I'm all about the attainable goals

I hate myself a little bit for even writing these down, but it achieves Attainable Goal Number 2 on the list, so what the hell, sez I.

Attainable goal 1:

Read 100 new books.

Attainable goal 2:

Actually update my effing blog This includes both taking a photo a day and posting it, and scratching in my diary without thinking about it too much.

Attainable goal 3:

Maintain and complete my to do lists, daily and weekly.

Attainable goal 4:

After September, to never, ever, ever, ever have to go to Weightwatchers ever again.

Another iPod 10-track experiment

After I spent far too much time on a recent roadtrip just skipping song after song on my iPod, I realised that it's time for a clearout and reshuffle of the playlist. But before I get that far, I'm doing another 10-track experiment.

1) My Apology - Great Big Sea (Favourite line: 'Probably best to forget and begin again, can't you see, that I'm sorry'.)

2) A and B Song - Tom McCrae (Favourite line: 'Here we are together, let's roll the dice just one more time, odd number says we walk away now, even says we die'.)

3) Legal Man - Belle and Sebastian (Favourite line: 'Not withstanding provisions of clauses 1, 2, 3 and 4, Extend contractual period, me and you for evermore'.)

4) Stars - Simply Red (Favourite line: 'A lover's promise never came with a maybe'.)

5) New Slang - The Shins (Favourite line: 'Never should have called, But my head's to the wall and I'm lonely'.)

6) What Difference Does it Make? - The Smiths (Favourite line: 'Heavy words are so lightly thrown,
But still I'd leap in front of a flying bullet for you'.)

7) Desperado - Johnny Cash (Favourite line: 'It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you'.) 

8) My Life Would Suck Without You - Kelly Clarkson (Favourite line: 'My life would suck without you'.)

9) God Bless the Broken Road - Rascal Flatts (Favourite line: 'I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you, But you just smile and take my hand, You've been there you understand'.)

10) St Robinson in His Cadillac Dream - Counting Crows (Favourite line: 'And I keep thinking tomorrow is coming today, So I am endlessly waiting'.)

I should challenge myself to narrow down my favourite lines more often. It's a pretty sound way to realise that most of these songs are absolute shite.

Five years in numbers

In the five years I've lived in the UK:

- I have moved six times.
- I have lived with 11 people.
- I have had four jobs.
- I have had three cars.
- I have been to three weddings.
- I have been to one funeral.
- I have travelled to five countries.
- I have added one nephew to the collection.
- The longest I've lived in one place has been 3 years.
- The longest I've been in one job has been 2 years.

This was what I wrote the day I arrived: June 10, 2007.

A few reviews

Things I've read:

Irish Rebel

Classic, formulaic Nora Roberts. I didn't realise that this was number three in a series. I loathe reading books out of order, so I'm a little annoyed about that. This is one of her Silhoutte efforts, so it's fairly short and light. A little bit of steam though. And some horses. Not together, obviously, that's a genre Nora Roberts wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

Love Me, Love Me Not

I'm almost embarrassed to tell you how long this has been sitting on my TBR pile - a long, long time. It's a compilation of short stories from various authors. It's quite the hit parade of well known names, and there are some really super stories. There is a fair amount of sap, too, but then, it is a collection of stories about love. The gems are all the more brilliant for that. And not all have happy endings, which is even better.


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Confession time. I have been meaning to read this book for a long, long time. I didn't actually know what it was about, but I had heard great things. On Friday I went to the cinema to see Like Crazy, and what should I see but a trailer for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Oh, I say to myself, I'll have to read that now. Can't see the movie if I haven't read the book (that's the rule). And then I thought, damn, going to have to buy it, but I'm not allowed to buy another book until after I've finished my next essay and done the required reading for Coriolanus (that's another rule, and there are at least three books I want so you can see how hard this is going to be). And then after the movie I went home and was admiring my bookshelves (...shut up...) what should I discover but a copy of...Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. No, I don't know when I bought it either. It was terribly good though. I can usually separate myself from my experience of reading a book. I feel the book, but usually I'm quite dispassionate about it as I think about it in the real world. But this book...it didn't upset me, exactly, and it didn't give me bad dreams. But I had sad, unexplained dreams, and that was almost worse. A really complicated, painful, sad, enjoyable read.

