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Just go straight to http://www.unfetteredblather.com.

Yes I know. I post an "I'm back" message followed by the ever popular (that's sarcasm folks) political topic and then nothing.

Sorry, it's my last week before I go on vacation and, among other things, I am tying up loose ends at work while moving out of my hotel room. Fun.

Anyway, never been so happy to leave for the airport before. A real post on something less depressing tomorrow.

That was quite an unintentional leave I took the past two weeks. I can't say much yet, but I had begun working on a little writing project that is still in progress. It may amount to nothing, but I am hoping that I can tighten up my overall style and see this become a success.

I was very disappointed to find upon my return 4 new comments that were all spam. I have a very strict procedure in regards to comment spam. I remove the comment completely so as to leave no record of its existence. I ban the IP. If the post is over a month old, I disable comments as well. As this is my blog and my personal space, I see no reason not to be prudent about its appearance and upkeep.

For the spammers, if you want to advertise then drop me a line and we'll talk. However, I take extreme exception to the notion that you feel you can advertise here free of charge. I am not above advertising, but I also don't need it so I don't pursue it. If you feel your product is so worthwhile that it should be peddled here or elsewhere, then we'll talk and I'll be more than happy to accept money if I feel you have something that is relevant to the site and fit the standards I have here. Considering the name of the blog, relevancy shouldn't be too hard. Standards is where it gets trickier since I have no intentions of peddling your on-line casino, dating service, or porn site of any kind. If you leave a comment that is spam, I will remove it. You can count on it. I also promise that it will not be up long enough to be any boost to your business. You are wasting your time. I am not wasting mine, as I see it as simple maintenance. I will not give up. If nothing else, it is a trivial matter for me to close comments and ban IPs.

As this is my space ran on my nickel alone, yes I do feel that I have a right to be compensated before you can peddle your wares.

Granted, I am not so new to the Internet that I actually think they read this blog. I am quite aware that they hit posts based on search engines and chose those as the place to put their spam. What is really egregious is the way they assume that putting "Nice site" or "Good points" as some kind of reply before their spam somehow makes it ok.

This ain't my first time to the rodeo, Ya'll.

I hate to do this, but it's getting hard to ignore. Sometime between now and the end of the year this site is going to go through a major revamp. I am going to get rid of this buggy blogging software and replace it with something more reliable. I have some software packages in mind already.

I had registered the domain lawcritic.com for a friend of mine in hopes of setting up a blog for him. Unfortunately, as much as I like my webhost, their installation for blog software on subdomains is subpar. (Swear there was no pun intended). Thus, despite registering the domain months ago, it has gone untouched. So once I get the conversion done here, setting his up ought to be a snap.

That also means I will be loosing my Technorati ranking, but oh well. Hopefully the new software and set-up will be worth it.

Regular blogging, such as it is, will resume tomorrow.

I almost hate to do this since I have only done one other post since Veteran's Day, but this is also an important enough holiday that I can't just skip it.

I really hope that more people remember to count their blessings on days other than Thanksgiving. While I have much to be thankful for, I try not to go more than a week without keeping count of the cost. I'm over 30 years old and have some rather unique experiences, yet I am still rather young. My life has had many ups and downs. I could easily focus on the bad and become a bitter individual who is wrapped up in their cynicism. While I do have my bitterness and cynicism in spades, I'd like to think it is not what I am all about.

Life is good, things could be better. Then again, things could always be better and I don't have much to complain about. Just the very fact that I am able to type this message up on my own computer, from my own internet connection, on my own webspace says quite a bit about how well I am doing.

Besides which, today my brother-in-law came home from Iraq, thus slowing the greying of his mother's hair. Relatively no worse for wear, the worst he suffered was heatstroke. Unfortunately, not all he served with were so lucky. I am also happy to be able to tell my kid's their uncle is home. I'm sure when they see him after Christmas it will be a big hit.

Starting tomorrow. I have been in the midst of a crazy project at work. We should be wrapping up and I go on vacation for the rest of the week.

Last Friday my older son was sick with a 24 hour bug. I caught it on Sunday. I have been violently ill before, but this was the second worst it has ever been. I was retching so hard that I have somehow damaged my vocal chords to the point that I sound like I still have a very sore throat when in fact I am fine today aside from some lingering dehydration. I pulled muscles and a lot of them were still sore yesterday.

