gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

Hugh, I am happy you found Carie and by the sound of her voice I bet you will have good time catching up!
A friend of mine met you few months ago...This friend and I were talking about blogs and she met you at a conference on that subject...she told me how you were such an amazing guy, describing you as a very bright marketer, and so on..I then felt like reading your blog to get to know you better; I don't know you but you often make me smile, which gives me the urge to come and read you everyday!
I don't know if we are talking about the power of blogs here or just about the power of relationships, real ones...does the blog help us having real "links" - this would be the beautiful surprise of virtuality?
About your friend Carie, I don't want to destroy the illusion about "blog's power" neither this romantic idea about blogs getting people back together...but, a few days ago, like you months earlier, I thought about this man who influenced my life 15 years ago. He had told me about San Francisco and I got lucky enough to spend five years in the city (I am french...but you probably guessed that?!)..He had told me about his wonderful trips all around the world, and especially his incredible journey to the Maha Khumba Mela..well, 12 years later (since the pelerinage goes on every 12 years) I went there and had the time of my life..So you got that: that man had been very important to me and as I was telling the story to one of my friend, she said "well you should tell him that, we never tell people how much they were important!"...
Oups, here is the falling point: I didn't looked for him through blogs, but just went on the white pages...!!! Here He was!
I recognized his voice on the answering machine! I called later and He was happy to recognize my voice also!
We spent one hour on fifteen years of separated life and left each other happy to go on with our lives, conforted by the souvenir of real people who often think about each other!

So here is my question: what or who were you looking for really? Carie, her friends, your friends, the trail, an old taste of those illusions you lost along the way...Blogs sometimes seem to be the good tool to find "good" people, meaning the ones who speak the same langage, went with their life on the same pace. Are we bulding a new "caste"? How can we define it?

I am pleased to meet you Hugh!

All illusions are lost illusions ;-)

;-))
Reality is overrated!

The internet means we're all connected and you found your old friend which is great but the phrase that grabbed me was "but no one could remember who it was from."

Does this say something about the overpopulation of the blogosphere or something else?

john dodds, you are confusing "bloggers" with "citizens" ;-)

Hi Hugh!
I keep up with your blog, as promised, and I'm just sorry you can't read mine, because it's in Portuguese...
Anyway, check out this gallery of erotic publicity, some of which is brilliantly achieved - yet not even near the simple geniality of your blogcards, I must say;)
--> http://www.coloribus.com/eros/index.html

I thought that, as a man of the advertisment industry which specializes in making personal products *very* personal, you'd appreciate this;)

Continuation of a good Summer and best wishes:)

Ana

diem carped... i always thought it was carped diem, assuming you mean time flies??

Well, so, where is la Meier? I was in San Francisco recently, wistfully remembering those same times at Burnett with the likes of Bob Hall et al (that rhymes). We miss her! You too, H.

Peace from Austin
RG

A response to ashlee:
'carpe diem' means 'seize the day' in Latin.
I'm assuming 'diem carped' is to mean 'day seized!'