Still here...

The frequency of my blog posts seems to have dropped off somewhat. Plummeted, even. Not that most of you will really give a damn, but I feel some sort of explanation is in order. OK, OK, excuses, if you like.

1. I mainly blame Twitter. I've been using Twitter more and more for all the little things that occur to me during the day, and so I don't feel the urge to write huge blog posts nearly as often. Twitter's a sort of stream of consciousness view into my mind, covering everything from what I'm doing at work to what I'm cooking, what I'm reading, interesting Web sites I've found, and so on. To be honest, it's a hell of a lot easier than composing short pieces with coherent thoughts and logical structure, and a lot more inconsequential as a result.
   
2. I blame Jeff. He's my new CEO and he's making me work really hard. As you can see from the photo on the right, he's either a member of the Yakuza or a Triad (or perhaps both), and he clearly enjoys a good dose of pain, so it pays to keep on his good side. In all seriousness, though, he is working us bloody hard, and I'm in a somewhat different role now to where I was over the last two years, so I have a lot less time to blog during working hours than I used to. David and I used to go in for competitive blogging; we'd talk about various issues relating to machinima or user-generated content or Web 2.0 and then blog about them, but Jeff doesn't work that way. I'm spending much of my time updating the company blogs and being active on the corporate social media sites, as well as creating marketing materials, and working on Secret Master Plans For Taking Over The Universe With Moviestorm (TM). In effect, I'm now beginning to put into practice many the things I've been musing about for two years, so it's time to stop talking and start doing.
   
3. I blame Facebook. I always hated MySpace. Still do. But somehow Facebook seems to have become a lot more useful in the last few months, especially since it automatically picks up both my twitter feed and my blog. Much of my social time is now spent there, chatting to people or commenting on their stuff, rather than pontificating at length here, which is beginning to feel a little sterile and isolated.
   
4. I blame Rhys. Yeah, yeah, I know he's only a kid, so it seems a little harsh to dump this on him, but he's rapidly turning into a man, so he can shoulder his share of the responsibility. Since he came to live with me at Christmas, things have been very different round here, and I'm still in the process of adjusting to being a single dad. Which, I have to say, I'm thoroughly enjoying, and coping with a lot better than I thought I would. It's great having him around the house, and he's made me see myself in a whole new light.
   
5. I blame lawyers. After nearly a year, I'm nearing the final stages of my divorce, and dealing with all the crap that entails is beginning to sap my will to do anything at all most of the time. It hasn't been acrimonious, but neither has it been particularly amicable or co-operative, and I seem to be spending for ever dealing with paperwork, chasing up signatures on documents, disentangling our finances, and all that stuff. And quite frankly, it doesn't leave me feeling particularly creative or inspired afterwards, so the inclination to write anything or make a movie has been mostly absent for months. Still, it should all be over in a few weeks. The Decree Nisi is already through, and the Decree Absolute should happen in mid-March provided we can get all the final bits of lawyer crap out of the way. Again, in the interests of fairness, I should say that my lawyer, William, over at Cambridge Family Law Practice is damn good, and if you ever find yourself in my position, I highly recommend him.
   
6. All of which is basically a smokescreen for the real reason I haven't been blogging much. I've been severely distracted, OK? I admit it. Anna (aka Blue Maiya, who helped me out at DragonCon last year) came over from Florida with her son for a three-month visit at the start of February, and so my evenings and weekends have been otherwise occupied. And they're probably likely to remain so until she goes back to the US in May, after which I will probably throw myself heavily into Empire: Total War for a few weeks, revert to living on Eastern Standard Time, and give thanks to Skype for providing us with free video chat. I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that I do have a romantic side after all, and I'm not actually the heartless bastard I'd begun to believe I had become. As LupeLaLoba so cutely put it, the two of us are "gayer than rainbow glitter kitten vomit", which is, I think, a compliment.
   

So there you have it. My abject failure to maintain my blog is everyone else's fault but my own.

In all seriousness, though, everything's in the midst of big changes, and I'm still getting used to the way things are, but right now I'm happier than I've been for a very long time. I just wish I didn't miss my daughters so much. I'll see what I can do about getting back to writing again, because I do miss it, but it's likely to be sporadic at best for a while at least.