My friend, the artist

I added a new blog to my list of links. It's called Black and Khaki. The blog belongs to a friend, Mark Crummett, from the ol' college days.

Mark and I worked together at the college newspaper at Oregon State, the Daily Barometer. That was back in the days when my journalistic pursuits involved cameras and lenses. I was fortunate to be a staff photographer when Mark was the photo editor there. But it got a little weird when I succeeded Mark as photo editor and he worked for me for a while.

In a very real way, I have to give Mark credit for my interest in electronic media. Mark was a veteran Internet user, probably even before there was such a thing as the Internet, or we knew it by that name. Mark had a computer at home and a modem that he could do all sorts of cool things with, like using e-mail, communicating with people on a service called CompuServe and using things like listserves. Back then (in the Dark Age days of the late 1980s), I didn't even have my own computer.

So perhaps it is appropriate that we are linked again via electronic means. Unfortunately, I haven't seen Mark in many years, but he has managed to stay in touch. I always look forward to seeing in my mailbox the creative Christmas cards he and Lisa come up. And now, his creativity will be on display in an art show by the Raleigh (N.C.) Fine Arts Society.

Congratulations Mark! I wish you great success with the exhibit!