Professional blogging: It’s around-the-clock bleeding-edge journalism with a sudden mortality rate:

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

Good thing I still have a daytime gig. And as my of-late dwindling output attests (down from an average of 3-4 daily posts to maybe 2), I’m not exactly straining the blogging muscles to the point of exhaustion. Not that professionalism in the permalinking game was ever a goal for me.