I like the immediacy of blogs and the democratizing effects of letting millions of voices bloom on the Web.

Over the years, I’ve worried that my directness could come off as brusque or my criticisms heard in an outsize way, especially by male colleagues. I sometimes wondered whether expressing even my mildest reservation reminded someone of a chastising mother or complaining wife.

A general truth is to have a good sense of humor. Roll with the punches of life's ups and downs. Laughing at yourself always helps.

I have an older sister who sounds, unfortunately, exactly like me, and we sound like our mother did.

The Obama administration has had seven criminal leak investigations. That is more than twice the number of any previous administration in our history. It's on a scale never seen before. This is the most secretive White House that, at least as a journalist, I have ever dealt with.

As someone who has spent a lot of her career as an investigative reporter, I'll confess that a frustration of mine has always been that so much investigative journalism involves a dissection of events in the past.

What's next for me? I don't know. So I'm in exactly the same boat as many of you.