I just finished watching the webcast of Brookings' panel discussion on blogging, and I've got to say: I'm finding it better and better the more I'm done watching it.

I was tuned in to try and catch Catherine -- she was in attendance (with her boss! party!), and for some reason I find the idea of sending her creepily all-knowing text messages incredibly entertaining. So I was perched at my computer monitor just waiting for something, ANYTHING noteworthy to happen, that I might dash off an SMS peppered with the word "Clarice" and send it to my long-suffering girlfriend. Of course she was no doubt well-aware that the events were being netcast and would have just rolled her eyes and chucked the phone back into her purse. But here in cubicle-land we take what longshot kicks we can get: the only alternative is to drink lots of water so that I can leave my desk to go to the bathroom more often.

I'm sure Catherine will have some keen insights to share about blogging, the future of blogging, and journalism: yea or nay? But here's what I came away with:

• Podcasting? VoIP? Let this serve as a warning to my fellow nerds: allow deeply nontechnical people to start to think they're on the cutting edge and they'll start grasping onto any buzzword technology they encounter like a life preserver, desperate to keep their heads above the icy waters of irrelevance. Thank god these people are too dumb to understand what XML or Web Services are or we'd all be hearing about how they're going to save democracy and deliver us our dinners in pill form -- in cities on the moon. No, thank you. The technoligarchy must be preserved!


• You know that guy, the one who asks the questions that aren't questions but really thesis proposals that he's desperately hoping will be instantly recognized as works of original genius that'll immediately get him invited to better parties? Except the insights are actually either fairly pedestrian or completely out of touch with reality? Yeah, today's one-of-those-guys was one of these guys. I've fallen prey to that weakness before, too -- I'm sure you're all shocked to hear that I can be a pretentious ass. But c'mon, guy -- this is getting broadcast on the internet! You never know who might be watching you, or if they might be naked at the time.


• It wasn't just the little guys who looked ridiculous, though. The best part of the whole panel: when it came time for everyone to share their closing thoughts, multiple panelists all had canned lines at the ready joking how "blogging is clearly over over if we're having a Brookings panel discussion on it". Ha ha! You guys are so ahead of the curve. Except, after the first time that joke is made, it becomes substantially less witty, so there's no point in repeating it. I could draw you a rough graph if it'd help. However, the exchange was at least partly saved thanks to moderator E.J. Dionne, who called out the guests uttering the ungracious bon-nots thusly: "you guys are kind of dicks." (That may be a paraphrase.)

So, to summarize: there's this thing called blogging.