... of the Week (#2):

This week – Word of the Week (#2):

This week it’s an offering from Dr. Johnson, and was again chosen to be vaguely relevant – this is not a general trend in my method of electing a word, it’s just that in the last few weeks, when it came to picking the new addition to my vocabulary, relevancy seemed to be the appropriate avenue to take.

So, in honour of my brother’s receipt of Rose Kemp’s new album:

geason

adj. Wonderful

Apologies for the lack of regularity, the last few weeks have been somewhat up in air. I am, however, soon to be returning to Bristol for the new academic term, and I hope to be a more reliably consistent poster – the aim being to provide another place of refuge from the day-to-day life which can pall after a while if not interspersed with a little of the minor, yet interesting, obscurities which provide, if not the backbone then perhaps the funny bone of our society.

All comments and content suggestions welcome. No, encouraged.

... of the Week (#1):

This week – Word of the Week (#1):

So, recently I have been indulging in a little fancy. Every week I have been picking a word - generally one out of common use, and giving myself a week to try it out and see how it feels. On the whole it's been pretty fun, and I'd like to share the experience.

Quite often I use a book that I have which contains a selection of Dr Samuel Johnson's definitions. However, this week I have decided to post a rather more relevant word, which the world seems to have almost desensitised itself to. These days this word carries with it an aura of flippancy, and I have used it myself in that sense, but for students, especially those with health issues like me, it has a very particular pertinence:

failvb
1. to be unsuccessful in an attempt.
2. to stop operating.
3. to judge or be judged as being below the officially acceptedstandard required in a course or examination.
4. to prove disappointing or useless to someone.
5. to neglect or be unable to do something.

This word will probably last a fortnight, but I promise the next one will be better/funnier, and at some point I may mix it up a bit with some new phrases or origins of myths etc.

Who'd've thought a poem could rule your life?

I hate this poem.

One night in the Easter holidays I was woken up with the first verse of this, and it has been haunting me ever since. The rhymes and structure are tenuous at best and the logical part of me is telling me to burn it, in the same way I do two-thirds of all my other poems, and forget it ever existed. However, I can't seem to shake it, so I'm hoping that publishing it will finally make my brain accept that it's finished and move on.

What is it you want from me,

Confirmation that your path was right?

Or do you just want me to give

My life for yours, that you might live?

Are your glasses that rosy,

Can you not remember your own plight?

You may have reached your tunnel's end,

Other wounds take longer to mend.

I had hoped that you would see,

The cost of asking for new insight.

Your passion and strength serve you well,

But some of us still live in hell.

And now, 'through a glass darkly',

You're looking with scorn upon my fight -

For all we are alike, we two,

I can't just drop what you outgrew.

Enough pressure, let me be:

My head is hurting, my chest is tight.

I needed an objective eye,

Not a lecture on 'do or die'.

I feel like a sapling tree,

Expected to grow in strength and height.

But some trees take longer to grow,

And are no worse for going slow.

I never wanted your pity,

I am aware that I sound uptight:

You misunderstood my question -

You judged me on your own fortune.

So now I'm feeling guilty

For looking to you who is so bright;

A role model I only bore,

Who kicks me down upon the floor.

I asked for help, finally -

Put my pride away, worked through the fright.

In different ways the battle's won,

And now I hold the smoking gun.

I'm losing all energy,

I'm sure it affords you great delight.

I kinda thought that you would know,

Old scars reap what new wounds sow.

Breaking Radio Silence

I will be posting again soon. I have a poem and some other stuff to share with people: some of it is a bit raw though, and I'm bogged down with revision/coursework at the minute, so watch this space - but not with bated breath because you might go blue...

This is me, getting a life.

I've decided that if I want to get out of this rut in my life, I need to take some affirmative action. So for starters I am making a list (in itself something I like to do) of things that I feel I should/would like to do sometime in the near future.

Doing more stuff that you like and trying new stuff is generally acknowledged to help improve the way people feel and although everyone knows that I am a neophobe, I've got to the stage where I'm willing to try anything.

Now, you may be asking why I'm bothering to post this, but I would like to ask you lovely people to take a look at the list and maybe suggest either things to add, or ways to do stuff that's on there.

Here goes:

Stuff I have let lapse and would like to start up again:

* Enjoy Maths

* Photographs

Take

Edit

* Poetry/Prose

Read

Write

* Recreational walks

* Origami/crafting

New Stuff I would like to try/do:

* Buy and watch Guys and Dolls

* Buy a CoolBoard (If staying at Uni)

* Start to enjoy Programming

* Get properly and catastrophically hammered

* Go Bowling

* Go Ice Skating (?)

* Dye Hair

* Henna Tattoos

* Go to the Gym more

* Lose some weight

* Listen to more music (New Stuff?)

* Eat better/more (New Stuff?)

* Learn to drive

* Write comic for Mark to draw

* Get more sleep

* Find a new hobby

This list is in no particular order, and I would really appreciate any suggestions for prioritising the list, adding new ideas, or psyching myself up to actually do some of this stuff! Thanks peeps, love ya all.