Get (Into) What You Paid For – Volume 5, No. 7: Day 59:

Its 59 days into the GITWYPF challenge. You know the rules by now. For a designated time period, (which was a month on early volumes, but has now became two months, and could become three months at any stage), I will try not to buy myself anything unnecessary or materialistic or to do with my hobbies. I can buy food, survival supplies, school supplies etc. I can’t buy comics, videogames, movies or most importantly music. That’s the real challenge. I made myself almost hopelessly fond of acquiring new possessions when I had a good job and no responsibilities and now its time to break the habit.

So far so good. 59 days, no slip-ups. I haven’t bought any new CDs, or DVDs or whatever.
There have been temptations. There have been stresses which would normally lead me into my old patterns of buying stuff to de-stress. So far though, doing well. Which is lucky, because…

Well. If you’ll remember the reason I do these challenges is not only to teach myself discipline and restraint and to become less consumerist. Its also increasingly because I’m broke.  So… early in the week I bought my lovely girlfriend some flowers, but do not own a vase, and was foolish enough to store tall full-length flowers in a mug, balanced against my tv, on the same desk as the computer where I do all my university work on.

You can imagine, as even I could, looking at this stupid choice and thinking “that’s totally going to fall down and spill on my computer” what happened was that gravity took the flowers, who’s stems flipped the mug, the water from which poured into the computer, which is now broken, and I’ve been told the price of repair (its currently in the repair shop, and the price ‘aint pretty).

So yeah. The repair price is so bad, I’ve come to the decision to just get a whole new computer, despite being too poor to buy CDs on a semi regular basis. I’d just sod the whole thing off, but University in 2015 is so un-doable without a personally-owned computer that its not worth trying unless you have no choice.

Anyway, I’m a clumsy idiot. Also I just cost myself a few hundred bucks. So. You better believe the GITWYPF challenge is getting longer. It’ll be three months now. So no purchases December, January or February. At the very least.

There’s stuff I might’ve bought. Marilyn Manson has a new album. Not for me he doesn’t. I’ll deal with that next year. I’ve been very happy this year disengaging from getting new things when they’re new, and getting them later. As with Slipknot, Machine Head and Judas Priest, all of their most recent albums I left a good few months before getting (and even then only as gifts).

Speaking of gifts, my very excellent brother showed up in the wake of the computer water fiasco, to assess the damage, and bought me Mastodon’s new album as a gift. I’d seen them live on the tour for this, and previously been an incredible Mastodon fanboy (seriously, look at any photo of me from 2005-2010 and chances are I’m wearing a Mastodon t-shirt) but somehow had not got their new album yet, due to my new disengagement policy, coupled with a few negative reviews, and my initial unimpressed impression of the album when they streamed it around the time of release.

Having now been gifted the new album and listened to it repeatedly, I can say I’m quite fond of it now. Although, I think it doesn’t flow the best. Its time for my old trait “custom track orders” !

I’ve done it to Dream Theater’s Awake, to Motley Crue’s Theater Of Pain, Gamma Ray’s To The Metal and many more. I’ve now done it to Mastodon’s “Once More Round The Sun.” If you play the songs in this order, the album flows so much better and all of the songs somehow seem better themselves in context:

In non music realms, I’m reading Ultimate Spiderman, currently on book 9 of about 25. It is superb and I can’t think of a stronger or more consistent series that’s more immune to all the flaws in most comics.

I’ve also played about 12 hours of Darksiders 2, a videogame I received as a gift a year ago but have only now managed to open, and I’ve been incredibly entertained by it so far. Its very different from the first entry in the series, less God Of War and more Dragon Age, but I’ll write more about it if I ever get the time to play it. A rare break in my work schedule, lining up nicely with me being off Uni for the first three weeks of January, coupled with me already being hugely ahead in my work allowed me to get in there, but that’s all gone now, and the free time I get can be better spent elsewhere.

Elsewhere being the fitness thing. I’ve been back to healthy living this month, its been getting better and better, and easier and easier. I’ve started using Fitday again and its done such good for my physical and mental health that I can’t belive I ever let myself stop it (I got talked out’ve using it two years ago by an ex-girlfriend and friend combo who mistook my own interest in weightloss as both an insult to them somehow, as well as a mental health problem for me, presumably having seen half of an after-school-special about body dysmorphia and missing all of the key information). The past is the past, and I’m using it again now. I feel healthy and vital and more full of energy and enthusiasm than I have in a while. Its lead to better workouts a more active general lifestyle and general improvements in mood, outlook and overall satisfaction with life. The nutritional aspect of it is what interests me the most. Its good to know I need more spinach or that I can’t have one more piece of bread that day, or whatever. Actually seeing and thinking about food in a mindful way is incredibly helpful to me and my individual personality, and I’m glad to be back to it (and don’t intend to stop anytime soon).

Yeah, that’s a bit wanky and hippyish for most of you who read this to know what I think about the new Batman book or Slayer album, but whatever…. its distracting me from buying the new batman book and Slayer album which is the point of this particular sub-series.

OK. What have I covered, comics? Spiderman. Tv? no. But it’s Gilmore Girls. Music? Oh yeah… the week of Thrash turned into two weeks. I’ve been listening to all my ’80s Thrash that I was so massively obsessed with in my teens (not in the 80s though, sorry I’m too young for that folks), on shuffle a heck of a lot. If I need to read something, a Thrash playlist goes on shuffle in the background. I then hear some Voivod, Sodom, Megadeth, Vio-lence, Forbidden, Testament and Heathen while I read. Good times.

I’ve also been listening to the recent records by Thrash bands too, to stretch it out. Does Forbidden’s Omega Wave still sound ok? How good is Christ Illusion? Do I like Death Magnetic? Is Phantom Antichrist or Formation Of Damnation better than the band’s classic 80s output?

Yes, but it could do with a few faster songs. Very good. Yes, but the production’s weird. Actually, yes!
…and as a bonus point, all of the Rob Dukes era Exodus albums are fantastic too!

Ok. Till next time. Wish me luck not to spill anything on this borrowed laptop.