Hello everyone, I typically try not to get tied up in the rants that sometimes occur on the forum here. I first came to the forum because of all of the interesting topics and information that were presented here. I still come here for that reason. I have had the joy of making many different contacts with many different people from all walks of life and any number of different areas of expertise. I consider many of these folks to be friends with whom I can converse, ask questions, and share points of view, information, ideas, and any number of other things. I thoroughly enjoy the inquisitiveness of many who frequent this site and the energy that they bring with their contributions and questions. Consider the range of individuals who are present on the forum at any given time, there are wives, husbands, moms, dads, sisters, brothers, girlfriends, newbies, rookies, artists, the list goes on, each of these folks bring their own perspectives, questions, ideas, and other considerations for everyone to comment on and give their wisdom and observations to. The large majority of responses from all of the folks here are friendly, encouraging, supportive, informative, and technically laden, definitely the ones that I enjoy reading the most. 
     When I see folks get a bit over-the-top with their responses, I just think that it is very likely that if these same individuals were just in from a day in the trenches and having a beer talking over the days challenges the atmosphere might be considerably different, I almost believe that I could guarantee it. After all, think about your conversations with friends or co-workers, don't a lot of these revolve around the challenges you have been up against and what it took to overcome them? When I have been involved in threads where I have had differences of opinion or other disagreements I try very hard to consider that if I can put aside my personal beliefs for a moment or two and consider others, I might just see where they are coming from and learn something outside of my own personal views. Believe me, I am not trying to show myself as being infallible or better than anyone else. My age has taught me a bit about learning from others, observing, separating the B.S. and going with what I believe to be the best choice. The nice thing about personal choice is, you can listen to everyone and hear everything about anything, but in the end you make the choice of how you choose to use the information.
     Another really neat thing about this forum to me, revolves around the ability for me to keep things fresh in my mind and not have them go dormant. You know the old saying, " if you don't use it you lose it", well I would be losing a lot of different things if I didn't see them posted on here a number of different times and discussed in a number of different ways. That's the other nice thing too, Even though you may think there can't possibly be any more information or a different way to look at something, I still see new information, a different way of looking at, using, or considering a given topic. I have also run into some views that I held on certain topics that I felt I knew correctly and when I have seen them discussed on here I learned differently, call it humble pie or whatever you like, I learned, I learn, and I will continue to learn.
     I am very appreciative of all of the folks who come here to contribute, question, share, and be a part of this group. I do feel this is one of the best sites that I have ever frequented. I hope that people will continue to join and share both their work related issues and other topics as I do believe that "variety is the spice of life". I hope everybody enjoys a great holiday season and a terrific new year. Best regards, Allan