i've been back from the d.r. for almost six days, and while i have a huge report, of blue-green caribbean, tropical rain, and all the mangos one can eat, i'll have to wait on this report a bit while i get my feet back on the ground here. had twenty three hours of teaching, two weeks of papers to grade, and classes that were rent asunder by my being gone, and required a bit of attention. so now, i'm trying to get some rest; meanwhile, it's 98 in the shade here, and there's almost no sense actually trying to move around, or go anywhere. so i'm in a mildly air-conditioned house, trying to contain the energy of young boys who, bless their hearts, also can't just go outside.

the boys did fine in my absence; they grew a little; they did their usual thing, and they were glad to see me upon my return. i am only sorry that, it seems, there is nothing for it but to put a little extra time into work; i can't avoid it, since, compounded on everything, is the fact that it's almost the end of the term. and what is summer here? it's miserable, humid, sun beating down killing off virtually everything. i woke up at about six this morning and for some reason looked out the window; saw a deer sauntering down the street as if it were a teenager, and owned the place. i shook my head a little, but realized, six in the morning is about the only time a person could go for a walk, in this kind of weather, when the air is the slightest bit amenable to actually being in it.

once again, i'm sure i've become some kind of wimp, that even ninety-something has me running for the air-con. but, the tropics kind of did me in. you'll have to wait for that report, but put briefly, when it's that tropical, a person has to take measures, and one way would be to be a lot mellower than I am, which might not be possible.

was asked to write a book on twitter, right before i left, and sure enough, twitter was on the cover of time, a magazine that arrived in our mailbox the very same day i received that offer. went to the d.r. thinking about what that book would be like, but didn't actually investigate twitter itself until i returned. but now, what should i find, but a revolution in iran, documented and shown to the world on #iranelection, which you search for once you get into twitter. and then, what do you find, but about ten posts per second on the topic of what's happening in iran. a jaunting expression of free speech, all on the board, documented for eternity. it transfixed me. a revolution in progress.

of course, i'm somewhat eager to join the revolutionaries, since we ourselves were robbed of two elections in a row by fundamentalist hate-mongers, and, much as i know such statistics can be rigged on either side by either party, still when it's a matter of government repression of free speech and rights, versus the people with their little twitter-proxies, it's easy for me to take sides. so i tried to make my twitter profile green (lost the picture as a result) and threw the weight of my individual support toward the people of iran. one thing i can say: the u.s. needs to pay attention. it needs to know an iranian from an iraqi, farsi from arabic, mousavi from ahmedinejad. it needs to pronounce the name. maybe i can help.

back on the home front, how can i write a book on twitter? well, to start with, write a proposal. finish the term; get my term papers behind me. catch up on everything i set up for the d.r. do the laundry and the dishes. most of all, get some rest, and stay out of the heat. it's getting worse, not better, and it's due to stick around until what, maybe halloween. embrace the sauna, is what i said one year. this year, it's lay low. let the aircon swirl about, right around an inch above floor level. and don't get up until you're ready. chou