You may have noticed the lack of updates here recently – we’ve slipped from once a week to once a fortnight, and we went through the whole month of May without a new editorial at all. There are a multitude of reasons for this – work, other projects, travel and planning for the upcoming wedding – and I should probably warn you that none of them are likely to get better for the next couple of months. Updates will remain sporadic, probably until around the end of August, when we come back from the honeymoon and deal with everything that has accumulated in the meantime.

Such things are an inevitable result of possessing a life, and I amn’t complaining. Well, only some of the time, anyway, when trashcity.com is so busy that the day runs get up, process orders, pack orders, eat, sleep. But then, I’m never satisfied, and we could just as well be teetering on the edge of starvation, with Chris and I having to comtemplate a return to wage slavery. Besides, how many jobs let you work in your underwear, watch Jerry Springer and take five minutes out to go paddling in the pool?

Other projects are twofold. girlswithguns.org, home to a slew of female action heroine pieces, is coming along steadily, with about 30 short reviews and a dozen lengthier pieces. The estimate for its arrival on the Net is around the start of September, though a beta-version may seep out before we go away. I’m also in the process of writing a book on conspiracy theory: it was originally intended to be something like Conspiracies for Idiots, but there ain’t no such animal. Having done the UFO chapter, I’m now looking into Freemasonry. It’s all very interesting, but boy, does it make your head spin.

Travel. Had a five-day trip up the west coast of California, driving up from Los Angeles to Santa Clara for the Conspiracy Con, peeking briefly into Oakland (six baseball stadiums visited, 24 to go). Highway 1 has to be the twistiest, trickiest piece of road I’ve ever been on, largely because Americans are clearly not used to a single lane in each direction with no median. This explains why I had my first experience of coming round a corner to find a psychopath attempting an overtaking move coming rapidly towards me. Two miles later, I had my second experience thereof. I’m sticking to interstate highways from now on.

And, of course, next month I’m getting married. Next month. Blimey. Puts a whole exclamation point on things, doesn’t it? Though it’s both simultaneously an irrelevance, and the most important event of my life. It’s not as if it’s going to make any difference to things, though it will mean I get a green card and become a permanent resident, rather than only getting to stay because I’m an employee of Trash City. Otherwise, it’s actual impact will be negligible; Chris will take slightly longer to sign her cheques, since she’s swapping a four-letter name for an eight-letter one.

And yet…it also acts as me planting a stake in the ground and saying, “This is my life, and it is what I want.” It’s an affirmation of confidence in the way things are; you can walk away from a job or a home, but not a marriage. Chris keeps asking me if I’m sure I want to go ahead, but every day makes me more certain that it makes sense on every level. Mind you, I’ll also be quite glad when it’s all over, but that’s another story! Till then, hope you understand if new stuff here is not quite as regular as it might be… 🙂