Translator is Coming Back from Vacation 20111111

This might sound like a trivial entry, but it is not.  I have been sort of burnt out writing almost continuously for the past many months.  It would be different if I were paid for it, but I am not.  I do it as a labor of love, and also have the calling to be a teacher.  I just did not have the heart in me to write Popular Culture last Friday, and that carried over to Pique the Geek Sunday, and My Little Town Wednesday.

There are several reasons for that.  For one, the comments, tips, and recs just do not seem to be coming like they used to do.  That is probably my fault.  I believe that the quality of my pieces has sort of slipped here of late, and I sincerely apologize for that.  There is a reason, but it is personal.

I promise to compose better pieces henceforth, and Sunday evening Pique the Geek will be about two pieces of advice that I had given many months ago about actions that FDA actually took after I recommended them.   I am not so self secure as to say that I caused them, but at least I presaged them.

I shall not bore you with the details at present, but all of you know that I appear for Pique the Geek every Sunday evening at 9:00 PM Eastern.  Please watch for it, and PLEASE comment, tip, and recommend.  These items are the mother’s milk for us unpaid devils, and the more the better!

The next My Little Town installment shall be about how I remember my house.  I regret to say that I have only a few pictures of it, most of them still being in lots of boxes back in Arkansas, thus unavailable to me.  But I do have a few.  That one will appear next Wednesday, same time.

For Popular Culture, I shall begin a short (likely three entries) history of The Who.  I can not get them much out of my head, and hope that you all will indulge me for it.  I plan to break down the history into the very early days, the zenith, and the nadir.  I hope that I write it well enough for you to be interested.

Well, you see that I still have some ideas for writing.  But I have a more fundamental request:  as you comment here, and also on the individual pieces, PLEASE leave suggestions as to what subjects you would like to learn more.  The largest problem that I have in writing is coming up with subjects.  With your help, I can have many more!  Any suggestions are welcome in the comments, but comments sometimes are forgotten too rapidly.  If you have one in which you are really interested, use the new Kos messenger service to me and I will take it more seriously.

If you do that, I promise a personal reply as to whether I shall cover it and why.  Whilst I am interested in almost everything, some areas are just out of my expertise, and I will not cover them because it would not do you, my readers, justice.  I hate to tell folks “No”, but if I do not think that I can do a good job, that is what I shall say.

Now for the personal reason for why I have been away, if you want.  I have been spending lots of time (many hours per day) with The Girl.  For the past couple of weeks I have sort of just used her schedule, to get closer with her.  She understands now that I have commitments to the community to provide information and replies to comments on the days that I post.  I think that she and I might begin to share those times together, either here or on her computer at her house, as we watch over her daughter.  Now you know that I do not forsake this community, but rather have found a modicum of happiness recently.  I hope that everyone here rejoices with me for a bit of happiness on my part.

Well, that is the general idea for the next week specifically, and the next couple of months in general.  I shall also contribute to What’s for Dinner? from time to time.  Please wish me, and us, well.

Warmest regards,

Doc, aka Translator, aka Dr. David W. Smith

Crossposted at

Daily Kos

docudharma, and

firefly-dreaming