The other day, I went up into the loft with the express purpose of throwing out everything that I didn't need. In this, I succeeded, but I also found some stuff that I did need and had simply forgotten about, not least of these things being a whole heap of floppy discs.

These discs had so much stuff on them that I'd forgotten. Fic, pics, letters, etc. And 99% of it I did not remember writing, which meant I laughed out loud when I found a story with this line:

The woman sorted out her things and then sat on her bunk. ‘I shouldn’t really tell you any of this, but...since you asked…I’m part of a crack infiltration unit. Hardcore.’ She said, wrapping herself up in her Smurfs sleeping bag.

What? Oh, self.

In other news, I rode 19 miles today because I was bored, but the final five miles took me over an hour because I was riding into the wind, and the wind had other ideas about which direction it wanted me to go in (30 to 40mph gusts = so much frustration that you want to cry). At one point, I had to peddle to go downhill. And then I got rained on. And I'm not the healthiest of people, so now my legs feel like they want to drop off and disown me.

In other other news, today I FINALLY GOT MY COPY OF KUSHIEL'S MERCY! FINNNAAALLLY! And that's tomorrow sorted.

Oh, and I found Pan's Labyrinth in Tesco's for 3 pounds yesterday, and despite the fact the film scares me shitless, I couldn't resist. (It only scares me so much because I first watched it in a dark house by myself very late at night. No, really.)

This American trailer truly does not do justice to the film, but it's the best I could do late at night. Although it says 'a fairytale for grownups', bare in mind that this 'fairytale' contains extreme scenes of torture, death and various other mad, mad things that aren't shown in this trailor:



Anyway! BACK TO MY BOOK.

Now, I know I've mentioned the show Black Books before, but I've just found this summary of it while searching for pictures of one of the characters to put in a random meme (me, bored? I throw my head back and laugh!), and it explains the show much better than I could:

Meet Bernard Black (Dylan Moran - Shaun of the Dead). Bernard is an anti-social, heavy drinking chain-smoker who owns a small London bookshop - an unusual vocation, given that he detests customers and delights in physically and verbally abusing them at every opportunity. His best and only friend in the world is his lunch time drinking partner Fran (Tamsin Greig), a neurotic and boyfriend-desperate woman who owns the pretentious arts and crafts shop next to his. Bernard is cynical, abrasive and lazy, and is perfectly happy that way - but his life takes an unexpected turn when he sells 'The Little Book of Calm' to hyper-stressed accountant Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey), who against all odds ends up swallowing it. When the dust is settled, Manny will have a new job, Fran will have a new friend, and Bernard's life will be far more surreal... if that's possible.

God I love this show.

Aw man, I so want to start tweeting, but I haven't a clue what to tweet!

Well, okay. That was a total, total lie. I have plenty of ideas for tweets. But you guys, one of them is about sex and cheese! I don't think I should post it but if I start, I won't be able to stop myself.

So, for the sake of procrastination, if you're on twitter and you don't mind me following you, please leave you twitter name in the comments. That way I can add a few people before I start tweeting, because tweeting on my lonesome just kind of feels like...well, kinda like talking to yourself when you're on your own. It's a little weird and you know you shouldn't do it. So if you want to know what I think about sex and cheese, then leave your name. Or add me: hfaver (because I spent two HOURS trying to come up with a s/n, and the best I could do was my own surname - it was either this or SpandoolieMcfoo (don't ask), although at one point it was nearly htothefizzle).

(And who am I kidding, I talk to myself all the time).

You know your mind may not be wholly on what you're doing when you stop day-dreaming to discover you've written 'able to provide excellent customer service in the face of mind-numbing tedium' as a selling point for yourself on your new CV.

Holy crap, I'm never going to get a decent job. My work history, because of the redundancy last year, looks shit. My education is non-existent. Shoot. I'd forgotten how depressing looking for a job was.

This was the boat song most played in nine weeks. In danger of sounding like a music snob, before I got to the boat it is not something I would've listened to, but now? Hells yeah.

