Day 2 of the Blog. This new one. My blog will clinch it, sooner or later. (Blog: That is short for Web Log.) Does that make more sense, my gentle readers? (No condescension intended, but there are younger minds involved.)
I first got an earful of the amazing nature of blogging from a private school that I worked for in 2005. Blogging was, more or less, "the future" and present, according to the administrators and teachers of Liceo Politecnico Los Nogales. In the 8th region of Chile. More on that later.
Now those, both that school and the blog I once fondly used 4 or so years, has been part of my past, as noted.
And I hope some of this spaghetti might stick.
Can we not get this all vaporized, please?
Hello? Is this mike on? I guess I vested too much trust in Foxsports.com
Yes, the blogocide, or blogicide, has left some scars or wounds; some possible left open or awaiting pricking.
Mistakes 1-250. I posted more blog entries than that, but you get the point.
So today while working, or rather while pondering on my lunch break, I wrote down a few topics for blogging. My next blog. 2014. Many of the subjects I have written a bit about or even extensively relating to before...
I showed the sheet to my eldest daughter this Thursday evening and she picked..."College Towns".
I have lived many good years in some college towns.
22 combined years in Bloomington, Indiana. My home town. Special for those reasons as well, I suppose.
5 in Provo, Utah.
And you could almost count the close to two years in Monterey, California.
I have lived in a few other cities and camps and villages, but college towns offers their own thrills and nuances.
I have written about Bloomington over the years, since childhood. As an adult and living farther away, I have written memorials and tributes of people I have known and died there, sports teams that have been born and thrived there, fictions and fading memories that have sprung and dried there.
Hanging from the rafters of forever yesterdays. Old musty barns and school yards and fields of rocks and pebbles and hills of green mowed grasses and leafy remains.
Provo, in Utah, was definitely an idyllic location for me at times.
And most recently, Monterey (2007-2009), on the central coast of the Golden State. Despite it being known as a military junction, combined with tourist attractions and seaside landmarks, it was powerful as a place of university in some of the truest sense. And it was a place where I opened up my mind with more than only Arabic.
Okay, so maybe Monterey is a stretch. College towns in California would be Davis, Berkeley, and...well, a few more that I have not visited like Moraga, or wherever UPacific and St. Mary's are located. Maybe San Luis Obispo.
Whatever the count of college towns like West Lafayette, Ann Arbor, Madison, State College, Gainseville, Manhattan (Kansas), Charlottesville, et cetera, a college town in the United States is a magical place for a few reasons. Should I make a short list? Sure.
1. They usually have a sports team that captures the hearts, imagination and emotions of otherwise bored and boring, rational and reasonable people. Like me? Sure, I can be all four of those. Just not during the game! Cover your ears if you do not like the sound of a grown man (or many thousand) screaming and clapping. Especially during and after poor calls, or great passes, or greater scores.
2. Most people in the state like to visit this town, because it has attractions beyond sports, which undoubtedly do pull people in their masses to its stadiums and arenas, but it usually has school halls and buildings and surrounding residences that have a thing to behold: architecture.
3. For those who imbibe spirits: obviously there are drinkeries. But all of us eat, and there is normally a plethora of eateries. Here, here! Pass the naan! Followed closely with a swig of rose lasa. Oh, Doctor Bombay!
4. There should be a disproportionate amount of musical talent. And some acting. And writing. And even other arts and artisans, like potters.
5. Books. More book stores, more libraries and better selections of all things in print.
6. Radio stations that play outside the box. Musical tastes that go well beyond Beyonce and Lynerd Skynnard.
7. Professorial types that make life quirky, amusing and interesting.
8. Foreign elements, like the brother of the Dalai Lama, or Afghan rug merchants.
9. Extra jobs and money flow due to all the students.
10. Some extra retirees based on the extra culture.
11. Shows, like concerts and plays and musicals.
12. And college towns don't have all the crime of bigger cities, but only some of the lethargy of smaller burgs.
13. Educational meetings and conferences.
In sum, college towns are pretty nice, and it is easy to be nostalgic for time spent there.
