lots to report, personally & professionally-

-a cd release party in cobden, illinois- and a radio show that morning here in carbondale (wdbx)- were both interesting, both well-appreciated, by those who heard them. the band is truly a collection of interesting people- together at one time & place- a small stage, a small town, a beautiful May evening...i will soon gather the cd's, and send them out...

-a presentation on blogging and universities- at on online conference, well-attended, lively conversation, lots of links- most of the attenders being educators who blog with their students. i was immersed in what happens to students for the months leading up to a tesol presentation on that subject- but became fascinated with what was happening to me as i got more absorbed in blogging- also, at the natural tendency to want to speak to the public about one's work, to want to gain converts to one's philosoph(y/ies) - to enjoy putting as much effort into presentation of those ideas as one would put into any public speech- and what happens when the truth comes out? when one's enemies pore over every word? when a hiring committee prints out the archives? read it & weep...

-quakers will have a camp out- though maybe not everyone will camp- we will at least get out. a campfire, at this point, is absolutely essential. life is too fast. it's time to breathe in a campfire story, if not dream a constellation. it's also time for the easter campout to move flawlessly and gently into a practical time slot. this particular weekend is borderline in the practical department.

-a new floor, personally put in, during our break, in a small & narrow family room that is itself not too long for this world- it will, if all goes well, become a light and airy addition in a few years. for now, though, we needed to pull carpet out, ease the psychic cleaning load- make it harder for the irritants of life to settle in and become impossible to remove...

-the blood of sockalexis begins to rise, as my one and only sports team, the cleveland indians, rises in its fortunes, gets over the sports-illustrated-cover hoax, etc. i opened up one academic blog (in my research) where the guy had quite openly turned over the whole blog to his favorite hockey team- if the indians make it as far as the buffalo sabres did this month...and by the way, i'll use this opportunity to point out- sockalexis is fine, he's part of history, not to run from it, but the team should change its name. make my native city proud, and step into a new century, where one doesn't name a team after a race, or a people...no matter the history.

-a new term starts- and i become a writing teacher, the best i can gather...

-a son returns from kansas, who i miss dearly, and hope settles in well back at home, though i feel that, in some ways, this is quite difficult. he will, at least, be well loved here.

-i've been thinking a bit about the autobiography, buried in italics in the archives of this very blog, but somewhat stalled by inaction that has now stretched on to about five or six months. time to start up again, give it my best shot. if i'm going to take a break on walmart stories, i'd better have something to be chewing on...

-the late presentation, 11-12 our time, with visitors from around the globe, doing the all-night conference thing, leaves me charged up, coffeed up, at 1 am. and the letters on the post are doing a kind of twist dance, as i write them....what's up with that? as if blogger is trying to remember and record, as it listens...i'm sure this is a new feature of blogger, but instantaneous permanence is not necessarily an advantage. a theme of the presentation was that though blogs appear to be temporal, airy, light as a feather, they are in fact much more permanent than most things in our world...and yet, here blogger is setting this stuff in stone, as it comes off of my fingers...all i can say is, blogging is making a backup of my soul...(quoted from Lisa Williams)- if the hard drive ever crashes, you'll know that, at one time at least, i was all over this "reality" thing...