Roald Dahl's Matilda, and the Sinkholes of Life

ook at this! Talli shared it on FB the other day:

It's Matilda's 25th anniversary!

If you've got grade school kids, there's a contest they can enter:

 

ROW80 - editing is moving slowly. I didn't do much except a bit of research during the week, but have begun another read through of Druid's Moon this weekend.

Now then, do you have a sinkhole in your life? Real Simple editor Kristin van Ogtrop blogged about sinkholes the other day:

I've got a few myself:

1. Sinkhole next to the couch. Where all the daily papers go in one big teetering pile: books, bank statements, to do lists, printed ebooks, brochures, bits and pieces on research and craft, latest knitting project, Folio Society and Tolkien Society newsletters, Wallace letter printouts, and so on.

2. Sinkhole within the To Do list. This is the part of the list where the truly long term projects flounder, such as projects for the house, writing for the Tolkien Society newsletter, and applying for a part time job I don't need (but which would be so much fun!) at Timeout Magazine Istanbul, as well as plot bunnies that scamper way down in the deeps of the list.

3. Sinkhole in the fridge. Behold the tupperware of mystery! Contains: leftovers from last week. Who wants to find out whether they're still edible? Hold your nose...

4. Skinkhole in the two closets in the house. Eventually, someday, I'm going to tidy all the books and CDs and VHS tapes in the garage into nice tidy bins, bring up some of the books we miss and bring down others, reorganize the library, bring down the bins taking up space in the closets and generally tidy up ALL THE THINGS (CDs, scrapbooking supplies, musical instruments, photo albums, etc.).

I have to say, this is one of my favourite sleep aids. Try it: lie there and begin the mental process of sorting and moving and repackaging and purging. I guarantee by the time you reach the second room you'll be fast asleep!

5. Sinkhole in my wishlists and playlists. I have wishlists scattered across two Amazon and three separate email accounts. Not to mention how far behind I've gotten in my library cataloguing (all the ones I have catalogued are down at the bottom of the blog in those LibraryThing widgets).

Rant: What makes the wishlists and YouTube playlists a sinkhole is the truly annoying habit that Amazon and YouTube have of deleting books and videos at random. I understand that some books go out of print or stock and that videos are removed by users or for copyright purposes. But why must they delete the name of the book or song when they remove the actual link? Leave the name so that I can remember what it was! Grr.

6. Sinkhole in my blog. Contains: copyrighted photos that need to be replaced (I've made a list of all the posts requiring this operation), tags that don't exist, extra tabs I'd like to add with writing snips and so on, and lots of fellow bloggers whose blogs I haven't had a chance to visit in a couple of weeks.

And, finally, here's my version of the last one Kristin had:

7. Sinkhole in my head. Way down in the bottom must be the second half of all the song lyrics and poems I only know the beginnings of, the location of the high school diaries I know I had when we moved into this house but can't find now, the endings to all the mystery novels I've read and reread, the Off Switch for Procrastination, and the ability to knit while reading. Among many other feats!

Where are the sinkholes in your life?

Going to be drawing winners from Justine Dell's book launch post on Wednesday!