YES, I’VE BEEN BLOGGING LESS LATELY. Thanks for noticing. There are a number of reasons. One is that things have slowed down — in fact, it seems that almost everyone is blogging less. The war isn’t over, but we’re in — as Steven Den Beste notes — a different phase now. The other day I took down the flag I had taped in the rear window of my car just after 9/11. I put up another one, but it seemed to mark a milestone of sorts. Things aren’t less important now, and I think the Iraqi reconstruction is actually very important, but it’s a different kind of importance with fewer day-to-day developments.

I’ve also been quite busy in my real job. I’m grading exams at the moment (ugh — this post by Jeff Cooper captures the essence well). In the last couple of weeks I’ve also finished up an article on applying the “incidents” methodology used in international law to constitutional questions, written a piece for Legal Affairs on legal regulation of nanotechnology, and wound up the work of a major faculty committee that I’m on. You know, the day job. Paypal notwithstanding, it’s what pays the bills.

I’ve also become very interested in video. With my DVD burner fixed (well, replaced), I put together a music-video DVD of my brother’s band. I edited some footage I had from his outdoor concert at “Volapalooza” into a passable music video and made a fancy DVD whose menu page featured a cool photo of the band (taken from their webpage) and an animated menu where the buttons showed short loops of video. It was surprisingly easy, and the results look great. I’m very happy with the Sonic Foundry Vegas Video 4 / DVD Architect bundle. Both programs work well, don’t crash, and are easy and pretty intuitive to use. Plus, with the academic discount the bundle was only about $250, which is pretty cool since it lets you do things that would have required $250,000 worth of equipment not long ago.

So that’s what’s going on here. Blogging will continue, but — all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding — I do try to have a life from time to time.

UPDATE: I guess it’s not just me.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Nope, definitely not