Slight change of plan - 10 hours later - I'm back

Hello blog readers. I hope you had a nice Christmas should you celebrate it. If not I hope you got an awesome bargain at the boxing day sales should you have had access to a major shopping center! (Though on-line store were offering boxing day sales!)

I'm BACK!!!!!! (Did you miss me?) Yes 10 hours later I'm back at my parents place. Long story short.... My mum's not been feeling well the past few days so we made the decision to pack up early and head back from the back of beyond. We did manage however to leave some much needed rain out at my brothers. As our family has a curse of every time we go on holiday (Any one of us me - my brother- my parents) it rains! However my brother living in a very dusty far west QLD needed the rain, so I didn't mind. I still went swimming in the rain with almost four year old nephew which was RAD!!

Anyway.. I'll be staying on at my mum's for a few days while she gets over this virus thing she has that is making her quite unwell. She slept most of the trip home and is now tucked up in bed. It's a 'need looking after' type of nasty. So I'll take one for the team, as I know she'd come to my place and hold the spew bowl for me if I needed her too!

Anyway. I'm off to find something that resembles food. Though I'm thinking the one pizza store in this town will be getting a visit from me in about 20 mins.

Hope everyone is having a safe yet awesome holiday. Hello to my new followers. I hope you enjoy the ride.

That's all I've got.

Have a safe and Happy Christmas

I'm writing this as I'm literally heading out the door to my parents. I'm staying there tonight so I can be up and on the road at 6am for the 10hr drive to my brothers place. I'm looking forward to seeing my nephews and my brother and his wife. That is if I manage to survive the drive in the same car as my Father! It will literally be 'watch this space' should I never write another blog entry you know I didn't make it!!!

So this is a short and sweet blog. I just want to say thanks to my followers those who've been with me a while and those who are new - I enjoy your comments and knowing that you read what I'm writing is lovely.

So I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - if you don't do Christmas then enjoy the cheap sales on the 26th!

Take care and stay safe. I'll blog again in 2010 so until then....

That's all I've got :)

P.S This is written on the fly - so I'll apologise in advance for any typos :)

Christmas and a rant

So Christmas has come and gone - it was non eventful as we celebrated it early whilst my brother and his family were home so the 'day' was spent just lazing about escaping the heat.

However I received some great gifts 'early'

Season 4 of Doctor Who on DVD
Season 1 & 2 of Skins
Some books :

Scheisshaus Luck - Pierre Berg
Reading the Holocaust - Inga Clendinnen
The Writers Tale - Russell T Davies and Ben Cook

Plus the usual clothes :)

My rant though is about text speak. Ok - Text speak R U there will b L8 etc etc is designed for an SMS text messaging service over a mobile / cell phone network to enable to you relay your message in the quickest amount of time with the least amount of characters. What SHITS me is when people comment on blogs, youtube channels etc using the aforementioned text speak.

Nothing screams 'uneducated moron' or 'lazy' more than when I see people leaving comments on other peoples site in text talk when the little comment box is enabled to allow the person to write complete words! I'm not fussy on the punctuation. I mean I'm the last person to comment on others punctuation and or spelling ability! However is it that hard to write a full word out like

I think your video is great instead of I tnk ur vid is gr8t

Urg!!! Maybe it's a sign I'm either
a) Getting old or
b) I am OLD!

The English language is a wonderful tool that enable us to communicate and express ourselves. Why waste it by shortening it and murdering it when it's not on a mobile phone!?!

Rant over
That's all I've got :)

Poxy eye

I often wonder how you can go to sleep and the next morning wake up with an ailment of some sorts, almost like the ‘ailment police’ got your number whilst you were sleeping and decided to cash in on it. I’ve woken up this morning with a poxy eye. I’ve got conjunctivitis or ‘pink eye’ depending on where you are in the world. It sucks a lot. It’s currently only in my left eye – however this stuff spreads – so it will be in both before to long. I’m struggling to see out of it, discovered whilst out that I really shouldn’t drive! As my vision is impaired – even typing this I’m struggling to see what I’ve written on the screen.. The chemist gave me some drops for it well not ‘gave me ‘ I had to pay for them. The drops sting when putting them in – if the conjunctivitis doesn’t affect my vision the acid drops I’m using to cure them will.

