I want to extend an apology to anybody about whom I've said negative things (indirectly, I haven't named names) on this blog in the past - this is only to private citizens, not George W. Bush, Christopher Hitchens or any other dastardly public figures. Or Edward Einhorn, because he sued me and he doesn't think he did anything wrong. See The Strange Case of Edward Einhorn v. Mergatroyd Productions for the details.
Since I'm still not a saint, I will say that I did not randomly write negative things about people - I had serious grievances against them, and none of them has to this day apologized to me for anything.
However, my blogging nasty things about them certainly did not provoke them into any kind of self-examination or feelings of remorse - it did no good, except a very temporary sense of release for me. I should have completely channeled everything into my art, which is a constructive way to deal with anguish, remorse, depression, etc. And the practice of working personal issues out in art has a long and illustrious history, used by everybody from Michelangelo to Charlotte Bronte to the Beatles, and even recommended by Mr. Rogers.
All this is easier for me to say now, since I'm 95% over all the anger and despair I've been working through for almost two years. Well, if not now then when? It's a kind of new year's resolution. I'm not a saint but I can try to do better. And as Mr. Rogers said: "the very same people who are good sometimes are the very same people who are bad sometimes. It's funny, but it's true." The video quality is bad, but you can watch him sing it here.
So it's all going into the art from now on. Speaking of which, very soon it will be time for Darlapalooza - I will attempt to complete the Darlington Curse saga all in one 48 hour period, with hourly installment updates. I don't know when exactly that's going to happen, and I'll keep posting random individual installments until then, but that's the goal. I'm trying to get this story done so the rewriting can begin - and then: submission time. Because getting paid for your art is the most constructive thing of all, in this material world.