Hello again world!
Where have I been? No where really, just indisposed.
So I thought I'd write a new blog post and update you all on the wonderful intricacies of my life.
...
Well! That was exciting!!
Okay, so there are no "wonderful intricacies", but life has been evolving around me. I would negate the 'around me', but I hardly feel that I'm evolving with it. Look at me, still laid in bed after a shower, bloggingpretending to do work, instead of doing my essay... at the same time as writing my extended essay! Honest!.. well I've got my notes document open and my book ready to copy the highlighted quotes out of... what more do you want expect from me?
But there's a lot that's changed.
Last academic year was my final year as a BA (hons) student. I passed (somehow) and have my degree. But now, thanks (mostly) to my Granddad loaning me the tuition, I'm back at the same uni studying for my MA...
Also, last year I left good old Leicester to come 'visit' my parents while I was between accommodation... and I'm still kind of 'visiting' them 6 months down the line. My boyfriend is too. Stuff kicked off with his (from the sounds of it, slightly psychotic) ex girlfriend when they broke up - and apparently him getting with me straight away didn't help things. So my parents (being sweet, helpful and occasionally naive) offered him a place here. Again, that was about 6 months ago.
To cap it all off, the part time work I had at the beginning of my time here turned into a nightmare in only a couple of months, and ended up leaving after my ankles decided enough was enough and took me on a jolly ride to the hospital a few times in a week. Good fun... but of course, even though I was only getting 10 or so hours a week, without that income we were slightly screwed.
You'd think "No problem, just get a different job. Heck, get your boyfriend to get one too!"... we thought that too. Apparently being tall and having longish hair in a small place like my home town makes you virtually unemployable. And, oh yeah, if you want to do anything other than bar work as part time work - forget it.
We were about at our wits end at the beginning of the month. That includes my parents - who have hardly any money as it is - and my granddad who keeps wanting to see me back at uni working constantly.
BUT - two days ago someone finally gave my boyfriend a chance!
He got sick of hearing nothing from the places he applied for, so decided to go back around all the agencies (same as he had when he first realised he'd be staying here) - and what do you know? The first one he went to gave him an induction the very next week!
Why they couldn't have done so 6 months ago when he first applied I don't frigging well know, but hey ho, at least he's got something now.
So here I am, alone in bed (for the first time in forever) while he's off working his second night shift in a chicken factory. It's not glamorous, but it's better than nothing.
And I suddenly have time and space for myself! Something I've not really been able to get lately. When you both practically live out of a bedroom you can barely fit all of one persons stuff in, let alone two, things get kind of cramped - but you get to spend loads of time together.
Now I have the bedroom to myself and it feels actually quite big! Though that could have something to do with the fact I got bored last night while he was gone and cleared and tided practically everything away whilst waiting for him to come home.
So I have time to think, and stretch, and blog!
Not to mention I can also do my work in peace, away from everyone. Before I could be away from everyone but him, now I'm actually alone and don't get distracted as easily (ignoring this blog that is - come on! It was an urge that needed to be filled okay?), and don't have to worry that someone thinks I'm ignoring them, or just not interested in what they're doing. It's really freeing.
<gross-ness alert>
I can even fart without worrying I'll make someone's eyes water!
The temptation jut then to use 'fart' as a label for this post... so... hard... to resist...!
I feel like I'm rediscovering all these things about myself that I'd pushed to the back of my mind, or to the bottom of my 'do-able' list (not to be confused with a 'to do' list - and for those readers with dirty minds (like me) NOT LIKE THAT). Like writing a diary, or posting a blog, creative writing, reading even! Stuff that you do in your own little bubble, I guess. Stuff that you use as an escape from everything and everyone around you. I haven't drawn or painted in months, the closest I've come to that is some half-hearted scraper foils I would work away at for a few minutes at a time. That's a point - I never did finish those...
I guess that's why I said that it seems as though life has evolved around me, kind of without me. You know when you look at everything, and can see why it's happened or changed, and how, and remember what you were thinking when it did..? Don't you ever look at yourself afterwards and think "Take that little bit away though and I'm just the same"?
