Blogging Again

More than seven months passed between my 29 June 2007 post and my return to blogging last week. As I mentioned shortly before my unofficial hiatus, I am now a military prosecutor at one of the Army's busiest bases in terms of courts-martial and criminal justice. As this began to take up more and more of my days last summer, it was hard to justify spending any of my limited free time on this blog. I had little energy at night for much beyond passive websurfing and watching DVDs. On the weekends I really had just two priorities: first and foremost, my wife; in a distant second, my reading.

Going into the fall, I had a number of time-consuming cases. I prosecuted a murder (resulting in a guilty plea and life sentence), a couple rapes (one conviction with a ten-year sentence, one administrative discharge), and more than a dozen other cases, including two fullly contested trials (both resulting in convictions, significant prison sentences, and punitive discharges). My last contested case was in mid-January, and I have begun to have a bit more free time to expend as I see fit.

A few other things have changed as well. I have made some advances up the steep learning curve for military criminal justice and am thus more efficient at my work. The primary election and my excitement at Senator Obama's campaign have me spending more time online than before.

Perhaps most importantly, in May I will PCS to a new office and will finally be co-located with my wife. I will also be deploying for three month rotations to Camp Arifjan, in Kuwait. While CONUS and co-located with my wife (for the first time in more than two years), my job will be less strenuous and I anticipate enough leisure time to be a more dedicated blogger. While OCONUS with Internet access, I will really appreciate having an online presence that my friends and family can keep track of.

So I'm back, and very happy about it.