Roses are red,
violets are blue,
they’ll need dental records
to identify you.

“Nomwatch” now has its own tag on the sidebar. There are a couple of other new additions, if you care to spare a glance.

Yes, this is my lovely little bunny, in a top hat and monocle, courtesy of Joe. It suits him perfectly. This really has made my day.

I’ve had the weekend off work, so instead of worrying over trivial things/doing absolutely nothing with my time, I’ve done some work on my novel. Basically, for those who don’t know, the story is essentially finished and events are in order…but instead of just editing the manuscript and redrafting, my second draft is a complete rewrite, so I’ve started again with 0 words, and am using my notes and feedback from draft #1 to rebuild the story from scratch. Does that make sense? In a way, Chronicles of Nom is already complete…it’s just very, very bad. Anyway, because my goal for this year is to get it finished once and for all, I’ve decided to hound myself with an imaginary surveillance programme called NOMWATCH. It’s kinda like Crimewatch, but pointless, and vaguely useful only to myself, and even then…not so much. That last sentence is terrible. And I want to make money from doing this? Oh, deary, deary me! Anyway. Enough babble. NOMWATCH IS HERE.

I’m going to track the wordcount of this draft each month. If there isn’t sufficiant progress (current estimations put the wordcount for the finished article at about 100k) I will beat myself to death with my own inadequacies.

Yes, I do think I’m going insane.

I’m part the way through a chapter at the moment, but I’ve been typing and distracting myself via the internet for most of the day, so I’ve decided to stop for now. I have another day off later this week, but it’s the same day as one of my Evil Dentist Appointments of Doom, so I don’t know how creative I’ll be feeling.

The other good thing about today is that I finally started looking into a Master’s degree. I don’t know why I want one, really, seeing as I don’t actually want a job or anything resembling a sensible career…but oh well. I found a really interesting course in Glamorgan called Gothic Studies (not as grim/leather-belt-studded-choker as it sounds) which is basically just the worshipping of Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker and the like. Sounds good to me. I ordered a postgrad prospectus, anyway, and also sent off for one from a few other universities (including Aberystwyth!). I don’t know how I’ll ever afford a Master’s degree, but I’m sure there’s funding somewhere. First, to make sure there’s actually one out there I want to go for. The prospect of getting the fuck out of this city for a while is once again rearing its attractive, endearing head…gimmegimmegimme.

A note to myself for this week: Buy candles, or a lightbulb for your lamp. Desperate and dark times are upon us, folks. I wish the snow would bugger off so I could actually make it to the shops.