"Blogosphere," "Cyberspace," and Other Words...

So the Class of 1959 has a blog. We have entered cyberspace and are now posting messages into the blogosphere with our very own personal computers (PCs). Many of us regularly use our PCs to exchange emails with one another. We have learned how to use a web browser to search the Internet for interesting and useful information. Many have now become fairly adept at "googling" for information on the vast World Wide Web (WWW).

I purchased all of Bud's books through the Internet by ordering them from BarnesandNoble.Com. I've also purchased many books from Amazon.Com. I suspect that a few members of our class have purchased and/or sold items on eBay. For several years I had a personal web page. Currently I express myself in written form on my own personal blog. I am also a moderator on a religious internet discussion forum. Over the last decade, computers and the Internet have become an integral part of my life. But I'm an old codger compared to the way my children use computers and the Internet.

In the two previous paragraphs, I wrote fourteen words/terms that weren't in my vocabulary in 1959. Shucks, these words weren't in my vocabulary as recent as thirteen years ago. Can you imagine how Mrs. Miller, or any of our high school teachers, would have responded had we uttered any of these words in class in 1959? Of course, we couldn't have uttered them because they didn't exist fifty years ago.

1. "blog,"
2. blogosphere"
3. "cyberspace"
4. "personal computer,"
5. "email,"
6. "web browser,"
7. "Internet,"
8. "googling,"
9. "World Wide Web,"
10. "BarnesandNoble.Com,"
11. "Amazon.Com,"


12. "eBay,"
13. "web page,"
14. ""internet discussion forum."

I purchased my first PC in 1995. I didn't know didly about computers. I couldn't type a lick. I was pastoring the First Baptist Church in Dewey, and my colleague and very good friend, Rev. Don Simpson, at the United Methodist Church two blocks away, had a PC. I thought at the very least I had to have a computer to keep up with the Methodists. Couldn't have the Methodist preacher sending fast emails while the Baptist preacher was still sending those slow snailmails.

I entered the blogosphere about a month after I learned how to send emails. I had a CompuServe account and began participating in a Baptist internet discussion forum. That was thirteen very short years ago. To put it another way, it was thirty-seven years after I graduated from high school before I entered the modern world of cyberspace communication.

Where am I going with this? Well, I'm not the only member of the Hammon Class of '59 who has entered the modern world of cyber communication. Many of us have entered that world reluctantly, sometimes kicking and screaming. I suspect there are a few who have yet to enter that world. For those of us who have, this blog is a great way to achieve instant communication about things of personal and collective interest.

There are two ways that everyone with an email account can participate in this blog venture:

1) Create a Google account. By creating a Google account you can write comments to any blog article that Bud and I post. Actually it's quite easy to to do. Click on the "Create Blog" link up in the right hand corner of this web page. Follow the instructions and create a personal profile. Once you've created the Google account, you can click on the "comments" link below this blog entry and write a comment to the blog.

2) Email a blog message to me and I'll post it on the blog. I created an email account specifically for this blogsite. Anyone wishing to write a blog message may send the email message to me at: phlick59@gmail.com. (You can click on my email address, which will open the email program on your PC and go from there.) I'll be happy to post any and all messages so that everyone can read your message.

The choice is yours. Both are easy. Bud and I invite all class members (as well as friends of the HHS Class of '59) to join the fun.
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Truism: "You're never too old to have a little fun in the blogosphere."