Things I've watched

Like Crazy

This is what I wrote about this movie on the forum I post to:

English girl in US meets guy, overstays student visa, much angst and separation as she is deported, they get married in the UK, US still denies her a visa, angst, angst, angst, the end. It was VERY emo. I thought the dialogue was very realistic, and very well paced. But it also reminded me excruciatingly of that phase we all go through in our early 20s, when we have those insanely dramatic and cringey relationships, with dramatic and cringey speeches and cutesy witticisms and ugh, I'm glad that's all over. She totally deserved to get deported, by the way, she knowingly overstayed her visa, and as we all know, You Do Not Fuck With The State Department or The Home Office, no matter how much you want to stay on Catalina Island and sleep with your emo, furniture designing boyfriend.

Perhaps I'm just too old and decrepit and cynical for a movie like this..


Whip It

I'm not sure I could even tell you the names of the characters, the movie is a bit of a blur. I think I enjoyed it, but I watched as I was editing something, and then it was 5:30 in the morning and perhaps I need to watch it again and provide a better review. I do like Ellen Page, although she always seems to play another version of Juno.

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows 


Sigh. I enjoyed the first reversioned Sherlock Holmes a ton - I really liked Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr, and what they did with the characters. Big fan. But I fear I have been ruined for all non-Stephen Moffat versions of Sherlock Holmes forever. The fact that this movie deals with Reichenbach Falls didn't help - I could kick myself for not going to see the movie when it first came out. Then at least I could distance myself from the different interpretations of these characters.

Stuck choosing a fantasy or sci fi book?

Be stuck no more.

I'm ok, I have a flowchart!

Latest order from Amazon

• Ultimate X-Men Volume 1: Tomorrow People TPB: Tomorrow People v. 1 (Mark Millar)
• The Handbook to Literary Research (Delia da Sousa Correa, W. R. Owens)
• A Companion to the History of the Book (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture) (Simon Eliot, Jonathan Rose)
• Gilmore Girls - Season 6 [DVD]
• Gilmore Girls Season 7 [DVD]

Bizarrely, I know W.R. Owens, who edited The Handbook to Literary Research. He goes by Bob, and is very nice, if usually unavailable. I suppose that happens a lot when you do your Thing through your Workplace.

I'm still anxiously awaiting delivery of Meeulanders, which is coming from South Africa and is probably languishing in customs as I type.

And I've just realised that somehow my order of a Star Trek novelisation hasn't processed. Damn!

Three best things about the week so far

1) The plain margarita I had tonight.

2) The smoked margarita I had tonight.

3) Publishing something I've been working on for more than a year.

Stuff everywhere

Stuff all over my room. Stuff in my bag. Stuff in my head. Stuff on my desk. Stuff under my bed. Stuff I want to eat. Stuff I want to eat but shouldn't. Stuff I need to do but don't want to. Stuff I need to do and want to but other stuff keeps getting in the way. Stuff that keeps getting in the way. Stuff to read. Stuff to watch. Stuff to play. Stuff to post. Stuff to copy. Stuff to plan. Stuff to remember. Stuff to forget.

Stuff.

Things I have achieved today

• Not changing out of my pyjamas.
• Finishing my latest book.
• Brushing the dog.
• Drinking a lot of Diet Coke.
• Annoying the hamsters.
• Untying some washing line for my mother.
• Eating grilled cheese and onion sandwiches.
• Not thought about work. Much. Although I checked my email a bit.

The things you learn in Devon

- It's never cold, it's just windy.
- Miss Molly's daughter has succumbed to prostitution and taken the name Westward Ho!
- Religions revolving around arses opens up a world of bum-related humour, which never gets old.
- The National Trust is just a front. In fact, this fine and upstanding organisation is a cover up for a network of hitmen. The victims are turned into compost, to help those lovely gardens grow.
- Gnomes are scary.
- Gnomes are extremely scary.
- Gnomes really are quite terrifying.
- The answer to Twenty Questions rarely involves someone involved in shipping.
- Kites are harder to fly than you think.

Latest order from Amazon

1 x Silent Hamster Wheel

1 x Star Trek Voyager: The Complete Season 2

So the hamsters can run as far as they bloody want, and won't disturb my TV watching. That wheel was driving me nutty.

For Marissa

The latest books added to my collection are:

The Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
Restoring Grace - Katie Fforde
Paradise Fields - Katie Fforde
Life Skills - Katie Fforde
The Shipping News - E Annie Proulx
The Sandcastle - Iris Murdoch
The Idea of Perfection - Kate Grenville
Anna Karenin - Leo Tolstoy
Possession - AS Byatt
Fast Woman - Jennifer Crusie
Enigma - Robert Harries
Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
The Sound and the Fury - 40 years of classic rock journalism
Disgrace - JM Coetzee
The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino
London's Underworld - Fergus Linnane

A nice derangement I'd say.