ELAYNE RIGGS has some excellent advice for the overheated blogosphere.

I think y'all need to ask yourself what you really expect to get out of blogging. If I really yearned to win a Koufax instead of just make the first round of nominations, I acknowledge I would have had to post a lot more regularly, and write more longer essays like the "Conditions of Art" post below, than I did in 2004, so I truly cannot bitch about my exclusion from the Koufax finals. If I wanted "famous" bloggers to blogroll me, I'd e-mail them and ask what I could do to be worthy of their consideration (and in fact that's what I did in the past, before my own blogroll became nigh unwieldy). If my goal was to be a "famous" blogger myself - I'm sorry, that's out of my control but there are certainly ways to increase your online presence (join alliances and webrings, go out and actually find/report on real news scoops, attend Drinking Liberally or other social events). If you're looking to Make Money Fast - well, I'm sure there's a Nigerian prince with a message just for you waiting in your in-box.

Well said, Elayne. I feel the same way. I blog because I love to blog. I'm thinking about blogging all day at work and when I get home, I can't wait to sit down at the computer and start writing. It's my passion. Sure, it would be nice to get links from the Big Bloggers once in a while, and it'd be more than cool to make a living from blogging, but if that never happens, I'm still having a great time, because fame and fortune are not why I started this blog.