Cockroach!

The first cockroach of the spring. Urgh! It was a massive surprise by the fact I thought I might have freakishly avoided having any but it was not to be. Anyway, it went out of the window by management's request and is hopefully troubling the social retard who lives opposite who never answers my 'konnichi wa'.

Happiness part 1 - Ratio

What is the ideal ratio for happiness to non-happiness? It can't be 1-0 because surely being happy all the time would be boring and we'd become immune to bog-standard happiness. What do you think?

What is home to you - Part 5

What isn't home to you?

A cell is not a home. A cell is purgatory. A cell is a place where one is sent for punishment.

A shop doorway is not a home. It is a temporary refuge. Ditto cardboard boxes under railway bridges.

Your friend's home is not your home, because sofa surfing is not living, it's a temporary refuge albeit somewhat more luxurious than a railway arch. Ditto hotels, which is just sofa surfing but using an anonymous bed.

A holiday is not a home. A holiday is a break from home, a break from the worries and things to be faced and things to resolve. A holiday is sometimes necessary but a home is always necessary, even if only for just a place to chill for a few weeks or months.

The wrong town is not your home because you feel like a fish out of water. I shouldn't have lived in Buckinghamshire. While it is a very scenic part of the world it is not the right place for me. Too many Tories in one place turn me into Che Guevara when I'm drunk. There are a bunch of other places that are not home either and I will surely discover them all sooner or later.

Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four

Short short story

I just knocked something out. It's called Gravity Is Always Exhausting. Don't take it too seriously.

Video: Aimee Mann - Wise Up

This absolutely beautiful song has been hammered on my iPod shuffle this past couple of days and weeks. It's really cathartic. I don't really know a lot about Aimee Mann, but I think that I will have the impetus to explore her back catalogue more very soon. Any recommendations?

Currently

Reading: George Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying. Great, misery-guts literature. Wish I'd given it more of a chance ten years ago. A great partner read to my all-time favourite Shampoo Planet.

Listening: Pizzicato 5 by Pizzicato 5, Stigma by EMF, First Band on the Moon by The Cardigans.

Surprises are nice

Some surprising things have happened lately:

Some people make awful first impressions but make astonishingly good second impressions.
Sometimes the thoughts that swirl around in your head are there to help you make sense of the world.
The positive face you put on in the morning sometimes turns into your real face.

I'm happier than I have been. When I'm happier I can be in the here and now. It would be nice to know some of what the future may hold, though.

New Year

April has just begun. The trains are slightly cooler, because they've stopped using the heaters for the most part. Hot coffee is harder to find in vending machines.

Why do most people in the world celebrate the new year on the first of January? Why not go back to the old ways of celebrating the equinoxes and solstices, with the renewal of life, new beginnings, bloomings, harvests and endings? New year in most countries in the Northern Hemisphere is just plain bloody cold and inconvenient: standing around, huddling, to watch flimsy fireworks at midnight, as one's toes - in ill-advised but fashionable footwear - feel like they're succumbing to frostbite.

Excuse me. I'm just thinking out loud.

Facebook Deletion

It's been almost two months since I deleted my Facebook account. There's not even a minor wince of regret. Your friends will never miss you if you do the same. They're too hooked into it and sending stupid game requests to you to notice.