You take my boyfriend out of the equation and I'm practically identical to the single girl a year ago "studying" for my finals. Okay, that implies I actually studied... my last year was so not about studying...
But you get the picture.
The other major change has been that my bestest best friend in the whole wide world has gotten into a (pretty serious) relationship. It's the first time since we've known each other that he's had a partner. That's a big difference I guess, not to mention the fact that we don't get to see each other very often at all. The distance keeps trying to mount up between us, which is kinda strange, because it's not working very well. Loads of my friends - especially from uni, or school - get a little bit of distance from me and we stop talking, we stop trying to spend time together... Suppose that's the difference between friends and bestest best friends?
Wow, don't I sound like a child? "Bestest"? a test for Bes? Interesting - according to my spelling checker 'bes' is a word... ah, but google explains all. Bes is a proper noun, or an acronym, so... kind of not a real word - unless you're being tested on the God Bes... or testing the BlackBerry Enterprise Server...
Or is it the best "est"? again, mostly acronym based definitions...
I guess we say it as a way of increasing the power of the word 'best'. Like when a child say's "worser" because they understand "er" as the way the word increases in strength from "big" to "bigger" hence "biggerer" or "biggererer" and so forth. On the other hand, something that is "best" has the letters "est" added ("fastest", "biggest", "strongest", "loudest"), hence to have the 'best of the best' is to have the bestest.
Incorrect, but still interesting how our logic mixes with our phonetics at a young age and can continue to be of influence on our unconscious mind.
I guess I shouldn't be blogging right now. I have to be awake around 12pm to do a first aid training course... and I'll probably be woken up at 6/7am when my baby boy (yeah, I'm soppy and call him that) leaves work/gets home. I should probably catch as much sleep as I can as often as I can... but I was silly and took a shower to wake myself up to do some work, and then got bored of N.K.Hayles and decided to ramble on about nothing.
She has this really odd idea of what literature in the digital age should be / is. She calls it the 'literary'... and it's basically art that inclines itself to literate based thinking/reading/understanding. I agree with her that literature should be that which is non-explicit, i.e. something that makes you think, or fill in the gaps, or give an impression instead of the picture. Literature is all impressionist - otherwise it gets boring. Note to Ms Hayles - you're not very 'impressionistic'...
I think I agree with the idea of it being "Literature" if it requires more thought... not even that, if it leads you to a conclusion without then spelling out said conclusion I'd class it as literature, not just writing.
Like... good example!... if you're reading a murder mystery and it gives you the clues along the way, then describes what the characters do with those clues - that's on its way to literature; where as if it takes each clue, gives you time to work them out, then tells you what it meant... that's just writing.
Good writing keeps your attention. Great writing makes you think too.
A book that you "can't put down" is something we call "a page turner". They keep you in the text (normally) by leaving you in suspense at the end of the page, then gratifying your need for a conclusion at the top of the next whilst building another set of suspense for you to have at the bottom of it. That's an exaggeration of course, but something that makes you want to read it by you wanting to know what happens is only good writing. Something that you put down and come back to for the writing style as well as the story, something you read passages back to yourself in, or read aloud passages to others in order to splendour in the way it's been stated - that's great writing.
There are millions of books out there that hover in between these definitions, and it comes down to preference, study, and understanding to personally decide on which group they belong to.
I'm not saying good writing isn't as worthwhile. On the contrary, I often prefer a good book to a great one if I want to read in a cathartic way. Great books are only to be attempted when you're in the right mood - which is a slight disadvantage for them I suppose.
I think the thing that distinguishes a good writer from a good story is an easier boundary to pick. A well written book is one that you'll turn to again and again, and the words will just melt away before you, giving way to the story you love. A good story is one that engrossed you the first time you read it, but on second reading isn't as enjoyable because you know the story and it either takes to long to build up to the action you remember and enjoyed, or silly little phrases pop out at you making you think "I wouldn't have said it like that..." or "that's a bit of a clumsy way of saying it..." which interrupts your flow.
