What can I say? I’ve been stranded without a computer for a whole month, which is the longest I’ve gone offline/disconnected… for a few centuries. My computer died, poor old thing. And not gracefully. It belched and seethed and just kinda gave up the ghost. Poof! Bye-bye! Etc.
Actually, it was probably the CPU, which had apparently been running without a fan for a few months—so that was what those funny noises were! And odd how they stopped a while back. Erm, yes. Well, I can’t have looks and brains. Ahem. So, seeing as the thing was generally in a crummy old state anyway, I quickly lost interest in getting it patched up… and £250 I can by no means afford later, I now have a decidedly average but adequate refurbished thingy. It’ll do for a while, anyhoo.
‘But was it an interesting computer-free month?’ Gee, thanks for asking! Er, well, yea and nay. It was in some respects a productive one, though consequently also a stressful one; I finally got everything cleared from the flat and back home, told all who needed to know (actually, no: still need to inform GP and bank, but no big deal)… and I’ve actually made this old room look bordering on respectable again, which I didn’t believe was possible. Needs some pictures and posters on the wall, tho’. Still, the stress in that respect is relieved a good deal. Phew and all that.
I’m also halfway through the second Harry Potter book—mom devoured all four swiftly and loved ’em. It’s one of those things you really want to hate on principle, i.e. cos everyone loves it, but, unfortunately, they are rather good. Dammit.
December 8th was a pleasant day out in London. I met up with some old friends, Paul Gravett and Tim Bateman. I hadn’t seen Tim, who I’ve known for 15 years, in almost three years! I’m down in London again next month, and I hope we can repeat this get-together.
Our little doggy Fred is bearing up so far. It’s a sad feeling to know he’ll not be around very much longer, and since his medication seems to have made him less energetic and incredibly gluttonous (steroids), he’s getting rather tubby now. I’ll miss him loads, but I hope he hangs around a while yet.
I think, once X-Mas and New Year’s is out of the way, I’m gonna get a job in an office or something. Creative energies are real low, and moreover, now that I have lessened some of my financial burdens, I’d like to see even more spare cash floating around v. v. soon. I was a bit bugged by the idea at one point, but I’m sort of getting into it more—never an easy thing, after a long time of trying to be creatively successful, to join the rat race, but my head feels more settled lately than it has for a long time.
Maybe I’ll go to the movies over the hols. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are curiously beckoning to me. The latter does look frankly stunning, at least visually, and one of my old heroes Christopher Lee has a pretty major role, so how can I go wrong? It’d be something to write about here, right? Christmas TV, of course, looks mostly pants again, but I’ll be scoping the two-part adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (the book’s really good, BTW), with Bob Hoskins and Peter Falk, and the Shakespeare in Love movie, which looks fascinatingly silly.
BTW, this blog is a year old now. Gulp. Anyway, I’m off. Be careful out there…