So thanks to the ailment police (A relative of the Karma police) I’ve got conjunctivitis for Christmas which is contagious- WOOOHOOO no extended family (i.e the cousins on my mum’s side whom I can’t stand) to annoy me as they will steer clear of me in case they may get infected :)

Looks like Christmas just picked up for me – poxy eye and all!

That’s all I’ve got

Happy Christmas

Twilight, Harry Potter and Christmas

Oooo I'm right into this book. I'm upto the part of Cullen taking Bel to meet the parents. It's got a hold of me and I'm flicking to the next page and then the next and the next. I've not read a book like this which captivated me in a long time. Not since the Catcher in the Rye way way back..... (Though Inga Clendinnen's memoir Tigers Eye was captivating, but more so in the non-fiction genre!) Anyway... it gives me faith that everyone, anyone can write a book.... If they can nail the genre....

I was talking to my sister in law who's a Mcmassive Harry Potter fan - she'd also not heard of Stephanie Meyer's work (Yes we live in a cave!) however she told me of the story about how J.K Rowlings wrote Harry Potter in a Cafe' (Insert groans here)

I struggle at times to write, and it's something I need to work on, however my best ideas do seem to pop into my head at 2am - and most of the sci-fi stuff I've written have in fact been my dreams!

Anyway.. I'm roughly 287 pages in and I'm thinking if I have it finished by the weekend (With all the family bullshit about to fall out of the sky!) then I'll try and get to the cinema next week to see the movie - though reviews so far of it have kinda fallen short.

I was annoyed when I read Hannibal, and then went to the cinema with my best mate Peter (who had a weak stomach, and we had to pack a vom bag for him) to find they had changed the ending.. I bloody hate that! In fact I've not read a book that's become a 'movie' since that event. (In other words I've not read any Harry Potter!)

Does the book do the movie justice? Or does the movie do the book justice? As a writing major I'd have to say that done well the Movie does the book justice!

If I don't get a chance before hand, those who celebrate Christmas. Merry Christmas I hope you enjoy it - others who don't have a nice holiday, and hopefully a nice time catching up with friends and family.

That's all I've got

Getting in early

So I've been on holiday's officially for a month now, and what have I achieved in this month? Fuck all! Well if you take bullshit Christmas shopping out of the equation then yes I've done fuck all. So this brings me to the 'New years resolutions' which people make and never keep. I can't remember what I said I'd do last year other than drink more water and consume less alcohol! I managed the less alcohol however I've not done the drink more water thing.

So I'm going to get in early this year with my new years resolutions which I came up with at 2am this morning, whilst waiting for the Air-conditioning to kick in to cool me off at the ridiculous temp of 28c at TWO in the MORNING!! So you can imagine just how hot it is here today!

New years resolutions for 2009

1) Read more: As a writing major I have read sweet FA of other peoples work, and if I stand a chance of being a half decent writer. I should absorb the wonderfulness of others. So I am going to try and read at least ten books in 2009 - that's about one a month with Uni etc on top of all that. If I manage to do this I'll be quite impressed. I'll keep a list of what I read and what I thought. I've stated with Twilight - by Stephenie Meyer after almost everyone I know has said 'Oh my god have you read her she's brilliant' I've literally just started yesterday, and so far so good I must say.

2) Write more: I've been on holidays for a month and I've only written on here and also a short couple of ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while though neither of those pieces has real substance right now, however they are a work in progress, which I will pursue. With my aim in writing more is to 'try' and write at least once a day. Either on here, or just some exercises from the various writing books I've had to purchase for Uni thus far - Fuck I've parted with my cash for them all. I might as well take full advantage of them!

So now it's here in writing. This is the proof of my early 2009 new years resolutions. I'll keep you updated as to the success of it all.

