Hey Ashgan! Long time, no see indeed...
Suffice to say, I haven't forgotten about you, either, and should perhaps say hi on Skype a bit more often or something, but characteristically to me I always tend to have a backlog of n+1 things I should probably do at some point that at least feel like they have higher priority than being generally social, and other people have the tendency to take action and precede me by going forth and bothering me first, before I get to contacting all those people I've probably not spoken to for far too long. But if you'd just like me to poke you whenever it seems you've been quiet for a while, then sure, I can certainly do that. That won't take too much time or effort. :-P
- Don't ask me whether I qualify as an extrovert or an introvert ... I usually say that I reckon I'm somewhere exactly in the middle. On one hand I might have a greater than average number of people I seem to know, and can freely converse with almost anyone and find at least something that's interesting to talk about to me, too, on the other hand prolonged human contact can be more tiring than something that constitutes for actual work, with certain people much more so than others (granted, I often also postpone replying to messages simply because I figure I'm too tired to make sense and/or would probably neglect to mention about three quarters of the things I intended to talk about ... putting my thoughts down properly works much better when I'm actually awake), and often enough don't feel the need to be social just for the sake of it. I will want to talk to people because I already care about them, and I will talk to new people since they might have something interesting to say, but I don't really talk to people because I feel the need to talk as such? If that makes sense. In practice I'll probably go somewhere that requires me to actively interact with people on my own initiative two days a week and can effectively plain forget to speak to anyone for the other five if I didn't have others contact me first or a specific reason to contact someone (granted, specific reason can be anything, really, including a random thought that somehow pertains to some previous discussion with that person).
Motivation is an even stranger beast. I will effectively have a few weeks where I don't feel like doing all that much (usually after the end of some massive and time-exhaustive project), at other times I'll pick up something (occasionally even things I've not touched for years) and potentially keep up with it for months. If I'm properly motivated for something, I can basically be engaged enough for sleep to be something that absolutely needs to be optional, since the tiredness is actively stopping me from doing something I want to do, damnit. And that does not only apply to hobby-things like writing and pet projects, but also my actual work, which probably further proves that I'm some kind of odd lunatic. Nothing like getting back up and behind the computer again when you were about to since your tired brain is somehow convinced that you've figured out some brilliant solution to something you've been working on for the entire day...
But I'm derailing again, ain't I? It's been somewhat slow in here due to work, university, or other things getting in the way of living (but we haven't lost anyone, so probably nothing to be too concerned about), and we're pretty much still in the same places; feel free to jump back in where you left off.
((My holidays were the usual kind of deal - a number of sittings with family and the new years' spent with friends. For some reason it feels like at least half a year has passed since...))