Question Time

A bloke who’s rather good at the blogging game told me once that a meme can be a good way to get out of a blogging slump.

Well, a blogging slump I am most definitely in. So I’m hoping that the tag I’ve got from that finest of pharmaceutical fellows Mr Adam Plum, who blogs at theplumbum.wordpress.com, will help to kick start my brain into producing some more text based fripperies for my readers.

Even if it doesn’t, it will at least give you something to have a look at in a spare five minutes. Don’t say I never give you anything, even if what I give you is rubbish.

I’ve already read a few other responses to this meme, and I’d encourage you to at least check out the two I’ve linked above, as well as the lovely Sunniva Anne’s. It’s legitimised voyeurism; enjoy the insights into people that it gives you.

Where do you do most of your writing/blogging?

A few months back, when I was writing really regularly and thinking blogging was the best thing since cheese on toast, I wrote almost all my post during my lunch breaks at work.

One sad day our internet filtering software was changed. Suddenly, we inhabited a digital prison, trapped behind bars made of proxy servers and site categorisation. Blogger became an unreachable mirage. I turned my attention from writing blog posts, to eating a variety of corn based snacks aimed at children.

My blogging output tumbled, but on the plus side I was rarely more than twenty four hours removed from my last packet of Monster Munch.

Now, when I can be bothered, I write the posts in Word, at my desk, then email them to myself for later posting. Occasionally I write a post at home. To be honest though, I’m pretty sure someone is stealing hours from the day, because there never seems to be time to do that.

So, in short: at my desk. 

What books were your childhood favourites?

This is a bit tricky. 

I was a voracious reader as a child. I loved books. I took to it quickly and was allowed to have my pick of whatever books the school had on offer well before I left infant school.

But I can’t really remember which ones I liked.

All of them?

Hmm.

I did have a particular soft spot for Maurice Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen”, which is poetic and dramatic and fantastical, and also has the benefit of wonderfully drawn pictures to accompany the words.

I also read a lot of non-fiction. I loved all the books about planes, cars and dinosaurs which I was given. Space too. I often wish someone had pointed out to me that all of the things in these books (well, apart from dinosaurs) were made using MATHS, a subject I loathed and struggled with, but may have put more into had I known how important it was.

Perhaps they did tell me, and I just didn’t listen.

Have you ever Googled yourself and been surprised at what you’ve found?

I have done the old vanity Google, yes.

Surprised? Largely, no. Historically I’ve not been particularly worried about hiding behind aliases online, so most of what pops up is old forum activity (bikes and Peugeot 106s) and some references to the basketball club I play for and helped to run for a few years.

What did surprise me is that there’s another me. I have a relatively unusual surname, combined with a not too common first name. Another me was not expected, especially as I had known for many years that I was the only one of me on the electoral roll.

The other me is younger, has a genuinely impressive six pack, but also appears to be a bit of a chavvy tool. On the whole, I think I win.

What is your favourite time of day and why?

Depends on the day.

The moment I wake up and realise I’ve done so naturally, and without any baby related interruptions, that’s a good time of day.

The time of day when I finish my battle with the commuting hordes and arrive home to my wife and baby, that’s a good time of day.

The time of day when the quality of light makes me want to grab my camera and run out of the door to try and capture it, that’s a good time of day (unless something stops me running out of the door, as it often does…)

I like all times of day. Apart from 2:30pm when I get my post-lunch slump. That is a shit time of day. 

Who would play me in a movie of my life?

I think I may have answered this in another meme, back in the day. Back then I reckoned on Jason Lee. I stick by that.

One material possession I could not live without.

I think I would be very, very sad if I didn’t have a bike. But I’m also rather fond of my ludicrously enormous barbecue/spaceship.

Hmm.

Actually, could not live without? In the strictest sense? Probably my glasses. I’d trip over something and injure myself, then not be able to see my way to the hospital. So I might ACTUALLY DIE.

Have you ever been naked in public?

I don’t recall ever being naked in public. That’s not to say it definitely hasn’t occurred. But, to be honest, I doubt it.

What/who/where was your first proper kiss?

My first girlfriend (that answers the first two parts of that question, yes?) Outside her parents house. The house which some friends of ours now own and I feel slightly odd about going inside, like it’s a time vortex or something. Even though all the wallpaper’s been changed.

Well, there you go. The meme has been memed. I memed a meme. Now I’d like to invite the following bloggers to do answer the same questions, in order to further memify the internets:

The Boy and Me

The Fool (and his mutterings)

Tattooed Mummy

Dust and Love

Meme at will ladies and gentleman.