Doctor’s yesterday. Blood pressure weirdly perfect, cholesterol okay-ish. My record shows I’ve been pre-diabetes for a year or so. No immediate risk, he says. Doc looks elderly, full in faculties, intelligent, great social manner. I tell him I want to take this very seriously and though it’s usually people with diabetes, he’s happy with my request to attend a diabetes education class. I need this stuff drilled into my system. Sometimes I think it might be better if he yelled, ‘You’ve got to buck up your ideas’, then slapped me on the cheek like an SS Officer. Anyway, I’m on a wee level-altering med until I can get off my arse and do something about it.

update, doc recommended me a few useful web spots.

• Couch to 5k, an NHS backed initiative (with plan) to get box-set nesters to make it past the front door. Don’t run? In a month, you’ll run 5k. I’ve been trying this out and it’s got cred. Webpage and apps are here. 
• Parkrun, for when that 5k is together. Saturday morning runs at the local park. A real community event. Sounds good. Website here, or google your local.

Speaking of my arse, I could be quite good at blogging, if I dare say. Since becoming a writer, (chasing the money), blogging is like a leftie butcher coming home to a brown splattered plate of liver and bone. I don’t have time to deliver you original comics, photos, travel-blogs weekly, so you have to make to with the free scraps chucked as I scamper from tree to tree. Hopefully that’ll be good enough for you lot. And if you’ve helped through my several help-me-i’m-skint please in the past, email and ask for something back. No really. I do some free-loading but I don’t want to rip the bum out of it. If you feel the same way, fecking buy something, okay?

Was gonna call this post, Bleeding and Blogging, don’t want to start a stampede.

It’s been an interesting year, filled with perhaps more holidays than the rest of my life sewn together. (Clarification: writers don’t actually get days off)

Stuff that has me interested lately:

Unmissable, so you’ve probably already read, Frankie Boyle’s Conference Roundup.

Babylon 5 Audio Guide: American trio covering B5 episode by episode in much, too much detail. (Intro to B5 at the A-V Club)

The Wife Vs Everything Else: Offshoot of the best Doctor Who and Blakes 7 blogs, Wife In Space and Wife and Blake. It’s a funders-only trawl through great and appalling 70s TV armed with wit and fear. May be released eventually, meantime I think you can get it through the Jon Pertwee kickstarter.

Buffy – The Animated Series: Can you believe no-one has yet commissioned this? Are 90% of commissioners idiots? Yes they are.

John Robbins’ eclectic new collection of comic strips, A Hand Of Fingers.

Warren Ellis on the attention economy– ” Some of that attention would stick, your reputational reach would increase, and the game would play on.”

The Wire RPG from College Humour

Proper Manuscript Format by William Shunn (every day for the rest of my life)

John Lanchester’s Capital (great stuff), and I see, coming as a BBC series next year.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: probably one of the best American comedy series ever. Only available in the UK over Netflix and FX, seasons 1-2 have recently come up on Region 2 dvd.

Next time, I’ll blog about Rathlin Island Hostel. Yeah, I’ll do that.