It’s been a bit quiet around here; the usual churn of links, but not much writing. Apologies. It’s been quiet busy at work, what with Dimensions launching as I got back from holiday, and then watching my colleagues set the marvellous Making Future Magic wild.

There’s lots of great stuff coming out of the studio right now. That makes me happy.

Holiday was good: a week walking and recharging in the Brecon Beacons. It did not feel long enough, but it was very beautiful. I’m somewhat behind on processing my holiday photographs, but should have them done soon. I have not done the Brecons much justice, but they were beautiful to walk amongst.

I haven’t been tinkering with much outside work, although I have been overhauling the back-end of this website in interesting ways. I think that’s nearly finished now, so it’ll be live soon.

There is some writing to come, I think: certainly something on emergent narrative in Red Dead Redemption that’s been kicking around a bit too long, and perhaps something on Exposure at the Tate Modern, parts of which rankled me in very specific ways. Now I’ve promised you those, I have to deliver them, right?

Today I turned 28. I bought a kite.

…so little time. I’ve been not so much busy as hectic in the past few weeks, and very out of practice at the blog. I’m planning to change that – in fact, to change a lot – in 2007. Rest assured that all is well here, though it hasn’t been the easiest of times.

I’m catching a train early tomorrow to head back home, to Gloucestershire, and spend a few days with family before meeting the Girl’s family for a few more days, and then it’s back to the Smoke for an extended New Year break. I’m looking forward to lots of food and rest. I’m also probably going to be able to finish the various unfinished blogposts sitting around – about print-out-ed media, about a few of the tricks I wrangled to build this new blog design, about Gears of War, and about 2006 as a whole.

In the meantime: keep safe, keep sound, hold your loved ones close, have a very happy Christmas. That’s exactly what I’m planning to do.

So: I’ve had lots of posts in my head to write and not a lot of time. I’ve still got post-match analysis on d.construct (which I attended) and Railsconf Europe (which I spoke at) to come. I’ve also been busy with at least one out-of-work project which is going quite nicely, and means I get to play with Capistrano soon.

The other reason I’ve been a bit lax is that it is birthday season for many of my friends, so the weekend was spent first in boozy fun, and then going to see the Tindersticks at the Barbican (which was great). And that lot all culminates today, because it’s my birthday.

I’m 24, which isn’t the most exciting age, but Wikipedia seems pretty convinced it’s quite exciting. All I could think of was Kiefer Sutherland and (1 x 2 x 3 x 4), the latter of which is more satisfying. 23 was fun, incidentally. Lots and lots of things happened, I got busy, I got stressed, I just about surfed over it. All in all: a good year. Here’s to another one.