The Weekly Post: From Norsehorse's Home Turf

This week I chose to spotlight Vermont's most vigilant and prolific blogger, Morgan Brown. Morgan is once again homeless. He occasionally writes about the difficulties of his transient lifestyle, as he did in this post, In Transit: Moving, Day 2:

It appears I will be able to sleep on a couch on an outside porch of a place in town. I have permission to do so, at least if the couches are not already filled up with others by the time I make it over there. Late last Summer and much of the Autumn I slept on the same porch, until I moved indoors on October 22nd (2005).

While it is not always easy for me to get enough of a good quality sleep in such environs, relatively speaking, it is somewhat better than the alternative(s) -- of which there are not too many (i.e., good ones anyway).

If it comes down to it, my tent and camping gear is always at the ready, stored with the rest of my stuff, just in case it is ever needed; although having to resort to camping out typically requires a lot of energy and takes its toll on me.

I know Morgan and have read his writing because he has access to tools that allow him to publish and disseminate his work electronically. His blog is a great example of how the web can give voice to people who might otherwise be voiceless; how it can deepen our understanding of important but often invisible people and issues in our own communities.

You can read an excerpt of Morgan's post on the Letters to the Editor page in this week's Seven Days.

UPDATE: Morgan takes issue with my characterization of him as Vermont's most prolific and vigilant blogger. Hmm. In an email, he writes: "while I appreciate the honor, I am in no way Vermont's most 'prolific' blogger, I think that honor is best bestowed on the likes of NTodd as well as others. In fact labeling me with it might be taken as an insult to those who actually deserve it as well as their readers. In addition, I also do not think I am Vermont's "most
vigilant" blogger either."

Ok, maybe Morgan is not quantifiably the most prolific Vermont blogger. I said that because he maintains a bunch of different blogs. But I stand by the "most vigilant" label. Literally every time something interesting happens in the local blogosphere, Morgan writes to tell me about it, and often posts about it on his blog. And he finds all kind of Vermont sites I've never seen. He's got his finger on the digital pulse of what's online in 802. I call that vigilance.