In other words, I am trying to use the possibilities of the medium. This blog is a cross between a periodical of sorts, and a TV, with the endless resource material and media available on the World Wide Web as quickly as your connection allows, so I am trying to make the best of all the possibilities of this thing called the Internets (....teach us, Senator Ted !), not just staying within the conventions of one of the two mediums mentioned above.
This blog is best enjoyed when your browser is set up to open links in new tabs, which is usually an option in your preferences. Otherwise it can be annoying to have to keep clicking back to the blog and perhaps loosing your place.
Some of the links are just humorous, meant to be enjoyed until you get the joke I am making, or as a song to kind of create a mood for a post. You can close the windows once you get it, or let it play in the background, as I just did with the Ted Stevens gag song I embedded in the colored lettering above (rest in peace Senator Ted, whom I even met once.. you did love Alaska, and you were more of a friend of the environment than your attempts to drill ANWAR would indicate, but its hard to not poke fun at the Incredible Hulk as he was known affectionately in the state.)
Other links lead to Maps or Documents that illustrate a point, offer facts or numbers, or explain more fully what I am trying to convey in the text. If I leave the link raw or have it on it's own line, it is usually important like this. You don't have to visit these links, but I am dumping information on you to further illustrate my points, something that escapes the classical constraints of periodicals that are limited in how much graphic info they can display between advertising and formatting and text. Especially in articles on Environmental Issues in the US, I usually have a lot of Government Documents and Articles of all sorts to link to to explain the issues. Sometimes I might even link to a Google Images search to give you a variety of photos of a subject so you can create a full mental image.
To some degree I am bombarding you with asides to try to enrich the experience. It is something I learned from a guy who made some really funny student films when I was in college, where he would jump from normal exposition to some crazy side stories or previous supporting action in an instant, and I find it to be a kind of overwhelming yet stimulating way to tell a story, taking advantage of the great capacity of your media addled brains to actually assimilate a lot of info in a hurry, and this multi medium portal to do the job. I do hope however that I don't distract you from the main points I try to convey in the text, where my true message lies. If it gets distracting, blow off the links, or read or experience them later.
Please enjoy, learn, and have fun. If I affect you in any other way, it's not entirely my goal. I don't want to manipulate your emotions to do much other than laugh and learn. I am not an environmental cheerleader, most of my audience already likely knows whats going on, and I am not trying to distract from the truly sad trends out there. I just wanted some hope, and to be honest, most of the hopeful stories I am telling here were truly sad trends perhaps even just months ago. This is how change happens, and my finger nails stay clean. Enjoy some Hope.
Also, apologies, because as Regina Spector so smartly points out, I can kind of write, but I can't edit:
It's just because I am so excited to get all this good news out to you... details.. bah!
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