General
Take Two
0Last night it was the workprint of “Blade Runner”, tonight an uncut DVD of “the New York Ripper”. Tomorrow, I’m out at my friend’s film night watching god knows what. Films, films, films. I can spend days and weeks doing nothing but work through the pile of unwatched DVDs teetering by the telly. I love getting obscure titles or odd versions of films I know. Finding that the DVD of “The Wizard Of Oz” had a deleted scene of it was like finding a secret passage under my bed. Something I’ve seen a thousand times and suddenly, a part of it that’s completely new.
More often than not though, I end up watching the same handful of old favourites. I can watch “Gregory’s Girl” over and over again. In fact, when I get to the end of it, I usually want to start it over straight away. Part of that is nostalgia. When I first watched gangly Gregory obsessing over the unobtainable Dorothy, I was in the middle of an unrequited teenage obsession of my own. Seeing Gregory fail in his mission, white jacket or no white jacket, but still end up with the (frankly far superior) Clare Grogan gave this misfit teenager hope that it would all work out for him in the last reel, too. Maybe that’s why I keep going back to it – that happy ending, that sense of hope, the idea that some unexpected thing might appear out of nowhere and make everything all right. If i just watch it enough times, I’ll work out the secret formula…
I never did get to take Clare Grogan to the country park, though.
Tuning Up
1Went to see the excellent Neil Hannon last night. As it was a solo show, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but his songs were clearly written as solo pieces and worked perfectly. He came on with a pipe, so i was sold straight away.
Of course, I left wanting a piano.
My house is currently filling up with stringed instruments, namely 2 acoustic guitars, 2 electric guitars,a 12 string acoustic, a bass, a banjo and a pink ukulele. There are also 3 or 4 harmonicas, 2 penny whistles and a synth, none of which i can play. I’m hoping that being surrounded by all these musical tools, somehow I’ll magically turn into a gifted multi-instrumentalist, or at least a moderately talented player of at least one damn thing. So far, not so much.
I’ve always wanted to play a keyboard instrument, though. The synth is too small and doesn’t feel like a keyboard and obviously has a number of other flaws which i haven’t thought up yet to excuse my inability to play it.
I suppose a piano is big, huge and impractical. Ah well, there’s always the accordion…
Round And Round
2Blogging in my lunch hour. Strictly speaking the “lunch” part covers about 20 minutes. The rest is usually spent checking Facebook, doing the crossword, checking Facebook, reading email, checking Facebook and reading the Guardian website. I’m not sure if I’ve become a teenage girl or an OAP.
Still struggling with the back-to-work thing. Having gotten a lift in yesterday, I’d forgotten just HOW early I have to get up in order to get the bus. More to the point, I forgot just how early I have to go to bed in order to get up early again. If it wasn’t for John Humphries, I’d still be in bed now.
Luckily, the bus driver is a star. He’s learned that it’s worth waiting five minutes to see if I come barreling round the corner with my shirt half buttoned and coat flapping in the wind, as the expansive outpouring of gratitude when I hurl myself on to the bus probably makes his day. Getting on in time and knowing I don’t have to trek to work via the “bus-swearing-wait-swear-tram-moreswearing-wait-swear-tram-swearyswearswear” alternative route certainly makes mine.
One day, when I’m in charge, I’ll make all public transport free. And there will be lots of it. And it will go everywhere. And it will run on Unicorn tears. And the exhaust will smell of newly baked bread and mirth. And none of the passengers will have mobile phones. Or brats. And the drivers will all know exactly where they are going.
you’d vote for me, wouldn’t you?
A Fair Day’s Work
5Back to the grindstone today. Even though I like my job, there’s no easy way to shift from holiday mindset to work-mode. From doing what you like, when you like as late as you like to diving out of bed early enough to iron a shirt, cram yourself into it and battle the rush hour traffic to get to your desk by 9. Working for exactly 3.5 hours, having 60 minutes for lunch (regardless of whether you’re hungry), then another 4 hours until you can stagger home.
Is anyone really suited to the 9-to-5 lifestyle? My body certainly prefers staying up until 4 a.m. and sleeping until noon. I used to work from home and found that the later I stayed up, the more productive I became. Once all the distractions were removed (no phone calls, no emails, no TV, no traffic noise), I could remain focussed for much longer periods of time.
As long as I was free to organise my work, I had no problem meeting deadlines. Working when you feel motivated, instead of when you have to sounds risky but my experience was that I got more done. In fact, I had more of a problem remembering to stop. When we geeks get our teeth into an interesting challenge, we want to keep going and have to be reminded to wash and eat.
Perhaps that’s the problem. Most of a days work is monotonous and dull. Without set hours and structure, we’d lose interest and drift off. So my path is clear – find a job that’s fascinating, motivating, intriguing, lets me work from home, in my own time, to my own schedule and doesn’t make me wear a tie.
How hard can that be?
One Down, Three To Go
0Seven days into my month of my NoMoBloPo. So far, I’m undecided about the benefits of forcing myself to blog every day. On the plus side, the discipline is good. Forcing myself to come up with something to a short deadline means I have to gag the internal critic and not worry about the imperfections. I’ve written more in the last week than in the last six months and i’ve not resorted to “filler” yet (this post notwithstanding…)
However, I’m not convinced that consistently producing sub-standard entries is a good thing. None of what I’ve written so far has been as good as I would usually aim for. Some of what I’ve posted feels to me like the start of a decent idea, but needing another few hours work. I’m not sure if it’s in the spirit of the game, but I may go back through them when the month is over and clean up and expand.
Or maybe that’s the lesson I need to learn – to finish something and move on to the next, instead of reworking and tinkering and hand-wringing. Developing the habit of starting AND finishing will be definitely be useful for the future. I’ve struggled in other creative projects to get beyond the initial idea and earliest “drafts” so perhaps i’ll learn how to break that cycle.
Another possiblity is that i’ll find a direction for the blog. Most of the blogs I admire have either a clearly defined subject and/or a distinctive writing style. Mine has always been a bit scattergun – whatever happens to be in my head when i got to the computer. Maybe after a month long exercise, I’ll finally work out what the hell i’m trying to say and how to keep saying it on a regular basis.