The Hlog is reaching out to you: Contribute. Share. No, this isn't our annual pledge week.

This is my column for Thursday's Gazette. You regular visitors to the Hlog (among the best people on Earth) know this stuff, but there are some things further down the piece I hope you take to heart when it comes to participating.

Admittedly, what you are about to read here today is blatantly self-serving.

But I hope you'll be served by it, too.

If you don't have any encounters with the World Wide Web and never plan to as long as you live, this is of no consquence to you. Please read along anyway. There may be door prizes.

I should warn you, however, experts predict this Internet deal could catch on.

For the rest of you, this is to tell you my main writing residence is now my Gazette-affiliated blog, the Hlog, at http://hlog.iowa.com.

The columns I'll continue to spit out for the print edition of the Gazette will be at the Hlog first, often the day before they're in the Gazette.

But as many of the greatest people in the world -- namely Hlog readers and contributors -- already know, the site tries to offer more than that.

For instance, this Sunday at Augusta I wrote a column on the Heartbreak (Not a) Kid, Kenny Perry. That also ran in the Gazette.

But the Hlog also had a piece that afternoon on spending an hour-and-a-half at Amen Corner. While I was there, the biggest crowd roars weren't for putts at 11 or tee shots at 12, but when Phil Mickelson's birdies on the front nine holes were posted on the giant leaderboard to the side of No. 11.

In the piece, I wrote about bumping into former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver and current NFL game official Scott Helverson near the No. 9 green, and things that were said and heard as we waited for Mickelson and Tiger Woods to play No. 8 and head our way.

That same day, I posted photos I took from around town in Augusta. Crude photos, yes. Photos that no one associated with the Gazette's first-rate crew of photographers would touch with a 10-foot tripod, definitely. But maybe you'll spot one you don't hate.

Recently (and this stuff is all at the Hlog right now), I had an entry about former Hawkeye basketball player David Palmer choosing between Division II schools Northern Kentucky and Southern Indiana. It was written during a violent storm in Augusta last Friday night.

The item on Palmer wasn't tree-shaking, but the storm certainly was.

I had links to background information about the latest addition to Todd Lickliter's program, guard Cully Payne, almost a week before Payne had declared his intentions to play at Iowa.

While Craig Brackins of Iowa State decides whether he'll make himself eligible for the NBA draft, I have links to several sites weighing Brackins' draft prospects.

Other Gazette sportswriters can make similar claims at their blogs. The full roster is at http://www.gazetteonline.com.

OK, all this self-hype is even making me a little queasy. So here's the important part, which is how you come into play:

Your comments and other forms of participation at the Hlog are welcomed. Embraced, in fact.

If there are topics or side discussions you think warrant a discussion that are getting overlooked, say so. If you have what you think is a scoop, don't cling (to) it, bring it.

If you wish to submit your own essays for consideration to be posted on the Hlog, send them to mike.hlas@gazcomm.com.

The rules have changed in mainstream media. We can no longer talk at you, but instead should talk with you.

Which is a good thing, since you have mountains of your own information, and towers of your own observations.

Towers of observations. Let's see you top that. Please.