Other places have their charms, but I think everyone should get the chance to live in a college town.
I first got an earful of the amazing nature of blogging from a private school that I worked for in 2005. Blogging was, more or less, "the future" and present, according to the administrators and teachers of Liceo Politecnico Los Nogales. In the 8th region of Chile. More on that later.
Now those, both that school and the blog I once fondly used 4 or so years, has been part of my past, as noted.
And I hope some of this spaghetti might stick.
Can we not get this all vaporized, please?
Hello? Is this mike on? I guess I vested too much trust in Foxsports.com
Yes, the blogocide, or blogicide, has left some scars or wounds; some possible left open or awaiting pricking.
Mistakes 1-250. I posted more blog entries than that, but you get the point.
So today while working, or rather while pondering on my lunch break, I wrote down a few topics for blogging. My next blog. 2014. Many of the subjects I have written a bit about or even extensively relating to before...
I showed the sheet to my eldest daughter this Thursday evening and she picked..."College Towns".
I have lived many good years in some college towns.
22 combined years in Bloomington, Indiana. My home town. Special for those reasons as well, I suppose.
5 in Provo, Utah.
And you could almost count the close to two years in Monterey, California.
I have lived in a few other cities and camps and villages, but college towns offers their own thrills and nuances.
I have written about Bloomington over the years, since childhood. As an adult and living farther away, I have written memorials and tributes of people I have known and died there, sports teams that have been born and thrived there, fictions and fading memories that have sprung and dried there.
Hanging from the rafters of forever yesterdays. Old musty barns and school yards and fields of rocks and pebbles and hills of green mowed grasses and leafy remains.
Provo, in Utah, was definitely an idyllic location for me at times.
And most recently, Monterey (2007-2009), on the central coast of the Golden State. Despite it being known as a military junction, combined with tourist attractions and seaside landmarks, it was powerful as a place of university in some of the truest sense. And it was a place where I opened up my mind with more than only Arabic.
Okay, so maybe Monterey is a stretch. College towns in California would be Davis, Berkeley, and...well, a few more that I have not visited like Moraga, or wherever UPacific and St. Mary's are located. Maybe San Luis Obispo.
Whatever the count of college towns like West Lafayette, Ann Arbor, Madison, State College, Gainseville, Manhattan (Kansas), Charlottesville, et cetera, a college town in the United States is a magical place for a few reasons. Should I make a short list? Sure.
1. They usually have a sports team that captures the hearts, imagination and emotions of otherwise bored and boring, rational and reasonable people. Like me? Sure, I can be all four of those. Just not during the game! Cover your ears if you do not like the sound of a grown man (or many thousand) screaming and clapping. Especially during and after poor calls, or great passes, or greater scores.
2. Most people in the state like to visit this town, because it has attractions beyond sports, which undoubtedly do pull people in their masses to its stadiums and arenas, but it usually has school halls and buildings and surrounding residences that have a thing to behold: architecture.
3. For those who imbibe spirits: obviously there are drinkeries. But all of us eat, and there is normally a plethora of eateries. Here, here! Pass the naan! Followed closely with a swig of rose lasa. Oh, Doctor Bombay!
4. There should be a disproportionate amount of musical talent. And some acting. And writing. And even other arts and artisans, like potters.
5. Books. More book stores, more libraries and better selections of all things in print.
6. Radio stations that play outside the box. Musical tastes that go well beyond Beyonce and Lynerd Skynnard.
7. Professorial types that make life quirky, amusing and interesting.
8. Foreign elements, like the brother of the Dalai Lama, or Afghan rug merchants.
9. Extra jobs and money flow due to all the students.
10. Some extra retirees based on the extra culture.
11. Shows, like concerts and plays and musicals.
12. And college towns don't have all the crime of bigger cities, but only some of the lethargy of smaller burgs.
13. Educational meetings and conferences.
In sum, college towns are pretty nice, and it is easy to be nostalgic for time spent there.
Other places have their charms, but I think everyone should get the chance to live in a college town.
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