Diary of an up and coming sociopath

All this politicism has seen me neglect to chronicle the intricacies of my day to day existance. This week is typified by repeatedly checking eBay to see if I can snipe an arcade fire ticket for an acceptable amount of money. All signs point to “buggered” on that front, though.

Josh gave me The Arcade Fire’s EP the other day. It reminds me quite a lot of The Liars’ first album (before they went a bit dodgy) in some ways. I’m not sure if its the lo-fi nature of it or what, but with both of them, I enjoy listening to the sound as much as the songs, if you understand what I mean by that. On the other side of the coin, though, is the new eels album, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, which is all about the songs, but equally violating my puny world at the moment. After the yawn-fest of Shootenanny, it’s good to see eels back with what I’d easily rank as their single strongest album. Can you have a single strongest double album? Close enough for me.

Given that it’s currently wednesday, and the last time I mentioned anytihng about what I was doing was, like, two weeks ago, I thought I’d also see if I can remember what i’ve been doing without the help of a blog. Thus, we have the digest version of my life, in reverse order. prepare thysef for a Memento-esque perspective on my week:

Wednesday: Overslept in the morning. Seems to happen about once every two weeks. I only realised I was doing it when I realised I was having a dream after I’d switched my alarms off. It was, strangely, a sequel to an earlier dream. The morning flew by in a kind of post-sleep haze that one associates with being up and out the door in about 3 minutes flat. We had the Q2 meeting in the afternoon. Meetings are a surprisingly fun way to spend 40 minutes of time, like a lecture that you get paid for, and talk that you’re interested in. I found myself impressed by the technology that has been implemented over the past few months. I’m concerned about turning into a work-geek, because it’s an incredibly boring thing to be, so I won’t go on about it much, but I was way more entertained by this than stuff I did at Uni.

Tuesday: I recall it being all quite routine. At lunchtime I bought some envelopes to send off some of the comics I’ve been selling in.

Monday: Went to the sandwich shop up the road at Lunch (Jade’s, or something.) It’s a real comedy place. It’s run by an old guy and a younger guy, probably his son, both of eastern-european descent. I suspect they’re turkish, but it could quite easily be gryzbekistania or sometihng. The first time we went, the waitress (who is in her earlier twenties) was wearing an eyepatch. That place really has character. They make turkey and beef sandwiches where they actually cut the meat from a joint. It’s a great place to get food and it’s easily something I’ll miss when we move up to Shaftesbury.

Sunday: Had dinner at Nan’s and went to Dad’s. I drove back to London in the evening and listened, as I often do, to XFM. Well, first I listen to Rock Legends (I think) on Kerrang, which is quite bad. Unless you like 80s metal. Sometime around the point where the M40 and A34 cross I can start picking up XFM again, so I spend the rest of the trip listening to The Remix (playlists here), which I initially didn’t like much, not being a fan of dance music. I left it on because I didn’t really have much of an alternative, and week after week I’ve found myself becoming quite interested in what they play. This week there were some excellent remixes, including one of an Athlete song (Half Light, the Losers remix) which I actually liked where I dislike the original. There was also an amusing mash-up of “Freakin’ Out” and “Heaven is a place on Earth” which can be procured from http://www.team9.net. I was also shocked to discover that Brian Molko does vocals on a new Timo Maas track, which as a Placebo completist, means I’ll probably have to get it. I spent Sunday morning sorting out all my comics at home, and then brought them back with me with the intention of flogging a few and rediscovering the ones I had to leave behind at Uni. It’s been almost 4 years since my entire collection was in one place.

Saturday: Nikki and I went to Coventry. Coentry’s kind of like a human factory for Chavs. One thing that struck me when I walked around was just how ugly all the people there are. I’m not talking “people riding the tube” ugly, this is a whole different kind of horrendous. I suspect that I’m being confused by the abundance of europeans in London, with their clean fingernails and brushed hair. Part of what concerns me so much is that the place I find the most hideous people (the tube, and Coventry) are both places where I often find myself. There’s a logical conclusion there which I suggest we all neglect to draw. I bought comics, naturally, and a couple of issues of a magazine called “Lo Fi” because the covers had teh words “Brian Wood” and “Mahfood” on. I am a chump. I’d buy dogfood if Brian Wood or Jim Mahfood were involved. I had a beef roll from a local purveyor of meat sandwiches, and Nikki had pork. They were some good foodstuffs, it is fair to say.

Friday: This is where it all starts breaking down. In the evening I drove back to Leamington, and as ever, watched Jonothan Ross with Nikki. Prior to that, I guess I was at work. I’m not too hot on the details. I think the backoffice might’ve been down a lot, because it was this week.

Monday-Thursday: And here we hit what I shall dub “The Fog.” I have no memory of last thursday. Even less so, since I rebooted my PC and lost my IRC buffer. I am unable to tell you anything about my life between Monday and Thursday. I suspect I was at work, because no-one’s asked why I wasn’t, but for the rest of the time I may well have been out fighting crime as the Masked Amnesiac. If you saw me, if you know where I am or what I did, please, call our hotline.

Hmm. Did Memento have a twist ending? I don’t think I ever bothered getting to the end because the gimmick bored me somewhat. I’m a fan of the “IT WAS EARTH ALL ALONG!” twist from Planet of the Apes, so let’s go with that one. Ergo, I shall deploy my vast knowledge of the simpsons:

Sunday: Wait a minute… Statue of liberty… THAT WAS OUR PLANET! YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

[falls to knees and pounds the floor]