Dear friends,

I will be honest with you: I am exhausted and burned out.  Not only did the daily running of the blog take a lot of energy and time, I also have been involved in several major project including the Q&A with a Chinese friend and a book which, God willing, will come out in November. And there have been many more things I was involved in behind the scenes about which I will report later.

But now, I need to take maybe not a “real” break, but at least to reduce the intensity of my work for one month. Therefore, during the full month of October I am going to a “minimal service” mode. I will try to update the blog the best I can, but I will try dedicate no more than 1 hour per day to this.

Then there are all the “hidden but crucial” people who help me run this blog who also need a break.  Believe it or not, most of them have turned down my offer of a break (amazing, no?!), but some have agreed and, regardless, all of them deserve a short respite from the constant struggle.

It is really “now or never” moment.  The situation in the Ukraine is “sorta kinda” artificially semi-frozen and the events in Syria will take a couple of weeks to really get going.  Frankly, I believe that the shit will hit the proverbial fan in the Ukraine rather soon, possibly even before the end of the year.  Should there be a MAJOR explosion in the Ukraine or Syria, I will, of course, issue a “return to combat stations” alarm, but only if the situation becomes critical.

Otherwise, I will post “what I can the best I can and as frequently as I can” but no more than that.  There will be plenty enough posts to make sure that you have a comments section to talk things over amongst yourselves, no worries about that.

I have one HUGE favor to ask of you all: please, unless it is really important and time critical, do not send me email.  Please!!

Sorry about this slight reduction in service and thanks a lot for your understanding.

Hugs to all,

The Saker