September 3, 1996

From A to B, somewhere in this galaxy, we keep going. And as announced in our very first article we have not followed a straight line. We have visited many subjects, from the ludicrous to the meaningful, often with humor, at times with seriousness, almost always with civility, and hopefully of some interest for the few readers that have regularly visited our site in spite of the fact that we have yet to advertise and index it to the various search engines on the Web. We have met deadlines without too much hardship and frustrations. Believe it or not, we have even experienced some enjoyment, at least enough of it so that all the initial members of Swans are still around! And more, a new contributor, Pat Washburn has joined our gang! Not bad for a bunch of amateurs.

The suggestions and recommendations we have received during these past four months were mostly positive and helpful. The contents of our commentaries have generally been well accepted but quite a few readers felt that our site was neither properly focused nor sufficiently interactive. In short, the site did not clearly express what it and we were about. Accordingly, we have gone back to the drawing board and almost completely redesigned the pages (a couple remain under construction and will be completed shortly).

So, after Beta I, here is Beta II with its much different look. We have attempted to make it easier to browse and have tried to better define our purpose. The clarification of this purpose has not been an easy endeavor. After all, none of us really knows the exact location of B. We are all aware that it is somewhere at the crosspoint of our feelings, our thoughts and our aspirations. But that does not reveal the exact spot, does it? Time will tell and trials and errors will help! We just have to keep at it; and we intend to do just that!

Anyway, many thanks to all of you who took the time to send us your comments. We hope that you will better enjoy our new format. Let us know what you think of it and, with your help, we will start working on Beta III, until the final release.

This said, not everything has changed. Like before, there is still "no money to be made here. No banners, no IPO's, no egos. Only a desire for quality." You can be assured that you will not find in your local newspaper the kind of columns you read here. We are not striving to be newsworthy, just thoughtworthy.

The journey continues.

Enjoy reading!