I wish I had heard of Christopher Nolan, the Irish writer and poet, before reading about his recent death today. Nolan was born with severe cerebral palsy; he could not speak and he had full control only over his head and eyes. He learned to type using a stick attached to his head. In 1987, at the age of 22, he won the Whitbread Award for his autobiography Under the Eye of the Clock. “The Economist‘s obituary for Nolan provides a few short excerpts of his work (although the article’s subtitle referring to him as the “voice of the crippled” made me grit my teeth a little”).

He died at age 43 after choking on some food. A tragic death, but it was preceded by a life rich with accomplishment.

Many of the more liberal-minded blogs are indulging in a snarkfest over the results of a new study that shows slightly higher consumption rates of porn in more socially conservative regions of the country. It’s good fodder for Stewart and Colbert, but it’s probably overblown. Americans have a healthy appetite for the naked Internet ladies (and dudes); it’s silly to expect conservatives to be any different. Yes, the disconnect between their words and actions is a legitimate target for criticism, but the study may be more interesting for what it says about the current state of American cultural conservatism and where it’s going.

American evangelicals and fundamentalists have embraced the Internet as much as the rest of us. It provides so many tools for reaching out to the faithful and bringing people into the churches. They are not walling themselves from the rest of us. But the rest of us are becoming more secular. And all the things that make the Internet such a useful tool for conservatives–its ubiquity, accessibility, and versatility–are tremendously disruptive to religious communities. It’s all too easy to stumble upon material that contradicts their faith or is considered verboten.

It’s not easy to keep your gaze fixed on heaven when a click of the mouse can serve up videos of beautiful women doing all kinds of crazy things to the pizza delivery guy. People of faith have always been challenged to maintain fidelity to their beliefs while being assailed on all sides by the bright lights and come-hither looks of the secular world. But, as this study underscores, technology is making it a lot harder to keep the secular world at bay.

An episode of aimless browsing through The Onion‘s website when I came across this headline:

This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence

I laughed, I had a brief existential crisis upon realizing that a satirical newspaper had made plain that I’m just another herd member of a particular demographic, and then I laughed some more.

Man, suddenly, I’m really craving some brie.

A new study finds that blogging–particularly the personal, day-in-the-life variety, can lead to a greater sense of belonging and connectedness with the rest of the world. Here’s a good summary of the study’s findings:

The researchers found support for deeper self-disclosure from bloggers resulting in a range of better social connections. These included things such as a sense of greater social integration, which is how connected we feel to society and our own community of friends and others; an increase in social bonding (our tightly knit, intimate relationships); and social bridging — increasing our connectedness with people who might be from outside of our typical social network.

I’m always gauging the level of intimacy I offer readers. When I first started doing this, I probably wrote things that would now strike me as too revelatory or narcissistic. But I do think that this blog has played an important role in my own happiness over the last several years. Like just about everyone else on this planet, I’m prone to moments of isolation and loneliness. The comments and e-mails that this blog elicits are a wonderful anodyne for those feelings.

I sometimes think how my life would have been different if I had never started this blog. The friendships that would have remained acquaintances. The blog has served as a kind of springboard or facilitator for many lasting connections. I try to remember that on those days when I’m staring at a blank screen, trying to think of something, anything, to say.

You know that Facebook meme that’s going around? The one where you’re supposed to write 25 things about yourself? Well, here are 10 things about me that are not in the least bit true or accurate.

1. I was born in one-room shack in the Yukon backwoods to anarchist parents who are still wanted by Interpol.
2. The color magenta makes me violently ill.
3. I make a tidy living writing explicit romance novels under the pseudonym Lady Desiree Wanton St. James.
4. David Bowie has my e-mail address and he keeps forwarding me LOLcats pictures. 
5. My disability is the result of an accidental exposure to gamma radiation on military proving grounds in the New Mexican desert.
6. On three separate occasions, I’ve been abducted by aliens. The first two incidents were, on the whole, rather pleasant. The third, not so much.
7. I can’t fall asleep without the soundtrack for Footloose playing in the background.
8. I had a secret affair with a Cirque du Soleil performer.
9. I have a recurring dream in which Abraham Lincoln, Jerry Seinfeld, and I are doing improv comedy in front of a live audience.
10. The Russian Mafia has a contract out on me.