Spring, is coming. The sun is shining and staying up longer. The birds are singing, the girls are starting to wear their chain-mail bikinis. Well, it may be a bit too chilly for those right now.

Many of us are putting the finishing touches on our armies for this year's campaign season. I'm getting ready for Origins and can't wait for Drums in May. On top of that, it looks like we might actually begin building a miniatures gaming community up here in Muskegon.

I also continue to be amazed at how good we have it. For all the problems that the Great Lakes Chapter of HMGS may have, it pales in comparison to those of the East. Here's what I mean. I am currently on a GM mail list for historical GMs on Yahoo groups. Recently, there has been a plan to reward, or show recognition to GMs at the Big East events. In the debates that ensued, I saw a level of acrimony and venom that amazed me. What was even more surprising to me was how long some of the small problems such as a loading/unloading zone for GMs and better help in getting table assignments and pre registered events set up have been going on without getting better.

If that's what it means to be the biggest, then I'll stay small -- thank-you-very-much. We are no way near as screwed up as they are. In fact, I think our cons are run at a much higher level of competency and quality than those of the East are are, at least from the sounds of things. That's because of you guys, the road crew, the convention workers, the grunts in the trenches who plan and execute these excellent shows we attend. Ladies and Gentlemen, I salute you!

Something else I've found myself doing lately is musing on how history repeats itself. As the six-month anniversary of the September 11th attacks rolled around, I thought about how similar it was in some ways to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Both events were seemingly surprise events. We were minding our own business and out of the blue we get attacked suddenly. It is later discovered that we had a great deal of information, if properly assembled, or done in a timely manner, then these events could have been prevented. I am amazed at how much we knew about the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks and their movements within days of the attacks. There was so much information on these guys that it is almost comical at how we managed to miss them. Much the same as with Pearl Harbor. Numerous opportunities and warnings was either unheeded, unknown, or just misinterpreted. It is amazing that similar mistakes have taken place in our latest tragedy. I'm not criticizing our defense, law enforcement or intelligence gathering organizations, as much as I am asking the questions of why and how these things could have happened, particularly in light of our previous intelligence failures and lessons supposedly learned. My apologies for wandering into politics and current events, but as I said, I am musing on this.

Until next time, good luck and good gaming.