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Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
All magazine articles (subscription required for older stories)
Online column index
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Daily Blah for... Monday, March 04, 2002
Blah on Blah
Imagine my surprise when Emily tells me that Daily Blah has been discovered by the (London) Sunday Times. Out of 947 new sites cropping up on Yahoo in a particular day, they picked their ten favorites, and Daily Blah was among the ten. This is interesting for two reasons. First of all I worked for the Sunday Times for one unhappy week in 1995, right out of college, and the experience was only notable for the fact that the Queen of the Living Dead appeared to be masquerading as my editor. Secondly, the Times' writer Robbie Hudson says "it is fun to track the author’s navel-gazing joy as his young site raced to the top of the weblog chart." A curious statement; I never thought of gazing at someone gazing at their navel as being fun (although the current rash of bestselling memoir writers called David -- that is, Eggers and Sedaris -- would seem to suggest so). If this is the case, then is gazing at someone gazing at someone gazing at their navel twice as fun? How about gazing at someone across the Atlantic gazing at me gazing at my navel, which is evidently what I'm doing now?
If self-obsession is going to get the Blah picked up in national newspapers, however, I'm more than happy to keep it going. Did I mention I was the number one search result when you type "Daily Blah" into Google and Yahoo? Not surprising, you might think. But now -- horror of horrors -- this site has taken the Google crown from me! How could it happen? I'll have to ask my pals Larry and Sergey, the most fun-loving geeks I know (I keep thinking about the time I saw them at Burning Man painted blue and green respectively) and Google's co-founders. All I remember from the Google story I wrote back in 2000 is that sites are rated according to how many other people are linking to them across the web. Which would mean either somone has removed links to me, or this Richard Taunt fellow has taken time off from making tacky PowerPoint pictures to campaign for extra links to his page. Well, I'm not taking it lying down. I ask you, gentle reader, which Blah would you rather see at the top of the Google result? If you want to help restore me to my rightful position, all you have to do is link to me from your website. No site is too small as far as Google is concerned. Every connection counts. (Pssst! Mac! Want to make a cool-looking Daily Blah link button for people to download?)
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