Gawker Media managing editor Noah Robischon (right) in the CES 2008 press room

When I decided to finally take the plunge into blogging in September of 2006, I consulted a handful of friends who work as journalists for their advice. Foremost among them was Gawker Media managing editor Noah Robischon: since he's the James Truman to Nick Denton's Si Newhouse in the Gawker Media blog empire, I thought his counsel would be invaluable as I prepared to embark upon this new endeavor. And even though I flagrantly disregarded his advice on the length of my blog posts (75-150 words or less) and their frequency (12 posts a day), his wealth of knowledge and willingness to share his insights with me prompted me to dub him my Blogfather, a role he's continued to play with unfailing good cheer.

We ran into each other yesterday in the press room before and after CES Unveiled, where he was gathered with the Gizmodo crew (most of whom were wielding MacBook Pros as their weapon of choice) plotting their assault on CES. Robischon introduced us to the team, including Gizmodo editor Brian Lam, who, among other things, was planning his and senior associate editor Jason Chen's "Mission Impossible"-style covert entry to the CES show floor. The Blogfather was kind enough to invite me to the team dinner later Saturday night at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris Hotel, where we all exchanged wicked-smart opinions (theirs, of course) about Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD, Apple vs. Sony, Microsoft vs. Google, "The Wire" vs. "The Sopranos" and Walt Mossberg/David Pogue vs. the rest of us pikers tech journalists. An informative and tasty close to a merely so-Saturday at CES.