That's all I've got :)

I remember - 20 mins of writing

I remember – 20mins of writing

So I actually ‘wrote’ this put pen to paper – which is why it’s significantly shorter than it would be had I typed for 20mins – at the end of it my hand ached! Though I should write (pen and paper) more it slows me down and allows me to think a little clearer – though my hand hasn’t got a spell checker – I’ll have to ask for that in the next model!

Alright – here it is – the pen to paper now put into electronic format

*************

As I sit here and try to write I remember my mind goes blank. Is that normal? Over thinking, trying too hard to recall.

I’ve been to Canberra three times. I only remember once. It’s a strange feeling to be told you have been to a place in your past but have no recollection of it at all. Even worse when photographs containing you are shown in front of famous landmarks of Canberra and still no memory of the event.

My mind works like a little movie sliced into segments when I think of events from my past. Holidays at Evans Head, Riding my brothers BMX on the beach, paddling up the river in the canoe.

My childhood is a happy one from memory leaving in the mornings at the weekends to do whatever I wanted from riding my skateboard in the school grounds to going down the river and exploring, long before the days of ‘unsafe to do anything alone’ I don’t ever remember feeling unsafe as a child we were always taught not to talk to strangers and I remember once a man tried to lure my friend and I into his car with lollies telling us he was a friend of my mums. I remember running as fast as I could to my Nanna’s house and telling her what happened by the time she got out the front the car was driving off around the corner. Did I potentially cheat death or sexual assault of some kind that day?

I remember walking to school with my brother, not knowing how to tie my shoe laces and so just wound them up around my legs like ballet shoes tucking the ends into my socks. They fell down onto the wet grass and my brother chastised me for being stupid and then tied my shoes for me, showing me what to do ‘for next time’

Christmas was always exciting as a child, the ritual of Christmas eve and the ‘must go to church’ I hated church, all the standing up and sitting down, the Shhh and not allowed to talk – not even whisper! Being dragged to ‘confession’ a few days prior so we could absolve our sins and be allowed to go to communion. My cousins and I would compete to see who got the most ‘Our Fathers’ and ‘Hail Mary’s’ by making stuff up in the confessional. The more lies told in there the more ‘pennant’s we’d have to pay!

Waking up Christmas morning to see what ‘Santa’ had brought being excited to un-wrap gifts from under the tree, spending time with extended family, and more gift unwrapping. Playing for hours with my cousins in the back yard of my grandparents, before coming home to play with the toy’s that where too big to leave the house like the year we got a trampoline.

I remember we never had Christmas lunch at my parent’s house – we always alternated between my mum’s parents and my dad’s parents. In 1999 when I was living in Brisbane I decided that, that year would be different – My brother and I would have Christmas at mum and dad’s – so we invited all the extended family to my parents house – my mum’s side of the family, and my dad’s side – all converged on River street. I’m glad that it all came together as that was the last Christmas we had with my grandfather on my dad’s side- he died on the 31st of January 2000.

Photo’s are a key to your past to memories and moment of the here and now that once taken instantly become the there and then.

I remember a happy childhood filled with Christmas, and family gatherings, even if it meant having to go to church, and lying in competition to see who got handed the largest amount of pennants. Memories flood into my mind – but there again I’ve been to Canberra three times and only remember visiting once as an adult in 2006 – so my memory is clearly not very reliable.

Turning a section into a paragraph

This exercise sees me take a ‘slice’ of the above ‘I Remember’ and put more detail into it as a paragraph.

I remember the light shining though the stain glass window, throwing light onto the rich thick carpet like shadow puppets dancing outside.
The hard cold seat of the pew, various thoughts running through my mind as I waited my turn. Click the light went out and my cousin would step from behind the thick tapestry curtain.
I’d whisper ‘What did you get?’
He’d answer “Three Our Fathers, and Four Hail Marys’'
I’d step into the closet like booth that smelt like mothballs, and hear the click of the light go on outside allowing others to know the confessional was in use.
Then out would come the line ‘Forgive me father for I have sinned. It has been 12 moths since my last confession” followed by my mountain of lies in hope that I could out do my cousin for the amount of pennants I’d have to do.