Q&A

When I first started blogging, most of my readers were connected in some way or another with the 100 Hour Board, which I wrote for at the time. I still have a small handful of readers from those days, but not very many, and my blog has become almost completely distanced from that era of my life. Still, I have fond memories of the 100 Hour Board. It introduced me to some great people, and provided a wonderful semi-productive outlet for my writing.

You don't always notice how many questions come up in everyday conversation and then go unanswered. We wonder things aloud ("Do they grow blueberries in Utah?" "What else has that actor been in?" "If my dog has a dry nose, does that mean he's sick?" "Were there two world's fairs in Chicago") and if no one knows the answer off the top of their heads, everyone just nods and says, "that's a good question," or "hmm, I wonder," and we all move on with our lives. But when I was constantly reading questions and writing answers and reading the answers my fellow writers had written, I found that I was much more compelled to seek out the answers to my own questions as well. I started to see the world as a series of questions waiting to be answered.

This last weekend I went on a trip with my parents, from Chicago up through the Upper Peninsula and back down to Ann Arbor. It reminded me of my 100 Hour Board days in that all sorts of questions popped up over the course of the trip. "We need to remember to look that up," we kept saying, or, "We should find a book about Michigan so we can learn more about this." So instead of just posting some pictures and telling you all about my trip, I thought I'd set up a series of questions and answers to accompany my travelogue, for old time's sake. I don't want you to get bogged down, though (because I can get wordy), so I'm going to spread it out over the course of a few days. Stay tuned for tomorrow.