Mrs. Phelps, my 10th grade English teacher, said on more than one occasion, "Never write anything down that you wouldn't want to see published on the front page of the New York Times." She was old in 1978. What turn of events in her life lead her to this prescient rule I'll never know. But what I do know is it makes a lot of sense today. Continue reading »

It all started with a link -- two, tops.

At the bottom of the main page of this blog, I wanted a link that would take the fine people who read this blog, like yourself, to another page of older posts. Previously if a fine person wanted to read something more than the main page, they had to commit to some form of archive. That's a lot to ask of someone who might wander in here from the abyssal plains of cyberspace. They'll click Next until they get bored, but to click December -- that's a whole month.

So just a link, occasionally two. Continue reading »

Yeah, I know what you're thinking -- "Thanks for the Deep Thoughts, picture boy, but where are those new photos?"

Although not glad you asked in that unpolished manner, I am glad you brought up the subject. As we know, nothing is easy -- especially here in cyber-computer-land. I'll spare you the geek-tails, but that new RANDOM PHOTO there on the left took a bit of doing. And in the process I broke a couple of things -- some fixed, some not. You've got the time, try to figure out what. Continue reading »

There seems to be a bit of wierdness updating this page from out hotel in Hanoi, so pardon any outages and duplications.

And so the blogging begins.

I'm still coming to terms with blogwriting. I kept a journal for years, but the public nature of a blog -- needless to say -- demands a change of focus. Or is it a change of honesty? Or does it really matter what the word is? Fact is that different audiences require unique voices and conversations. What I would write about in a solipsistic diary -- me, secret feelings, personal 'issues' -- would frankly be boring for a public forum. 'Know your audience' -- or at least realize you have one. Continue reading »