It is so hot! I worked on staining the fence for our retaining wall project today, but just for a short time. Even with a straw hat the sun is too strong. I can't wait until the weekend, so that I can swim. Ma reports that the pool is 3/4 full, and that she and Daddy went swimming today. But as she would say I shouldn't wish my life away. I did order a new bathing suit from Land's End in anticipation, however.

In a day or so I have to return to curriculum, getting ready for my fall classes and mentoring a graduate student. Until then, I am "stealing time," and I have a full to do list in the works. In an effort to finish up my pinback button project, I scanned all 22 sheets of buttons. Tomorrow I will add them to the Virtual Museum. I received a newsletter in the mail, from the Small Publisher's Association of North America (SPAN). It is a complimentary copy, sent to me because of my membership in NAWW. I am not quite ready to go that route yet - although waiting to hear from Black Dome Press is excrutiating - but it got me thinking.

The jury's still out on this ejournaling endeavor. I went this route so that my website would have some content updated regularly, to spark me to write more, because I have always liked journaling, and doing it this way sounded innovative and fun. I did not really pursue this because I wished to join an online community. I did establish a web presence for networking purposes, in the sense of marketing and publication, but I guess I never imagined the Blogger world, where the homepage reports that in July, there were 1.5 million posts per minute, on average. That's incredible.

So, it has been sucessful in serving the functions I envisioned, and I am satisfied with that. On the other hand, there certainly are enjoyable aspects of the community; it is fun to surf around, read, and occasionally participate via comments, but my goals here had little or nothing to do with that part of the experience. Posting is not a problem, but without discipline, the community part can be a significant time waster. And although there are many, many gems among those mind-boggling 1.5 million, there is also a vast forum of ignorance operating. That's one more forum of ignorance, when in my experience, already there were too many. Filtering can be an exhausting, and very time consuming process. Irritating too. Some argue about the merits of web logging v. traditional journalism. I don't know whether that is an interesting or worthy debate. Since when did journaling become the same as journalism? Would that be the same time as when shouting heads on cable became news? All I can say is that apart from Saundra Smokes, I don't have much affection for print op-eds, either.

Anyway, SPAN's newsletter came - traditionally via the USPS - and as I scanned it I thought, I should work on my Mimmie book, because regardless of how it makes it to print, it sure will make it someday. (The fuel provided may be worth the price of membership?) Another incentive was provided by my mother, who sent me a Paypal donation yesterday :-). The proposal is three chapters; the remainder of the book is a work-in-progress, so today, in this heat, music off, fan whirling, dogs asleep, I resisted any surfing in the world of blogs (that's what other people write; me, I still journal) or other net temptations, and made one more small step toward realizing the dream that has been guiding me since 1996.