Then you have the really bad writers for whom you have the above problem with on a first reading.
For those writers I have one suggestion: PROOFREADERS!!
I know they're expensive, but they can increase your chances of sounding right/good so much!
I'd love to be a proof reader... but I've no idea if I'd be any good at it or not!
I think that'd be funny. "Yes, I can proof read this for you and make changes that will improve it!" ... 10 hours later it's sent back with more spelling mistakes and isn't as well written as it was to start with... or doesn't convey the same story idea... or something rubbish like that.
As long as they didn't do what my friends did once. They were all in a computer lab together at college, and one guy went to the toilet (for a bit too long), and while he was gone they changed (and saved) his document so that every "it" was an "and" instead. Genius. They thought - ah well, he'll just come back, realise the issue and change all the "and"'s back to "it"'s... oh wait, were there and's in the sentences beforehand? Oh... as many as there were it's you say? Oooh...
18 pages he had to go through and change, one at a time, any 'and' that should be an 'it' back... hours and hours of work since he was dyslexic.
Well, could have been worse... they could have done it to several words.
Oh wait, that was the second time they got him with the trick.
At least that time they didn't save the document first. Of course, they probably should have told him that... since he didn't check and tried to change them all back by hand... like last time... where as he could have just used "ctrl+z" a few times. Oh well - in there words: "Well it's his fault he saved it half way through and didn't try undo first!"... right...
Yeah, I tried to explain that it wasn't funny after they let him save it... but hey, apparently it was.
Shall point out that I wasn't there at the time and couldn't stop them - just to clear that up.
Anyway - that's far too many tangents for one post, so I'm going to blog-off (instead of log-off...? or bog-off I guess too...)
I hope you've not self-destructed since we last had some form of... one way communication... and that life hasn't evolved too snap-dragon-ish around you either.
Try to stay positive even if things aren't going how you want. Life changes, and so do people, so will you (eventually); and if you're waiting on the world to change, try getting up and making it. Even if it doesn't work, at least it a) takes your mind off it a little and/or b) gives you a better right to complain about it...
Good luck in all your endeavours, my digitally composed friends!
Blessed Be xx
Where have I been? No where really, just indisposed.
So I thought I'd write a new blog post and update you all on the wonderful intricacies of my life.
...
Well! That was exciting!!
Okay, so there are no "wonderful intricacies", but life has been evolving around me. I would negate the 'around me', but I hardly feel that I'm evolving with it. Look at me, still laid in bed after a shower, blogging
But there's a lot that's changed.
Last academic year was my final year as a BA (hons) student. I passed (somehow) and have my degree. But now, thanks (mostly) to my Granddad loaning me the tuition, I'm back at the same uni studying for my MA...
Also, last year I left good old Leicester to come 'visit' my parents while I was between accommodation... and I'm still kind of 'visiting' them 6 months down the line. My boyfriend is too. Stuff kicked off with his (from the sounds of it, slightly psychotic) ex girlfriend when they broke up - and apparently him getting with me straight away didn't help things. So my parents (being sweet, helpful and occasionally naive) offered him a place here. Again, that was about 6 months ago.
To cap it all off, the part time work I had at the beginning of my time here turned into a nightmare in only a couple of months, and ended up leaving after my ankles decided enough was enough and took me on a jolly ride to the hospital a few times in a week. Good fun... but of course, even though I was only getting 10 or so hours a week, without that income we were slightly screwed.
You'd think "No problem, just get a different job. Heck, get your boyfriend to get one too!"... we thought that too. Apparently being tall and having longish hair in a small place like my home town makes you virtually unemployable. And, oh yeah, if you want to do anything other than bar work as part time work - forget it.
We were about at our wits end at the beginning of the month. That includes my parents - who have hardly any money as it is - and my granddad who keeps wanting to see me back at uni working constantly.
BUT - two days ago someone finally gave my boyfriend a chance!
He got sick of hearing nothing from the places he applied for, so decided to go back around all the agencies (same as he had when he first realised he'd be staying here) - and what do you know? The first one he went to gave him an induction the very next week!
