December

I'd also like to say a few words about why I haven't been writing. Back in December 2014, I gave one reason (working on 4D Blocks) and promised to give another soon. There was actually a third reason as well, one that I don't want to get into. Since then, there have been other reasons.

• In February 2015, I bought a new computer for gaming, replacing one that was nearly ten years old. Naturally I had to catch up on a lot of games.
• In May 2016, I bought a Vive. Naturally I had to spend a lot of time playing with that.
• In November 2016, I started a new full-time job after sixteen and a half years of freelancing.

So, I probably won't be doing a lot of writing in the immediate future. A little writing, maybe. There are a few things that I have the itch to write, and I did manage to write The New Sound in my spare time after starting the new job, so we'll see.

As I mentioned in September 2004, a batch of essays, like a magazine, is “for” a particular month, and so ideally ought to come out before the month starts. I sometimes miss that deadline by a few days, but I've only really blown it once: the June 2000 batch was released on June 11. But, now I've really blown it. I wanted to release a December batch so that I wouldn't totally miss 2016, and I worked hard to write something, but it just wasn't ready until today, December 31.