How do I blog?
Despite operating this blog for 6 months now, I feel like I still haven't worked out what I'm doing with it. The weeknotes format has fallen apart a bit. Either I've had too much going on, so I don't have time to write, or I have nothing going on and then I have nothing to write about.
When I think about what I'd like this blog to be, I keep coming back to LiveJournal. I was an avid LJ user for pretty much all of the 00s, and at the time it felt pretty special. Being able to follow the daily lives of ordinary people all over the world was still a real novelty at the time. There was a community called "A Day In My Life" where people took turns to document a regular day in text and photos, and it was always fascinating to tag along with someone in California or the Netherlands or whatever. (The Californians were always getting drive-thru coffees and the Dutch were always learning a fifth language.)
But maybe the answer is to go back to how I used to post on LiveJournal, i.e. basically just dump whatever was on my mind at the time and not worry about following any consistent theme or format.
This will be a longer post anyway because I've got a lot to catch up on.
I missed my own bed
After the New Forest trip a few weeks ago, I've had two more overnight trips, one for work and one to visit friends. It was fun to visit people but also I am very tired and really looking forward to just hanging out at home for a while.
The work trip was also alright. We had to do a lot of team-building exercises where you share facts about yourself. I always find those weirdly difficult. For some reason I'm still kind of anxious about being known at work. I feel like I keep a lot of myself back. Maybe this makes me seem enigmatic, but it's more likely I just come off as boring.
I'm still trying to write a book
I decided I was going to finish the first draft of Project Undertow by the end of April. All the travel has made this a bit tricky, but I think I still have a good shot at it.
Naturally I'm procrastinating on it by writing this blog post instead.
Talking about a writing project you're working on that nobody else has seen or is likely to see in the near future is kind of difficult. There's not much of a reason for anyone else to care about it. I think I mostly log my progress for my own satisfaction, and maybe some accountability.
Reading corner
When I was visiting my friends, we went to a second-hand bookshop in Peckham simply called "BOOKS" (basically the platonic ideal of a second-hand bookshop, floor-to-ceiling shelves of who-knows-what, strange opening hours, great old book smell) and at some point she forced a copy of Lord Jim at Home into my hands and told me to buy it. I'm glad she did because it was fantastic. One of those books that makes you go "who the hell wrote this and why haven't I heard of them before?" Everything that happens to the protagonist is horrible and everything the protagonist does is also horrible. The writing is great. I'll have to make a Ratlands Recommends page for it.
I also finally read 17776 a few weeks ago when everyone was talking about it. Holy shit??? I don't want to spoil any of it, so just trust me when I say it's amazing and you should check it out.
Music corner
I'm still accumulating CDs. My eBay shopping habits have actually dropped off pretty dramatically. Instead I've been buying more new music or going to the local second-hand record store, which has a small but consistently deadly (to my wallet) collection.
Buying a new CD always makes me feel like I'm supporting the arts, as if I'm a modern-day Medici instead of just some random asshole with disposable income. The record store gives me a similar feeling, except sometimes the employees will give my selection an approving nod and a "nice", and it turns out I'm incredibly susceptible to wanting to have my taste complimented by record store employees. (Bookshop employees have this same power over me.)
Unfortunately the album I'm most into right now – the Nine Inch Noize one – is still a streaming exclusive. Please, Trent, gimme the CD. I need the shiny discs.
Seriously though, this album's such a fucking banger. Go listen to the Coachella performance of "Heresy" and then tell me I'm wrong. You can't! That would be lying!
Between this and the new Slayyyter, I think my musical theme for spring is "music that belongs at the blood rave from Blade".