Why they couldn't have done so 6 months ago when he first applied I don't frigging well know, but hey ho, at least he's got something now.
So here I am, alone in bed (for the first time in forever) while he's off working his second night shift in a chicken factory. It's not glamorous, but it's better than nothing.
And I suddenly have time and space for myself! Something I've not really been able to get lately. When you both practically live out of a bedroom you can barely fit all of one persons stuff in, let alone two, things get kind of cramped - but you get to spend loads of time together.
Now I have the bedroom to myself and it feels actually quite big! Though that could have something to do with the fact I got bored last night while he was gone and cleared and tided practically everything away whilst waiting for him to come home.
So I have time to think, and stretch, and blog!
Not to mention I can also do my work in peace, away from everyone. Before I could be away from everyone but him, now I'm actually alone and don't get distracted as easily (ignoring this blog that is - come on! It was an urge that needed to be filled okay?), and don't have to worry that someone thinks I'm ignoring them, or just not interested in what they're doing. It's really freeing.
<gross-ness alert>
I can even fart without worrying I'll make someone's eyes water!
The temptation jut then to use 'fart' as a label for this post... so... hard... to resist...!
I feel like I'm rediscovering all these things about myself that I'd pushed to the back of my mind, or to the bottom of my 'do-able' list (not to be confused with a 'to do' list - and for those readers with dirty minds (like me) NOT LIKE THAT). Like writing a diary, or posting a blog, creative writing, reading even! Stuff that you do in your own little bubble, I guess. Stuff that you use as an escape from everything and everyone around you. I haven't drawn or painted in months, the closest I've come to that is some half-hearted scraper foils I would work away at for a few minutes at a time. That's a point - I never did finish those...
I guess that's why I said that it seems as though life has evolved around me, kind of without me. You know when you look at everything, and can see why it's happened or changed, and how, and remember what you were thinking when it did..? Don't you ever look at yourself afterwards and think "Take that little bit away though and I'm just the same"?
You take my boyfriend out of the equation and I'm practically identical to the single girl a year ago "studying" for my finals. Okay, that implies I actually studied... my last year was so not about studying...
But you get the picture.
The other major change has been that my bestest best friend in the whole wide world has gotten into a (pretty serious) relationship. It's the first time since we've known each other that he's had a partner. That's a big difference I guess, not to mention the fact that we don't get to see each other very often at all. The distance keeps trying to mount up between us, which is kinda strange, because it's not working very well. Loads of my friends - especially from uni, or school - get a little bit of distance from me and we stop talking, we stop trying to spend time together... Suppose that's the difference between friends and bestest best friends?
Wow, don't I sound like a child? "Bestest"? a test for Bes? Interesting - according to my spelling checker 'bes' is a word... ah, but google explains all. Bes is a proper noun, or an acronym, so... kind of not a real word - unless you're being tested on the God Bes... or testing the BlackBerry Enterprise Server...
Or is it the best "est"? again, mostly acronym based definitions...
I guess we say it as a way of increasing the power of the word 'best'. Like when a child say's "worser" because they understand "er" as the way the word increases in strength from "big" to "bigger" hence "biggerer" or "biggererer" and so forth. On the other hand, something that is "best" has the letters "est" added ("fastest", "biggest", "strongest", "loudest"), hence to have the 'best of the best' is to have the bestest.
Incorrect, but still interesting how our logic mixes with our phonetics at a young age and can continue to be of influence on our unconscious mind.
I guess I shouldn't be blogging right now. I have to be awake around 12pm to do a first aid training course... and I'll probably be woken up at 6/7am when my baby boy (yeah, I'm soppy and call him that) leaves work/gets home. I should probably catch as much sleep as I can as often as I can... but I was silly and took a shower to wake myself up to do some work, and then got bored of N.K.Hayles and decided to ramble on about nothing.
She has this really odd idea of what literature in the digital age should be / is. She calls it the 'literary'... and it's basically art that inclines itself to literate based thinking/reading/understanding. I agree with her that literature should be that which is non-explicit, i.e. something that makes you think, or fill in the gaps, or give an impression instead of the picture. Literature is all impressionist - otherwise it gets boring. Note to Ms Hayles - you're not very 'impressionistic'...
