Tuesday, April 10, 2018

April Currentlies

See, I said I was going to keep doing these, at least for a while!

I have made one change, though. You can tell this meme dates back a long, long way from that "current DVD in player" entry that's been there from the beginning. I actually still have a Netflix DVD subscription and watch probably more DVDs than most people, and even I am sometimes streaming stuff instead. So I've changed that one to "currently watching." Finally.

Current clothes: Blue jeans. White socks. A really cool t-shirt with an illustration of Terry Pratchett's Discworld in the style of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

Current mood: Not great. It's been one of those days, kind of, and I'm tired and a bit put out.

Current music: H.P. Joelcraft , in which some guy sings the words of an H. P. Lovecraft poem to the tune of "Piano Man." Even though he mispronounces a couple of words, it's pretty amazing.

Current annoyance: Oh, geez, where to even start. Some frustrating stuff at work that I've let get to me. A to do list that just gets longer and longer the more I do. Desperately wanting to take a week or two of vacation time just to de-stress and get some things done, and being entitled to do so, but not being able to because we're constantly short-handed. Enduring seemingly endless rounds of dentistry and still not having a normal mouth with a full complement of teeth. Oh, and the all-encompassing existential angst. Can't forget that.

Current thing: I've been playing One Hour, One Life. Which is an odd little video game thingy, and I'm still trying to decide whether it's something I'm going to want to continue playing for very long, because aspects of it have the potential to get pretty frustrating. But it's a really fascinating idea for a game, and it's been interesting to experience.

Current desktop picture: Still the 12th Doctor. We really, really need to get some 13th Doctor episodes soon, just so I can find the motivation to change my wallpaper.

Current book: I've just finished Oneiron by Laura Lindstedt, a weird Finnish novel. It's well written in a lot of respects, but kind of experimental in ways that didn't entirely work for me. Next up is A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back by Kevin Hazzard.

Current song in head: Hmm, I'm not sure I have one at the moment.

Current refreshment: Mint tea.

Currently watching: I've been streaming season 2 of Black Mirror. I know I'm way beyond the curve here, but I'm glad to be finally catching up with it now, even though I haven't been nearly as impressed with season 2 as I was with season 1 (to whatever extent you can actually say that when the "seasons" are about three episodes long). It feels very much like a sort of Twilight Zone for the 21st century.

Current happy thing: It's my Friday night. Hooray!

Current thought: Sometimes, inevitably, we all end up thinking, "Man, what am I even doing with my life?" This may be one of those times.

Sunday, April 01, 2018

April Thoughts

Happy Easter! And Happy April Fool's Day! Do try not to fall for any egg-related pranks.

So, it is now April, at least in my time zone, and for the last few years, April has traditionally been the month when I revive my flagging desire to blog by posting something here every day. But this year... I don't know. I think I might be done with that.

Because, honestly, there's a reason why I'm posting here less and less and less. This sort of personal blog, in 2018, feels like a relic of another era. These days, other platforms fill the function that spaces like this once did. The problem is, those other platforms don't really do much for me. I'm too long-winded for Twitter, and, anyway, not many people I know are on Twitter. And I can't even wrap my brain around places like Instagram and Tumblr, where posts seem to mostly revolve around images. I don't think in images. I certainly can't communicate in them.

Nowadays, of course, there is one place for personal thoughts and ruminations of various lengths, with or without pictures, to keep friends and family updated on your life and perhaps to reach out into the world at large. But every day, there are more and more reasons why I don't want to be on Facebook, even though every day it seems to get harder to actually participate in society without a Facebook account.

So, yeah, I dunno. I'm probably not ready to let this ol' place go completely dormant yet. I'm pretty sure I'll at least still pop in once a month and do the "currently" meme. That's a grand old tradition by now, and it's kind of fun, and it seems like a good way to check in. But pretending this thing is still a going cocern seems a little bit silly.