Blog to the Prezz

Well, despite the rain and the biting east wind, that's been quite a good day, that has. For a start, the sermon's written. Highlighted bits and all. Now I have to think about it enough to be able to talk it - not read it. But I'm getting there.

And the teaching? Hard work - especially at teatime. Hard for the students and hard for me. I used Graham Greene to get us started - the masterly sketching in of a character, a place, an atmosphere. I noticed that one of my customers had been told to use more similes in her writing - really, a fatal injunction. Why do we do that? Any similes that turn up will be so heavy-handed and hackneyed as to drown any originality in the prose. We *must* teach the creative use of verbs, or of the unexpected, metaphorical adjective, if we are to help the students to grow. Anyway, they're away to try their hand at some writing for me. Where? On a blog. (Yay!) You can find it at progress report, where, if this works out, I hope to be keeping tags on the homework till I see them again. Of course. I'll be sad if it doesn't work - but if all were plain sailing I guess there wouldn't be a job for all the blogevangelists out there.

And a last, joyous discovery - George Dubya knows about blogs! Take a look at this If it's all too much for you to stomach - there's reams of the stuff - I've found the relevant snip for you:

" I just got to keep talking. And one of the -- there's word of mouth, there's blogs, there's Internet, there's all kinds of ways to communicate which is literally changing the way people are getting their information. And so if you're concerned, I would suggest that you reach out to some of the groups that are supporting the troops, that have got Internet sites, and just keep the word -- keep the word moving. And that's one way to deal with an issue without suppressing a free press. We will never do that in America. I mean, the minute we start trying to suppress our press, we look like the Taliban. The minute we start telling people how to worship, we look like the Taliban. And we're not interested in that in America. We're the opposite. We believe in freedom. And we believe in freedom in all its forms. And obviously, I know you're frustrated with what you're seeing, but there are ways in this new kind of age, being able to communicate, that you'll be able to spread the message that you want to spread."

There, then, you have it. Hot stuff, eh? We've really arrived.

Hurrah.