Plinky and the Brain

Today, I encountered an interesting phenomenon named Plinky.

Plinky wants to be my friend. Plinky tells me that it will make my writer’s block go away and make it easy for me to

“create inspired content”.

Wow, thanks Plinky. Are you trying to tell me something about my current “content”? Why not just tell me I’m fat while you’re at it.

Harumph.

Plinky is insatiably curious about my thoughts and feelings on just about everything. To be honest, Plinky is a bit nosey for my liking. Not to mention a tad pushy.

“No Plinky account? Sign up!”

“Sign up below to get started!”

“To answer the prompt below, you’ll need a Plinky account.”

“Please give me your email address! Pleeeeeease!”

Jeez, Plinky. Have some self-respect, would ya? You’re embarrassing yourself.

In spite of all this, I think I kind of like Plinky. I suspect this is mostly because it is fun to say and also it sounds very like Pinky, which brings back some very pleasant childhood memories of Saturday mornings plonked in front of the telly.

“Whaddaya wanna do tonight, Brain?”

“The same thing we do every night, Pinky.

TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD.”

Obscure, you say? Pure brilliance, I say.

I’m playing hard to get. Well, kind of.

I didn’t give Plinky my email address. But I did spend a few minutes contemplating Plinky’s question of the day:

“What’s your favourite quote, and why?”

Well, Plinky. Interesting question. So many sources to choose from: literature, film, music, family (see below), friends, bloggers, civil rights activists, dumb-ass celebrities, crappy posters, crappier t-shirts…

Too many, in fact. I’ve changed my mind, it’s not an interesting question, it’s a stupid question that involves too much brain-racking on my part. What’s YOUR favourite quote, hmmm Plinky? Bit of a one-sided relationship, this.

At that moment, my attention was momentarily diverted as I noticed that someone nearby was watching Shaun of the Dead. Just as I turned to look, Pegg and Frost uttered the immortal lines:

Pegg: “You want anythin in the shop?”

[pause]

Frost: “Corne’o [Cornetto].”

Bam, favourite quote. At least, at this moment in time it is. Do I really need a reason? I didn’t think so.

How’s that for inspired, Plinky? Smart-arse.

P.S. Shockingly, I could not find this clip isolated anywhere on YouTube. So the best I can do is give you the trailer and implore you to see the whole film in all it’s awesome-ness if you haven’t done so already.

Here is another great Nick Frost clip, for the craic.

Funny ’cause it’s true!

A Wasted Day

Oh dear.

Ever had one of those days? You know, where you feel that if you were to look back over your life, right before you died, you’d come to this day and think,

“What a total waste. I can’t believe I frittered away all those hours on absolutely nothing.”

One of those days where it feels like you’ve got no places to go or people to see.

I’ve had plenty of days where I haven’t achieved anything in particular but have felt satisfied that I’ve used my time well, whether it was just being with someone special, or doing something I enjoy, or taking a break from something that’s been stressing me out.

But days like today…nothing excites me. I drift around my house, looking for things to do, then looking for reasons not

Image courtesy of http://www.rgbstock.com/gallery/melodi2

to do them. I’m not motivated enough to follow through with anything I start and leave a trail of half-finished projects behind. I seem to be incapable of creating anything worth sharing or doing anything worth doing. I find myself wandering Facebook aimlessly and suddenly, an hour later, I’m checking out the holiday photos of some friend of an acquaintance, who would undoubtedly be unimpressed by my creeping.

Staying in is dull, going out is hassle.

I try to remind myself on days like these that the number of hours I have to live is in fact finite, and I’m wasting precious, precious time. It makes me feel angry at myself and also vaguely guilty. And yet nothing seems strong enough to snap me out of it. The worst part is, I know that when this spell of unemployment comes to an end (and it must…eventually…right??), I’ll be longing for days like this, full of free time that I can use to do anything I want…and yet today, I can’t think of anything I want to do.

Before anyone writes me off as a spoilt brat who needs to be entertained 24/7, I’d like to assert that thankfully, these days are pretty rare. Although I’m currently in the midst of my longest period of time (6 weeks – feels like so much longer!) not in full-time employment or education since the summer I was fourteen, up until now I haven’t had trouble filling my days.

Maybe because when I was growing up, the word “bored” was illegal in our house, I’ve always been able to think of ways to amuse myself. Also, being pretty poor at sports and a more-awkward-than-most teenager meant that I’ve always opted for pretty solitary leisure pursuits. So, asides from spending long hours drafting and re-drafting CVs and cover letters for every job imaginable, I’ve kept myself occupied by:

• Reading books I’d been meaning for ages to read (Catch 22 is mind-blowing, The Talented Mr Ripley ain’t too shabby either)
• 

  Image courtesy of http://www.rgbstock.com/gallery/leocub

  Re-learning to play the piano (ever so much more satisfying when there isn’t a hatchet faced woman sitting next to you rapping your knuckles with a little stick)

• Re-attempting to teach myself guitar (My Lovely Horse is trickier than it appears; however, I’m comforted by the belief that any little plucking or strumming inaccuracies are covered up by my loud singing)
• Lunching, picnicking and generally hanging out with sound people (although the number of such people who are as unemployed as me is sadly dwindling)
• Refining some of my scribblings from the past few years and attempting to put them together to form something a bit more substantial (sure we’ll see how that goes)
  

  Where have they been all my life?

• Discovering wonderful films and television about a million years after the hype has died (Flight of the Conchords? Yes please.)
• Walking around Dublin (and occasionally sitting in cafés and eavesdropping – clichéd but true…and fun!)
• Pottering about the kitchen and doing the odd bit of laundry so that my family are in awe of my domestic goddess-ness (yeah, they’re definitely in awe, I’m sure of it)
• Sifting through four years worth of handouts, journal articles, assignments and God knows what other paperwork I accumulated in college and attempting to impose some semblance of order
• 

  Image courtesy of rgbstock.com/gallery/johnnyberg

  Tending to my sunflowers (they live on my kitchen windowsill and take up more time than you’d think; the day they bloom I’m going to have a party)

• And of course, discovering the endless entertainment and education to be gained from reading (and occasionally writing) lovely blogs.

Sadly, none of the above pursuits were enough to engage me today. Personally, I blame my Dad for making me lunch at 11:30 before I had even eaten breakfast and thereby upsetting my whole sense of routine. God, what a thoughtless bastard.

Ah well. There’s always tomorrow. 😉