Ramble – Page 50 – Justin Cawthorne dot com

January 4

On January 4, 2017

The Kinderbeast wakes me at 5:30. Despite my best efforts at persuasion, he continues in his attempts to rouse me from bed. Eventually I relent, make some coffee, and start writing (1,200 words editing a promising yet troublesome tale about a fairground carousel).

Browsing the various ‘educational’ sites I’ve added to my Feedly account, my attention is captured by Alan Bennet’s diary. I’m inspired to write a diary during 2017 – just something to track the minor trivia of the day (and partly inspired an utter and collective failure on New Year’s Eve to remember how the 2015 edition of New Year’s Eve was spent).

This is, inevitably, it.

I have one more holiday goal yet to complete: to tidy up the patio area in a probably fruitless bid to encourage us to spend more time out there. I achieve the goal and spend 5 minutes sitting outside to savour my triumph before retreating indoors to make pancakes.

The Elderbeast, having had his Internet privileges dramatically shortened decides enlists my help in building the balsa wood Apache helicopter kit he got from Andy for Christmas. Surprisingly, this task proves far less annoying than it had any right to be.

Prolonged drama ensues after the Kinderbeast knocks one of his teeth during play. He is mostly miserable for the remainder of the day. Panadol and cuddles are dispensed.

Sherlock, series 1, episode 1 provides the evening’s entertainment at Carter’s request. Still damn telly, and the Elderbeast’s newfound passion for Sherlock appears to persist for now …

January 3

By Justin

On January 3, 2017

In Diary

The Kinderbeast once again prompts a distressingly early start for my writing, but I complete the second draft of my short horror story, so all is well.

I achieve several small goals for the day: I clean the barbecue (rarely used, but it’s still satisfying to see it once again bereft of grease and cobwebs); I update my writing tracker spreadsheet ready for another year of writing, and I even blog about it; finally I draft a length post reflecting on my writing progress over 2016. Maybe three people at most will read it, but it’s still good to remind myself that I did manage some writing achievements during what was ultimately a fetid shit of a year.

Twitter is aflame with stories about the GOP gutting the ethics committee in what can only seem like a transparent bid to get away with the sort of corruption that they’ve been so busy accusing the Democrats of. As someone tweets: every burglar knows that you kill the guard dog first.

One outing for the day: a drive to Harvey Norman’s so the Elderbeast can spend some of his Christmas money on some new, much-needed bluetooth speakers. As much as I dismay at giving HN our money, I’m gratified that the headphones (spotted via a casual browse through the junk mail) are 50% off, which makes it feel like HN won’t be creaming too much profit from that particular transaction.

For the evening we watch the new episode of Sherlock. Still entertaining, still first class TV, but occasionally rambling and lacking in focus in the way that Sherlock almost never is. Nevertheless, it’s sufficiently good to inspire the Elderbeast to show interest in the earlier episodes, which pleases me.

2017 goals

By Justin

On January 2, 2017

In Ramble

We all know that resolutions are a bit useless–little more, in fact, than way of introducing certain failure into your near future. However, I do still like to use the turn of the year as an excuse to reflect on past failings, and as a refreshed opportunity for change.

With that in mind, I’ve set myself a few goals for the next year.

January 2

By Justin

On January 2, 2017

In Diary

Day starts with the Kinderbeast awakening at 5:45am, both unusually and irritatingly early. I decide to stay up to get on with some writing and hammer out just over 1000 words on a nice little horror story I started a few days earlier.

Late morning and afternoon is occupied with a splendid breakfast provided by the in-laws, but the early start begins to take its toll. When we eventually return home, I bash out the 2017 Goals blog post I’d been pondering the day before. Naturally this effort is preceded by research into a new theme for the blog. I also write a quick post over on Blog Like A Mofo to announce the ‘yoyo blogging’ challenge that I’ve set myself for 2017.

The evening is spent watching The Witness For The Prosecution, which proves every bit worthy of the anticipation. In bed I read a bizarrely interesting article about foreign exchange negotiations post World War II.

January 1

By Justin

On January 1, 2017

In Diary

Malcolm Turnbull starts the year by trying to keep us all more afraid of terrorists than the extreme right w(h)ingers in his own party. Trump sends much love to the ‘losers’ an continues to demonstrate how someone with the emotional maturity of a fish egg can continue to be a complete loss even when they’re set to become the most powerful man on the planet.

Rach and Carter (the Elderbeast) head off to the cricket early in the afternoon (not returning until past midnight). The Kinderbeast and I entertain ourselves as best we can, in large part by playing the Mars Rover game given to him by Hedgie for Christmas. We attempt to watch Beauty & The Beast (which I have this far failed to see) but it does little to capture the Kinderbeast’s attention. We dine on pasta and a homemade cheese sauce, of which I am inordinately proud (especially as it gets a literal thumbs up from the Kinderbeast).

Settling the Kinderbeast proves a struggle, but he finally relents at around 9pm. With the house to myself I make use of the last precious hours of solitude by watching Hellraiser Bloodlines: The Restored Director’s Cut (which isn’t restored in the conventional sense – someone has merely taken clips of a diabolically rough VHS workprint and edited them into footage from the finished film). It proves another exercise in Hollywood squandering the potential of a decent concept, but also revives my occasional interest in the Hellraiser franchise.

I go to bed and read the Lovecraft graphic novel that Hedgie has lent me, and idly wonder whether there are any stories about the old gods in me.

Who googles the google?

By Justin

On July 16, 2016

In Ramble

Earlier this week I read this article about a man who lost fourteen years of his blog, and an unfinished novel, after Google unceremoniously cancelled his account. My first reaction was scorn for someone who would entrust such important and personal works to the whims of a megacorporation who would, at the very least, would probably sit at the same table as evil these days. Once I got over myself, my more considered reaction was to remember that I do almost all of my writing using Google Docs and that I really didn’t fancy the idea of even a remote chance of having all that going up in a puff of ones and zeroes.

So read on to find out what I did about it.

Terminator: Genisys … or not

By Justin

On March 31, 2016

In Ramble

I finally caught up with Terminator: Genisys this weekend and it’s fair to say that I viewed it with the same sense of disappointment and rising disinterest that the rest of you probably experienced—and not just because Netflix seemed to be working on dial-up speeds (oh, the irony!) at the time.

the Trump card

By Justin

On March 4, 2016

In Ramble

Here’s a thing I wrote for Facebook, and forgot to post, because that’s exactly the sort of diligent political commentator that I am. Once I’d finished it, it seemed a bit too meaty for FB so I decided to make it a rare non-writing related post right here …. it’s about Donald Trump, and a what an enormous fustercluck this whole business is …

(re)designing Graves

By Justin

On February 25, 2016

In Ramble

The other week I re-edited one of my more popular short stories, Graves. To accompany the new(ish) version I decided a new cover design was warranted. Since cover design is one of the many burdens of the self-publishing author I thought I’d share the story of how it all came together.