We're Not Getting Any Further Into December Without Doing This Meme.

Current clothes: Olive-colored sweatshirt with the sleeves bunched up at the elbows. Blue jeans. White socks. Gray sneakers.

Current mood: A little rushed right now, but generally very good. I don't know what it is, but lately even when I'm not really doing much of anything, I feel like I'm having a lot of fun doing it. It's weird, but I'm not going to complain about it.

Current music: Of late I've mostly been trying to catch up on the zillion podcasts I've downloaded, with a rather surprising degree of success. But I was just listening to some random-shuffle stuff while I was hanging up laundry. Most recently played: "Learn to Fly" by Carbon Leaf.

Current annoyance: The discovery that I accidentally left a tampon in the back pocket of a pair of jeans when I put them in the laundry. The results are sort of like when you leave a kleenex in the pocket, only even more annoying.

Current thing: OK, yes, I have been continuing to play The Sims 2 -- see "current song in head" -- but I've been rationing my time on it. Honestly.

Current desktop picture: This image from the Doctor Who Christmas station break thingy I linked to in the last post.

Current book: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. This was written in 1968 and set in 2010, which makes reading it for the first time in almost-2010 a slightly odd experience. As is almost inevitable -- and, in this case, was undoubtedly a deliberate choice -- it's really not about 2010 at all, but about the issues and concerns of 1968, projected and magnified onto the screen of an imagined future. Needless to say, the issues and concerns of 1968 are largely not the issues of today, so that the only way I can properly appreciate this book is to try to rewind my brain back to 1968 and then spin it forward again. Which is something of a challenge, considering that I was born in 1971. But that mental exercise really is necessary, because that projection is mostly all there is; the characters and plot seem to exist mainly as scaffolding for Brunner's social commentary. It's a very carefully constructed and highly provocative projection, mind you, and I imagine it must have made quite an impact on contemporary readers, but at this point it's mainly only of historical interest. It seems to me that that alone ought to be enough to make it worthwhile reading, but I have to confess that I'm kind of struggling with it.

Current song in head: Various bits of music from The Sims 2, notably that salsa tune they seem to really enjoy dancing to.

Current DVD in player: Disc 2 of season 5 of Numb3rs. I really like this show. Objectively, it's not a work of artistic brilliance or anything, being just another crime-of-the-week show, albeit one with an excellent cast. But the fact that a show about solving crime with math not only made it onto the air, but is actually very successful... I swear, it gives me renewed hope for humanity. And it's immense fun to watch. I don't even care how accurate it all is.

Current refreshment: Nothing, but I'm getting very hungry.

Current worry: That if I spend too much more time on the internet right now, I'm not going to have time to cook and eat lunch before I have to leave for work.

Current thought: Where are my mornings going lately? Or even my "mornings," which partially take place in the early afternoon this week. How is it 1:30 already?