Here it is, already mid-November, and I have quite a few things on my plate from now on until the beginning of the year. (That includes getting a bunch of pecans and making a treat for those I appreciate.) Besides a raft of yard chores and holiday events and a project I Must Get Done this week, I always like to make New Year's Resolutions. I'm not quite ready for those yet, but I've been pondering, as readers know, about what I want to include on Somervell County Salon for 2011.

Back in June 2007, I wrote this after seeing what Whos Playing said (site is up in Lewisville).  He said.

I suppose that if I had to do this for a living, it would be no fun. The joy in blogging is writing about what you want when you want to. I have no deadlines, and I have no mandates of "must cover" materials....

And, I might add to that, the immediacy of the internet, combined with the ability for any citizen to find out very quickly what government (particulary local government) is doing, makes this method of expressing thoughts particularly viable and relevant. One does not have to wait a week to find out about important actions or ideas, and once posted, anyone can comment  (within reason and rules on this site- you can't come on here and do personal attacks, etc). This form of expression also allows for varying ideas and minority opinions. As I also said back in 2007

I wanted to write about county commissioner and city council meetings, as well as national politics. I figure that's the value of a local blog but it might also be a roadblock to a huge number of eyeballs reading. That's okay with me, because 1. I write what I want to when I want to and 2. I'm not trying to be the be-all and end-all of blogs, just one writer with a viewpoint in Somervell County. I can't speak for the other 3 writers here, who may and probably *will* have different reasons for writing. I might get into my cynicism about what must change for our democracy to truly work, but suffice it for now to say that I cannot NOT speak about some things that are important to me because I strongly believe in the maxim that he who is slient is assumed to consent.

I still believe that and that's still the major principle for this site. And that goes for anyone else that has a site-information belongs to us all, and we can be the portal.

I've been planning, this year, as a goal, to be able to listen to governmental meetings without having to attend, that is, by, preferably, looking on the website of the governmental entity involved, and listening to it there, or if the entity isn't doing that, easily getting a digital copy and posting it here. I"m going to continue to do that for the next year, but my plans are that, unless there is something specific on the agenda I want to hear, my own interaction with meetings will be through audio. It isn't that I don't love video recording the meetings, which is the 1st way to see what actually happens and cannot be spun. As a secondary factual level, however, neither can audio. In other words, my own personal involvement of being at the meetings recording them is probably going to be scaled back to the point of not happening anymore, with exceptions. The time that it takes to process video and post what I believe is important is consuming. And I have other fun directions I want to go.

I hope within the next year after this that all government entities, like GRISD and the Somervell County Water District, post audio, agendas and minutes to their websites.

I think I will always have opinions on news items that interest me and love it that we live in America where I can express them. You do not have to agree or even read here. My opinion is just as valid whether I have a large audience or small. As a matter of what I want to talk about, I'd like to lean in the direction of expressing, not just news, but how a given news item relates to my values and ethics.

I had thought before of doing some live streaming via the internet; I may still do that, will come back to consider it in 2011. And I have some other projects that are Somervell County related that I want to do in 2011, including video recordings of people who know about the history of some buildings here.

At any rate, at least at this moment in time, these are my plans.