by John

I had my first desk top computer in 1985 when I was a researcher at the Pauling Institute in Palo Alto CA. I first used the Internet in 1995 at the Air Force Academy where I was on the faculty for a year. Boy, have things changed since then … not to mention the Great Recession and Obama. So it’s no surprise that the cheese keeps moving and we’re continually adapting to change at what seems to be an ever accelerating rate. Likewise the blogosphere has been evolving with the emergence of newspaper and media blogs, Facebook and Tweeting. And, we do not want the Café to be perceived as left-wing or right-wing making it hard to fit into the statewide and national blogs – we just want to be local and have primarily local interest.

The town of Woodstock has also changed for the better over the last few years. Now we have Alan Walker doing a fine job as First Selectman, a happier town hall, and happier town as well. Then, there’s the Villager which has improved its reporting with the fine work of Editor Stephanie Jarvis and ace reporter Matt Sanderson. Even the Reminder has cleaned up its act. And, the Green Team is transforming our local environment. Also, Anthony Walker has taken control of the BOE and curtailed their monthly newsletters. Finally certain negative types have been muted or have crawled back into their caves. So, the harsh reality is that we don’t have as much to talk about at the Café based on our past model. Nevertheless, our readership is still high even though we have little to complain about.

I learned recently that the ‘leading’ blog in Connecticut, CT Local Politics, has bitten the dust and many other older blogs have dried up. Even my friend Parlin who had a nationally recognized blog gave it up because he “got tired of talking to idiots”. Other more local blogs like the Pomfret Voice, Free Norwich, and the Canterbury blog closed down, and other local blogs that tried to start up just couldn’t get traction.  So, the Café may be the longest standing Connecticut blog that’s still truckin’ (I don’t have time to investigate this, though).

Of course, if something bad happens locally then we will jump all over it. And we still want to encourage the Café faithful to contribute in the same way they have in the past if they wish.

Becki and I see a need to change and, therefore, we would like to shift direction of the Café … just a little bit. We would like to be more upbeat. We would like to have more story-telling about our and your life experiences. It doesn’t matter if some aren’t interested. Our lives have changed dramatically over the last eight months leading us to experiment with two other blogs that for the time being will remain nameless. We’ve found great satisfaction in these other blogs that serve a real purpose in our lives and others. We would like to make this truer for the Café even though we have always enjoyed the Café activity. We’ll see how this works for us with the next article that I am conjuring up entitled “Roadtrip to Woodstock” :-) .