i'm messing with the picture function on blogger, which allows you to basically store pictures on your blog. this one is a background; i got it from the klezmer rebs from new zealand; hope they don't mind. maybe they can use a little publicity on this side of the puddle. music is my background these days, always in my head...the other stuff...the podcasting (did it today), the chat, the wal-mart scene, is the background fan. got this picture up here so as to show lynne how it's done.

how r ya?

i've gotten a little taken with chat, and especially its potential for creating international communities, on the spot, at your fingertips, not to mention communicating more and better in the ones we already have. my students, for example, are so busy writing papers about wal-mart that they hardly have time to ask me if this is tornado season, but i set up a chat, asked them to show up, and they did, and they brought me a bunch of stuff, and did a bunch of other stuff too. it's an interesting world. ^^

on the home front was a 14-yr-old-birthday-party-all-nighter, of the video game variety, a young crawlin' lad with a honker of a sharp tooth poking through, and another who draws ladybugs like they're going out of style. finally there's one who's working on getting out of town by way of fafsa...but has to ride a bike to school in the meantime, in what's left of winter...and, to top it off, a a daughter who won at the bog...

on the creative front there's a cd in the works, and it might have a banjo song that i've had in my head for years. it's basically a song about almost jumping on the northbound train. got to get that banjo fixed though, the one i'm using is out of tune at the top. it's time-consuming...and in the meantime, poetry, plays, etc. are kind of a wash. i've had fun dredging old stories up from the shadows of my filing system, as my middle-level students are sick of a sociology textbook. these stories predate a bunch of ones i already give away, but at least are remotely connected to our subject matter. in fact these days i'm not writing a lot of stories, or even a novel, but boy am i gathering material...

...a frigid gloom sets over the arena parking lot, but the sun sets later, rises to the sounds of birds...winter's about had it here. i should plant tomatos, indoors at least, but the olympics aren't even over yet...it's a busy time, as usual, tesol is coming...

and in the meantime, it's coffee, irish music, grammar, rock'n'roll, and a wicked red pen...it all flies by, like a canadian goose.

just back from georgia, athens to be exact, the iowa city of the south. they used to call iowa city the "athens of the midwest," now i know why. though it was rainy, gray, bleak, it was still a break, an unusual, interesting place. a long drive too.

the world presses on. tesol looms. pictures needed. banjo needs fixed.

a hearty welcome to old friend and new blogger, Peggy, on the coast of scotland, so far away, yet close through blogger. hope you keep it up! i'll hold you on my template.

borrowed a banjo for the studio session, and put down a chicken-yard track on it. as long as i'm doing music, i can't seem to write poetry or the play. but i'm doing well with professional writing...it's coming out in torrents. so it's all esl & music these days.

it's cold again in illinois...the arena parking lot fills up with cars & hope for the spring tournament, though the b-ball salukis hit some turbulence. webheads wanted to know how to pronounce "illinois," but i've lived here so long i forgot. the central question, of course, is whether it starts with an "e"...it only has an "s" sound if it's plural...and how could there be two of them?

have to roll with the punches with using chat in the writing class...i sometimes feel i'm on their turf, i'm out of my league...and it may not work. it clearly works better for some than others. i should be mulling this over elsewhere, keeping work out of this realm, but it does seem a little creative, a little different, and, as it's going, a little less than on the mark. more on this later too.