got a new notebook computer this past week. still learning a bit about it. blogging with it right now, and still getting used to the keyboard. I do say that surfing the net, writing, making notes, blogging in the comfort with the computer on my lap, an Anchor Steam beer in my hand and sitting in my living room on my big cozy chair is a knockout. I recall a while back on the British and Irish poets listserv the vispo poet Jim Andrews observed that in just fifteen short years the computer he had in 1990 was able to hold only one scene from one movie while his new computer in 2005 can hold 300 movies, or over 400,000 books. my buddy at work mentioned his old IBM clone back in the late '80s, how it had to be booted from a six inch floppy and was in physical scale huge: big computer, big keyboard and the old DOS (sp?) programs were so unfriendly, a missed keystroke was completely unforgiven.

anyway, got the new big brick of a book the journal Verse: The Second Decade. many, many fine poems. just skimmed it but got a kick out of its sure size. and got Fence magazine as well. picked up the latter primarily for the poem by Jenny Mueller printed within its pages. don't know much about Mueller at all but I like what I've read and I remembered her name from the 1994 edition of the Best American Poetry. also, there is a young poet (I'm guessing he is young) in Fence by the name of Shane Book. what a great name for a writer, really. I'm attracted to names for sure, and I do find Book's attractive. so I immediately read his poems, quite good texts, and I look forward to reading more of Book.