Through Glass - 6th September

After promising to try and write something everyday on Sunday, I didn't blog yesterday. Although I was pretty busy; woke up later that I had planned and had to be in Portsmouth for a meeting at 12. After that it was off to see the girlfriend, it had been over a week since I'd actually seen her, so that was good. However, life being what it is I had to come home last night. Although I think driving conditions are slightly worse today so I guess I lucked out there. Unfortunately, not everything has gone quite so well. The clash of hours between my new job and my Uni timetable still hasn't been resolved (and it's doing my nut in frankly) combined with the fact that as I impatiently wait for the bank statements to arrive in the post I spend a good portion of my waking hours running through all the worst possible scenarios.

As I said before, the biggest challenge I've faced in the past when attempted to commit to writing is the small matter of having a topic about which to write. But then again, after doing some research it would appear that even the most popular of blogs (i.e. fleetstreetfox.com) are essentially one individuals take on current events, their lives and any other business. The key it would seem, lies in the execution. Whilst this is perhaps the most obvious of observations, it would seem to be one that's not often made. Unless it is. In which case I'm wrong. The clearest way I can of putting it, is that blogging is much like writing a newspaper column, except you don't get paid for it. And the person who's name appears next to the text has actually written it. In that way, there's rather a lot of difference. But the point stands.

Before I forget I just want to add a disclaimer if you've come here because you clicked a link on Facebook; no I haven't come back it's just that the feed is automatically updated when I post, yes I know this means my page is active, no I won't be back anytime soon. In case you haven't come that route, an explanation. Just over 3 weeks ago I decided to 'give up' Facebook as it were. After finding myself consistently wasting many hours of the day and night checking my notifications and staring at status' about which I really wasn't that bothered. I felt like I needed a break. And honestly, it's been bliss.

I was shocked at just how much of my time I'd been wasting. I wouldn't count myself as a heavy user, but I was certainly addicted. I appreciate that it's an extremely useful tool when used in the right situations, and yes I'm sure that some great good has come out of it. However, more of the time it's nonsense. Myspace was never meant to have any real purpose, it was just for entertainment value.

As well as having more time to make conversation, to read and coincidentally to write, not using Facebook has given me many more hours to spend watching trashy horror films. Such as Outpost . Now, I'm not going to suggest for a second that a British Nazi-Zombie horror film is for everyone. But then again I found Avatar  both dull and pointless, so my taste isn't exactly mainstream. The pleasure which I gain from watching movies such as Outpost is surely something with which everyone can relate. It's the sheer effortlessness of it. I imagine it's the same reason why people watch Total Wipeout (although I'd rather get needles in the eye that sit through more than 5 minutes of such drivel). The plot of Outpost goes a little like so; a mysterious businessman in war-torn Eastern Europe hires a group of mercenaries to excort him on a 48 hour expedition to find some 'minerals'. In fact what he's looking for is a machine constructed by the Third Reich as part of their quest to make soldiers invincible. It's delightfully gory, filled with plenty of sinister propaganda footage and whilst it descends into action in the final third, the conclusion will suite any fans of Event Horizon (one of my personal favourites). I won't be watching it again anytime soon, but that's because there's plenty more I haven't seen. My taste in movies isn't purely B-movie horror, it's in what I tend to call good or interesting films.  (Deleted previous sentence due to incredible snobbery on my part).

I felt like a man today, I built some furniture (like men do) and therefore felt like I had achieved something worthwhile. It's also allowed me to move gradually towards some semblance of order in my life. Which has proven to be a relief after all the stress of the first day back from holiday. Speaking of which, I should really go and carry on 'sorting'. It is so much fun (no that's not sarcasm)... and neither was that.

Through Glass - 4th September

A few months back I made a crack at writing a daily blog. And failed. Not in any kind of spectacular form, I just failed. It was only when reading Richard Herring's blog, 'Warming Up' where he introduces the concept of spending just half an hour a day to write about something which happened to him the day before. In broad terms, half an hour really isn't very long. However, it can often seem to be too much effort to actually have the discipline to sit and write. The intention of this blog  is to keep up my writing and in a sense, give me something to aim for, it may well also serve as a pathetic form of catharsis. 
  
 I can't promise any theme that will be ascribed to the site, it will largely consist of unedited nonsense. Yes, I'll correct spellings but grammar can go stick it. That and any sense of mild coherence which you may expect from something more 'polished'. This will literally be whatever is on my mind at one point in time each day, and I hope that that provides perhaps even one person with some form of mild amusement. I'm not going to try and play a character, because that's firstly pathetic and secondly really quite odd. 
  
 After what can be described as an active Scottish holiday (I came home with a bottle of Single  Malt > Win!) filled with mountain climbing and much photo taking. Plus a little taster of the Fringe, even if it was right at the end when all the comedians were sick and tired, and just a little suicidal. Still I met Robin Ince and Josie Long. Which was certainly fun. The whisky is made at the distiller around which I had a tour, its the kind of stuff which is pretty rare (only 10,000 bottles made a year) but which is common enough that it doesn't burn a hole in the pocket... at least not too much. It's now destined to sit in the box for years to come, not being drunk, as I doubt I'll ever want to open it for fear of drinking the lot in one go. Not that I'm an alcoholic, its just bloody tasty.     


The main downside to the week has been that everything which I had hoped was in place/ being processed has resulted in one huge clusterfruitcake (for the easily offended). Honestly, if you ever consider doing a post-graduate degree?! Get your funding sorted way in advance, as it's a royal pain in the arse to sort when it's not gone as planned. That and the ONE DAY in which I have to attend Uni  (ONE DAY) clashes with the hours I've been given my new job. Screw it. I should add, in the interests of honesty that i haven't written this in a straight half hour, my laptop overheated and I didn't want to risk the endless cycle of rebooting and overheating so I left it for a bit. But that's beside the point, I've still written it. The trick is going to be keeping it up. The most likely dilemma which I will encounter is that I'll just have nothing to write about, as is often common. Nonetheless, I'm determined to not let that be an issue. 


I'll be obtaining a netbook in the hopefully near future which will at least give me some form of flexibility with my timing for writing. The current limitation being when I'm either at my desk (Dead laptop battery) or at a pubic computer (because I'm not typing a whole blog entry on my phone). 


In the meantime I need to try and configure Twitter to this thing.