Bud the Teacher

    I was at a shopping mall today, in the food court, doing some people watching.  I saw a young man on a small stage doing his best to sing his heart out for a crowd that was far more interested in egg rolls, pizza, and big ol’ hams than they were in his attempt to entertain them.  The kid was good, and he didn’t care who knew.  He just wanted to sing.  I should’ve told the young man that I enjoyed and appreciated his efforts.  But I didn’t. 
    I’m reminded of that young man, sharing his passion with an apparently uninterested world, as I think of all of those people with whom I’ve made contact via the blogosphere.  Y’all are people who are sharing your passions, writing and speaking and sharing your hearts out on a regular basis, often unsure of the reaction or response you’ll elicit — if you seem to elicit one at all. 
    I thank you deeply.  I am grateful for your counsel and conversation, and I wish you all a happy end to this wonderful year.
    Keep singin’, wherever you are, and whomever you’re with.  I’ll certainly be listening.
    

    Google’s adding new privacy features to Blogger:

Google Inc. has released a new version of its Blogger service,
adding privacy settings that restrict readership to a predetermined
audience.

Users can choose to have blogs accessible to anyone or just to themselves.

Or they can list the e-mail addresses of the people they want to let in. Those readers would need to register for a free Google
    (nasdaq:
      GOOG -

       news
    -
   
       people
    ) account - the same used for its Gmail and other services - and would sign in with their regular Google passwords.

    As others have suggested, the ability to control the audience of a blog will probably increase schools’ use of blogs.  That control will also destroy some of the reason for creating a blog in the first place.  Certainly, a limited public audience is better than no public audience when it comes to writing and learning.  But I wonder how limited some of those "audiences" will be.