Somewhere between enjoying Goldfinger and mocking You Only Live Twice, which proves all you need to have to pass as Japanese is fake eyelids, badly trimmed hair and stooped shoulders and if you have all that no one notices you are too tall or speak Japanese with a Scottish accent, I managed to get some work done.

(Note: the most unbelievable thing in You Only Live Twice is the notion that someone could build a giant underground fortress on a tiny populated Japanese island without everyone on the island knowing about it. Well that and the tiny spacesuit fitting the tall Bond, James Bond.)

(Note Two: I currently possess two of the three requirement to pass as Japanese.)

But I digress, which pretty much explains today.

Part of the problem of keeping movies and other noise on in the background as you mark is that you’re always walking a balance between “just interesting enough” and “much too interesting”. For example, I realized I hadn’t seen Thunderball and ended paying too much attention to that film, at least until they wasted time with endless underwater shaky-cam fights that I fast-forwarded through.

As for Goldfinger, well, Honor Blackman and, well, yeah, that’s pretty much it. That’s the distraction. (Do you expect me to mark? No, Mr. Lively, I expect you to DROOL.)

I have a similar problem (distraction, not drooling) if I have music on in the background or have reached the point where I need headphones to drown out any family distraction. The music has to be entertaining but can’t be too catchy or too nostalgic. Random radio channels on iTunes usually work best but they can’t be too shrieky or too bland.

Eventually, all the background noise goes away and I just push through. Eventually.