For the next several days I will be camping and fishing with a bunch of guys in the mountains of New Mexico. We will be smelly, dehyrdated, and emitting enough noxious gases to power a small hot-air balloon. We will play with worms and other bait. At night, we will gather around a camp fire, tell stories, and eat meat. We will throw axes at tree stumps. Our beards will smell of alcohol. We may even stop using words to communicate. Simple grunts should work.

It will be great.

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There may still be hope that we could get a cat someday, despite Cath's allergies.

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This week, I attended a Brookings Institution event on The Impact of New Media. It basically covered how blogs were changing the landscape of journalism. This is kind of a tired discussion. I mean, when I went to SXSW in 2002, this was already a 'hot topic,' even then. The fact that the Brookings Institution is now holding panel discussions on the subject, and bloggers are now appearing on the cover of the New York Times magazine is a sure sign that blogging has moved into the mainstream, and that it will soon degrade into some over-commercialized craze. (Or perhaps it already has.)

Despite the fact that the discussion of the new media's effect on journalism has been going on for some time now, the Brookings Institution panel discussion was quite good and EJ Dionne did an excellent job moderating, I thought.

What interests me about blogging isn't so much the 'journalism' aspect in the 'professional' sense, but the 'journal' aspect in the 'personal reflection' sense. I've never really thought of blogs as hard-hitting, investigative journalism. This isn't meant to be critical or negative of blogs, I just don't think this is what the medium is about. I would still read a newspaper if I wanted hard news. But I see blogs as playing a key role in forming a new kind of journalism - a 'grassroots' sort of journalism where you learn about a situation not through the filter of some large corporate news source, but through personal perspectives and observations. Mostly, I don't look to blogs for news at all. My favorite blogs are simply commentaries on one's own life, not on current events. But that aspect of blogging is often overlooked or considered 'uninteresting' in panel discussions.

New Media 'celebrities' (yes, we have new media celebrities, now) Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette) and Andrew Sullivan (Daily Dish) had some interesting comments on the subject of blogging as journalism (or not). You can read the full text of the discussion here (PDF). But here were a couple of excerpts I thought were particularly good:

MR. SULLIVAN:
I really think part of this medium is about conversation. It's not about a monologue. It really is -- and the best blogs to me are those which directly interact with or listen to the people who are reading you and come back to them. It's a very creative -- if you let it be creative. You have to let go a little bit, and then you won't have to think out loud and not be afraid to say things you may later regret or want to reconsider. That creates a kind of, a new -- I think it's a new literary genre, myself, I really do. I think it's beginning to emerge, a kind of way of writing that is neither prose in the old sense nor is it journalism in the old sense nor is it talk radio. It's somewhere between the op-ed page and talk radio. That's where it is. It hovers in between the two.

I completely agree with Sullivan's characterization of blogging as a 'new literary genre,' but I'd take it even further and say that instead of hovering between 'op-ed and talk radio' it actually hovers between 'op-ed' and 'journal' or 'diary.' To me, what is so fascinating about blogs is that they are a window into somebody's personal thoughts and reflections. The idea of the 'journal' is nothing new, and there's a whole branch of English lit academics dedicated to studying journal-writing. But it's interesting to me how the idea of the 'personal journal' has morphed as it has moved online to become 'public journal.' I believe that to some degree every writer is always writing to an audience, even those who keep their prose well hidden in a notebook tucked away in their bedroom drawer. One day, perhaps after they're no longer on this earth, they secretly know somebody is going to read what they've written. But the old-fashioned journal is definitely more of a 'private' thing. The difference with blogs, is that the 'secret-ness' is removed. From day one, anything written on one's blog, no matter how personal, is made public to the entire world. It's interesting how this might change the shape and tone of what one writes. Some people still write shockingly personal things about their life. Others, keep it more about current events. Either way, the medium is much different than anything before it.

In the discussion, Sullivan went on to talk about how blogs can help us understand current events in ways newspapers can not:

MR. SULLIVAN:
There is a whole bunch of very orthodox Catholics that blog, whom I read when I want to figure out this stuff. There isn't a page in the New York Times where I can find that.

