Steady

This time last year, I was blogging with stabilizers.

I might need some stabilizers now.

The stabilizers were several 'prompts' that I stole from Lucy's DeviantArt page. They ask you a series of questions, so you don't have to worry about coming up with something from scratch.

I'm used to coming up with things from scratch. Scratch is my main source of material. Scratch is the primordial soup from which my blog posts emerge, glistening and deformed, creating entertainment and amusement, before being put down after about fifteen minutes.

But I need to give scratch some time to replenish itself. So I'm sticking the stabilizers back on. And I'm spelling stabilizers with a 'z'. Because the 'z' is a much more sturdy structure than the floppy 's'.

The prompts are as follows:

Mood
Listening to
Reading
Watching
Playing
Eating 
Drinking


They will guide me through this post, like a little blind girl pulling me through a hedge maze. And you can learn a little bit about what makes me tick. (It's clockwork.)

I could have just begun with the prompts and not bothered with this over-long introduction. But I've never been one to back down from a long introduction. The longer the introduction, the less likely I am to forget someone's name. Or more likely. I'm not sure.

***

Mood

Reasonably content. It's a Sunday, so my spirits can only go so high before banging their head on Monday morning. But it's a lovely day and I have Liverpool-Man City to look forward to.

I also just cleaned the kitchen, which has made me feel a bit more relaxed. I don't like having crumbs on the floor. It reminds me too much of a terrible bread massacre I once drew on a baker's hat.

Listening to

Assorted things. I haven't bought much music lately, so I've been combing my own archives (which can make you go blind). So why not have a chunk of delicious 90s hip-hop?

Grand Puba - I Like It

Reading

I'm in the middle of a Terry Pratchett book called Nation. I've never read any Pratchett before, and this isn't set in the Discworld, but I'm enjoying it so far.

I'm also still trying to read Milton's Collected Works as part of my Idiot Flaps Odyssey (remember that?), but am struggling to motivate myself. I think I'm getting stupider as I get older. Hopefully I'll soon be stupid enough to not realise that I'm stupid at all.

Watching

Frozen Planet, baby! You can't go wrong with Att-Att WALKA (that's my nickname for David Attenborough that I just though of). Watching the last episode, we kept thinking our minds couldn't be further blown, but blown they were.

I've also been watching Channel 4's Fresh Meat - a student comedy-drama about students, created by the Peep Show people. It's not hugely funny, but is really well done. It also manages to avoid too many student clichés. I'm looking forward to season two.

Playing

I remember finding this prompt problematic. I don't play much. Or work much. To little work and too little play make Jack a non-existent boy.

Maybe I'll start inventing my own games. Like The Wrist Game.

Here are the rules for The Wrist Game:

Lick as many different wrists as you can during a 24-hour period
Bonus points for animal wrists (ankles are not wrists)
Watches and wrist-bands don't count - it must be the skin of the wrist
If a stranger is angry at you for licking her (or his) wrist, simply point them to this blog post. They will understand.

My score is currently: 1.

I'm probably not taking it seriously enough.

Eating

Clementines. Dozens and dozens of clementines. Too many. I mean, I'm sure they're good for you, but not in this quantity. I enjoy the taste, but also the activity of peeling and depithifying. It's therapeutic.

(Some fools will try to claim satsumas are better. They are not. Satsumas are puffy and tasteless. You might as well eat an orange pillow.)

Drinking

Jasmine tea. It's hot and tasty and a good palate cleanser (but not, as I originally though, a good palette cleanser). It also washes away any clementine-related guilt that might be tainting your sinful tongue.

***

There. These stabilizers have done me the power of good.

A few more of these posts and I'll have the confidence to once again walk on my own two feet, pick up a handful of scratch, and mould it into an initially appealing, but ultimately disappointing, shape.