I have only been "blogging" for a few months. Hell, I don't even really consider myself a "blogger", per say. I'm just someone who was in the right place at the right time with the right "stuff" to have been admitted to this well-established venue. A venue, which time has shown me, to have been built on the shoulders of giants. Kevin, Jay Tea, Paul.. They were all the ones who originally attracted me here, and though two are gone, the others who have come to take their places have done a magnificent job of keeping this place exciting, thought-provoking, and fresh.

Bill, Kim, DJ, Lorrie, Steve have all added to the bulk of those shoulders, and I am proud to be a beneficiary of their hard work and enthusiasm. And the other recent additions have all added a wonderful style to each their own, complementing the others in a way in which seems uncannily "right".

A couple of my colleagues have some medical problems, which they have openly shared with everyone here. The kind of problems that takes strength and internal, mental, and physical fortitude to deal with on a daily basis. They are inspiring in their fights, their struggles, and their victories. They are all the more inspiring with their continued, deep, and insightful contributions to this blog during their times of unbelievable hardships and suffering.

I've got my own medical problems. None that I would share here because they just don't compare with the severity of the others. And I will not debase their fighting spirit with complaints of my own humble hardships.

Writing is tough work. There are times when I feel like banging my head against the computer. Unable to come up with even a shred of acceptable substance. Digging through news, sites I like, don't like, and all stops in between. Sometimes things come easy, and I get into a good rhythm. Thoughts just seem to flow better, and they don't get tangled up in so much interference, allowing me to put fingers to keyboard in a way that is gratifying in one sense, and relieving in another.

Do blogs, especially ones like this, which are comprised largely of analysis of current events and political happenings, need expressly adhere to those contents? Or can there be other things, personal things, which can be discussed and valued by the readership.

I believe anything which causes a reader to think about something in a different way, a different light, is worthy of inclusion, even on a blog which consists mainly of "serious" stuff. I've said before, the readership of this blog is highly intelligent, even commenters I disagree with politically and philosophically, are very insightful and mostly thoughtful, so much so that they make me think in other ways.

Which reminds me.. I went to the Daily Kos for the first time the other night.

I was appalled by the vitriol and crassness of posters and commenter's alike. The visceral hatred the readership feels for anything which deviates from their collective "beliefs" is unjustifiable and downright ignorant. They are like the Borg of the blogs. Resistance is futile. You must assimilate. Frightening, though, not in their methods, but in their numbers. How so many people could willingly take part in and engage in the same warped thought processes, with no contrarian point of view offered or allowed, seems to me to be a place of abject boredom. They may have strength in numbers, but they have no strength of convictions.

That said, I think I may take a day or two off. I haven't really "had it" lately. Haven't been happy with much of anything that's "spilled" out. And I've got alot to do in the regular life that I've been putting off for a few weeks. Hopefully that little time away will recharge the pen a bit, cause now that I've been at this for a few months, I just don't think I could stop.