Cox took the idea a little further:

MS. COX:
I think that's a really good way to look at blogging, which is like--or to look at--there's a news event and there are aspects of it that are best covered by newspapers, aspects of it that are best covered by other media. And in addition to what Andrew's saying about the idea of, like, getting a feel for what the arguments are on each ideological side of an issue, I also think blogs are really good--I mean, this is sort of maybe just an extension of that, the Schiavo case in particular. Because blogging is so personal, you get a lot of, like, personal history kind of -- people talking about their own experiences in these kinds of situations. And whether you want to hear it or not, I mean, like, that's part of the story. And so that's what blogs also are good for, like people --

Great stuff!

One of the highlights of the panel discussion was when Gary Mitchell of 'The Mitchell Report' asked: "When is what appears in the blogosphere journalism, and when isn't it?" He posed it mainly to Cox and Sullivan. Both of them basically responded that they thought making the distinction between the two was of little use. Cox clarified that the question might be useful in terms of revealing sources, which has become an issue lately with the Apple case. Sullivan simply said, 'I think it's not an interesting question.' He went on to say that blogging is about people 'writing about the world.'

Quite.

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It is recommended by some of the guide books to Costa Rica that you get a Hepatitis A vaccine before going. As I would like to minimize my risk for any unpleasant sicknesses while vacationing, I signed Catherine and I up for a dose and we went last Friday to be vaccinated. We decided to only get the Hep A, and not the mixed cocktail of A and B because B is typically only a risk if you're going to engage in sexual activity or share needles with people. Cath and I don't do any intravenous drugs and, while we weren't ruling out sexual activity, we were pretty sure it wasn't going to involve 'the natives.'

According to my doctor, as well as a wealth of online material, the Hepatitis A vaccine is typically given in two doses. The first one begins protecting you a month after it is administered. It is recommended you get a second dose about 6 months after your first dose for long-term protection, so we went ahead and scheduled a follow-up. Some material I've read says this second dose will protect you for 15-20 years, while my doctor told me it'll probably offer 'lifetime protection.' We plan to visit several developing countries in our lifetime, so I guess it's a good thing to have.

While they were down-played by our doctor, the side effects of the vaccine are real. Both Catherine and I had recurring headaches during the day, for which I had to take multiple aspirins. Also, my arm felt like somebody punched me, and I felt very space-y and downright 'weird' all day. I can't really describe it as nausea because I never felt sick to my stomach, but I did feel 'feverish' and light headed. I was glad it was Friday because things are usually slower and require less thought. When I got home, I took a nap, had a big dinner and, after a full night's sleep, all was better by the next morning. If you're considering getting the Hep A vaccine, don't let the side-effects keep you from it. They're annoying, but they only last a day.

There are a few other sicknesses you have to watch out for while in Costa Rica, including dengue fever and cholera. Dengue fever sounds particularly unpleasant, and includes a sudden onset of high fever, headache, joint and muscle pains, nausea and vomiting. It is spread via mosquitos.

Mosquitos have always loved me. I think it's my Italian blood. We'll be there in dry season, and on the drier side of the country, so I'm not overly concerned about mosquitos, still, here's what Lonely Planet tells me to do to prevent mosquito bites:

The main messages are: wear light-coloured clothing; wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts; use mosquito repellents containing the compound DEET on exposed areas (prolonged overuse of DEET may be harmful, especially to children, but its use is considered preferable to being bitten by disease-transmitting mosquitoes); avoid perfumes and aftershave; use a mosquito net impregnated with mosquito repellent (permethrin) -- it may be worth taking your own, and impregnating clothes with permethrin effectively deters mosquitoes and other insects).

Okay . . . enough of my hypochondriac neuroses . . . time to start planning the fun!

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Well, it is official - Catherine and I will be taking a week-long trip to Costa Rica! We booked the travel this morning. It's been a couple of years since we took a real vacation, so we're way overdue. And the more we read about Costa Rica, the more excited we're getting. Here's a tentative list of things we're going to do, in no particular order:

1) Sit on the beach and do absolutely nothing

2) White-water raft

3) Learn how to surf (okay this one is just me - I don't think Catherine wants to surf)

4) Go visit a volcano

5) Snorkle

6) See monkeys and turtles and other cool animals you typically don't find in the streets of DC

7) Take lots of photos

If anybody has been to Costa Rica and has other ideas, let me know!

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Man, speaking of Thompson (I will get off this subject soon, I hope), somebody should turn this guy's life into a movie starring Johnny Depp.

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