flash!

"Is this blog on hiatus?", "Are you dead?", "What's happened to you?", "What, are you too good now to write blog entries?", "Have you grown up and left the rest of us behind?", "Have you been kidnapped by pixies and buggered into a catatonic state?" (note of interest, a pixie would probably have to use its whole body to bugger a person).

No, no, plenty, no, not quite, novel proposal but beyond my present reality (probably).

All I can say is that sometimes you do, and sometimes you don't, and when I don't post, I don't miss it. What I can miss is the people who choose to interact with me exclusively through this medium, and to them I apologise for my prolonged period of silence. I can't promise that the fabulous rate of postage'll change, but I can promise that I plan to stick around. No dramatic farewells followed by pitiful tip-toeing back into the fold when I realise that my life is empty without blog posts; it is a popular formula, but who lusts after convention? I can guarantee occasional verbiage though, but whether it's as entertaining as Bush's attempts at speech, or as dull as (foreign blog name deleted on account of bitchiness, besides, who am I to talk?) is pretty much impossible to predict.

In terms of updates; my arm is much better and can be lifted to within inches of vertical though I still can't comfortably sleep on my front; the viva for my PhD was held on December 5th, took three and a half hours, and went very well, so I was passed that day (sweet relief, but I feel too young to wear the title doctor); Christmas was the quietest ever for our family, reduced from twenty to just four people, but it was perfect since these two chappies were both in the same location:

And the time off from work was nice, as these two chappies got to spend ten whole days together, which is rare but appreciated. Screw the cuteness, Stairs, 'cos did you just say 'time off from work'? My how sharp you are; yes, I think I did. I'm currently working for a local Borough doing web-developer stuff and I am very happy as the environment is good, and the people even better. And I get paid.

At some point between December and January, we ushered in the New Year; I won't go there because there was some major yanking-of-rugs out from under people and the process didn't go smoothly, but there's something to be said for starting a new year on a downer, as probability would have things improve thereafter. As a sickening optimist, this is something that I find encouraging. So "Happy 2006", whether it started in the stinking, festering depths of the Stygian swamps, or in a blinding, orgiastic high of (an orgy?) fabulousness. There's just too much to look forward to, and if you disagree, you're not trying hard enough.