I think I agree with the idea of it being "Literature" if it requires more thought... not even that, if it leads you to a conclusion without then spelling out said conclusion I'd class it as literature, not just writing.
Like... good example!... if you're reading a murder mystery and it gives you the clues along the way, then describes what the characters do with those clues - that's on its way to literature; where as if it takes each clue, gives you time to work them out, then tells you what it meant... that's just writing.
Good writing keeps your attention. Great writing makes you think too.
A book that you "can't put down" is something we call "a page turner". They keep you in the text (normally) by leaving you in suspense at the end of the page, then gratifying your need for a conclusion at the top of the next whilst building another set of suspense for you to have at the bottom of it. That's an exaggeration of course, but something that makes you want to read it by you wanting to know what happens is only good writing. Something that you put down and come back to for the writing style as well as the story, something you read passages back to yourself in, or read aloud passages to others in order to splendour in the way it's been stated - that's great writing.
There are millions of books out there that hover in between these definitions, and it comes down to preference, study, and understanding to personally decide on which group they belong to.
I'm not saying good writing isn't as worthwhile. On the contrary, I often prefer a good book to a great one if I want to read in a cathartic way. Great books are only to be attempted when you're in the right mood - which is a slight disadvantage for them I suppose.
I think the thing that distinguishes a good writer from a good story is an easier boundary to pick. A well written book is one that you'll turn to again and again, and the words will just melt away before you, giving way to the story you love. A good story is one that engrossed you the first time you read it, but on second reading isn't as enjoyable because you know the story and it either takes to long to build up to the action you remember and enjoyed, or silly little phrases pop out at you making you think "I wouldn't have said it like that..." or "that's a bit of a clumsy way of saying it..." which interrupts your flow.
Then you have the really bad writers for whom you have the above problem with on a first reading.
For those writers I have one suggestion: PROOFREADERS!!
I know they're expensive, but they can increase your chances of sounding right/good so much!
I'd love to be a proof reader... but I've no idea if I'd be any good at it or not!
I think that'd be funny. "Yes, I can proof read this for you and make changes that will improve it!" ... 10 hours later it's sent back with more spelling mistakes and isn't as well written as it was to start with... or doesn't convey the same story idea... or something rubbish like that.
As long as they didn't do what my friends did once. They were all in a computer lab together at college, and one guy went to the toilet (for a bit too long), and while he was gone they changed (and saved) his document so that every "it" was an "and" instead. Genius. They thought - ah well, he'll just come back, realise the issue and change all the "and"'s back to "it"'s... oh wait, were there and's in the sentences beforehand? Oh... as many as there were it's you say? Oooh...
18 pages he had to go through and change, one at a time, any 'and' that should be an 'it' back... hours and hours of work since he was dyslexic.
Well, could have been worse... they could have done it to several words.
Oh wait, that was the second time they got him with the trick.
At least that time they didn't save the document first. Of course, they probably should have told him that... since he didn't check and tried to change them all back by hand... like last time... where as he could have just used "ctrl+z" a few times. Oh well - in there words: "Well it's his fault he saved it half way through and didn't try undo first!"... right...
Yeah, I tried to explain that it wasn't funny after they let him save it... but hey, apparently it was.
Shall point out that I wasn't there at the time and couldn't stop them - just to clear that up.
Anyway - that's far too many tangents for one post, so I'm going to blog-off (instead of log-off...? or bog-off I guess too...)
I hope you've not self-destructed since we last had some form of... one way communication... and that life hasn't evolved too snap-dragon-ish around you either.
Try to stay positive even if things aren't going how you want. Life changes, and so do people, so will you (eventually); and if you're waiting on the world to change, try getting up and making it. Even if it doesn't work, at least it a) takes your mind off it a little and/or b) gives you a better right to complain about it...
Good luck in all your endeavours, my digitally composed friends!
Blessed Be xx
