ok, so i put the questions in a much more copyable form, on my professional weblog, and answered them there too, although i have a lot of ruminating to do about the answers, which i will put on a little blog that has always been dedicated entirely to blogging itself. you have to remember, i do blogging with hundreds of students, and it's only on the side, at night (in this case 12:03 am) that i do my own, and speak to my own audience.

my wife reads hundreds of blogs, and comments on many of them, yet remains surprisingly aloof- a lurker only. or, if she writes one, i don't know about it. but she's an avid reader- of this one too, and many others. through her i have found many who really make an art of it- turn it into a daily, productive, communicative, community- people who jump right in, get hundreds of visitors, get comments on a single post that turn into large discussions involving many people who know each other, in some cases, too well. in comparison, my blogs have always been thoroughly sleepy- virtually conversations with myself. some people who know me enjoyed it when i told of hitchhiking from guatemala to alaska, and getting stuck in various places between- and i'll do that some more, i'm sure, but even then, i was lucky to get a comment here, or there, and for a long stretch i lost even those comments. what a lazy oaf i can be.

so, i'm thinking of changing my style a little- and this is mostly because much of my creative writing has formalized, and moved over to its own weblog. it's just a thought. as yet undeveloped.

recently heard from an old iowa city friend, trying to find information about one of many lost souls we knew at that time- this one, a woman who had two daughters, and who had trouble managing. finding people who knew anything might be interesting. gathering people together for a stone soup reunion might also be interesting. i'd need help. seems maybe i've mentioned it before, but maybe not. there was a lot going on back then. maybe people can jog my memory. it's all grist for the mill. some people i knew, i still have some sense of where they are, what happened. a whole lot more of them, i have no idea. and i'd really like to find out. far more than i would, say, if they went to one of my many schools.

yet the schools are much better at putting on the reunions. more later...