]

Yes that’s right return as in to blogging. Although maybe not permanently. For the past year to year and a half this blog has lain largely fallow as I managed my business and personal life. Those two priorities still remain ahead of blogging. However I didn’t like leaving the blog just to die and I missed writing on a daily basis.

On many occasions I did some short term bursts of blogging (not to be confused with a “blogburst” God, I hate that word) however something else was keeping me from blogging. And that was the look of my blog. For the entire duration of my time as a blogger I have never been happy with my blog layout. From the earliest days on blogspot to the various Wordpress themes I found them to be uninspiring and in many cases not very reader friendly. In fact I find most blogs to be guilty of this. While it is true that many bloggers use generic templates – and these are at best average, there are quite a few blogs out there that have been “designed” or at least tweaked by bloggers and the results are generally atrocious.

As a reader I like to feel drawn into a blog or website so that I want to read and feel comfortable doing so. I don’t like to feel like my eyes are being assaulted with loud colors, noise and cluttered sidebars. Not only are blogs guilty of this but many other websites are as well. In fact if you want to experience the epitome of ugly website layout try going to some of the major sports media websites. They cram so much into the front page that you don’t know where to look and don’t get me started on their “blogs” like this one - see what I mean?

So I set out on a journey of sorts. I looked at hundreds (actually maybe even thousands) of blogs and then I looked at hundreds of on-line magazines and journals. I noted what I liked and what I didn’t like. And once I had a feel for what I liked as a reader I began to look for someone to re-design The Meatriarchy.

This turned out to be a lot more difficult than you might realize. Think of this simple proposition: you have a blog; you would like to customize the look and feel of the site. Nothing too fancy just some layout changes, font adjustments etc. You would think there would be thousands of people who could do this and would be willing to do so for money but it is very hard to find them. They seem to be hiding in another “internet” somewhere.

I posted a request on my own blog – no response. Well that’s not entirely true. Darcey from Dust My Broom took pity on me on several occasions and helped me out with technical issues relating to behind the scenes stuff like upgrades to the latest version of Wordpress etc. But when it came to hardcore tear it down and build it back up there seemed to be slim pickings.

Sure there were places that did “corporate blog design” but I didn’t want to pay 5-10k for a blog that I don’t intend to monetize and certainly don’t wish to continue writing on indefinitely. So that option was out.

Then there were all the folks who advertise their blogging design abilities for reasonable prices. Some I contacted but most I didn’t. Why? Well if you are going to hang your shingle out as a blog or website designer you better make sure your own site looks damn good. And frankly quite a lot of them didn’t. At least to me.

I had actually intended to dump Wordpress and move to Movable Type largely because the MT sites have a cleaner minimalist look to them and I contacted some MT designers about this. I was in serious discussions with one or two of them about porting the whole thing to an MT based design when one night while surfing the vast amount of Wordpress Themes that populate the ‘net (all of them looking pretty much the exact same) I stumbled upon a site by one R. Bhavesh

What attracted to me to his site was his obvious expertise in Word press and more importantly the fact that he not only did blogs but fully functional websites. I liked this because he obviously could do a bit more than just swap a few themes around. So I emailed him and we had some back and forth discussions and in just over two weeks The Meatriarchy was re-born.

A couple of things you might notice. First the blogroll. It is no longer on the main page. It now has its own tab on the top. Want to see what blogs I am reading? Just click there. This was important to me in keeping with my desire to keep the front as clutter-free as possible. On the right the categories are still there as well there are listings for the most commented on postings, the most “popular” (I don’t know what that means yet) and “the best of the Meatriarchy” this will be a section for my all time favorite posts. I don’t have it fully populated yet as you can see.

There will be some minor tweaks over the coming days and weeks but the overall look and feel will remain.

As for the blogging I will be doing I am not sure what direction I am going to be going blog-wise. Some of you may remember from an earlier post I did here that I was growing disenchanted with political based blogging. Not that I feel it is unimportant I just feel there are some much better bloggers out there than I who are really able to influence things. And as one blogger put it:

If you want, you can surf all day and never swim out of the warm, stagnant waters of the “aren’t those bastards evil” pool.

So I am going to try to avoid those waters for the most part. I will probably talk a lot about barbecue, hockey, dogs, music and my newest obsession woodworking. Boy is this going to be boring!!

I will not be posting on a daily basis – my work doesn’t allow that. And I may at some point even remove the comments and sitemeter – I find them distracting. But for now they will stay.

And for now I will stay. Look for some more posts on what’s next for the Meatriarchy over the coming week. You can now return to your “stagnant waters of outrage”.

Oh but before you do feel free to comment on the new design . And be sure to visit Bhavesh and contact him if you need your blog or website re-designed for a decent price.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The news blogs many of you read? The people running them know the same thing. Every site is in a dogfight for traffic (even if they don’t run ads, they still measure their success by the size of their audience) and so they carefully pick through the wires for the most inflammatory story possible. The other blogs start echoing the same story from the same point of view. If you want, you can surf all day and never swim out of the warm, stagnant waters of the “aren’t those bastards evil” pool.

