...have we met? i'm tom, esl/efl teacher, playwrite, all around good guy, new to this business, but interested in blogs in esl/efl. i keep everything lowercase 'cause when i'm here, i've left work behind, but, as you can tell, it's never too far away. i write poetry too, and play music, and have children, including a 2-yr-old wild kid, and a loving wife... and i walk back to work at night sometimes, a couple miles over highway and arena parking lot, 'cause i'm so stressed and a-d-d, can't even read the paper at night when i get home, much less grade research papers which is my final task. i'm stressed, partly because quaker children presented our play tonight, but also because lots is happening in general...you get the picture...glad to meet you...see you 'round, hope you make it to carbondale someday...

love this blog deal...so much to say, so little space...and here you are, you've never met me, don't know who i am, or what's up...so here's to ya. one cool thing you'll notice, and i've been into geography all my life, is, you can be anywhere at once. and that doesn't make geography meaningless, on the contrary, it makes it more important than ever. you, for example, are right here now, right? and i may be long gone. but i was here too, and will be again, but that may be days later, right? and that will be a new here. stunning, huh? so i'm a little dazed by it all, but hey, i'll adjust...

i've been working on my play which will be performed this thursday here in carbondale by the young folks who are listed on the program....it's been hard this year (this is the sixth or so) as there is so much to do, it was hard writing it, and, since it's in seventeenth century english, some of the kids have a hard time relating to it and get real silly. oh well. one for the history books.

a blog is flat, like a pancake...put your best maple syrup on it, and real butter, cause they'll read it first, they won't have any sense of the history. if you want to set it up, set it up now, quickly, 'cause they won't find out who you are until later, and even then, only if you're lucky. you step into some of these blogs, it's like, ok i know what you ate for breakfast, and how you couldn't wake up this morning, but i don't even know who you are. this may be because i'm coming from flatland (i was born & raised here) and most of your visitors are coming from chatland, which is different...they already know a thing or two, how you feel about stuff. and another thing about blogs, this foggy line between html and life. you make a link and it sees it...but it has a funny idea of when to start a new line sometimes. you adjust, i guess; i'm sure i will.

here's dave, his blog is about carbondale; i'm here in carbondale too....it's still cool and rainy here, not a bad place. actualism is not dead. i'm hoping to some poetry on these blogs, you watch...put a play on here too, maybe...i'm just getting used to the format. one strange thing is that people read them backwards...most recent first....yet it seems you should speak forward...assuming your reader has read what's come before. does anyone else have a problem with this? i guess you get more immediate...stop stacking papers in front of the fan...

so i get my inspiration from dave (lowercase dave, url coming) and a graduate student in michigan. if she can do it, i can do it. can you blog with students? why not? it reminds me of when they write their languages on the board, or on their hands, or wherever. it seems to me that wherever people are communicating, crossing cultures, something good is happening. which reminds me....today, my class sang to me, happy birthday. the birds were singing out the window...

turned 50 today, and this is my first try at something new...don't rust, i say, don't let it get you down....the queen's got a birthday today too, she doesn't celebrate it because the weather's too bad in england this time of year...i, however, celebrate every minute of it even though it's raining here in southern illinois, my home. i teach...i'm giving a test at this moment. it just worked out that way. big cake in the office, not for me, but for secretary's day...but there will be plenty. actually life is good, i'm surrounded by people i love, don't mind the rain, everything's green, it's windy and mild. last night i was walking along in a large parking lot in the open air and saw a wild yellow flower growing right out of the middle of it...something i'd never seen before, something wild, very yellow in the night. yes, i said to myself. happy birthday.
...to all the folks i've met...a guy in a blueberry field in alaska, hans in manitoba, and many others, who were born on this day, not to mention the ones i haven't met, like the queen, and john muir, once it was earth day, now it's just birthday, take it easy, hope you live to see another...vaya con dios...-tom