The mindless, runaway blog entry, part 1-?

Writing for me is not easy. Often I run into moments when I know there is good material to feed off, but can't quite determine how to express an opinion or elaborate on what already exists. In the past I would rattle off blog entries on just about anything, but lately I have run dry.

Maybe it's because what I do for my profession is write, handle freelancers and read material that eventually ends up in my magazine. It's similar to the chef or massage therapist or carpenter who does the deed all day then comes home and wants nothing to do with the trade.

But of late I have concluded that writing a blog helps me with my profession. When I was scratching out a blog entry every day way back when I was also writing more for the magazine. Then when I slowed to a halt on the blog, so too did the amount of words I would write for the magazine. It's a conundrum. For me, a blog is not for anyone who may read it but for me. In essence it's an exercise that helps me get down to my "fighting" weight for the thing that makes me money–my paying job.

Thinking about media...
Recently, I have been thinking about media. At a recent work-related event I noticed that there are way too many photographers and very few magazines to utilize those images. So great sports photographers are left with blogs and websites. It's a shame really, and while the magazine I manage clearly has the best cycling photography bar-none, it could never afford to, nor could it physically house all the images that are generated. And so blogs and websites have become the main depository for great images. It's bizarre to me to look at an image on a screen. Photography is meant to be printed on paper, bound in glue or saddle stitched, used as candy for an article–in a magazine.

If you ask any good cycling photographer today, they will tell you that getting their images in print is the single most important thing. It's final. It's not digital. Eventually that digital link disappears into the ether, becomes archived. Goes away. With paper, it stays. Printed. Embedded. Inked on to a surface. It remains.

Blogs are neat don't get me wrong, as are websites. And while some people think that the printed book or magazine will disappear, I fervently disagree. While blogs have created a whole new medium for the average "Joe" to put down thoughts, report on events, mis-report, assume, etc, they have also diluted the world with drivel and inaccuracies.

So what's the point of this off-kilter, unfocused blog entry? Not sure. And to those who believe that printed pieces will go away I say "blat" to you.This is the end of mindless, runaway blog entry, part 1-?.