I’m sure there are many other posts of a similar nature to this one – resolving to blog more frequently and talking about why the previous timeframe was devoid of regular posting – but that doesn’t stop me from doing it as well. One tries to be an innovator, but one can’t help being an imitator.

I obviously don’t have the discipline to write something new every day (and seeing as I write reviews, they do take up a fair chunk of time), so I aim to try for three regular posts (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) with perhaps something on a weekend if time, events or schedule (such as a themed-week) dictates. I’ll still be keeping with my remit of ‘online journal of my entertainment choices’ but I might try to stretch myself with more ‘opinion pieces’ of current concepts, if only in an effort to help the blog be more topical. I think these are achievable goals; if I can maintain that for several months, I’ll be happy and might start branching out.

As for reasons why I have not been posting – well, that’s just a combination of things, one of the weirdest being that I have been writing things. Let me explain, as I confess to a secret. In trying to overdo things and aim for a week of posts, I would create a draft on a day but not actually post anything, then create a draft on the next day but not post anything, and repeat this until I had finished things then post them all at once, making it look like I’ve been regular. I haven’t done this a lot – once or twice on this site – but it caused my recent downfall when my big plans got too big and then I never got round to finishing things. I will go back and finish those weeks (for example, I have a Stardust week and a TV catch-up week) but it will feel odd after posting this. I have a lot of things written up, ready for posting, so there will be no shortage of content; it just requires me to be more disciplined.

The second reason is the discovery of a new method for obtaining new entertainments. I have discovered that my library has a reservation process that takes in ALL of the London libraries – this means that I have access to an unbelievable number of comic book compilations that I haven’t tried, and I swamped myself with the amount of books to read (that I have written about but haven’t posted). I was like a child in a sweet shop, and made myself sick with all the books I could get hold of, which lead to reading too much and not writing regularly.

The third reason was the presence of decent television on a regular basis in the autumn schedule – with Heroes (very enjoyable but a big poo-plop of an anti-climax), 30 Rock (very funny), a weekly double-helping of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (which was really good all the way through, no matter what anyone else said – I write about it in one of my TV catch-up posts that I haven’t posted yet) and my DVD rental company providing me with the third season of Battlestar Galactica (which was also excellent), I was provided with a surfeit of quality entertainment rather than rubbish that I would bitch about.

The final reason was the coming of Super Mario Galaxy. Even though it came out in November, we saved it as a Christmas present and played it practically every day since – it is exquisitely delightful and thoroughly enjoyable, and I find myself laughing at its imagination and swearing at the screen in exquisite agony at repeated failures to finish a level in equal measure. In the build up to this, I played Super Mario Sunshine from the beginning to get in the mood and as a tribute – I’ve never understood why this has been disliked by the hardcore gaming community: I thought the FLUDD was a great addition, expanding the variety of Mario’s moves; the ability to wander around and explore the levels was a delight; and the variety of levels based on ‘real’ concepts (compared with the mind-bending concepts in Super Mario Galaxy) was great.

Anyway, all this added up to making David a bad Clandestine Critic, especially around Christmas. And then Christmas comes along and nobody does anything, and then the New Year comes along and then it’s time to start things afresh, but I don’t want to start on the first of January (that’s a cliché), so I wait until now, a Monday, to try for the new weekly schedule. Just so you feel like I’m including actual content, I’ll talk about the two new things over Christmas.

Firstly, the Christmas Doctor Who – decidedly average. I’m not a big fan of disaster movies, waiting for the various characters to die, so having a Who disaster episode (particularly one that reminds me of the dull but somehow perceived as ‘classic’ The Poseidon Adventure) isn’t going to help. And Kylie, while she has a nice bum, really can’t act very well. And there were no special bits, a line or a joke or a moment, to rescue it.

Secondly, the Extras Christmas special – Andy Millman becomes a total arsehole you have no desire to watch, let alone see redeemed, and this is supposed to be cheery Christmas telly? If I want to be depressed, I’ll watch bloody Eastenders. The final 10 minutes save it from being a complete waste of time, with the anti-celebrity rant and the resolution with Maggie, but it was only the cameos that made it bearable: ‘Fuck off! I’m Clive Owen. That’s mental.’ was worth it alone and Clive Owen deserves an award for saying it.

And so ends the Return To Blogging post. With actual content. Now, let’s see how we do this time …