vanillaflavoureddavid

Watch me ollie!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Boo!

I've let this thing slide for ages, haven't I? Ah, well. It seems that about half the non-porn internet consists of pages like this. Sporadic nonsense, links to a bunch of crap you've already been forwarded more than you'd like, and periods of prolonged silence followed by excuses and promises. Bah.

So let's continue this tiresomely formulaic exercise, eh?

This time around, I'm mostly going to be blathering on about videogames.

But first, a few self-indulgent tidbits, continuing on from some themes I set up during my traditional "New Year's Resolutions" phase.

1. The health/fitness thing. At the half-year mark, I give myself about a 6 out of 10 on this front. I've sort of managed to run and exercise off my own bat in a semi-regular fashion, and I've also joined a soccer team and play once a week. I never thought I'd be drawn to organised sports, but there you have it. It's a whole new thing to me, and I'm actually thoroughly enjoying it. I've had an extremely easy introduction to the game, since the team I play on is made up of excellent players, and we routinely trounce our opposition, despite my own personal ineptitude. I'm usually nervous and twitchy before the game, surprisingly aggressive and competitive during it, and then exhausted and apologetic once it's all over. I guess that's mostly as it should be.

On the whole, I'm feeling a lot better, and have become aware of a few muscles I didn't know existed, including this one long thin one that sort of goes up the outside of your lower leg from the ankle to the knee, and which hurts like a motherfucker after kicking a few soccer balls. I'm still way too fat, though, and I think it's because of the booze. I love a drink, but I'm going to give it a rest for a couple of weeks or so and see if that makes a difference.

2. On the writing front, I can't really give myself better than a 4 out of 10. I wrote another magazine article earlier in the year, but just between you, me and the lamppost, I think it was a bit shit. The childrens book I was working on was going quite well for a few months, but when some crunch time came up at work, I simply didn't have any time to devote to it. Then, when my schedule went back to normal, I had lost my momentum. In the meanwhile, I've picked up on another idea that I prefer (which is actually for adult fiction), and am now a bit torn. Once the World Cup is over, I'm going to go back to scheduling a couple of sessions a week for writing, and go from there.

There's been a lot going on at work lately, but I'm not going to talk about it here anymore. There's just so much that I have to omit - anything I put here is going to sound like a statement from the government or something. Sorry.

I'm also going to attempt to leave the emo bullshit at the door from now on.

Here are some things that I'm enjoying at the moment:

1. The new Sodastream record.
2. Xbox Live. I get it now.
3. The Mighty Boosh. I'm extremely late to the party, but still.
4. Ridge Racer 6. Massively underrated.
5. Baddiel and Skinner's World Cup podcasts.

I'm hoping the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie will be awesome, too.

Oh, and my Xbox 360 apparently has its own blog now. Bless.

I've recently developed an almost unhealthy obsession with Lou Reed's Transformer - it's one of the best records I've ever heard, and I can't believe I only recently discovered it. Word is that Lou's back catalogue is a bit patchy - if anyone can offer any advice as to some other good records of his to pick up, I'd greatly appreciate it.

That'll do for now.