The fading of the blogasm

I have to apologize to my erstwhile readers who, numbering about six I think, I greatly thank for their attention. What forces this apology is the comparative quiescence of The Noodlebook over the past couple of weeks. When I started writing this blog, I was going like crazy -- often putting up two posts per day, back-dating one of them, and trying to make it look like I did this regularly and reliably. It seemed obvious that this phase, the blogasm as I called it in my usual way of creating portmanteau words, would fade.

In fact it held on a lot longer than I expected. I kept encountering things in my life that inspired entries. I kept thinking of interesting things that I wanted to explain. I wanted to write and write and write. So why the drop-off in postings, then? Time, frankly. The exegesis of my job have kept me away from the train, my usual blogging spot, for most days on the past three weeks. The train/bus combo from Edmonds to Bellevue is a rather tightly planned commute -- and it imposes some constraints on my timing. So when things get really busy or I know I will have to start early or work late (such as for a scheduled training class I'm teaching or taking) I am forced to drive.

But, readers, I think that things will be lightening up a little bit. Oh, I'm still busy, but for a few weeks I'll have some flexibility back and the ability to work on this little outlet of my energies. So here is a look at some of what I have planned:

A follow up to my why-I-like-Obama blog

The promised second part of my cryptographic advice for schoolchildren

An explanatory bit on hull length and some musings on how it might impact Olympic swimming

A thought piece on the design of rotor-based cipher machines and their sources of security as compared to modern ciphers

A tribute to the H-34 Choctaw and forgotten but historic aircraft in general

An explanation of my "I'd give a nut for an HP-65" statement (something that for possibly obvious reasons brings Erica endless amusement) and a brief history of HP calculators

Some sketches (tongue in cheek, of course) of some corporate personality types that I've been meeting

Some thoughts on the exploration of space and an outline of my (current) "If I ran my own space program" plan

So have faith and keep checking. I'll be back -- and in fact I guess that by putting up this post, I am back... The blogasm hasn't faded -- it has just been on pause for a while, gathering strength...