System Reset

Hello all, and welcome once again to the latest Quick Thoughts system test and review. As you may have noticed, over the last month there has not been much of anything new to peruse around here. No, I have not been a victim of my old nemesis sloth nor have I been lucky enough to be away on a fabulous vacation. There are several interesting and frustrating reasons for the dearth of material. The first reason is, well, I hit a bit of a block. I know that sounds pretty funny considering the length of some of the pieces here, but it happened. I started writing on several different thoughts, and right in the middle of one of them, I just froze. I looked over what I had written and could not for the life of me figure out what I was trying to say. Mercifully, the second reason has aided in cracking that block, and I am back on track. So look for new content coming very soon.

The second reason, which as mentioned helped loosen up the backlog of ideas and direction, is Quick Thoughts has undergone a complete edit. All of the past posts have been read, cleaned up and fixed for improved reading pleasure. The idea for the edit began to germinate late last year, as I was working on The Crystal Ball posts. I would find, always several days after posting, the occasional misspelled word or poor grammar or a piece of unclear writing. I know many of these errors came in the rush to post each week, and as I was not used to posting under deadline, sometimes errors snuck through my crack review process. Oh, and I was still working on developing a crack review process. In one Crystal Ball post, I even found a half finished sentence, where the thought just trailed off and I went on to start a new paragraph. The funny, and kind of sad, part is that I just now noticed it.

So in working to edit The Crystal Ball posts for repost, and the forthcoming fourth reason, I wanted to also go through the other posts and give them the same treatment. This task was far more of a time consuming undertaking than I initially thought, especially with many of the earlier posts. Many of them were replete with grammatical errors, confusing writing and poor wording. But I did take a few positives from the process. One, I found that the writing improved greatly as time went on. Grammatical errors lessened, the writing became clearer and more descriptive and each piece overall had a better flow. So practice, while not making perfect just yet, is definitely improving the quality around here. Two, I have greatly improved my editing skills, which will come in handy for future pieces. And three, in looking at the pieces from an objective standpoint, I found a few of them interesting and a decent read. So perhaps there is hope yet for a career as a wordsmith.

Moving on, the third reason for the delay in material has been due to some cosmetic changes. You may have noticed we have a nice shiny new banner at the top of the page. This graphic is just one part of some overall website work that has been done here and on our home page as well. Hopefully, further changes and improvements will also be forthcoming, although that is dependent on the rate of improvement in my design and site construction skills.

And finally, the fourth reason for the lack of material is also the driving force behind the edits of The Crystal Ball, peripherally the overall edit and a large part of the cosmetic changes and site revamps. I would like to formally introduce Riding the Pine, the new sports only blog. Riding the Pine now contains all of the sports related posts from the last year and will be the new home for The Crystal Ball starting with our upcoming NFL draft special. The idea for a sports themed blog came in speaking with a few of the regulars to Quick Thoughts. I found that while some enjoyed the content in Quick Thoughts, they were ambivalent on the sports themed pieces. While others I spoke with found the sports articles quite interesting and fun. With Riding the Pine, we can now provide a choice for your reading pleasure. Feel like sports, check out Pine. Perhaps you would like something a bit more universal, then Quick Thoughts is your destination. Plus, it will help me to separate and clarify some of the ideas I have and aid in keeping myself organized. In the long run, I think this will be a great addition, and depending on its success, may pave the way for future subject specific blogs.

Now that you are up to date on the goings on around here, stick around for some fresh new content. Or if you are so inclined, sift through the archives and take a new look at some older pieces. With the edits done, they should read much better than before. Well, they should read better, but I know there are still some hidden errors and mistakes embedded somewhere. I am only human, after all. Regardless, please enjoy and stay tuned.