> I won't deny that I have occasionally found your posts to be tiresome -- but at the same time, some of your work has been very provocative. In my reply to BG's thread, I thought that you were the perfect example of the "newbie" whose good material is overlooked because of a few mistakes in the past. I was actually considering mentioning you by name.

Thank you for your honesty. I know sometimes I don't really think things through, and if nobody told me so I probably wouldn't get anywhere. So I appreciate it.

> This post was, in a lot of ways, the kind of thing I would like to see more of from new people. You obviously put some thought into it, and you said yourself that you decided against some other posts that you considered.

I've been re-thinking some of my posts a lot lately. I'm becoming less concerned on whether I'm a regular or not, and more concerned with whether I say anything intelligently or not.

> If I may offer you one piece of advice: Try to get away from the self-pity in your posts. Without that aspect, I think I would enjoy reading ALL of your posts, anymore. When you feel a little self-pity coming on, just remember that there is at least one person out there who is much older than you and is glad to read your material because you are making the effort.

I know. I pity myself a lot (you should see how I act in real life). And obviously I've figured that out, or I wouldn't have even mentioned it in my first post. And I am working on it - I have a little 'Hold On, You're Starting To Whine' meter inside me that didn't use to be there.

> Don Monkey

Qua "Thank you for replying" rtz