An Urge to Write About Nothing in Particular...

If you are a regular reader of this blog then you will know that I go through periods when I write a lot and then periods of complete blogging silence. In fact I have mentioned this particular trend in a few previous posts so you should be used to reading about it by now. Recently, with the amount of free time I have on my hands, I have had a stronger urge than at any time since I started this blog, to write. So much so that this will be my 4th post this month which is unprecedented. The only issue that I have is that sometimes I don't always have one thing to write about. For example in the past I have written about leaving school, about holidays and even about cheese and coffee. Today I just feel like writing about something so I'm not sure where I'll be in 500 words time which could be interesting but on the other hand could be hellishly boring for you - hang in there though.

So what exactly could I write about? Well I could talk about current affairs such as the passing of the first 10o days of the coalition but, giving my political stance, I don't think it would be a very unbiased piece. I could talk about things a little closer to home and deliver a damning report about the way that certain people conduct themselves but again I don't think that would be very fair - plus it's more fun to watch things unfold on a certain social networking site. So again - what should I write about? How about we have a little wonder into the scary thought of moving away from home? Ye that could work...

Well in three weeks time, I'll be moving away from Livingston for the first time in my life into Edinburgh. It's strange to think that I've spent my whole life here and then in the space of a day I will no longer live here permanently. But as scary as it all seems at the moment, I have a strong feeling that the time is right for a change of scenery. I would say that life here has slowed down massively for me since the turn of the year - or maybe it has always been like this and it's me that has changed. That's much more likely I think. I know that many of you will be moving away as well and I'm sure you will agree with me when I conjecture that we have outgrown the very place that we call home.

An advantage for me is that Edinburgh is the nearest city to home and so not only will I be able to come home for good quality cooked meals now and again, I already have a good knowledge of the city having spent a lot of time there in my life so far. Edinburgh is a magnificent city in my opinion and I fancy that I'm going to have the time of my life whilst I'm there. In fact when I was Edinburgh last week, it was pointed out to me that I could end up working in the same street for the rest of my life with the law school being on the same street as one of the major courts in Scotland -  this really could be the biggest move I ever make.

As for other people moving to other cities, it's going to be pretty much the same deal for them as well: a new city to live in; new people to meet; a new life to make. I guess that's what will define us as adults when it comes to it in 10 or so years time - how well we handle this move. Some will hate it and move back home for their second year but most will love it and embrace this new and exciting chapter in their lives - I know I will.

So there you go - I only wanted to write something down and it has turned out to be pretty short. What that says about my imagination and writing ability I'm not quite sure. All I know is that this time next year I will be a different person and I would guess that moving away from home is going to play a big part in that.

Should I start packing now?
 

Happy moving people and thank you once again for bearing with a ramble,


Martin

Bone Idle or Aching Bones - What Have You Done This Summer to Make You Feel Proud?

From a distance, this summer promised a lot: free time to do nothing or everything with, being 18 for the first summer ever and all of the other things little that we all dreamed of doing that just wasn't possible with the meagre 7 weeks we've had in the past for the summer holidays. So where did is all go then? In under a month's time I'll have left home and a new chapter in my life that always seemed so far away will begin. In even less time than that, friends will have moved away, destined to only be in contact via Facebook and email until Christmas at the earliest. For the first few weeks of the summer I thought I was in paradise as did many of you but now the preparation for university is pretty much a necessity and we'll now have to cram all of those dreams we had for this summer into a few weeks (if that's even possible). My question to you is this: what have you managed to do this summer that you can pat yourself on the back for and say "that was worth it"? Of course I am only able to speak for myself, but from what I can see there are many other people in the same boat as me thinking "damn where did the summer just go?". 

If this had been a normal year during high school, then I would be going back there tomorrow to start it all again with the same faces and the familiar places. It was this realisation that started to make me think about just what I have done with my summer. The biggest thing that I did was visit Rome as some of you might be aware. It's hard to say if going on holiday can be seen as being constructive but I'll say it is for the moment. I've had my most productive summer in terms of reading with almost 10 books biting the dust along the way. On a slightly less constructive note, I have watched loads of films that I haven't seen before that everyone else seems to have watched. That could possibly be viewed as a good thing - maybe. Other than that it has been a summer of occasional exercise, more than occasional alcohol abuse and a fair bit of what I'm doing just now. Maybe I should have looked harder for a job earlier in the year but I think that I have managed, in theory, to find plenty of things to fill the summer weeks with. In practise however, it's been far from a full and rewarding few months.

It's been a hard summer mentally as well for me. In fact this year has been pretty difficult more or less because of the complete lack of motivation I've had for everything. It took a massive effort to even think about doing revision for the exams and frankly the results I got for them are nothing short of a miracle. There has been a lot of those 'it's really not worth it' days this summer which sounds very depressing but it's just the way that I've felt for quite a lot of the summer a I'm sure many others have as well. I think you'll know the sort of days that I'm talking about: when you've got nothing to do; there's nothing on TV and nothing good recorded on your sky+ box; nobody seems to be doing anything outside; you can't bring yourself to lift a book or go for a run and so you melt into a state of depression that just takes you right down. I've noticed that the times that I am happy I have generally done something with my day for example: finish a book; do some exercise; write something etc. And it's no coincidence either. I have just described polar opposite types of days that I have been having this summer and the pattern is blatant. So as I've said before: despite the fact that my writing sometimes makes me sounds depressed (or just makes me sound like I'm over reacting to everything) I am a very happy person and I realise that it's important to keep active.

