I started this blog on the 7th of April 2014, exactly three years ago. Since then I’ve done two retrospective posts, and that’s become a tradition. So let’s talk about the process of writing this blog and what’s gone on since the last one of these retrospectives.

Since 7 April 2016, I’ve written 12 posts, not counting this one. This is less than the 19 posts written between 7 April 2015 and 7 April 2016, and like a third of the 29(!) posts written between 7 April 2014 and 7 April 2015 (although a number of those posts were either very short or copied from pre-this-blog writings). In last year’s retrospective post, I made the following resolution:

So basically I’m going to be trying to write more short, light pieces, and more split-up serieses like the text editors one, because I enjoy writing blog posts and need to reverse a trend I see in myself before my drafts folder gets too much bigger.

I didn’t stick to this – some of the longest articles on this blog came out after that post, and my drafts folder continues to grow.¹ About five months after writing that retrospective, I published the longest post on this blog: my GPU passthrough tutorial. Fortunately, it quickly turned into the most popular thing on this blog by an order of magnitude.

What’s more, there’s still some stuff I want to add to it² and a couple of follow-up posts I’m working on – suggested topics include trying to get passthrough working without multiple monitor inputs (through desktop streaming and the like), and doing GPU passthrough with a macOS virtual machine.

This is not going to become a GPU passthrough blog, though – for that, I recommend Alex Williamson’s site – he actually developed the kernel module, whereas I’ve just synthesised a couple of tutorials about enabling it. I still plan to have a fairly eclectic mix of content – technical tutorials, game reviews, and posts about random internet things. I have a short attention span.

At the moment, though, I’m going through a phase of drafting a lot of posts that I realise aren’t interesting or worth reading about halfway through. My Hugo content/posts folder is a graveyard of half-written drafts, most destined never to be published. And before you start wondering too much about that, think about that feeling of disappointment you get³ after watching the deleted scenes in a DVD extras menu.

In order to combat this inspirational drought, I’ve decided to open the blog up to post suggestions. Got a topic you’d like me to research and write about, a technical tutorial you’d like to see online, or a game/webcomic/book you’d like me to review? Suggest it to me in an email! I don’t promise to write about 100% of requests, but I’ll do my best to at least consider all of them. Credit will be given for the idea, unless you wish to remain anonymous. Hopefully the pressure of being at some external person’s behest will help to drive these articles through the draft doldrums reasonably quickly.

I look forward to interesting submissions!