The worst part was being unable to rest. It's one thing to have violent dry heaves, but that only lasts for a minute or so and happens about a half hour to an hour at a time. In between though I could not get comfortable as my back was hurting from leaning over the toilet and seeing how much bile my body could possibly eject at a time. The good news was that I had gotten Season One of Battlestar Galactica and the Sabata Trilogy for my birthday. I watched the first Sabata movie and a little over half of Battlestar just on Sunday. Unfortunately, I also had just purchased Star Wars: Battlefront II and it went unplayed on Sunday because I did not have the energy to sit up and play it.

So I have much blogging to catch up on. I flew first class for the first time on Monday night, and that was an interesting experience that will be covered at another time. Right now I am thinking on the next Gaming Round Table and I have a couple of personal projects on my plate that I am about ready to start working on. No big secrets really, but right now I just want to go to bed.

The Internet is infinitely large and yet incredibly small. One of the reasons I use this screenname is because it is relatively rare. There is also a story behind it, but that's for another time.

I have a round table entry coming. Unfortunately, I am sick and staring at a monitor has been giving me migraines. I have not even been able to do that much work from the hotel. 'Tis a bummer to be sure.

Anyway, for anyone who might stumble across here.

Yes, this is the same Botswana that played Missionforce: Cyberstorm online and ran the "Late Night with Kaesar" events.

Yes, this is the same Botswana that was a member of the Orion Faction and played Starsiege and Mechwarrior 4.

Yes, this is the same Botswana that ran the Phoenix Vigil Freespace Squadron

Yes, this is the same Botswana that was a moderator at "The Bar" or sometimes referred to as th3b4r.

Yes, this is the same Botswana who founded Gundamwatch.

Yes, this is the same Botswana who frequented the PvP forums, later hosted at Deep Fried that later became Forumopolis.

I think that about covers it.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like these days people whose primary function it is to entertain seem to believe they have a platform. That somehow their Freedom of Speech and public presence, however minor it may be sometimes, translates to meaning I give a damn about what they have to say.

Quite frankly, I am tired of it. There is something so especially deflating to be reading or watching something and all of a sudden get pounded over the head by someone elses beliefs. Whether it is religious or political, whether I agree with them or not, it just sort of sticks there. The problem to me is that I didn't come to your movie, your webcomic, your book, your game, or whatever so you could preach to me. I'm looking for a diversion, mental stimulation, or just plain escapism. If I wanted politics I'd go to Instapundit (and frequently do). It's not that I don't enjoy discussing politics or religion, it's just not something I like seeing all the time, especially when it's in a venue that happens to be where I need it the least. Some exceptions will occur of course, I mean I don't expect a film like Constantine to avoid religion or Bulworth to avoid politics.

I don't like the assertion from these people that they know things they couldn't possibly know. That their opinions weigh almost as fact. It would be less disconcerting if they were somewhat less blinded by their bias or somehow anymore qualified than me to talk on such things. However, very few of those who possess any kind of celebrity are really any better educated than most Americans. Worse still, many entertainers and artists don't seem to realize that their reality is not normal, and that their beliefs may not be anywhere close to the general public. They assume a middle ground that isn't there.

I'm not sure when this shift happened, when every entertainment media became someone's soapbox. It hasn't been this way throughout my life, but somewhere in the 80's it seemed to become far more common. Now everyone has a "message" and everyone feels they must "say something". Know what, you really don't. You're misinterpreting why I find you entertaining.

Disclaimer - You'll notice I made no mention of blogs anywhere in there. Blogs are definitely a different animal and I don't consider any of them "entertainment" though some of them are entertaining. Though I do just shudder at a blog that has generally made a point of avoiding politics suddenly launches into some diatribe. Maybe that's why I never shy away from any subject here.

A snippet from my post yesterday highlighting how one word can have a major impact on a sentence.

Original version -
In fact, I know a few gamers that are tied into the film industry and I wish they had blogs because I would love to see them write about their perspective.

Corrected version -
In fact, I know of a few gamers that are tied into the film industry and I wish they had blogs because I would love to see them write about their perspective.

Amazing how a two letter word adds a much more accurate picture. I can't say that the original sentence was terribly inaccurate, or wouldn't have been some years back. The problem is I keep forgetting it's 2005 and some of the friends that I've lost contact with didn't go their own way last week, but years ago. That said though, I do know people, as friends of friends, that are in the film industry (as amateur filmmakers, aspiring screenwriters, or gainfully employed in a technical trade in the entertainment industry) that are also gamers. However, from the original wording it sounds as if I actually know these people, leading to an embarrassing misunderstanding.

A lot of people like to oversell themselves, but I'm not one of those people. I'd love to say I rub elbows with Mel Gibson and used to date Angelina Jolie, but I'm not going to make that kind of claim unless it actually happened. But I swear sometimes I type stuff that makes me wonder how I can claim English is my first language.