I'm really tired this evening. Can't be bothered sentences.

Anyway. Reason recent reticence. Tired of own ranting and angry talking sad things. Gone to ground. Buried head in sand. Pulled wool over own eyes. Went back under bedclothes.

Try for positive! Unexplained recent positive:

Radio: John le Carré, Attenboroughs.
Books. Brave Roman boys on noble quest.
Tickets for Russells.
Singing.
Battlestar G.
Beer festival. Mmm, chocolate orange beer. Friendly folky beardy men.
Friend's beautiful wedding, idyllic sunshine, butterflies etc. Friendly folky beardy men.
Chilli on plate.
Chilli on plant.
Sharing lolcat love.
Knitting Seaman's Cap.
Tomorrow: Keyboard buying for musical playing.

I still heart Ray Kowalski.

The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.

Like the person I nicked it from, I can't be bothered to do steps 2 and 3. I haven't bolded things I started or have read some of, like the Bible and Shakespeare.

( teh list )

It occurs to me that I might need to change the way I organise my life. Organising it, for example, might be a start.

Things I am currently achieving: Getting out of bed. Reading flist. Going to work and staying at my desk, awake, till 5pm, attempting to fit lunch in there at some point. Getting home again. Feeding myself. Occasionally getting to bed before midnight.

Other activities include signing up to things, starting things, buying things which I sometimes get around to taking out of the packaging. I constantly have 50 tabs open in Firefox, all of which are to be 'taken care of' at some mythical later date. I used to make endless lists, but now I can't even seem to find the time to do that. Then there's this BookMooch thing. I have requested eight books to be sent to me. Why, exactly? Why? From here, I can see at least four books I'm 'reading'. I've been 'reading' the same half a dozen books for months on end. Let's not even talk about the 'to read' pile! In return for the books I apparently felt need to be to added to this pile, I tonight wrapped up six of my own books to send to people I don't know in different parts of the world, and then realised I'd forgotten to write the return address on them and furthermore had written the recipient's address in such huge writing there was no room left for all the other things that you have to stick on parcels. So I just sat and stared at them for a while and then put them carefully in a pile and went on Ravelry, where I stared at other people's yarn I will never buy and other people's patterns I will never knit. Now it is 11.43, and I should be asleep, but I'm not, I'm typing this. What an evening I've had!

NaNo starts tomorrow. Since I started my new (and, yes, much better) job I haven't written more than about, ooh, a paragraph. Staring vacantly at half a television programme and eating half a large bar of Cadbury's Wholenut takes up all my energy. In fact, I seem to do lots of half things (or perhaps more accurately quarters and thirds) and it all adds up to a whole lot o' nothing.

Folks... I just can't help feeling I'm not existing at the highest possible level here.

500-year-old toilet - tank won't stop filling up, leaks inside and out. Is vile.
Bedroom window - slowly rotting away, lets in draughts and rain, afraid glass may fall out and kill someone.
Kitchen floor - hideous 70s lino, oddly joined, impossible to clean, badly needs replacing.
Kitchen cabinets - none of the doors fit. I had to glue some of them back together when I moved in.
Bathroom - carpeted. With ordinary carpet.
Hot water - too hot to wash hands or dishes without nasty scalding accident. Apparently non-adjustable.
Fridge - will not go cold enough, occasionally defrosts itself in the middle of the night.
Doorbell - only works intermittently, and then only emits quiet whirring sound.
Phone - goes straight to voicemail whenever it feels like it.
Neighbours in other flats - may be dead. Certainly can't manage to put the wheelie bins back after bin day, or understand how the recycling works.
Previous tenants - still receiving more post than me.
People next door - appear to have stolen my Tesco books delivery.
Living room furniture - incredibly uncomfortable.
Freeview TV - does not pick up Channel 4, but does offer me the entire range of shopping channels.
Landlord - never answers phone.

Still - at least the internet works!

ETA: I just wanted to point out that I do actually quite like my flat, apart from all of the above.

As follows:

1. I really loved last night's Doctor Who. ( :) )

2. I had a dream in which I was on a beach in Kent, and Ewan McGregor was a dashing, tricksy hanglider criminal, but then Simon Pegg swooped in in a helicopter and they had an exciting aerial dogfight, and Simon Pegg won, and arrested him with a plastic gun inscribed with the words 'Art Attack Academy II', and then it was all jokes, handcuffs and kissing.

3. I have been punished for spending money by dropping my monthly buss pass thingy in a shop somewhere. I'd just put £40 on it. This has made me unhappy. :(

4. There has been some interesting stuff on Making Light recently about this whole FanLib nonsense, and about fanfiction and legality. I should trot on over and have a look if that's your bag.

5. I have given up writing in order to spend more time attempting to remove limescale from my bathtub.

6. Behind with comments again. Sorry sorry sorry times a million, as per usual.

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.

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!

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?

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

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!