A Triptych

Now that this year's University assignments are all completed and the fact that I currently lack a job or other regular engagement means that I've stayed indoors for large portions of the day recently. It's not all bad: I've caught up on a couple of books I've been meaning to read, played videos games I've been meaning to play, checked Facebook approximately 700 times a day, slowly made my way through devouring the contents of the kitchen and written, submitted and received the rejection email for a short fiction piece from an online short fiction project. If anything, I've had an accurate taste of what's to come in my life in the near future.

The fact that I've not had much of a main aim or focus in life as of late means that things have become kind of sketchy, which is always a problem whenever I sit down to write one of these things. Usually they work by focussing on one particular aspect of something that happened to me or somebody close by recently or of some thought that had recently occurred to me. Occasionally, tangential narrative will weave their ways into the main body of stuff but ultimately the main focus returns in some form or another. Unfortunately times will come when life feels as though it's drifting, time seems like it's disappearing into a vacuum and sentences take almost three times as long to think up and type out because I'm currently distracted by the images of American Dad! on the TV despite the fact that I've muted the sound so that I'll concentrate on this.

In light of this obvious sketchiness, I'd like to present to you a triptych (that's three little things making up one big thing, like Simpsons' Halloween Specials) of stuff that's happened over the last two or three weeks or more - provided I can remember that far back - in bitesize chunks (like a watching BBC2 at 4am around the GCSE exam period) for you to read if and when you feel like.

Chess

I recently discovered my computer has Chess Titans - which, as it happens, is actually just Chess - as part of its in-built games package. Normally I'd been sticking to the card-based games (FreeCell, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire) as forms of light boredom alleviation. I've even challenged myself to playing Solitaire with Vegas scoring so you only get the chance to go through the deck once, and upping the ante on Spider Solitaire to Medium - Two Suits.

It's been a long time since I've played Chess and I remember that whenever I played in the past I always lost, causing me to become angry and frustrated with the game, even one particular time running away and crying and having to be consoled by my friend/Chess adversary about how it's just a game. It's not just a game though. It's a frickin' IQ Test. It's a routine operation of causing one's opponent into a corner with no way out by using all your cunning, strategy and basic common sense. I've been known to lack these in my lifetime, or at least not pay attention to them when they're there. Basically, when it comes to Chess, I suck.

Strangely, I've been getting more addicted to playing a one on one brain battle against whoever programmed Windows 7 with the Artificial Intelligence it carries. I actually have a newfound love for Chess, but not a love as in Love love, more of a love as in Gran love, more of an admiration that doesn't take up too much of your time. Needless to say, I've managed to dupe the computer's faux-knowledge into surrendering a couple of victories to me after many many losses and perhaps one day - when I'm feeling confident in my own strategic abilities - maybe, just maybe, I'll slide the computer's skill level up to 2.

Sleeping Pattern

When you have no time constraints or set engagements to fulfil, hours of the day needn't matter anymore. Actually, that's a lie. On certain days you'll need to know when it reaches 6/7/8/9pm so that you know you won't miss The Apprentice or The Big Bang Theory or other miscellaneous television broadcast. But you have nothing to get up early for and no reason to go to bed at a reasonable hour. The daylight hours and the night-time hours blur together and, ultimately, don't matter when you never leave the confines of your own house. Anyway, I've got no idea why I'm writing this in 2nd person; my sleeping pattern is buggered. So much so that I wrote all the above stuff last night (or early this morning depending on how you view it - it was in the dark hours if that means anything to you) whilst my brain was still working to some extent, whereas I've only managed to tap out this one paragraph after getting up in the afternoon and sitting here for an hour downing tea.

This bit makes no sense and feels all rambly - ignore at will. Or at least you could ignore it if only you hadn't just read it.

Online Writing

I tend not to use Twitter other than to advertise this thing, but my lack of followers means a lack of views on here. A lack of views on here makes me feel like I'm doing this for no particular reason other than to give myself something to do every now and then. That is what it's for essentially, but a small part of me likes to think I'm reaching out to a wider audience providing entertainment, humour, apathy or even mild rage. As far as integrating myself into the Twittersphere (or whatever the cool kids are calling it these days) goes, I enjoy seeing announcements for online writing submission things. Several projects take place online relating to all kinds of free writing with the rewards being "Look, we published YOUR thing on OUR website! Now other people can read your thing and know that you exist. Also, cash prize? Are you high? Christ we barely have enough money to feed ourselves. Perhaps you missed the point of an ONLINE project. You get personal gratification, not material gain, et cetera and blah blah."

In the last few weeks, hell, in the last few months, I've written something (that was really crap about a woman lost in the woods being chased by an unknown assailant or something that had no dialogue or characterisation or anything that makes it technically decent) and submitted it to one of these online things. (I'd like to pause for a moment and apologise for my overuse of the word "thing" to describe certain... things. My tired brain is facing immense difficulty trying to label them more accurately.) I was instantly informed that my submission may face scrutiny for up to a month whilst those in charge ran some quality control. Less than a month, or to use a more accurate term, one day later I received the rejection email. Huzzah! I'm a failed writer. Now I can watch TV, heat up leftovers, kid myself that I'll actually read a book at some point and ultimately go back to bed at 4am. Ah, the high life.

And now that the third part's over, imagine (if you want to) the closing credits of the aforementioned Simpsons' Halloween Special since no such video actually exists on YouTube for me to link to.