My Favourite Day of the Year

For people that are not fond of football or just don't follow it as much as most people, today will be like any other day of summer to them. Depending on where you are reading this the sun might well be shining and whatever you had planned for today will invariably have been pretty common - it's only a Wednesday after all. The thing is however, that for football fans across the globe and particularly in Britain, this day carries a lot of significance: it is (of course) transfer deadline day. I'm writing this post at about 5pm on the 31st August 2011 and it's killing me that I'm away from the TV at the moment. There are very few days like this that will capture the imagination of so many people and I, unashamedly, can admit that it is my favourite day of the year.

The Wrath of the Beer-Belly

I enjoy a good pint and I'm not afraid to admit it. I've grown to love the taste of a crisp, cold pint of beer or ale in the last few years and let's just say that I've had enough experience to lead me to this stage. When I started out drinking, beer was more or less all I would drink. After a few bad experiences with spirits and a deep loathing for cider, I settled on beer. At the time when I was just getting into drinking I over-indulged myself on quite a few occasions which is the norm with young adults. I've seen it all in the last few years: having to drink in people's houses because your not 18 yet and then when you turn 18 riding it for all it's worth. That in turn has led to many a teenage hangover of which I have had my fair share. The thing is that the hangover (which was not always a guaranteed outcome thankfully) was the only problem that I would have with drinking too much. Now that I'm a bit older I'm starting to fear the specter of many a beer drinker - the beer-belly.

Why the E-book is Ruining My Dreams

We all have little dreams that we play around with in our heads that we turn into something huge. I think that it's a shame that people don't talk about their dreams that often because I would love to know what everyone pines after; what makes people get up in the morning. Some dreams always stay just the way they are - far off desires that are ultimately unattainable (Mick Jagger knew what he was talking about) - but others come to fruition. If I was list my dreams in some kind of ranking system the first thing I would notice is probably just how ambitious I am and whether or not I can translate that ambition into something valuable. The next thing that I would notice is just how many of the things that I dream about having one day are attainable with some good old hard work. One of the the things that is right up there for me is having my own library. For those of you that have seen Frasier and have watched it as much as I have, the kind of room I'm talking about is the library that Niles' has in his apartment (watch this to get an idea). Sadly I don't think that I'm ever going to realise such an ambition. Not because I don't think I'll ever have a house that's big enough or a collection of books that's nice enough. No, I just don't think there is going to be any books in publication by the time I get there!

Thought Provoking

With only being able to post once last week I've been thinking about something new that I could do for this week that will quench to almost palpable thirst for posts that I can sense from my readers. The thing that I've come up with almost seems like a contradiction to that because my plan is to write a shorter post with a single line that is sure to get you thinking. So today's post is going to be less than long and might fail to inspire many people but I hope that it hits home with at least a handful of people.

I heard this line a long time ago on a (very) early morning jazz radio program when I was heading on holiday - the reason I was up at that time listening to the radio. I can't quite remember what they were talking about apart from the fact that it was something to do with jazz but it was something that really hit a chord with me and it had me thinking for most of my journey: to feel completely free you must first fully restrict yourself. It was something to do with jazz in the context of the program but I felt that it could apply to life in general. The message I took was that to truly feel the freedom of a holiday or just time off you have to fully commit yourself to the complete opposite, be it university, school or work. Yes everyone enjoys time off from things but it is my feeling that you have to earn that time off by fully restricting yourself first.

Thanks for reading my short but hopefully thought provoking post today!

Martin

Waiting for Something to Happen

With little over a month until I return to university I'm trying to find ways to reinvigorate myself. I've been 'out of the game' for a pretty long time and it's starting to play on my mind a little that I'm not going to be able to do it all again. For someone who's confidence more or less only lies with his academic ability it's quite a shock to the system; then again I've suffered from a fear of failure before and this, surely, is no different. So again I find myself sitting here on a Monday night trying to search deep into my psyche to find something to write about that is fresh off the emotional press and this is just about all that I've got going on with me just now. I think that it all comes from having itchy feet - I just want to get back to it again. 

London Riots: Who Picks up the Bill?

I felt like a ghoul when I stayed up until the early hours of Monday morning watching the live news coverage of the riots in London. It was almost addictive watching it as streams of breaking news rolled slowly along the bottom of the screen to reveal where the violence had spread to. The urge I had to avoid sleep to keep up to date was fueled by the hope that the next update from the terrified and bewildered reporters on the streets would be a positive one - they never were. Monday night produced pictures that will be burned into the memories of millions of people, especially the ones that were there and (more specifically) the ones that have been affected so terribly by the criminality of mindless youths. The harrowing stories that have emerged over the last few days have hit home harder than any of those pictures ever could. They provide a background to the smoldering buildings and ransacked shops and tell of the prevalent fear that London is currently awash with. Those pictures and stories, however, are not able to explain to us how things are going to be fixed. Will insurance policies provide the necessary payouts to get home and shop owners back on their feet? Do the police have a duty to compensate those who have lost so much? Can those people's lives ever be the same again?

Building Myself Up for a Fall

Firstly it would be more than rude to not apologise to the few people that look forward to reading my posts every week on the days that I usually publish. I might have kind of, sort of forgotten to tell everyone that I was going away for a week of peace and tranquility and selfish old me only realised that it had slipped my mind when I got to the place with a lack of internet connection - it seems that the internet hasn't touched every house in the world (and the moon which is actually really nice this time of year). Anyway I'm back now and wanting more than ever to sit down and blog; the thing is that I want more! I've been dabbling with a few ideas as of late which regard starting a new blog with a more focused topic (which itself, like the possibility of starting this new blog, has yet to be decided). I would of course keep writing on Ramblings of a Teenager until my membership to that age-group expires in little over 7 months time but I would love to know that I would have another established blog by that time. The idea of writing two polar opposite blogs excites me but I'm afraid that, as the title of this post suggests, I'm building myself up for a big fall.