October 2010
“Weird, I was thinking about Laurie last night too. Mental that he never got to go on Facebook.”
—Katherine
I don’t know why, but my brain just flashed up an image, a memory, a person who died. His name was Laurie, he was in my year at school and was killed in a car crash when he was thirteen.
I didn’t really know him that well, but we had known each other since we were four years old. We were never friends, never enemies, we just existed. But Laurie was the first time someone of my age that I knew had died. It made it real.
I really have no idea why I just thought about him. I guess I was just thinking that if there are indeed a multitude of universes where every set of circumstances plays out somewhere, he is alive in many of them.
I wonder how he’s doing out there, what would have become of him if he’d still been around in this universe. It’s weird. The things we take for granted - Facebook, first kisses, binge drinking, Obama, our exams, going to university and growing up - he never knew and will never know.
So, Laurie, I’m still thinking of you, even if you don’t remember me and I have no idea what the last thing I said to you was. I wonder what you would’ve been. And I wonder if we are who we are because you weren’t around.
Play
When you’re young, you always feel that life hasn’t begun yet - that “life” is always scheduled to begin next week, next month, next year, after the holidays - whenever. But then suddenly you’re old and the scheduled life didn’t arrive. You find yourself asking, “Well then, exactly what was it I has having - that interlude - that scrambly madness - all that time I had before?”
© Douglas Coupland, “Life After God”
“The tragedy is now that I read so many books that a lot of them fall out of my mind again quite quickly, and while I loved them, I might never remember exactly why.”
—
“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”
- Stephen King
^ I so agree with you Mr. King.
Dear Stephen King, I love you even more now.
Never a truer word was spoken.
You beautiful, beautiful man.
I knew I liked King for a reason…
Hear ye, hear ye, friends and romans, countrymen!
Hear ye, hear ye, punks and skins and journeymen!
Hear ye, hear ye, my sisters and my bretheren!
The time is drawing near!
I read the word “tumbler” in a book the other day. As in a drinking vessel.
I just looked at it and thought, “Hey, that’s spelt wrong! It should … oh, wait …”
I’ll be logging off now…
Play
“I still believe that everyone can find a song for every time they’ve lost, and every time they’ve won.”
—Frank Turner
“This is Jerry, and he’s very pleased to be here.”
—Katie, introducing me to her pumpkin
“Anyone who wants to slur Nick Clegg by calling him posh should have the courage to say it right to his grandmother … Baroness Kiera von Englehart.”
—Victoria Coren
“Is this not actually just a piss take?”
—Katie’s (quite succinct) review of the American Skins trailer
