100 Novels

I was reading about Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (via Wikipedia's Fatal hilarity page - don't ask) and I stumbled across Time's All Time 100 Novels.

This was an exciting event as many of the novels on this list are amongst my favourites: The Sun Also Rises, Pale Fire, Gravity's Rainbow, Neuromancer, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies and Beloved to name but a few. (Some didn't make it of course, but what good is a list in which you can't pick holes?)

There are plenty that I haven't read too, so I suppose this means my TBR pile is going to grow a tad taller. Oh poor me.

I just finished GoodFellas by Nicholas Pileggi - an interesting and satisfying read. Not sure what I'll pick up next.

Distracted

I've rounded off the week with 920 words. I was so easily distracted today - it took me ages to get started and even the slightest noise broke my flow. But I was determined to get something on paper.

The Ours sent me this link:

Players of The Sims 2 will soon be able to add Ikea furniture to their virtual homes as part of a marketing deal between the Swedish company and Electronic Arts, the computer game's producer.

Will the Sims have to put together the furniture too? I can see the confusion, frustration and tears as they row with their partners and threaten to torch the instructions. (Or maybe it's just me?)

The Ours also sent me this:

Police in Leeds are hoping to prevent an outbreak of internet-enabled mayhem after thousands were invited to a public pillow fight through Facebook.

Have a happy Friday everyone.

The Day After The Night Before

Howth was gorgeous in the sunshine. We sat in the beer garden of The Bloody Stream for a while and enjoyed the typical Irish exam weather. None of us could believe our luck.

Completely forgot to twitter so you had a lucky escape from random drunken ramblings...this time.

Here's to a beautiful summer (from an eternal optimist!)

The Ours

Happy birthday to The Ours!

We're heading out to the sea-side town of Howth in two hours with some friends.

(Apologies for any drunken twitterings that may occur.)

Exercise and Cookies

Only managed to rewrite 1000 words today but it was quite a tricky scene with multiple characters. I think I did a good job with it.

After that I broke the ten hour barrier on the Wii Fit. What a game! The yoga and muscle exercises are actually hard work - I'm up to 40 jacknifes a day now which is unheard of for me. There are also hula-hoop, step aerobics and boxing mini-games to work up a sweat (but my main aerobic exercise is still walking everywhere as I don't own a car.) The leaderboards for each exercise brings out my competitive side and the weigh-ins help me to stick to my diet. So far so good!

Then I made some chocolate-chip cookies for The Ours' birthday tomorrow. I'd never made them before so it was a hit or miss scenario, but they seem to have turned out ok. I'd take a picture if I hadn't lost the battery from my camera on Saturday night...whoops.

Heaven

I managed to rewrite 1800 words today AND clean the apartment. It's amazing how last week's crisis of confidence has pushed me to get more done. I'm taking Wednesday off for The Ours' birthday so I'm determined to get ahead before that.

If I get the same amount written tomorrow I'll be well on my way to finishing this story by the end of the week. I won't be sad to leave this one behind - it's been painful work to say the least, but I have a handle on it now.

My weekend was a lot of fun; we got into our costumes on Saturday for Blondie's fancy dress party and spent Sunday watching a How I Met Your Mother marathon. I had avoided it until now as I'm sick of sitcoms, but I'd heard so many good things about it that I had to have a look. Several hours later I was hooked. Its great writing and cast elevate it to a standard that most sitcoms would kill for.

Coupled with a delicious Mexican meal cooked by The Ours (seared tuna steak with sweetcorn fritters and avocado salsa) and I was in heaven.

Scribbler's Corner was cancelled today so I haven't left the house yet - must head off now though to do some food shopping!

Writing-Induced Agoraphobia

I approach most activities that involve leaving the house very differently depending on what I'm doing. If I'm working I embrace the shop, the pampering and the general outdoors. But when I'm playing hermit-writer I view the outside world with a jaded eye, preferring to stay in the womb of my flat. (At the weekends I'm more flexible though.)

Case in point - yesterday I wrote 1100 words in the morning, and then went shopping for a fancy dress costume for Blondie's 30th party tonight, got my eyes tested and my hair cut.

In retrospect it was a lot for a recluse to take on in one day. I'd made the mistake of wearing my winter coat as I could see gray clouds from my living room window. The sun never broke through - but the humidity was through the roof for Ireland and I ended up dragging the coat around Dublin city all day, trying to ignore the prickly heat and rising damp in my armpits. Rookie hermit mistake.

Then my optician told me that I'm blinder than I was last year, which means new glass lenses and contacts - and more money honey!

When I'm working I enjoy going to the hairdressers as it offers lashings of magazine reading, but things change when I'm a-hermiting as I cultivate gray highlights and rats tails because I can only afford to go every three months. I tried my best to ignore the pitying glances from the stylist while she hacked away at my extensive hair shrubbery.

But it was worth it - last night I dyed my hair and even put on some fake tan to cover my lab rat pallor, so now I'm finally presentable to the scary outside world!

Keeping It Up

Wrote 1100 words today, was slow going but I got there in the end.