Beats of the Southern Wilds.

Lately I've been having an awful time getting to sleep on time. I can fall asleep perfectly fine on the couch, usually whilst watching something I fully intend on watching. However, as soon as I move through to the bedroom all desire of sleeping disappears. I sit there awake, usually flickering on my phone or tablet and refreshing facebook to see if there's been any new exciting cat pictures posted. 

Usually there aren't any cat pictures posted so I then take a picture of a sleeping dog and post it on facebook myself. If you can't find somebody to do the job for you, you may as well do it yourself.

I'm aware of the fact that there are too many distractions around me, and I constantly feel the need to remove these distractions away from myself. But I never do. I never put the computer away and I never turn off the phone. Which is terrible. 

I've decided to take a sabbatical from gaming for the time being. I've blasted through a bunch of brilliant games lately - Saints Row the Third (a game which did everything I wanted Grand Theft Auto IV to do, but much better), Guacamelee! (the best game I've played this year by far), Bioshock Infinite as well - and I've also knocked off a few duds - Knytt Underground, Thomas Was Alone. 

Whilst I do love gaming, there's just nothing about it right now that screams for my attention right now. There's nothing that is just saying, play me now! I've tried to start various games and haven't felt the desire to continue playing them. I look at my shame pile list and I don't feel motivated to get through them. I honestly could just play through Rayman Origins again and again and never have to play another game again.

Where am I heading with this nonsense? Well, in the dark of the night whilst I google 'crumbling teeth' and wonder if I'm alone with an unwavering appreciation of both Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson, I figure I'll get back into my writing. I've always wanted to write a book - and I know that's the common 'I'm going to write a book one day, and it will be about me growing up in high school and the troubles I faced. I'll talk about that time down by the creek and the aftermath of that incident. I will also talk about my undying love of the idea of ghosts. It will be personal' and nobody ever writes it. But maybe this time I will write it. 

So, expect a few short stories and ramblings from now on. This has nothing to do with gaming at all. It's more just the feeling of an impending midlife crisis that may or may not occur when I'm thirty and in a shark cage in the Southern Ocean. 

I can't always promise that my blog posts won't be as boring as this one. I don't try and entertain, I just ramble for nonsense sake, or until I feel the sleep taking over. 

I have found lately as well that falling asleep to two of the best soundtracks from last year helps - the score to Beasts of the Southern Wild and Austin Wintory's perfect score to the game Journey. If you're awake late at night, slip 'Once There Was a Hushpuppy' on repeat and you'll sleep wonderfully. 

Also, if anyone has a short book or two they can recommend that are good reads go for it. I'm currently struggling to get back into Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian - it's a good book, but I've learnt that naming your character goes a long way to making the story easier to understand, and I'm also partially getting through The Exorcist, which I'm liking quite a bit at the moment.