So classes started up at Berkeley again a few weeks ago, and it reminds me of when I first came here, starting my freshman year in 1991.

Life was so different living in the dorms than it was back at home. I had people who were quickly becoming friends all around me all the time. One think I specifically remember was the change in world view. I'm sure this doesn't apply to everyone, but while living at home with my mom, we both kept up closely with current events, local and global. Every week the LA Times would have a quiz about the week's news, and we would each take it, competing on who's been keeping up to date. Keep in mind that there was no 'net so this all our info was gleaned from newspapers and TV.

Anyhow, back at Berkeley, I'd been there no more than a week or so when the Soviet Union quickly and irrevocably self-destructed into its component parts. I had no TV in my dorm room, and I didn't subscribe to the paper, and though I realized the earth-shattering magnitude of these events, my knowledge and awareness of them was primarily gleaned by looking at the headlines of the newspapers in the coin-op dispensers on the way to the dining commons each morning.

I was aware of the impact, but without the data-inroads into my everyday life, I wasn't as 'in touch' with them, and was a far more distant observer.

Today, I practically live on the 'net. Working for a web company, being active in the weblogging community, and having as many 'virtual friends' as local ones, any issue that takes over the net also takes over a corresponding portion of my brain. I started this post wondering if this year's freshmen, 10 years removed from my own experience, have that same detachment, but in writing I realized that the net has tied them into the loop as well, bringing every news tremor to their dorm room with stunning speed and detail.

But what about those people who don't live in this 'wider, closer world'? Another post to follow on that topic soon.

As for now, I have so many conflicting emotions and opinions on where we should go from here and what this means for the way we and the rest of the world will live our lives. I've been a little reluctant to post these opinions in recent days because suddenly this blog has been thrust into a larger audience.

Where before my readership has been a cozy group of around 400-600 people who have been reading for a while and either know me personally or know what I'm about through having read the blog for a while, one post I wrote debunking the Nostradamus meme has garnered over 75,000 visits to the site. Suddenly I'm not writing to a group of friends; I'm standing on a soapbox. And while I feel comfortable expressing views to people who know my personal context, speaking out to a larger group of strangers opens me up to a much wider spectrum of response, including a great deal of reactionary, uninformed criticism, as well as touching sentiment, as you may have noticed by some of the comments to fly through here recently.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that I value you more than I did a week ago; a lot more. Opening the door to a flood of strangers has only thrown the differences between people who read my site and the public at large into sharp contrast, and I feel warmer and fuzzier for having you as readers.

Anyhow, now that the soapbox is beginning to sink down again, (as, surely, is your patience for this long-winded, self-serving sentimental post) I'm feeling more free to discuss my own feelings about the week's events, and (thank god) things that have nothing to do with them.

Take care all. I hope you're all starting to regain your own inner peace...