I really want to join twitter. But I can't. I won't keep up with it. I must be strong! Plus I know I'll get addicted and spam my account with lots and lots of things people will not need to know. And I'll overshare. I just know it. My brain to mouth (or post) filter is not as good as it used to be.

[Edit: Upon checking this post, I'd realised that I'd stated in one paragraph that I would both a) not keep up with twitter and b) spam the shit out of it. Clearly I have some seriously conflicting issues about the whole thing.]

In other news, I'm very bored, and boredom has me going 'Well, maybe another long post about something random would be fun...and it couldn't hurt, right?'. I keep thinking I'll do a vid-spam/pic-spam of all the new celebrity crushes I discovered this year (because one can never have too many) - For example, CC and JL, Pepa and Silvia, Jorja Fox (yes, I know I'm late to the party on this one), Aisha Tyler, Liz Feldman, Cat Davis (it's the year of the comedienne, apparently), Felicia Day, Tina Fey (yes, yes, late to the party again), etc, etc. Just one or two, y'know - but that would make me a big fat dirty liar about not posting lists of things that I won't finish. So I won't. But! Oh, my goodness, I am so very bored. Someone entertain me! Ask me a question, any question. Or link me to something fun! I'm down on my knees, begging for help here (I have no shame, begging is not a problem).

HELP.

I am free. Free. FREE.

The boat trip is over, and seems to have taken no time at all, except it was the longest nine weeks of my life. Nine weeks does not sound like a long time. It certainly feels like it, though.

I have pictures, although not on this computer. If I were feeling more energetic, I would start my laptop, download them from the camera, put them on the memory stick and transfer them to this computer where I would upload them to flickr but...holy moly that sounds like an awful lot of work. I'm rather stuck in R&R mode at the moment, which means that anything more than watching random Youtube clips or pretending to check my e-mail is just too much trouble.

I really need to decide what I'm going to do next, but again, my mind shies away from thinking about it - it's too much trouble right now. I'm just happy to be sleeping in a bed that is wider than I am, without the sound of water pumps, generators, engines or passengers.

In other news, I have decided to cut back on posting on LJ (because, lets face it, I am a LJ fiend). Not in a disappearing, posting once a year way, but in the way that I'm not going to start those posts (recaps, lists, etc) that I frankly will never ever finish. I'm tired of starting things that I don't finish.

But anyway, for now, I shall sit here and surf around the internet, doing absolutely nothing at all apart for waiting for it to get to an appropriate time to have a glass of wine and for my next bolt of impulsive decision-making to hit me. And that sounds perfect.

Haven't been around much lately, because i've been in areas that have been totally, completely and thoroughly internet free. As in none. None at all. This is because I quit my job, and the next day drove 600 miles to live on a boat for a couple of months. I have an impulse control problem. The boat is pretty cool, but cramped, and hot, and the work is long hours. Currently two of us are surfing the shit out of the free Wifi at mcdonalds between shifts.

The tips are pretty good, however - 295 euros last week alone.

Have some crap pictures.



This is Lutzlebourg in Alsace...and Stephane's leg.



And this is somewhere between the boat lift and...somewhere...

I don't even know. That's the problem, all the days run together into a long interchangable series of tasks. Work. Drink. Sleep. Go along the canal. Drink. (as you can tell, we spend a lot of time on the roof of the boat. Drinking, mostly)

The view from my cabin, in Saverne.



And the same view from the roof, later that night.



Tonight, I have an evening off after an afternoon shift, so I'll get a bike and go out and about in Strasbourg. The route this week is Strasbourg - Hochfeldon - Saverne - Lutzlebourg - Xouaxange (I know I haven't spelt those correctly). Next week we'll do it in reverse. And then back to Xouaxange. And then back to Strasbourg. And so on, and so forth.

Anyway. Not sure when I'll be able to get back online again. I've given up on keeping up with my flist, because when I'm gone for a day I have to go back +50 or +75, so after two weeks there's no hope of me catching up. I hope you are all well!