Read the whole thing here

Via 5 Feet of Fury

Popularity: 6% [?]

Kathy has ditched her Relapsed Catholic blog for the newly minted “Five Feet of Fury” which sounds sorta like some totally crazy mutant ninja. You know - with five feet instead of two? Or maybe a Ninja cadre of three Ninjas one of whom lost his leg in the war.

Or maybe they have all of their legs but one of them was sitting in a funny position and his foot went to sleep. So now you have to guess which one it is because that’s the only chance you have to get out alive. Here’s a hint: he’s probably the guy that’s limping or at least shaking his leg in that funny way. Although sometimes people shake their leg like that if they have accidentally pooped themselves. So you either have picked the right Ninja or you are going to get poo flung in your face. Either way if you come up against three Ninja’s you should probably just relax and take the beating like a man. Which is Kathy’s problem with men these days. We don’t do enough fighting. I blame it on that TV show about the women living in the big city where all the men were sensitive and didn’t do anything threatening except the one guy who got into fights all the time and the cute girl realized that he wasn’t defending her honour but just liked to get into fights constantly. So be careful what you wish for ladies.

Anyway go read Kathy’s blog here. She writes way more often than I do and is only marginally shorter than me.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Kate has become involved in a new site (which appears to be a Wiki) that calls itself MediaMythBusters. They list several recent media myths (largely related to military conflicts and terrorism) but here’s one that some people probably forget:

NBC’s Fake Exploding Gas Tanks

For its Dateline NBC segment on G.M. pickups, the network hired a trial lawyers’ advocacy group to crash the trucks. Testers overfilled one truck’s gas tank, used a nonstandard gas cap that popped off on impact, and strapped remote-controlled model-rocket engines to the truck’s frame to guarantee a fire.

Oh and let’s not forget the Duke Lacrosse Scandal

Popularity: 8% [?]

Another blogger decides the real world is more interesting.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Panda Smash - “A Tribute to Every Video Site”

Once I watched this I realized how I am totally finished with viral video sites.

At least for today……

Via Gorilla Mask

Update: this is also pretty cool: Before they were famous

Popularity: 9% [?]

As I did over twenty years before him Damian is Leaving Newfoundland. And his post has some very nice pictures of my home province. Like Damian I do miss the place. However I can’t see myself moving back anytime soon.

Reason #1. The weather. I remember one summer (74) we had thick fog for all but three days. Another year (spring 84) the winter was so cold that all the lakes (or ponds as we call them) were still frozen solid on May 24th weekend. In May 92 I had to come home to my Father’s funeral. I left Toronto in 20 degree sunny weather and arrived in St. John’s to snow flurries and a brutally cold wind.

Other than that I would live there in a second. Still one of the few places left in Canada where real estate is comparatively cheap. The low population density means the access to wild spaces is quite high and there are no snakes, poison ivy or other torments. There are plenty of black flies though. I always got a chuckle when I moved to Toronto and people in Ontario talked about something called “black fly season” turns out in mid to northern Ontario they get black flies for about two weeks in May. In my area of Newfoundland black fly season was from late May to September.

Popularity: 4% [?]

With the generous help of Darcey of Dust My Broom I have been upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress. For a while I have turned off the comments feature because the spamming is still occurring despite some anti-spam plug-ins.

Commenting will return again soon; along with a bunch of other stuff (I hope) however I don’t intend this to become a daily blog again. At least not in the short term.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Finally to her own domain name: http://www.relapsedcatholic.com/

Will the last blogger to leave Blogspot, please turn out the lights?

Popularity: 4% [?]

I have become quite addicted to Michelle Malkin’s Daily Vent over at Hot Air.

For those who haven’t seen it Vent is a quick videocast featuring Malkin holding forth on the latest outrage of the day (typically Democrats). The piece looks slick, has great graphics and could compete with a lot of stuff you see on the TV news.

And Malkin makes it all work. She is spunky, vivacious and relentless. And pretty hot (in my opinion).

So now we come to the future of blogging. In the age of youtube the video blog entry may very well be the next big thing.

Think about it. First there was ordinary blog text and then people started adding pictures. I have always found a blog post that has an appropriate picture to be much more inviting than a large blob of grey text.

Add video and the experience becomes even more compelling.

Add an attractive and lively host like Malkin and the result is not only good blogging but good entertainment.

The downside is that whereas anyone could blog (assuming you had decent writing skills) not everyone has a face or a mannerism that translates into good TV (or video).

So as video blogging becomes more popular the successful video bloggers will invariably be the most telegenic. Lets hope their content is as interesting as Malkin’s. If not we will just have a new generation of talking heads, and bloggers will have proven themselves to be not so much citizen journalists but wannabe TV stars.

Popularity: 4% [?]

If you haven’t been checking out Michelle Malkin’s daily vent on Hotair you really should. Today’s smackdown of Bill Clinton is a good place to start.

Popularity: 19% [?]