Courtesy of Connie Willis.  This skewers Palin, the Park 51 crazies and the anti-intellectualism of the tea party.

Made me laugh on a stressful Friday morning as I try to get down to Albuquerque for Bubonicon, and leave for Australia on Monday.

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I've been comparing notes with writer buddies, and I've begun to wonder if the only way to have real success as a writer today is to be a major on-line presence?  Does high visibility ensure nominations for awards?  Increased sales?  Better reviews? 

If so I guess an early retirement is in my future.  I would rather the time I spend in front of a computer be spent writing.   It's also very hard for me to talk incessantly about what _I'm_ doing.  It feels like you're forcing conversations on people, and I've always found that asking people about themselves and then listening leads to much better conversations.  Maybe the way to do that is to have guest bloggers? 

And what leads to that high visibility?  I'm very private person.  I can't tell you about my personal life.  It's no one's business and it's rude to force intimacy on people you don't know well.

And I'm bad about posting.  I always have good intentions.  I'm going to post pictures of Vento and me and talk about the maneuver we're executing and how I achieve that particular move.  But then I wonder, does anybody give a damn about upper level dressage?  Once I got permission to talk about the AI conference I attended I was going to write up a report, but so much time has elapsed, and it feels stale now.

I'm damned if I'm going to bore you with what I ate for dinner, or that I mowed the lawn.  It feels like a blog should be about something, but I'm a writer.  My life isn't that interesting.  (It will be interesting for the next month while I'm in Australia, and I'll try to be good and post a lot from my new IPad, but then it's back to dull routine.)

So, what do I write about here?  I talk about the movies I've seen because I feel like I have something to offer there.  When the antics of the politicians leave me breathless with rage I feel I must respond.  I try to talk about books I'm reading, but since I'm a PKD judge this year I don't feel that's proper, and if I'm reading something that isn't eligible I tend to re-read books I love --  THE WITCHES OF KARRES, or a Heyer book.

I suppose this is a pre-ride ponder as I look at the state of media, and realize that none of us has any idea what's going to be the end result of these profound changes.

I wonder if Dickens would have blogged? 

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