Now that the summer has run away from us, it's time to start thinking about what's next - university, college etc. The prospect of going to university has been another of those things that I've thought about and felt miserable because of the idea of having to start working again and all of the other things that go with this massive change. Those feelings towards the matter have only cropped up a couple of times this summer because the rest of the time I've been bursting to get started. Yes it's a scary thing but I truly can't wait to get started. So much so in fact, that my plan for next week is to do some reading and some notes from the books that I have got on Scots Law. If I was to put my excitement about the course into words then I would fail miserably because I just wouldn't be able to do it justice (pardon the pun).

So again I ask you: what have you done this summer to make you feel proud? It seems that now I have written everything down, I have actually done quite a good deal more than I realised. Maybe your summer hasn't been as productive and proactive as it could have been but to take another lyric from the song that gave me the title to this post: it's never too late to try - three weeks can be as long or as short as you make it.

Stay happy people and thanks for reading,

Martin

Guest Writers Wanted!

Well I guess this could be seen as some kind of personal ad -the sort you get in  newspapers - although I would imagine that this would fail to entice people in the lonely hearts column. Basically what I am looking for it for someone (or some people) to come up with some interesting ideas in the form of a blog post that I can put up on this here page for people to read. Naturally I would add some stuff around it otherwise that would just be plain lazy on my part but they bulk of the post in question would be the 'donated' text. I'm not sure if many people have looked at the new 'Contact Me' page, but there on there is a little bit of info about what I am looking for. For those of you that have looked at it and thought "maybe that would be quite good fun but I'm too shy to give it a try", that is ok as well because I am happy to put up content under anonymous just as much as I am willing to plaster someone's name all over my blog until it chokes on it. I'll put together a wee list of ideas for you to mull over and if you have any desire at all to get involved then just drop me an email or even better (and this will apply to most of the regular readers) talk to me in person - this of course includes msn for we do live in the 21st century after all. So here's the list and I do hope to hear from some people over the next couple of weeks:

• Poetry
• Monologues
• Full blog posts
• Blog post extracts
• Musings
• Pictures
• Something to debate
• Song lyrics

Cheers,

Martin

My Interior Monologues

I'm pretty sure that you will know by now that I am pretty fascinated with words and writing as I have mentioned it in most of my previous posts and have even based a couple of them on the subject. This particular post is going to be short and sweet in terms of fresh writing and is going to be filled up with examples of the kind of writing that I do (away from this blog of course because then I would just find myself quoting pervious posts which would be nonsensical). I must point out that if I was to put down an example of everything that I have ever written be it poems, monologues and general musings then this post would be, for want of a better word, epic. It would span for page after page and would more than likely bore you after a while. That's why I'm going to keep it as short as I can and just give you the' tip of the iceberg'.

I am going to keep this post fairly brief so I'll just put up a few short monologues that I put together recently which might seem very encrypted initially but after a few reads might make more sense. The first one is about being metaphorically lost and not really knowing where you are at a certain point in your life:

I think I might be lost but I don't know why or when it happened all I know is that I can't find my way somewhere and even then I don't know where such a destination exists or why such a place should want even want to facilitate someone in such a lost state as myself but as not to confuse matters I shall continue to search for this place and not rely on assumptions and frail ideas for such absurd paths could assume that I no longer want to find this place that I speak of even though if I am not sure such a place even exists or that in the event that such a place does exist that it will facilitate someone as lost as I find myself just now.

The next one is looking at how you can only chose the people that hold you back and that if a person was ever to do so without you letting them then they would have to have be super human:

If someone was to stand in my way and become an obstacle to my life then I wonder where I would go after realising that such a person would have to be strong and mighty to be able to stand in the way of ambition and passion and the unrelenting drive to succeed in a life where only the brave stand tall and the weak are those who find themselves standing only behind people that are as weak as them. 

The final one that I will put up is about equality and the fact that, if we were all stripped right down to the bare bones then it would show us all to be the same:

Whoever said that I could not win and be better than them is a person who not only does not exist but if someone of that persuasion was to come to light then they would struggle to survive under the weight of people such as myself and even if that person was never to utter such words upon a peer then they still hold claim to being better than someone else which is not only obtuse but could land them in a trouble that would burden even the strongest souls on this very earth that we all share in equal measures and call home.

So that is a few examples of one of the best ways, in my opinion, to let out emotions and ideas. Although they have no structure and no punctuation, there is a really powerful message in each of them that can be applied in any way you see fit. Not all of my monologues are written like that but I felt that those were the best examples of what I would call 'power writing' because each of them only took a few minutes to compose and, as bare as they seem, prove to be very powerful.

It wasn't until last year's Advanced Higher English class that I was properly introduced to this art of writing monologues but have since come across many examples which have captivated me. I guess that I owe a lot to that class because without the guidance of a couple of particularly excellent teachers I think I would be playing Football Manager in my spare time instead of writing.

Thanks again for reading as always and I hope that you give this art just a few minutes out of your day because that's all it needs and oh how cathartic it can be.

Cheers,

Martin