I don't think I ever mentioned it here but, last semester I took a much-needed sabbatical. The main thing was to take a break from all the pressures of work and grad school and get back into a healthy headspace. Along the way I ended up pretty much dropping off the internet entirely. So if you've been missing me from various mailing lists and online communities, that's why. I'm back now. If you've tried getting in touch by email, irc, etc, and don't hear from me in the next few weeks, feel free ping me again.
This semester I'm teaching foundations of programming language theory with Jeremy Siek, and work on the dissertation continues apace. Over the break I had a few breakthrough moments thinking about the type system for chiastic lambda-calculi— which should help to clean up the normal forms for terms, as well as making room for extending the theory to include eta-conversion. Once the dust settles a bit I'll write some posts about it, as well as continuing the unification-fd tutorial I started last month.