Good bye...for now.

[AMF]

Hello all!

As the wheel turns, things come and go. The only constant is change.

I am in the enviable position of taking some significant time off from work and the day-to-day vagaries of life to do some traveling. In January my wife and I will be embarking on a long trip, wherein we'll be putting on backpacks and traveling to a lot of different places -- we're gonna climb Kilimanjaro and spend months in India, SouthEast Asia, Turkey, and Eastern Europe before eventually returning to the US.

We're very lucky that we have the luxury to do this when so many others in the world do not, but I count myself lucky for another more prosaic reason as well: by the time I return to Space Empires, SE5 will have a year of mods and patches finished. I look forward to that greatly. I do not see SE5 as playable right now, but I know that by the end of 2007 it certainly will be an excellent game. I'm hopeful that the mods will fix all the balance problems and there will be some great thematic mods - I especially look forward to DevNull, StarTrek, and a host of other mods. I also hope, strongly, that Aaron fixes the UI. Even with great mods, I am not sure I can see myself playing SE5 unless and until the UI is fixed. But, I figure by the time August 2007 rolls around, this issue will have been settled one way or another, and I look forward to a great game when I return.

Let me also say: this is a great forum. Even though I have on occasion argued strenously with people here, I hope I have never taken it too far, and I hope that I have always been respectful of others. I know I have pushed the envelope on occasion, and those times that I came close to the line, I did it because I was passionate about the topic at hand. I know that I have annoyed some of you on occasion - please understand that was never my intention, and I apologize for any grief I caused.

I am struck by the fact that I kept returning to this forum over the years, not because of the game-related discussions, but really for other reasons. The people here are diverse, thoughtful, intelligent, tolerant, and value honest and open debate with others -- including those with whom they disagree vehemently. These are values and standards that I believe we should always strive to have, and to inculcate in others. To treat each other as ends and not means is a foundation of modern civilization, a bulwark against barbarism, and it was these values and habits that kept me coming back to this forum.

As my hiatus draws near, I want to thank every one of you, again, for the quality of this place. It is thanks to you that this is a great forum to hang out at. While I will be occasionally hanging out at internet cafes and uploading pictures, I doubt I will be checking the forum until I return home. So...Good bye.

"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch." (Garrison Keillor)

Thanks,

AMF