A Slight Change of Emphasis...

 This blog has evolved a lot since I started it way back in 2005. I posted a lot more in those early years, from about 2005-2008 and much more sporadically since 2012 (in 2016, I only managed 11 posts all year, which is less than one a month). It's picked up a bit this year, probably due to being on lockdown.

 

I had considered giving the blog up entirely, but I find this a useful repository for things like news stories that I may want to come back to later, so my present thought is that it's still worth keeping, even if I'm mostly just talking to myself. However, to keep regular content, I need things to post.

 

With that in mind, I've decided to diversify my posts and (as of last month) start including a couple of things that have been part of my life for a while, but that I've hitherto kept off this blog:

1. Photography. I'm not a great photographer by any stretch of the imagination. (Nor do I have a great camera, though I'm not blaming that entirely.) Nonetheless, we've been getting into local walks since lockdown began in March and I've been documenting these with photos.

 

I'm not going to go back in time and post many from earlier in the year, but expect to see periodic photography posts in future. Some of these I may even use for teaching. (Regarding tags, I already had one for 'pictures' which were not necessarily my own. I think for now all photography will also have the 'pictures' tag, but also a new 'photos' tag, though I may re-think this in future.)

2. Gaming. (Note: this refers to board or table-top wargames; not computer/video games.) I've generally kept my wargaming hobby off the blog, because I also use the blog for professional purposes. However, I've decided that there's no need to separate the personal and professional, given that I've already used the blog for all kinds of other personal interests, such as football and music. So, expect to see the occasional post either about building/painting miniatures, collecting, or gaming with them, such as this Frostgrave battle report from last month.

I don't expect either of these to amount to more than a post or two per month, and I'm not going to stop posting the other things that I have been posting, but (given that my recent record is normally only a post or two a month anyway) this may amount to a bit of a change in focus.

 

As ever, I don't expect anyone who stumbles across this blog to share all of my interests. So, if anyone else is actually reading this, feel free to pick out the bits that interest you. Perhaps these new additions will actually find me some new readers, who may want to ignore all that academic philosophy and political comment...