I had a whole blog thing written on how important it is that people use, but not abuse, beta readers but then it occurred to me that I'm the only one out of all of us who habitually skips this all-important step in the writing process.

As so often happens, I was ranting at the idiots and then I realized that I was the only idiot in the room.

But that's okay. I'm not jealous of y'all because you're smarter than me. I have better reasons and you know what they are.

And that's pretty much all I have to say on that subject. I'm not sweating through a transcription of six pages of ranting about people who don't use beta readers only to face mockery and finger-pointing as you point out that I, alone, have neglected to procure myself the services of a such an invaluable aid to writing.

If you feel like mocking me, you're going to have to find your own reasons today.

In a side note, I see from the first page of the blogger site that blogging is getting some interesting press.

In The Wall Street Journal, an editorial about, "all that's right with our great country", includes: "Blogging. The 24-7 opinion sites that offer free speech at its straightest, truest, wildest, most uncensored, most thoughtful, most strange. Thousands of independent information entrepreneurs are informing, arguing, adding information. Imagine if we'd had them in 1776: 'As I wrote in yesterday's lead item on SamAdams.com, my well meaning cousin John continues his grammatical nitpicking with Jefferson (link requires registration) "Inalienable," "unalienable," whatever. Boys, let's fight. Start the war.' Blogs may one hard day become clearinghouses for civil support and information when other lines, under new pressure, break down."

The Economist: "Blogging, the publication of running commentary on personal online weblogs, has in the past couple of years exploded from a cultish techie activity into a cottage industry churning out increasingly compelling content. In 1998, there were about 30,000 weblogs; today, there are some 500,000, according to Cameron Marlow, who runs blogdex, which tracks them."

Huh. What a bunch of radicals we are! The conservative press is taking us seriously!

Once again I'm feeling a certain pressure to be relevant but I'm resisting. It's stream of consciousness babbling from me or nothing at all.