The story so far: Michael Arrington, the tech news publisher who's established himself as the King of Web 2.0, decides to take two months off from boomtime frenzy, at his parents' offshore getaway. In a new series, Nick Douglas, Valleywag emeritus, channels the Techcrunch boss, in an unusually contemplative and sensitive mood.

Okay all, I said I wouldn't be blogging so much during my vacation, but I have a few more words about replacing Marshall Kirkpatrick. As I explained to Mom over a plate of the world's best brownies (disclosure: she baked them), I'm a man of principle. When someone calls me racist, classist, sexist — it hurts, because what I do matters. What happens here will happen to the world, because I am the future.

Mom said the future is 36 and still hasn't given her grandchildren. Regardless, I asked my advisers (Jason, Dave, Robert, and Steve) about whether there are enough women in blogging. No, they said, there are not. And the ones who are there aren't posting enough self-portraits. And so I introduce to you Natali Del Conte. Natali is making a wise choice to move from the Old Media of Tech TV to the Glorious New Media of blogging, where her most obvious asset (she's smoking hot) will be safely hidden behind a wall of prose.