During Henry Copeland's presentation yesterday on making money with blogs, there was much discussion of blogs as influencers, their niche, sense of community, even trickling down.

At one point Glenn Reynolds was described as being "like a cisco router," and was asked whether he's a "figurehead." Glenn conceded that he's like the figurehead on a ship's prow, and the fact is, he gets there first. I can testify to that; in fact he had his post written and up when I was far from finished writing a rather laborious rough draft of what I will never, ever be able to call "live blogging."

This is not idle speculation on my part, as I am about to supply proof!

And here it is -- an inside, live-action shot of the InstaPundit at the Copeland presentation:

Please note carefully that while it may appear to the uninformed that Glenn is just staring fiercely into his laptop while Robin Burk asks a question, based on the time sequence I can assure you that what he was actually doing was posting this entry!

In the blink of some router circuit somewhere, that post was done. Up. Online! There for the whole world to see! Meanwhile I was still slogging through my laborious notes about niche content, Google ads, stuff I don't understand, lots and lots of opinions, and a characterization of blogs as having "loyalty, personality, community." I hadn't even had time to read what I had written, much less reflect on it. I am slow; Glenn is fast. I am only honored that he likes to read my blog.

Donald Sensing spoke about blogs as self scaling; as issues arise, hit counts surge. Ads should take that into account. (Henry Copeland replied that to a certain extent, Google does that, but then he discussed Google's limitations.)

At one point, Cox and Forkum's John Cox asked (almost by way of reminder),

"WHAT ABOUT FUN?"

The room then exploded with laughter.

That seemed to be the bottom line. Blogging is supposed to be fun, even when you're serious.

And laughter is, I think, good -- even when it is being directed at you. I say this because I've had real animosity and hatred directed at me. I've been laughed at a lot too, but I never thought of that as hatred, and I don't consider myself a victim when I'm laughed at, as Dave Winer seemed to at the conference on Respectful Disagreement.

Anyway, things are now way past the live blogging point. As is my wont, I am now going to get way off track, and in an irreverent manner.

I got an email from Mick Wright who pointed out that when, during the conference on faith based blogging, I described myself as a "Pantheist," some of the people laughed.

As neither my Pantheist remark nor the laughter has been much reported, much less commented upon, I feel a bit obligated ("blogligated" is the techie term) to address this serious laughter issue.

To tell the truth, I did hear some tittering. I expected much more, but it just isn't my style to explode because of my perception of the appearance of laughter. Nor do I particularly mind even if the laughter was meant to be -- and may Dave Winer forgive me -- disrespectful.

Dave Winer should lighten up, and I really mean that.

I'm serious about this goddamned laughter thing, folks. Because, if people laugh, even you are being dissed, that means they think something is funny. At least they're not calling me names or threatening to kill me. And if they don't laugh, well, I hope they don't take me too seriously.

Is there a bottom line? A long time ago, I had a lover who left me in a total rage after we'd lived together for many years. I was just dumped. Love then turned to festering anger, then real hatred. Many hateful, angry remarks were leveled at me. Bitter characterizations, recriminations, and denunciations. It went on and on, and I grew tired of having to defend myself. Finally, the most annoying, the most downright vicious slander possible to make was leveled at me:

"On top of all that, you're a lousy lay!"

That hurt. (No seriously; it really did.) And I should have kept my mouth shut, maybe even cried a few tears for appeasement. Instead, I said the following fateful words . . .

"So don't pay me!"

My life hasn't been the same since.