Untitled - Chapter 1 

Crap, what have I gotten myself into, Meg wondered to herself as she hung up the phone.

Meg Harkin was the newly appointed assistant communications director for blogging and podcasting -- serving at the pleasure of the president's husband. Right, The President. Of the United States.

The First Man, or Adam, as Meg liked to think of him, had been charged with shoring up the White House communications office and bringing its services into the 21st century. So, bringing on a senior staffer for new media had been one of his first priorities.

Meg landed the post on what she considered a fluke and a favor. While she felt lucky beyond comprehension, and excited, and privileged, and chance of a lifetime and all that stuff, she also harbored a persistent dread. Could she really do this? Would she ultimately be exposed as a lightweight? Was the telecommuting arrangement going to work?

The problem at hand was an utter absence of understanding within the communications office about her specialty. The press secretary, a prima donna former newspaper columnist, seemed to be especially dismissive and almost defensive, Meg thought.

Worse, nobody was even interested. Just yesterday, Meg had pushed for some light training to bring the office staff up to speed on blogging tools and RSS readers. Brad, her boss, the communications director, had bluntly asked her to keep the "nerd lingo" to herself. "Isn't that why we hired you -- so the rest of us would have to deal with that shit that Mr. Clinton seems to think is so important?"

Brad's tone betrayed a hint of a sneer, and Meg had been stewing, for the last 24 hours straight, about what that tone might foretell.

Exhale and confess 

Rogers Cadenhead tells about Rush Limbaugh's admission today that he essentially did what he thought he had to do in defending the GOP in the run-up to the election, but he feels liberated he no longer has to carry the water.

I wouldn't have anticipated reactions like Limbaugh's -- and the president's, who also behaved today as though he is relieved he can stop holding his breath.

It's refreshing. Isn't it? The beginning of openness? Maybe?

Comedy of errors, or something 

Now PayPerPost is back to saying my blog isn't yet 90 days old. I'm going to try one more thing.

Count 

Failed again 

My blog was rejected by PayPerPost again. The human editor said the reviewers have to be able to view individual posts. So, I'm still not clear. When you take a link to one of my individual posts, that post appears at the top of the window, so it's clear what's being linked to. If the requirement is for each post to appear on a separate page, I can't do anything about that. In that case any Radio Userland, Manila or OPML Editor blog would be disqualified.

Either there's a misunderstanding on somebody's part, or it's not my blog structure -- it's me and my plans that are unacceptable.

Tonight after work, if I still feel like pursuing this, I'll make some example posts and a screencast from the point of view of the reviewer, just to make it clear what I'm proposing.