Brendan, I see your old WeatherNerd site is still dormant. You mentioned before about being in negotiations with PajamasMedia about going back there. Looks like those negotiations didn’t work. Would you let us know what happened?
I am naturally curious if your disillusionment with the 2010 Republican party line caused the Pajamas people to no longer want you around.
If so, then, that really sucks. For you and for them.
Brendan Loy
Matthew,
I don’t really want to “talk shop” too much about my relationship with PJM — not that there’s anything to hide, it just seems a bit unseemly to talk publicly about the “negotiations,” as you put it — but rest assured that, at least so far as I know, nothing dramatic or sinister or political was involved. 🙂 And it’s not like I’ve severed my relationship with Pajamas Media, or vice versa: as I wrote on Sunday, “I might do an occasional article for PJM, but not real-time updates [this season].”
To be honest, although it was nice to get paid for something I do anyway (blogging about hurricanes), I prefer, all other things being equal, blogging here, where I have total control over not just the content of each post, but the layout of the whole site. One thing that drove me nuts about Weather Nerd, for instance, was the everpresent advertisement in the middle of my top post, which made it impossible to do posts like yesterday’s “Beautiful Bill,” which are basically just sequences of large, pretty pictures (or other relevant images like tracks, computer models, etc.) For layout purposes, I always had to have at least 2 paragraphs, or 1 long paragraph, or text before any images, unless the images were really small. That was annoying. And I had limited control over how the blogroll worked. Etc., etc.
That’s nothing bad about PJM specifically, it’s just the nature of working for somebody else and blogging in their format. I like controlling the look & feel of everything. Plus, at PJM, I felt obligated to blog periodically, even when there was nothing to say, because they were paying me to keep the site up-to-date. I hate that — it makes blogging feel like homework. Keeping “Weather Nerd” updated for the first 2 1/2 months of this season would have been torture. Hurricane-blogging is boring when there’s no hurricanes! 🙂 So I’m having more fun hurricane-blogging this season than last, even though I’m doing it for free again 🙂
Matthew Caffrey
I hadn’t read that Sunday post close enough – sorry to ask the same question twice. But more than anything I am pleased to hear that PJM isn’t playing petty politics. Sounds like they are just short on cash, which is not too unusual these days.
And I suggest you put up some permanent link regarding your POV on hurricanes and global warning, or you will get asked that same question every week, especially if this season stays slow.
Bill weakens, but still generating huge waves –Dr. Jeff Masters
Brendan, I see your old WeatherNerd site is still dormant. You mentioned before about being in negotiations with PajamasMedia about going back there. Looks like those negotiations didn’t work. Would you let us know what happened?
I am naturally curious if your disillusionment with the 2010 Republican party line caused the Pajamas people to no longer want you around.
If so, then, that really sucks. For you and for them.
Matthew,
I don’t really want to “talk shop” too much about my relationship with PJM — not that there’s anything to hide, it just seems a bit unseemly to talk publicly about the “negotiations,” as you put it — but rest assured that, at least so far as I know, nothing dramatic or sinister or political was involved. 🙂 And it’s not like I’ve severed my relationship with Pajamas Media, or vice versa: as I wrote on Sunday, “I might do an occasional article for PJM, but not real-time updates [this season].”
To be honest, although it was nice to get paid for something I do anyway (blogging about hurricanes), I prefer, all other things being equal, blogging here, where I have total control over not just the content of each post, but the layout of the whole site. One thing that drove me nuts about Weather Nerd, for instance, was the everpresent advertisement in the middle of my top post, which made it impossible to do posts like yesterday’s “Beautiful Bill,” which are basically just sequences of large, pretty pictures (or other relevant images like tracks, computer models, etc.) For layout purposes, I always had to have at least 2 paragraphs, or 1 long paragraph, or text before any images, unless the images were really small. That was annoying. And I had limited control over how the blogroll worked. Etc., etc.
That’s nothing bad about PJM specifically, it’s just the nature of working for somebody else and blogging in their format. I like controlling the look & feel of everything. Plus, at PJM, I felt obligated to blog periodically, even when there was nothing to say, because they were paying me to keep the site up-to-date. I hate that — it makes blogging feel like homework. Keeping “Weather Nerd” updated for the first 2 1/2 months of this season would have been torture. Hurricane-blogging is boring when there’s no hurricanes! 🙂 So I’m having more fun hurricane-blogging this season than last, even though I’m doing it for free again 🙂
I hadn’t read that Sunday post close enough – sorry to ask the same question twice. But more than anything I am pleased to hear that PJM isn’t playing petty politics. Sounds like they are just short on cash, which is not too unusual these days.
And I suggest you put up some permanent link regarding your POV on hurricanes and global warning, or you will get asked that same question every week, especially if this season stays slow.