![Henry in the breadbowl]()
OK, so here it is, then - after my month-long vaycay. I am not going to flounce away from OS in a huff ... Sgt. Mom does not have the figure, the wardrobe, or the temperament from doing that. And I have not been involved lately in any of the famous OS flame wars which usually inspire departure in a huff, a high dudgeon, or other such form of internet transportation. No, I have just been taking the time to think it over – and come to a conclusion. The long and the short of it is, my time is short and posting here is long … longer than I have time to spend on it for results. I am a writer, and like many another OSer, post here for exposure. Like many another writer, my time and energy are limited. Tallying up the time involved in posting at OS: there’s the time waiting for the site to be up, the sloooooowwwwllllyyyy loading log-in, the even more slowly loading posts, photos and comment, the hiccups that delete entries while in mid-post, the time to edit photos to come under the 500 pixel limit, the time devoted to deleting auto-spam posted whenever one has an EP or a front-page post … I conclude that I have come to a point of diminished returns. Speaking of EP’s, I haven’t had to too many of those lately – or even much in the way of comments; eh, not holding a grudge about that, as affirming and interesting as comments usually are. So, on to the editorial slant. Every mass-blog like OS has an editorial slant, and I knew what this was one when I signed up. Not much of a complaint there – although I will note that it is a pity OS is not so truly and honestly openminded as advertised: if it were, than so many events, varied opinions, human situations and existences would not come as so much of a surprise. I am an outlier at OS, I suspect somewhat outside the expected political orientation: a military veteran, sort of a libertarian, mostly not giving a damn about what anyone does, as long as they are not doing it in the street and frighting the horses. I’ve been a blogger since 2002, so just getting my scribblings out there and having a receptive audience for them has long since lost it’s “oh, wow!” factor. I must focus the time that I have on other stuff – my book-blog, for example. The historical essays and observations I post ought to be leading readers and internet surfers there, not to a dead-end corner of OS.As for my socio-political stuff: just after I posted the reply to the Terrorism-Tea Party-Hobbit post – I received an invitation to post at a group-blog more in line with my own interests and convictions. It’s a libertarian group blog; politically independent, intellectually free-ranging, free-market oriented, and Tea Party-appreciative. I had been commenting on Chicago Boyz for quite a long time, in blog-years. (Something like that of dog-years: 7 years in internet-blog time is a year in human reckoning) So – my social-political stuff will be posted there, from now on. And the photographs, too.
Finally; so many of the OSers that used to be here, that were favorited by me, and commented on my posts early on – and this was mutual, as they were interesting, quirky and original – are gone now, taking with them a lot of the enjoyment I had in posting here. Some of them departed in the usual huff-and-flounce transport, and some of them more quietly, the occasion marked with a PM sent to all their favorites, followed by a quick deletion of their entire archive … which has left me and others carrying on some decidely odd conversations in old comment threads. I won’t do that. I’ll leave up my last blog post and links to where I’ll be, for the convenience of fans who have found me here. But when the party is over, it’s definitly time to leave.Maybe I’ll come around and comment now and again. In the meantime, enjoy the cat picture, of Henry stuffed into the bread-dough bowl.
