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Successfully fighting boredom
Oct. 11th, 2013 10:11 amI might be expelling the Devil with Beelzebub's help, as the German saying goes, but I've found the perfect means to stay entertained: I got myself a twitter account. And suddenly there's such a lot to read that I barely have time to keep up with facebook :-) LJ isn't being so very active right now, so I'm not getting completely stressed-out. I can see how on might get addicted to this twitter, thing, though -- fortunately my mobile doesn't support it, and I'm in no way tempted to open it at home, so I daresay I'm safe. For now.
Speaking of home, I'm really getting my household routine straight, and straight it will remain unless my sleeping pattern changes. As things are, I wake up some time between 4.30 and 5 a.m. and don't have to be at work before 8.30 or 9, which means that there's enough time for both relaxing and getting the cleaning done. Not all of it of course, but I manage to give the Critters their dry food, change their water, clean their toilets, put stuff away and hoover the whole flat in little more than an hour, and while the coffee's brewing I do something extra like clean the work surfaces in the kitchen.
The Critters do *not* like me hoovering, but that can't be helped.
Sometimes I think that the "my cat actually loves the sound of hoovering// rides around on the hoover" stories are urban legends like the giant spider emerging from the innocent-looking potted plant.
In dvd-watching news, I quite liked "Firefly". Pity, really, that they discontinued it -- not only is the plot intriguing, but the mix of sci-fi, western and steampunk elements is very cleverly done. Needless to say that I ordered "Serenity", the movie that (hopefully really) ties up some of the loose plot threads.
Still not finished with "How I Met Your Mother" season 8.
Already drooling over the still-waiting-for-me 5th season of "Breaking Bad". But soon, very soon :-)
In reading news, I started two books almost simultaneously -- this mostly happens if I decide to have lunch somewhere by myself but forgot to take a book. So I get another one and parallel reading happens.
One is "The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson. I'm maybe 70 pages into it and like it, but can't quite see why it won the 2010 Booker Prize. But maybe that will become clearer as I read on. Or not, and it merely won because the competition was weak.
The other is "Sweet Tooth", a spy novel by Ian McEwan -- one of my all-time, most-beloved writers evah -- and it *is* excellent. As a rule I'm a bit wary of male writers writing 1st person from a female perspective, but McEwan can do it, and do it superbly.
This is one of the reasons why I don't read any German non-fiction anymore, except for Olympus-dwelling, mostly dead authors: Most contemporary novels written in German (i.e. German, Austrian and Swiss) are, to me, unbearably meta-wanky, must-be-highly-intellectual exercises in producing something unappealing. I rarely get this feeling with Emglish- or American-speaking writers. I mean, take "Sweet Tooth": you can't get a lot more meta in non-fiction, but if a reader is so inclined, she or he may read it just for the plot, and still be perfectly satisfied. *That's* great writing to me. (Though it doesn't have to be meta; I enjoy your basic Ian Rankin just as much).
OMG there are new tweets to look at!!! *flails and hurries off*
ETA:
Similarly, in the years since Mantel's first victory, being favourite has sometimes looked like a curse. The following year Tom McCarthy's C attracted so much money that Ladbrokes, suspecting a leak, suspended betting a week before the ceremony and William Hill made it a near-cert at 11/10 on; the prize went instead to Howard Jacobson, viewed as a no-hoper as a comic novelist and so on offer at an appetising 7/1.
Seek, and you shall find :-) Now I know why! And I didn't even search for it but found it by mere chance, reading this: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/11/bookies-jim-crace-man-booker-prize?CMP=twt_fd
Speaking of home, I'm really getting my household routine straight, and straight it will remain unless my sleeping pattern changes. As things are, I wake up some time between 4.30 and 5 a.m. and don't have to be at work before 8.30 or 9, which means that there's enough time for both relaxing and getting the cleaning done. Not all of it of course, but I manage to give the Critters their dry food, change their water, clean their toilets, put stuff away and hoover the whole flat in little more than an hour, and while the coffee's brewing I do something extra like clean the work surfaces in the kitchen.
The Critters do *not* like me hoovering, but that can't be helped.
Sometimes I think that the "my cat actually loves the sound of hoovering// rides around on the hoover" stories are urban legends like the giant spider emerging from the innocent-looking potted plant.
In dvd-watching news, I quite liked "Firefly". Pity, really, that they discontinued it -- not only is the plot intriguing, but the mix of sci-fi, western and steampunk elements is very cleverly done. Needless to say that I ordered "Serenity", the movie that (hopefully really) ties up some of the loose plot threads.
Still not finished with "How I Met Your Mother" season 8.
Already drooling over the still-waiting-for-me 5th season of "Breaking Bad". But soon, very soon :-)
In reading news, I started two books almost simultaneously -- this mostly happens if I decide to have lunch somewhere by myself but forgot to take a book. So I get another one and parallel reading happens.
One is "The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson. I'm maybe 70 pages into it and like it, but can't quite see why it won the 2010 Booker Prize. But maybe that will become clearer as I read on. Or not, and it merely won because the competition was weak.
The other is "Sweet Tooth", a spy novel by Ian McEwan -- one of my all-time, most-beloved writers evah -- and it *is* excellent. As a rule I'm a bit wary of male writers writing 1st person from a female perspective, but McEwan can do it, and do it superbly.
This is one of the reasons why I don't read any German non-fiction anymore, except for Olympus-dwelling, mostly dead authors: Most contemporary novels written in German (i.e. German, Austrian and Swiss) are, to me, unbearably meta-wanky, must-be-highly-intellectual exercises in producing something unappealing. I rarely get this feeling with Emglish- or American-speaking writers. I mean, take "Sweet Tooth": you can't get a lot more meta in non-fiction, but if a reader is so inclined, she or he may read it just for the plot, and still be perfectly satisfied. *That's* great writing to me. (Though it doesn't have to be meta; I enjoy your basic Ian Rankin just as much).
OMG there are new tweets to look at!!! *flails and hurries off*
ETA:
Similarly, in the years since Mantel's first victory, being favourite has sometimes looked like a curse. The following year Tom McCarthy's C attracted so much money that Ladbrokes, suspecting a leak, suspended betting a week before the ceremony and William Hill made it a near-cert at 11/10 on; the prize went instead to Howard Jacobson, viewed as a no-hoper as a comic novelist and so on offer at an appetising 7/1.
Seek, and you shall find :-) Now I know why! And I didn't even search for it but found it by mere chance, reading this: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/11/bookies-jim-crace-man-booker-prize?CMP=twt_fd
