OK, so it’s the title of a rather dodgy 1930′s science fiction comedy which, in turn, is taken from an almost equally dodgy expression of speech, but it IS true! Time DOES fly by when you least expect it to.

Man, what a year it’s been….and oh so busy to boot! I don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard or had as many ups and downs as I’ve had this year. Even when writing or illustrating books I don’t think I’ve worked as hard? Then again you kinda forget a lot of the details as you get older……Well I have anyhow.

2005 FINALLY saw me finish The REG Temple redesign…….almost! The bulk of it has been done anyway and there’s really only a bit of “plugging up” to be done here or there. I’ve had a couple of false starts on this site already in the past two years, so I’m finally glad that I’ve been able to break the back of it – as well as clear out much of the the backlogged stuff I’ve accumulated over the years.

When Amy got sick and went back to the States to recover I was able to knuckle down and get the work done on The Temple, but now that she’s back I haven’t really slowed down from the pace I set and I’m still doing a ton of website stuff – a few mini-sites here and there but two very work intensive sites that I envision will be – with any luck – quite large affairs. One is nowhere near being launched yet and the other has had a low-key “launch” but needs to build up an extensive backlog of articles quickly. In the meantime I’ve been getting Amy to help me with scanning and typing which has been a great help.

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Just got back from midnight mass and it was pretty good. My knees and ankles were playing up again so I didn’t do too much of that “stand up, sit down, kneel, stand up again” kinda stuff. Just did my best.

Tomorrow – well today rather – Amy and I will be going to my parent’s house for Christmas lunch so we’re both looking forward to that. My sleep patterns are all out of whack again (surprise surprise) so I’m not sure how I’ll be in the morning? I’ll probably be all “punchy” and stuff.

I’m sure glad I made the story of Sherlock Holmes and The Speckled Band a “sticky” post as it appears that’s the main thing that people come here for. Rather than have a bunch of disgruntled net surfers I saw it as my “duty” to make sure they at least got what they were looking for. After all this website is in the number one spot for “The Speckled Band” so I figure it’s the least I can do.

Lastly I just want to say that I wish everyone out there a great Christmas and holiday season! A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Merry Christmas!

…That maybe it’s a good idea to occasionally come here FIRST and put in an entry rather than leave it until the end of the day, then get too tired to actually make said entry.

With this in mind I WAS going to come here first this morning but we ended up having a fairly busy day instead – away from the computer as opposed to sitting right there in front of it. Having said that I’ve just finished typing up an entry which I then decided would make a much better “wrap-up” of 2005 rather than a pre-Christmas post. Subsequently I haven’t much to say right now as I’ve already said it in a past post which will now be a future post.

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In case anyone was wondering what happened to the “comments” section of this site I had decided – during my time away from here – that there were a couple of things that made me rethink the whole concept.

First and foremost the time it takes to read and comment back. Don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed the positive responses that I received from people visiting here. I mean who wouldn’t? If I didn’t have so much stuff going on with my life I would happily reply to everyone but the trouble is that I just don’t have the time to. Already I have to plow through over 1000 emails a week and respond to several dozen of them. Thankfully though most of the emails are spam and can be quickly discarded with but I feel I still need to look through my auto-junk folder to make sure nothing important gets through. friends and family realize that it can sometimes take several weeks – even months – for me to respond…..and these are people I know and like! Although I only had to answer a few comments each post I could imagine that it would virtually be a full-time job for some of the bigger blogs such as Dooce and Wil Weaton!

On top of that I administer several websites which take up quite a bit of my time – especially this year with the major updates I’ve been doing! I also have a few big projects that I’m currently working on, web wise, my book writing and a musical instrument or two in the works – All of which will be talked about in more depth on this site in the new year. It’s a busy and exciting time on the work front.

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