Aren't Snow Days Grand

We had a snow storm come through the area last night, and today, all schools were closed in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Not having to go to work today, and having Monday off as well (MLK holiday), means that I have a four day weekend.

Snow outside, warmth inside. Makes me glad to be here. We just get so much on our plates that we don't have a chance to appreciate what it is that we have been given. Going to this meeting, doing that added task, volunteering for the next committee, preparing the next PowerPoint slide show, preparing a new article for the webpage, ad naseum, we don't get a chance to see what's around us.

Snow days make us stop and take time out from all this. You can't drive anywhere, the police don't want you out on the highways. There's nothing on TV except soap operas and the latest collection of crappy infomercials. There's nothing to do except make some tea or hot cocoa, look out the window and enjoy the kids playing in the snow.

Here's to great snow days.

New opportunities, New responsibilities, New irrelevancies

Okay. A fresh, clean, blank piece of paper, er, screen, ready for words to be placed on it. I have heard the word before, "Blog," "Blogger," but had no idea what it meant. And now, I am going to be a blogger, who blogs.

Those who blog seem to think it is the New Journalism, both in the sense of being a diarist and in the sense of being reporters/commentators/pundits. Others seem to think it is just more evidence of the narcissistic nature of today's hi-tech society. We seem to have come from webcams, which showed our faces to whoever had a computer and the free time to access the site, to blog sites, which put our minds on display (for good or ill) to those who have the free time to see what's next on the 'net.

Does it mean anything? I don't know, but I can see the attraction of blogging. I don't have to listen to George Will or George Stephanopoulos (sp?) make comments, but I can be the commentator. Just as the web allowed people to become publishers, outside of the mainstream media (nothing can so heady as checking out your website and finding that the number of hits has jumped), blogging allows ordinary people (ornery, if you read Pogo) to become commentators. But with the limited access that blogging has, compared to the broadcast nature of the mainstream media, does any blogger's comments really mean anything? Does my blogging amount to anything?

Who cares? I blog, therefore, I feel good. My words, my thoughts, are posted. People can see them or not see them (which is going to be the 99% dead-lock cert), but I have done it. I have taken the time to think, to ponder, and to post. Only time will tell if this is just another time-waster, or if it means anything.

For good or ill, Pelajus, welcome to blogging.