Back in the fall, when the media world started feeling the drop in advertising and laying off lots of people, the blog hosting people at Typepad came up with a nice little program: Typepad for Journalists. They’d give you a free pro account, tech support, maybe help you put ads on your site. All about helping newly-unemployed journalists by giving them a home in the digital world.

When I got laid off in November, I knew one of the first things I wanted to do was set up a website and a blog. I figured the two best choices were Typepad and WordPress, so I sent off an application to the Typepad for Journalists program to get that ball rolling in case it ended up seeming like the better deal. But I decided WordPress would work better for me, and I kind of forgot about the Typepad thing.

So here’s a little timeline. Dec. 17, 2008: I send a message to Typepad telling them I want a blog. Jan. 16, 2009: They tell me I’m accepted to their program. (Everyone was – I’m not that special.) Sept. 25, 2009: They send me my discount code so I can register and start blogging.

Uh, yeah. Waiting nine months to start a blog – that’s definitely the way to show you’re on top of the news.