I have not been playing much lately.

I have been busy. I'm allegedly working a lot and I've decided that I might go back to school for a PhD in statistics (at a good school, of course) rather than stopping at a masters from this crummy school, so I've been spending a lot of time over the past couple months researching stuff, filling out applications, etc. And then there were the holidays and then some travel to a school. It's been a good time, though I do regret not playing much chess. Still, I did manage to play a little over the holidays. I've also been low on money, which makes going to tournaments a little tougher. Well, it's easy enough to justify spending $20 on a tournament once per month, really, so that's lowest on my list of excuses.

I think once I am done with applications - next week - I will have time to start playing again. I (or, rather, my wife) got an Ipod Touch, which means I have an easy way to play on the train now, too. I think the difficulties in playing on the train was the biggest thing.