I prefer writing in the morning. I can't say why, but for some reason when I wake up I can think of more to say then I can late at night. I suppose I'm what people refer to as a "morning person." However, I have a relatively limited amount of time in the mornings while I'm drinking coffee and listening to the news on the television before I shower to go to work. So on some mornings I give priority to answering email that has arrived over night, and on others this blog gets my attention. Yesterday it was email that took priority and the blog got short shrift; today I am beginning with the blog.

Over the weekend I was able to make an email introduction of one friend to another. One of them is a CEO and the other is in search of a new job and perhaps a new career. I found it possible to send one email to the CEO with a copy to the job seeker that served the purpose of giving both the email address of the other and letting me step back out of the way for them to pursue the development of the relationship, if they choose. All-in-all from my point of view, it was a very satisfactory example of networking via the net.

In August of this year, the consulting firm of which I was a part for about 20 years is getting together for a reunion to celebrate its beginning almost 30 years ago. Plans for this event are likely to show up in this blog as the time for the get-together draws closer. We began these plans back in February when Jane Hascall sent an email to four or five of us indicating that she had heard from Carol Medlang at Christmas and that Carol had included her email address in her Christmas card. Jane said that since then she and Carol had carried on a regular email conversation. From that beginning we have made a concerted effort to call or write other employees and friends of our company to learn their email addresses. Now we communicate with the collective group by email and have agreed on the date. The next thing is to agree about what we'll do during our time together on August 24th. Though we could have pulled this off without the 'net, it would have been much more trouble. During a part of our conversation Juan Gutierrez even communicated with the group while he was in Australia. Twenty years ago, such connectivity wasn't available to us, the average citizen. It's far too easy to take this kind of constant connectivity for granted and not appreciate it for the wonder it is. I'm sure we'll find more and more ways to take advantage of it as the years go on and as our sophistication about using it grows.

I'm facing an interesting quandry -- two weeks of vacation bearing down on me. Why, you ask, is that a quandry? Well, because I can't decide where to go. Although I'll enjoy time off and could just travel locally -- the Smokey Mountains National Park is a delightful place to spend some time -- because I have that much time, I have the opportunity to visit some friends in Florida or travel cross country to San Diego and visit friends whom I know from our work together on the net over the last couple of years. My original plans to travel to Berlin for a visit with Paul Moor haven't materialized because I was unable to get everything needed for that trip done in time for it to happen. I'll have to make up my mind soon as May 10th is fast approaching.

- posted by Perry @ 5:34 AM