I've been away for a while.

Three or so years ago or slightly more this place was my digital addiction, one I spoke of proudly. And now that I look at it again, I can see all the reasons I came here and stayed. The overwhelming, ever growing, ever expanding, almost exponential nexus of poetry, art, the little idiosyncrasies that make you and which you chose to share with so many it expands you. A bit like the cyberspace I imagined in my head while reading Gibson, slightly more structured and less organic but equally as deep. A cup of coffee, nightfall and it just you and the infinity. Infinity of beauty, straight from the minds of others and you can read and look as much as you want or wish or need. Your thirst for 'something beautiful' could finally be quenched.

I loved that too. After a fashion, I still do. A little removed, maybe. In orbit but never quite reaching escape velocity, a collage of images and feelings you can flick back to for a smile or a solemn thought.

And for a while it was perfect. Like a boy meets girl story.
Which it was...

And then, for reasons which continually shift their complexity but somehow remain infinitely plain, I left.

In retrospect I needed something else to do, a distraction. Coming here tasted faintly like uranium after a nuke war. And as my friend beautifully put it "After a nuclear winter we build snowmen!” I needed a new form of peace. Found that in diving. Stayed. Maybe it was nitrogen narcosis but I love it. Many here would probably know and understand. Like stepping through a mirror, uninvited but ever welcome, unnaturally free as if flying.

I remember I had a tendency to ramble when writing something; obviously this problem remains even though I haven’t technically written anything for a long, long while.

I guess the reason I made this journal entry is to provide an explanation as to why this account had no submissions for so long that spiders are taking residence.
And to say THANK YOU to all of you who have kept visiting this place and reading whatever things I had lying around.

I notice Thieves Army is getting a lot of comments again. Thank you to all who read it or even began to read it and stopped : ) Yeah, there are dozens upon dozens of grammatical mistakes and I admit that it needs a major rewrite and a good dose of editing but I don’t think I'll come back to it any time soon.. In my defence I was young and foolish when I wrote that, my English was weaker and there were dragons in my head... in a way the 'broken' version retains some of its charm as it stands now.

Anyway… I'm going out for a while. First to Milan, then London then Moscow and Novosibirsk. If I don't return then I've been drafted by the army or fallen in love or am lost or knowing me all of the above.

There's food in the fridge. May all your friends and strangers be forever kind to you all.

Stay well.
-Roman