Archive for December, 2009
Rainy Days
Friday. These days are rainy. And sometimes exceptionally cold. Well, cold for Singapore anyway.
By now, I’ve written enough to satisfy my mathematical quota for the holidays, even though I did so without having any idea what I was doing. Which is fairly miraculous, because it doesn’t look like it was a waste of time. Now I have to sort out a bit of old writing, and after that I’ll be back on the case to try to do what I can as it goes along. No point in sticking to my objective, which wasn’t an impressive one to begin with. It was just to ensure that I got work done.
The results are coming on Tuesday. To be fair, only one subject in particular scares me, but it’s enough to make it a potentially awful day. (And a potentially awful start to the new year, I suppose.) So I guess I should enjoy the last weekend before it gets dark.
These days, I just kind of oscillate between being perfectly normal, getting tremendously upset, and going absolutely batty. These are strange days. Some things, well, two things actually, tend to threaten to drive me crazy. And strangely, the only things that lend any sense of normalcy to these days are the things that I’m not looking forward to at all, the chores and the like. All the mundane things. It is a remarkable sensation. I say remarkable because I can’t decide if it’s a good thing or not.
Well, sure doesn’t affect my work, and I’ve actually been quite successful in keeping it to myself, so it doesn’t actually have any pronounced effect on my life. Which is great. I suppose. That part anyway.
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Days go by.
Quite rapidly too.
Less than ten days to Christmas. Less than a week to my results. These days are really moving very quickly. While I’ve managed to do a number of things, it’s still moving a little too quickly for comfort. In fact, it feels a little as if it’s accelerating. I must be enjoying myself. Well, not exactly, but there have been small pockets of such holiday-enjoying in my otherwise monotonous and unhappy work.
Shopping today.
Shopping today, and I hope to get most of the Christmas (and slightly post-Christmas) shopping done. I also hope I don’t end up splurging on something by accident. Although that said, accidents happen a lot of the time.
I also happen to need an interesting place to visit on Saturday. I have to figure that out soon. Yesterday was an interesting day out, though I say this in the most by-the-way fashion possible.
Otherwise, nothing interesting.
Funny how time goes by so quickly even when nothing interesting is happening. I thought there was a law against these things.
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The Year Ahead
While busily locked in the throes of misery and attempting to extricate myself from complete depression, it was somewhat interesting to note that we are in fact at the end of a very unusual year, and that there are a few nice things to look forward to in the coming year.
There are, for instance, books that I’m meant to read next year, and with the likes of Banville’s The Infinities and Morrison’s A Mercy on my list, I think it’s fairly safe to say that I’m in for a good year.
But there are a bunch of new books that I’m waiting to get a hold of as well. While I don’t keep up with the industry as much as I would like to, it’s easy to see a few translations at least popping up in the next year. Off the top of my head, I can think of one or two new Bolaño books and the Saramago book about the elephant. (I was going to say Murakami’s 1Q84 but I think that’s in 2011.) And there are still some books that have only just been released that I’ll be looking to get my hands on as well, including Saramago’s Small Memories and Vonnegut’s Look At The Birdie.
Then… games! Plenty of games to be looking forward to. It scares me a little that many of them are coming in the first quarter of the year, but we’ll see how it goes and… improvise.
I believe there’s a new Radiohead album coming. I remember reading it somewhere. It doesn’t feel like it’s been so long since In Rainbows was released, but that’s only because the queality of that album left me more than a little spoiled. Let’s hope that this turns out to be one of the highlights of the year.
I suppose there’s going to be a new Beatles release, but after the monumental Remasters releases, I don’t think there’s very much that’s going to top that, so it’s likely to be more low-key. I’m also curious to see what the Last Shadow Puppets come up with next.
There’s also new TV. Ashes To Ashes is on its final series, in particular, and I’m curious to find out how it ends. (I haven’t actually watched the first two series, just Life On Mars, because I think it hasn’t shown over here yet, but it’s still good to know that it’s coming in 2010.)
And finally, I’ve been trying to plan my camera upgrades for a long, long time. Word has it that a new D700-type FX model will be coming soon, which makes a lot of sense, and maybe then I can start to properly plan the large-scale changes in my kit.
So, it’s going to be a promising year, even if it isn’t going to be particularly happy. While still leaning closely on the edge of total despair, it’s nice to think that there are things to look forward to.
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Spending Time
So…
I’ve been writing, been sorting out some chores, been playing some Dragon Age and been watching some classic television shows. It’s all going kind of okay. I think I have to speed up on the chores. I’m quite efficient in Dragon Age. And the classic television are as classic as ever. Writing, on the other hand, proceeds a little like a headless chicken. I’m trying to steer it somewhere, somehow, but keep in mind that I’m basically starting with nothing, working with nothing. I’m just going ahead to see where it all pans out.
I’ve got some reasonable ideas, I think, but none of them will be sufficient to seize the whole thing and consolidate the entire project the way that these things ought to happen. (And I just realised that that’s an exceptionally vague way of describing things, but I tried.)
So, onwards, holidays. Onwards.
People
And I really need to get to meeting people. A few people that I need to find these holidays. Meet up, have fun, do stuff, talk nonsense, et cetera. Yes, I target a 70% success rate. Let’s hope I don’t end up too disappointing with regards to my attendance at social functions these holidays.
Love Story
I don’t know if you’ve seen this before, and I suppose I’m a little slow to the party, but anyway, here’s a very good Schweppes viral video:
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