Kicking a few more things around...

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I'm staring pretty hard at forty.  And, I've explained why it's probably a more reflective time for me than it is for most.

I feel like there may be a rash of entries over the next month or so, but I won't swear to it.

However, as things crystallise, and given that the intention of this blog is as much to express my frustrations with people, places, and things as it is for anything else, I feel I should say something up front:

- I will probably be describing more than a few of these people, places, and things in a rather unfavourable light.  I do this in an effort to provoke thought.

- I generally do not specifically name people as sources of discontent, unless they are public figures who are probably causing headaches for everyone.  Ergo, if you see yourself in these writings and I haven't named you, consider that fact before you spout off and identify yourself.  I probably haven't named you for a reason - just as I've described what you're doing to piss me off for a reason.

- When would I name someone who isn't a public figure?  Look up the code duello, and use that for a guideline.  If someone is doing something for which I would have been well within my rights to call them out on public, they'll get properly named and denounced.  If they have previously identified themselves specifically and publicly in connection what whatever it is, then they've opened the door and I see no reason to close it.

- Of course, this blog is published under my own proper name.  If it's important enough to say, it's important enough to sign.  I don't hide behind a pseudonym or nom de plume here, nor do I intend to.  Likewise, I do not send anonymous letters to Washington or Sacramento - if it's important enough to say, it's important enough to sign.  If I don't feel like I can put my name to it, I'm not going to send it.

- And, I don't say anything that I wouldn't want to see on the front page of to-morrow's paper, above the fold.

Also, if you spot yourself in writing here, and you want to jump on me about it, you are perfectly free to do so.  However, know that I bite, I kick, I scratch, I spit - and I haven't had all of my shots.  Don't start a fight you're not prepared to lose - I fight dirty, and I fight to win.

And, since I do so much thinking in song lyrics (and I've got a positively HUGE library to draw on!) let me close with something from Guns & Roses.  Bill, you may have been a pain all through school, I still can't understand how you could maintain a personal relationship longer than a week, and I honestly don't understand how Izzy and Slash could work with you for so long.  You're arrogant, egocentric, and generally a worse pain in the ass than my old man - but you are able to do one thing he can't.  Every now and again, you can actually say something worth the trouble to listen to and that I might even agree with (but not very often.  And don't get cocky...)  My old man never could managed that - he thought I was hard of hearing, but the problem was that he never could say anything worth the trouble and effort to listen to.  I didn't need an audiologist, I still have excellent hearing.  He, however, could use the services of several good psychologists...

"Don't damn me/when I speak a piece of mind,
" 'Cos silence isn't golden/when I'm holding it inside!
"I've been where I have been/and I've seen what I have seen,
"I put the pen to the paper/'cos it's all a part of me."

Another useful little tidbit to keep in mind (I don't remember where I first saw this,) "It's not enough to bash in heads.  You've got to bash in minds."  I've been kicking people squarely in the mind for at least 25 years, and I'm not about to stop anytime soon...

BBL, kids.