Blogging at 35,000 feet.

Ground Speed: 609 mph
Outside Air Temperature: -76 F
Distance to Destination: 3023 miles

Flying home to the Muqata has never been so entertaining as right now. With the new ELAL service of wireless internet, the in-flight movies have absolutely zero appeal. The book I'm reading will have to wait for next shabbat (and its a good book too). The ability to blog from high over the Atlantic ocean is definitely one of the major feats of mankind in the past decade.

Last week's nostalgic posting (perhaps too sappy in retrospect) was a great catalyst for thinking about the ever mutating blogosphere. I admit, I'm in awe of MCAryeh's Haveil Havalim blog roundup this week -- the number of sites and posts he quotes is simply astounding. His list is only a fraction of the JBlogosphere, and I'm sure there are plenty of bloggers who were depressed not seeing their blogs up in lights.

It reminds me of when I made aliya and what I knew about computers at the time. I knew ALOT about computer technology; hardware, software, digital logic, a bunch of development languages, mainframes, VAXes, Unix, X-windows, and the stone-age networks that were starting out. Of all the possible knowledge of the computer olam, I actually knew a significant percentage.

Keeping up with all the directions of computer science over the years has proven to be an impossible task. If I knew 20% of all computer knowledge back then, today I know maybe .01% I still try to keep up to date on the latest and greatest technologies and trends, but it all moves so quickly that I find it overwhelming to keep track of it all.

The Blogosphere is approaching that phase now. When I started my blog, I hard-coded a bunch of links into my template. That's way too old fashioned and impractical now -- you need a blogroll service to keep track of it all. You see the quality and quantity increase of Haveil Havalim over the past year, and you wonder who really has the time to really read everything?

I love to have compelling content on my blog, but I think the "competition" is spiraling out of control, giving me vertigo. Or that was the turbulence?

JoeSettler has an amazing link worth viewing of the new baby elephant born in the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. If you're a jumping elephant Slifkin fan - this live video site will keep you busy for hours. (And watching it from the plane is even cooler). Joe even comments on his own blog, whether its right for animals to be pent up in zoos. I wonder what R' Slifkin would say?

Its great to be going home!