sheldrake

I have some problems with the world in general. Here they are:

Too much stuff in world.
Body fits no clothes or shoes.
Rain.
Everyone has five email addresses, none of which are right and none of which identify who they belong to.
Unidentified smell.
Apathy (mine).

Dinosaur Comics is awesomely awesome today!

*note to self: stop saying awesome*

Other things that have concerned me lately: Tony Blair, Sherlock Holmes, murder, the English language, education, education, education. People who enjoy being miserable. Pants.

I recently subscribed to a bunch of writing-type magazines, in a moment of unbridled madness. I think the general idea was that if I spent enough time reading about writing, I could successfully avoid having to actually do any. Anyway, interesting. Some stuff is good, some is crap, which is a bit like life in general, really. Here is some stuff that occurred to me, helpfully bullet-pointed:

• Avoid anything with a picture of a fountain pen on it.


• Some guy says: 'Common pitfalls [of writing short stories include] - Not enough characters. Two characters are not enough: you need three so they can have a relationship.' WTF? I say again, WTF?? Other common pitfalls include having 'too many characters'. Genius. Mind you, this guy thinks that 'a story is about the problems people face and how they overcome them'. Ah. Right.


• Incidentally, the above article ends with the intriguing non-sentence, 'In the end, the problem is'


• I love this classified ad: 'Looking for new topics and new characters? SciTalk can help, with its free easy-to-use database and website of enthusiastic scientists who would really enjoy talking to you. Browse the topics now and arrange to meet.' What is this, some kind of bizzare writer/scientist dating organisation? That's almost as good as Llama Speed-Dating (which is a real thing btw, you get to meet the man/woman of your dreams while walking a llama up a hill.)

It occurs to me that not much of that was stuff that occurred to me, it was just stuff. Anyway, putting the magazines down for a sec, Neil Gaiman has posted pics of the novel he is currently writing, all in its pretty little notebook, and I thought it was rather a fun thing to see. :)

Also: they threw another rock through the bus window! Before I got on this time. The driver had to stop to kick the bits of window out into the road.

Right, that'll do for now.

Here is a list of all the books lying around cluttering up my bedroom in a state of unreadness/half-readness:

• Prime, Poppy Z Brite


• Untold Stories, Alan Bennett


• The Rough Guide to Classical Music


• Doctor Who, Kim Newman


• The Noonday Demon, Andrew Solomon


• Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times


• The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Dorothy L Sayers


• Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman


• Never the Bride, Paul Magrs


• The Ode Less Travelled, Stephen Fry


• Giving Up the Ghost, Hilary Mantel


• The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova


• Summoned by Bells, John Betjeman


• The Taste of Britain, Laura Mason and Catherine Brown

I also have one on its way from eBay, plus a number of ebooks stored on my flash drive, just in case...

EDIT: Actually, now I look at it, that list is disappointingly small. I must go and buy more books!

Oh, how I should be asleep right now. Oh well.

Things include:

• Books: however did I ever cope without Lord Peter Wimsey to accompany me on bus journeys? My quality of life has improved tenfold.


• But my iPod is unwell, which takes the edge off it a bit.


• Our household has finally discovered The Mighty Boosh. IMMEDIATE OBSESSION ENSUES! Although that bit's mostly me.


• I LOVE being BRIEFLY OBSESSED WITH THINGS!


• NaNo has been neglected. I very much doubt I'll even get to 10,000 words before the month is out, but hopefully I'll carry on with it anyway.


• When I went to bed the other night with the idea of getting some SLEEP, I accidentally wrote Torchwood fic. BRAIN! GET WITH THE PROGRAM!


• Speaking of Torchwood, anyone who is remotely interested really ought to go to the fantastic website. And then, when you get sick of trying to make the pretty version work, go to the equally fantastic but less flashy one. There is some seriously cool stuff on here, including venn diagrams.


• They made me do work at work again. SIGH!

Goodnight.

I officially declare today One Of Those Days. That's just ... the kind of day it's been.

Evidence:

Raining.
Got a cold.
Wearing trousers that soak up rain, leaving self with damp ankles.
Left lunch at home.
No kitchen, appear to be living in a scrapyard.
Have to fill kettle in bath etc.
Had trouble finding replacement lunch in rain. No sandwiches to be had.
Forgot to top up monthly bus pass.
Wind blew umbrella inside out, hit self on head.
Magazine behind schedule, everyone hates everyone else.
Dropped bus pass under someone else's seat, then ipod battery ran out.
Still raining.

Anyone else noticed this sort of thing today?

I am back from my very, very nice holiday, but lying low. This is mainly because I can't be bothered to raise myself up from floor level, haha.

Things you can imagine I've posted about:

Not wanting to go to work tomorrow
The greatness and highness and impressiveness of cliffs
The real Trewissick!
The M5 wickerman
Jeeves is a wizard
Walking around
Writing is difficult
Too lazy to get second job or think seriously about advancing my pathetic career in any way
Being scared of cybermen when I was about eight or nine and walking down my street
Mickey and how I love Mickey because he is so fine etc
My brain's slightly scary love affair with Russell T Davies this weekend
Using this icon deliberately for once because I go to see Neil on Thursday hoorah!

Prominent figures in society need to stop having affairs with their secretaries. It's so boring. Here are some suggestions for people they could have affairs with instead:

• The postman


• The vet


• The dinner lady at the cafeteria who saves them extra roast potatoes


• A man they met on the bus, who sympathised with them about the rudeness of the driver


• The girl in the corner shop


• Tony Blair

Slept too late
had weird dreams
Missed people's birthdays.
Sorry peapod, gabbyhope.
Probably others too.
Doctor Who yay!
( Doctor Who spoilers )
:) :) :)
Lovely weather yesterday
but not today
Bought new shoes.
War of t'Worlds --
Tom Cruise: arse.
Dakota Fanning: die.
not really though
because that's horrible.
Must get going.
Go to shop.
Roast some things.
See Silent Hill.
Work tomorrow, boo!

We all went for a nice Easter Sunday walk this morning. The esturay wind was whippy and fine, and the sun shone. I am very unfit.

This evening I have been feeling: a bit discouraged about writing and life. Not looking forward to stupid family thing tomorrow, at all. Thumb hurty! I shut it in a door!!

I just ate leftover Chinese food. It's midnight. That's not right.

I received some wonderful nonsense-word spam today. Some of it sounds like the titles of novels that haven't been written yet. If you're looking for a good title, feel free to nick one of these:

• Illuminating the Rebellious


• Gifted But Fundamentalist


• With Feathery Degeneration


• Inconsistently Indiscreet Garland


• This Consecration of Hearts


• Parliament Rowdiness


• Disobedient as Dairy Baseball


• A Sanitary Napkin as an Incarnation


• Family Doctor and Bluebell: a Satire


• Afterwards a Jet Setter


• Immobile or Smoker


• Centennial on Froth


• Womankind Hijacking Bile

That is all: goodnight!