Hergest Ridge

Kaninchen ist ein Wort, das als Kind sehr schrecklich zu mir war. Das kam nicht von Monty Python, sonnst von Deutsch Klassen im Tröstau.

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Er, so I thought I’m in the mood for a blog entry. Then the IM popped up, and I’m over the feeling of writing here. Yup, 10 mins on the IM is all it took. Guess it’ll be one of those low attention span days. 18th in a row. Go figure.

I’ve finally got used to the early Wednesday mornings. I even managed to crash ‘early’ last night, at about 1:30. That’s four and a half hours of sleep, almost two more than I tend to get on these days. Still, as usual I didn’t rest well. I wake up half an hour early or so, thinking I must have missed the alarm clocks (yes, plural). Of course I haven’t, but knowing there is only half an hour left, I don’t really get any more rest. Now I know most people have to get up early five days a week, but I’m not most people. My normal sleeping hours are from 4:00 to 10:00. One of the perks of having your home be your office and HQ.

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s Valentines Day. I can almost hear the little promo voice in the background remind the world that “This day is brought to you by Hallmark.” Having cleared the air in regard to my stance on the issue, I’ve already exceeded the amount of space I wish to dedicate to the subject.

I’m already a bit behind on reaching my forum goals of getting an average 400 quality posts per day by 2008. I have to remind myself that this is a long haul thing which will snowball with time, and that consistent moderate efforts are a hundred times better than random, intense efforts.

On a side note, Google doesn’t like the forums once again, but I have a suspicion that this time it’s a result of too many new inbound links in a short period of time. If so, things should sort themselves out soon, with higher rankings to boot. To be honest, these days I don’t care that much for Google and their sporadic rankings. Site traffic is increasing at a healthy pace without their help. :)

Seems to be all the rage today, so here is my list of five things you may not have known about me. First one to comment and with their own blog is tagged for a list of their own. :)

• I love numbers. It’s one thing that always makes sense, and is consistent; Even when I don’t understand it.
• The biggest age gap between myself and someone I was in a relationship with was 12 years older.
• I was born into Catholicism, and have been atheist since the age of 14.
• I have a very definitive ‘list of role models’, but no one other than me could detail it.
• I admire ‘vegetarians on reason of morality’.

I’m unlikely to fill any blanks or answer questions that the revelations may have created, so don’t ask. :)

Law of relativity: The weekend goes by at twice the speed of the week, by a wide margin disproportionate to length ratio.

Speaking of time, five years have passed since the start of the relationship with my current sweetheart. Like every other meaningful relationship in my life, it started discretely, a mere backdrop in days with focus on other things. As time passed, the other layers peeled away and that which was once part of the background is now - and for ever will be - a permanent and central part of my twenties.

For the first time in probably ten years, on Friday I’ve taken out a library book (Larry’s Party). While it has been about ten years since I’ve last held a library book, I’d say it’s not that unlikely that it may actually be fifteen years or so since I fully read anything from the library. With Larry’s Party almost behind me, I wonder what’s happening to me! Who is this person reading a second book in two months? Last time I read so much was while working at a gas station. One of the summer months while on the job, I read a total of 2,700 pages in a month (yes, I have a ‘thing’ for numbers and stats and figures). Books like “I Know This Much is True” (Wally Lamb), “A Confederacy of Dunces” (John Kennedy Toole) and a few other books not really worth the space in this entry.

As a kid, I read a lot. Got it from my mom I suppose. These days, there are too many distractions that keep my attention elsewhere, but I’m again making room for books. Had I been born 50 years ago, I’d likely be a Book Worm instead of playing the damn game (Deluxe!).

Larry’s Party is set in my home town (home as in present home - god knows I have no idea where home is, in the sense of the word that most people would use it in), and that ads some attachment to the book. Most places described in it, I could get to without picking up a map. Maybe that’s part of the connection I formed with the story. It’s a bit like watching a movie while under the influence of magical mushrooms (zoomers, as they are often rightfully called). It really pulls you into the story that much deeper. You feel it as if you were there.

Earlier in January, I read “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins (birthday present from my GF - yay for five year anniversaries!), and I’m making the book a main subject of a blog entry already started, but not yet complete and published.

Next up will be “The Plague” by Albert Camus. On the surface, the book is about a virulent plague that takes over a remote town. Underneath, it’s the story of the Nazi cancer coming to power and unleashing destruction that would make many deadly viruses envious of the death toll.

And then, I think I’ll re-read “A Confederacy of Dunces“, a book like no other I’ve read nor heard about. It’s a total comedy, bizzare and funny, and one of only two books credited to Toole, whom committed suicide shortly after completing it.

Of course, all this reading coming up is assuming I get through the last hundred pages of Larry’s Party, and stick with the reading habit instead of again getting distracted with other activities for a decade or so…

The play list loaded, the stage is set for another blog entry. Per self-imposed contract, the list is short, designed to aid in honouring the 15 or so minutes during which the post is to be completed. With everything seemingly in place, a final interruption: tea spilled all over the desk.

“When the Night Feels My Song” almost over, the desk cleanup is completed. Had the spill happened yesterday, cleanup would still be well under way. You see, yesterday the desk was covered in all the things that desks often find themselves hidden under. But not today. Today, the desk is clean, waiting for the spill.

The day started with the sound of two alarm clocks taking their turns at waking the owner. One was an old Nokia phone, the ring starting quiet and in stages getting louder. The other was a radio clock designed to look like a TV with one channel that always gave the time (not always: after a power outage the clock, in doomsday fashion, displayed a flashing 12:00 that didn’t increment regardless of the hours and days that have since weaved their way into the fabric of the past). The radio clock’s waking strategy was a bold one, for it was to jolt the owner out of bed in an instant. Risking its own existence that could at any time be terminated through a wide range of destructive events that are wished upon it by the waking mind.

The kitchen, like the office desk, was finally clean. A late night Friday cleaning effort finally brought it into the civilised ranks. Who cleans their kitchen on a Friday night anyway? How sad. The only consolation to the sadness was a usable cooking space the next morning. Crepes on the menu, and then on the plate… Tick-tack, tick-tack, tick-tack. Where do the hours of our lives go to, and why are they in such a rush?

Have you ever heard of a Malinowy Król? What a beautiful story. I’ll tell you about it another time. What about “Larry’s Party”? What a sad story. Is this really what our lives look like from a safe distance? If you are thinking “I hope not”, you are not doing enough to avoiding Larry’s fate thus far (page 85). Hope should be reserved for times where we have no control over the final outcome. For everything else, there is some sort of rational action that can be performed to counter the insanity cramming its way into our lives. How dramatic. Pfft.