Thought Saturation

I have been trying a lot of things lately to try not to think about my impending exam results. Today I was editing and finishing off an essay that I started a while ago. This particular piece was tricky to finish for reasons which will become clear if you read it as the subject matter is somewhat self-explanatory.

As always with my writing, it was a difficult decision upon completion as to whether to publish or burn the piece. Two times out of three I will opt for burning (or in some way seeking to destroy), but this time I thought it might be interesting to publish and gauge opinions.

So, if you fancy taking a look, please click the following link: THIS IS THE LINK.

If you do decide to read it, please let me know what you think. This is still a relatively early draft, but without having an English teacher anymore, it's hard for me to look at it objectively to see where to improve.

Have Stamps, Will Write…

I am an amateur writer. I’m not particularly fussy about what I write, I have tried my hand at poetry, fiction and letter-writing, and am even an occasional essayist.

Obviously, there is also this ‘blog, although I will admit that I am unsure as to the classification of this particular type of word-play. I suppose that it has become a class of its own over the years, but it must have developed from something previously established. The derivation of the term (originally web-log) is, of course, from logging in the way that Sea Captains and the like would chronicle events of a certain period of time. As such, my instinct would be to assume that it is a type of mongrel literary species, primarily from the journal genus, which is itself a combination of letter-writing and essaying. However, I digress.

Essentially, the purpose of this post is to tout for “custom”. If you are the sort of person who likes to receive random ramblings through the post, then let me know.

I like to write to people: There’s generally a letter involved, but often I am prone to include things such as snippets of poetry; whole stories, or excerpts from a longer one; essays on random topics, or little origami models.

If you’d like to know more, or are willing to take a punt in the dark and see what inanities I can come up with, send me a message, with your address, and keep an eye on the letter-/inbox!

Help! On The Threshold of Geek Surfeit

My geekery seems to be expanding in unpredictable and unhelpful ways. Today this was highlighted by watching the first three editions of this year’s Springwatch. It started with getting the quiz on the first show right (as per my tweet) by recognising a Red Kite feather, but I was able to dismiss this on the grounds that that particular bird has always been my favourite raptor. However, things began mounting when I correctly identified a blurred photograph of a fish as being a trout – something even Chris Packham wasn’t able to do! A number of other niggling things kept cropping up, but then, still on the same program I realised my potential to recognise songs by the Manic Street Preachers…

Mr Packham has a tendency to try and sneak a song title into his script at least once an episode – most notably when he focussed on songs by The Smiths and scandalised the unwitting Kate Humble with the title “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby”. This season it would appear that he is using the MSPs, and I can only hope that it’s his lack of subtlety, leading to odd sounding grammar, which is bringing his references to my attention – not some creepy subconscious knowledge of the MSPs’ discography!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like the fact that my brain still has the capacity to retain bizarre little bits of information, but currently this skill is not what I need. In the middle of the exam period, what I could really do with is the ability to retain less bizarre, more topical, nuggets. Any suggestions as to how I can fix this would be greatly appreciated.

Really, please help me, before my mind explodes.