Now that it’s Monday and we’re all back to, y’know, working to save newspapers (or just put them out every day), here’s how I’ve been staying sane lately:

• Indexed: Most weekdays, a comical graph/chart on an index card. (See above.)
• You Look Nice Today: A weekly podcast featuring three funny guys who you might know from Twitter, and or the Interweb in general.
• xkcd: Stick figure comic that’s more reflective of cubicle life than Dilbert, most days.
• Burn After Reading: The trailer for the next Coen Brothers movie.  A comedy, thank goodness.

So what’s keeping you sane?

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Plea:
Jay Rosen has the beatblogging with a social network thing worked up pretty clearly at this point, but if the project doesn’t leave behind tools (a WordPress theme, a Drupal module, a useful set of forms — something more tangible than good ideas that other news organizations can use), it’s just twelve more reporters with a blog and a bunch of know-it-all commenters. [UPDATE: Wow, that sounds pretty harsh, doesn't it? I'll write something more practical about it later and add a link here.]

More:
The NYTimes.com tech aggregator thing is cute, but first of all, isn’t this space a little crowded? And second of all, can’t you just use the frigging Blogrunner algorithm to add headlines to your stories from blogs that link to them? It was doing that when you bought it.

Seriously:
Why did my house get two calls in one day from circulation salesfolk from the Mercury News? Could it be because there was an earthquake on their front page for the last two days and someone thought it was a good time to blitz Santa Cruz? Or because the local paper moves out of downtown this weekend? Or do they just hate children and want to wake up sleeping babies every chance they get?

Fact:
I have worked in a newsroom where the circulation employees (not their fault – I blame the software) would call newsroom employees — at their desks in the same building — trying to sell them a subscription.

Opinion:
Scott Adams is a wonderful, wonderful man.

Thanks:
To Rex for the clue about Hype Machine when he blogged (or twittered?) its redesign launch. If all I got from it was the song stuck in my head right now, that would have been enough.

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Professor Heisenberg is cruising along the highway when he suddenly gets pulled over. The motorcycle cop sidles up to Heisenberg’s window. Heisenberg rolls it down.

“Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” asks the cop.

“I have no idea,” Heisenberg replies. “But I know exactly where I am.”

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