Regular and attentive readers will note that the previous piece, compared to Polytropian ramblings of similar length and scope, is an ugly mess. I have, before now, tried to put quite a bit more polish on the longer offerings. I also have, before recent months, tried to post _something_ every day or couple of days, instead of every week.

I’ve been aware of the lower frequency of posts since November, and meaning to get back into the old swing of things. But when I sat down to write about _The System of the World_, I realized that crafting my thoughts into a proper review sounded less like _fun_ and more like _work_ than similar tasks had in the past. Burnout? Maybe. Whatever the case, I’ve decided that the time and energy it would take to re-energize the ol’ blog, such as it is, would be better spent on other things — catching up on the mounting pile of books I’d like to read, for starters, and maybe at some point in doing some fiction writing, something I haven’t dabbled with in years.

This isn’t an announcement of a Suspension or a Hiatus or anything that dramatic, but an Acknowledgement that as it has been in recent months, so shall it continue to be: infrequent posts, which, when they do show up, will tend to be a little less polished, more haphazard, more quippy — more bloggy. Polytropos, which has since its inception hosted my random thoughts, creative impulses, and writerly urges, will still do so, but as a side project instead of a chief outlet. Basically, I’m going to jettison the time-n-energy I spend thinking about blogging, wondering what to blog about next, considering my place in the blogosphere, and feeling guilty about not blogging, and just write stuff quickly when I feel like it. I know, I know — it’s not like I’ve been writing that much anyway, so how much extra time-n-energy do I actually expect to recover? The slouch of recent months has been due in equal parts to Having Less Time and Not Being As Into It, and while there’s no helping the former, shifting focus to non-bloggy things will help with the latter.

Rest assured, in case something arises that calls out for my particular perspective (headline: “Liberia’s New President Pushes For Roleplaying Games As New National Pasttime”), I stand ready to return to Full Blogging Mode at a moment’s notice . . .