A Life Without Newspapers

I suppose I was being a little ambitious when I asked for some form of debate on my first 'Life Without...' post last week. In fact I am perfectly aware that people don't really like to comment on the sort of stuff that I'm writing about because it's there to be read, not ripped to shreds. I'm happy that people take time to read my posts; it might be a little to much to ask them to take even more time to write about them as well. So with that I'll move on to the second of my 'life without...' musings - newspapers. It strikes me that I am becoming a part of a rare breed that actually do read the papers. Of course there are people that have been doing it for many years and will continue to do it for as long as newspapers are available, but how long will that actually be? With the growth in the use of the internet and, in particular, portable devices that can access the internet anywhere and any time, where does that leave the good old broadsheet? How long will it be before the only thing that newspapers are used for are as a novelty lining for a bag of chips? In many ways it scares me. 

The Last Weekend

Nothing in the world hurts more than losing a week of your life. It only really happens when you're on holiday and more often than not you can get away with if for a fortnight or so. The only problem is that when those weeks are invaluable to you, their passing hurts more than your team losing the Champions League final - well almost! I'm probably one of the worst for this as well and now I stand at the edge of a two week run until my first exam with 'the fear' well and truly flowing through my veins. It took me until last week's break away by the beach to finally kick myself into gear. If I hadn't been away then I think I would be very close to being depressed which makes me understand, more than ever, why people go on holiday - we really need them or we risk losing the plot. So I got back from my week away in the lovely spring sunshine with a new found confidence and something that felt like motivation too. It was for this very reason why I treated myself with a weekend of gluttony. Now I'm at the other side of that how does it feel? I'm I just back where I started or have I finally turned the corner and climbed aboard the motivation express, next stop exams? I'm not sure yet.

A Life Without Celebrities

Aren't you all just so excited by this new series of posts that I'm going to do? Well it's yet to be seen whether or not they are going to be any good but I'll have a stab at them and see where it takes me - or us (profound huh?). The first is a constant subject of conversation amongst just about every group of people - celebrities. How different would our lives be without constant speculation and news about the same people, about the same stuff? When you watch 'celebrity' versions of game shows and see the people that the production teams have chosen, you really have to wonder if one person's idea of a celebrity is the same as the next's. The stock lines that I hear when a program comes on is 'who are they' or 'what have they done to make them a 'celebrity'? It often makes me laugh (as I'm sure it does you as well) when you compare yourself to those famous people. What have they got that we don't have? What do they bring to the world that is so much better than we can? I certainly believe that we could live without them in our own lives but still I think I might be in the minority with this, my first 'life without...' post.

We're Brought up to Tell the Truth - It's all a Lie

I still remember writing a post this time last year when I was away on holiday. The difference between now and then, amongst other things (or inter alia - damn I've been wanting to use that for a while!) is that I have an internet connection where I am - this is fresh off the press today people! What this leaves me with is the ability to write a post without having to: a) predict the future; and b) without having to adjust my writing style thereof. It also means that you lovely people won't go to bed this evening without that little taste of a ramble still in your mouths - something I'm sure will make you all very grateful of our quickly expanding technology network. The topic for today's post struck me as I was walking along the dunes. I passed some people on the path and I happened to catch a little bit of conversation: something about telling lies (or telling the truth, my memory fails me). In the rest of the time I spent out in the fresh air that day, I pondered the idea of lying. Is it as bad as people make it out to be? Where would some of the most successful people in the world be without lies? How often do people (even the ones we trust) lie to us? We just don't know.

A Life Without...

How I am managing to keep this blog up is beyond me at the moment. I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of revision and other such stressful past-times and for me to be able to continually produce two posts a week is therefore nothing short of a miracle. No, I've not been working every hour of every day (in fact there have been days where I've done nothing) but when I do find some time to get around to blogging I realise I've not been able to spend time thinking about something to write about. Where these words come from is often a mystery to me but, for your continual enjoyment, I shall keep posting until someone tells me to stop - please don't do that anytime soon; I'm having too much fun! The topic for today's post is more of an introduction than a stand alone post. I've been thinking about doing a 'series' of posts on the same theme for a while because that way I really don't have to spend too much time thinking about it before I sit down to write. It means that I'll have a good amount of fuel to go with (for Wednesday posts at least) for a while so that will be nice. The topic for this prospective set of posts is what our lives would be without some of the more fundamental things in our lives. How would we survive without cars? Would the world function without the common umbrella? Would I be able to get things done if there wasn't such a thing as coffee? I'm going to explore these questions in the coming weeks - hopefully I'll spark your brain into gear a little along the way!

The Voice in our Heads

Today's entry promises to be something of a short post since I am pretty tired from playing football for a large chunk of the day. It's nice to have good weather (if a little bit unpredictable) for stuff like that - lifts your mood somewhat. Today's post is about the things that go on inside our heads that make us go stir crazy - I'll try and keep this as cheery as possible, I promise! People say that talking to yourself is one of the first signs of madness but we all do it. Does this make us all crazy or is this the norm? I'm not really talking about vocalising with yourself but more the stuff that goes on inside your head. I'm talking to myself inside my head as I type this post and you'll talk inside your head to yourself when you have finished reading - it's perfectly natural. But what of those things that we spend hours thinking about (the opposite sex, exams etc)? Those are the kind of things that can really eat a person up something proper and I think we all need to learn how to deal with it before we can ever call ourselves happy.

There's a Book in All of Us

For those of you that get to this blog via Facebook (i.e. friends of mine), you will know that yesterday's post was missed because of a game of football. Under normal circumstances I would apologise for missing a post because there will undoubtedly be a bad reason for it but this time around my reason was perfectly justifiable. Football is one of the few things that I will ever put before writing this blog and, even though last night's result wasn't all that good for my team, I will continue to use it as a semi-valid reason for not producing the goods! This of course doesn't introduce this post very well and so I shall move swiftly onto that. I finished a very good book this week in which one of the characters was (eventually) a writer. It got me thinking about the fact that if you can write and think logically, surely you must have the ability to write a book yourself? I believe that we all have a story to tell whether it be about our own lives or lives of others; there is always something that can be written about it - why not a book?

The Emergence of Me

Mondays are back. After last week's lapse in posting, the day that is dedicated to what's going on in my life has returned - don't close the window yet! The funny thing about missing last week's post is that I find myself having two things to write about for today's post which is a very rare thing indeed. The fact that I didn't have anything to write about last week anyway also suggests that last week was a little bit more stimulating for me that my last week of university - how very weird indeed. I'm not going to get into the thing that I'm not going to write about today simply because it's a little bit of a touchy subject at the moment and in some ways I might be able to incorporate it into today's musings. My post today is about me pulling myself out of my shell in the last year or so. The fact that I had a week of doing almost nothing last week gave me a little time to think about the whole thing and this is what I've come up with...