John.

Well, yeah.. I suppose you're right. At one point I confused volume with quantity, err.. quality.. <g>

Still, I have been actually rather delighted to discover in the nether recesses of my own internals a strong desire to revisit my technical roots. For example, I've been fooling around a lot at work with OCXs and at home with Rick Strahl's WC product. I'm having an absolute gas! For the first time in some 7 years this last year or two has seen a return of the 'fun' aspect of this profession and it's been great.

Not to be maudlin or anything but I'd like to explain where I'm coming from.. Perhaps it will help others to understand why I get riled up at what may appear to them to be small issues.. What happened was our son was struck by a car and killed in 1993. I was essentially holding him as he took his last breath. The FoxPro community, and Jim Booth (whom I cannot adequately express my appreciation for, both professionally and personally) stepped up to help us - in addition to the Lord. As a result, I have come to the conclusion that I am one of the luckiest and most blessed man alive. The lessons I learned, forged on the anvil of an anguish beyond my capacity to endure actually caused me to be healed of older pains. The net result is, I suppose, an increased awareness of and capacity to deal with, those around me who also suffer so visibly (to me anyway) their own pain. Tom Rettig was such a neat example to me of someone who had learned these essons early in life and while I will never reach his level of technical prowess or vision I'd like some day to at least be a good copy of his attitude.

That attitude IMO is what has made the FoxPro community so great over the years. When folks assert that "they don't care", in the sense of somehow divorcing their feelings from their technical abilities is some sort of positive attibute, it causes me to shudder. I think they are totally missing the boat. They just don't get it with respect to what really makes this a great place. No one can divide themselves up like that and remain healthy. I am passionate about both my technical abilities (not always so good <g>) -and- the community and my relations in it.

Passionate? Yep
Always right? *LOL* No, no way
Alive? You bet!

Best,

DD




>Doug
>
>>>I know I don't answer as many technical questions as I should but usually by the time I get to it Mike Helland already has<<
>
>Yeah, but you've put in the hard yards in your time. Like you, I used to try to answer lots of questions but the time comes when you *need* to step aside, both to let in new blood and also because other conflicting needs such as family, children, business, illness etc raise their heads. Not that I'm complaining.
>
>I see lots of people here speaking up in support of "answering questions" rather than endless contradictions and self-justification, so I'm back to being a lurker...
>
>Regards
>
>JR