It begins...
Well, here we go.
I read a friend of my parents' blog a couple of months ago and became inspired to start own and so here it is. I haven't quite been able to bring myself to take steps and start one up for a myriad of procrastinating reasons that I won't go into now coz they're boring - but today seems to be the day to start.
Why?
It's a cusp of sorts; I've been sitting at the front desk of the Centre for Asian Studies at Adelaide Uni for the last month and today is (was - it's 7pm) my last day there because the new permanent person starts on Monday. Today is also the day for a couple of fellow students from Masters who went part-time to hand up their manuscripts, warts, wong appostwofees, spewwing ewwors and all. It rained cats, dogs and elephants into the creamy sunset today as I watched from my window in Castle Ligertwood (the Uni Law building) and I was filled with one of those mysterious, creative feelings I get when I’m procrastinating. Or it could have been the couple of beers I had at lunch.
‘It’s time to start a blog. Get writing.’
So I'm finished with this 9 - 5, day in, day out, up too early, home too late stuff and on to other things (like going straight back there next week while the new woman goes off to train on the Syllabus Plus software program). I only realised today that I probably should have started a blog when I started there, as opposed to my last day, considering that I spent a good deal of time (however an undisclosed deal of time, just in case an employer is reading this) doing not much.
The other reason I’m starting a blog is to practise my writing – like a gym membership for the writer in me. It took me a long time into my post-grad to work out that awful truth for all lazy authors: you’ve got to write to write. No good sitting around having good ideas and hiding them in a notebook somewhere if you’re not going to take them out for a test drive. Also it’s not much good being a writer if you’re not writing at least once a day. I don’t do it. I don’t know a lot of people that can honestly say they do (except for completing masters students – good luck guys), so here is my attempt at it.
The writing I’m imagining that I’ll put up here isn’t the creative, story-writing kind, although I can imagine that I will throw up a couple of short pieces from time to time (maybe a serial?). Mostly I’m hoping that this will be a place that I can put up the half essays that I write from time to time on vaguely political things, wanky, self-indulgent diatribes, movie reviews, thoughts on social trends.
I’ve got to be honest with myself here and also say that I don’t really expect people to read this regularly, or even at all. The point is more to have a focal point for my writing, so that when I’m thinking it out on screen, it will always be in my mind that it’s for someone, not just a nothing thing that I won’t have to get serious about. This is like stepping up the trainings per week for a sporting team – I can’t afford to just dribble it out when I feel like it. Now when I have ideas, I (hopefully) will feel impelled to come and write them down.
I greatly admire Jonathon’s blog and his piece that I read about taxi-drivers today was inspiring to say the very least. (His blog is http://homepage.mac.com/shawj... )
I also admire the mass group emails that I’m receiving from a few friends over in the UK at the moment. It’s the exercise of taking the constant stream of life, filtering out the boring bits and sharing them with others, even if there are people out there who can bear to flit through them or just delete them straight off.
The other thing of it (I’m only realising this now, 700 words in), is that it will hopefully teach me to filter out the general amount of crap that I write anyways. I’m a rambler when I talk and I’m a rambler when I write, ‘specially when I’ve had a couple of Coopers green ones. (Speaking of which...)
So – without further ado, congratulations to everyone who ploughed through this far and let’s see if we can’t make it interesting…
I read a friend of my parents' blog a couple of months ago and became inspired to start own and so here it is. I haven't quite been able to bring myself to take steps and start one up for a myriad of procrastinating reasons that I won't go into now coz they're boring - but today seems to be the day to start.
Why?
It's a cusp of sorts; I've been sitting at the front desk of the Centre for Asian Studies at Adelaide Uni for the last month and today is (was - it's 7pm) my last day there because the new permanent person starts on Monday. Today is also the day for a couple of fellow students from Masters who went part-time to hand up their manuscripts, warts, wong appostwofees, spewwing ewwors and all. It rained cats, dogs and elephants into the creamy sunset today as I watched from my window in Castle Ligertwood (the Uni Law building) and I was filled with one of those mysterious, creative feelings I get when I’m procrastinating. Or it could have been the couple of beers I had at lunch.
‘It’s time to start a blog. Get writing.’
So I'm finished with this 9 - 5, day in, day out, up too early, home too late stuff and on to other things (like going straight back there next week while the new woman goes off to train on the Syllabus Plus software program). I only realised today that I probably should have started a blog when I started there, as opposed to my last day, considering that I spent a good deal of time (however an undisclosed deal of time, just in case an employer is reading this) doing not much.
The other reason I’m starting a blog is to practise my writing – like a gym membership for the writer in me. It took me a long time into my post-grad to work out that awful truth for all lazy authors: you’ve got to write to write. No good sitting around having good ideas and hiding them in a notebook somewhere if you’re not going to take them out for a test drive. Also it’s not much good being a writer if you’re not writing at least once a day. I don’t do it. I don’t know a lot of people that can honestly say they do (except for completing masters students – good luck guys), so here is my attempt at it.
The writing I’m imagining that I’ll put up here isn’t the creative, story-writing kind, although I can imagine that I will throw up a couple of short pieces from time to time (maybe a serial?). Mostly I’m hoping that this will be a place that I can put up the half essays that I write from time to time on vaguely political things, wanky, self-indulgent diatribes, movie reviews, thoughts on social trends.
I’ve got to be honest with myself here and also say that I don’t really expect people to read this regularly, or even at all. The point is more to have a focal point for my writing, so that when I’m thinking it out on screen, it will always be in my mind that it’s for someone, not just a nothing thing that I won’t have to get serious about. This is like stepping up the trainings per week for a sporting team – I can’t afford to just dribble it out when I feel like it. Now when I have ideas, I (hopefully) will feel impelled to come and write them down.
I greatly admire Jonathon’s blog and his piece that I read about taxi-drivers today was inspiring to say the very least. (His blog is http://homepage.mac.com/shawj... )
I also admire the mass group emails that I’m receiving from a few friends over in the UK at the moment. It’s the exercise of taking the constant stream of life, filtering out the boring bits and sharing them with others, even if there are people out there who can bear to flit through them or just delete them straight off.
The other thing of it (I’m only realising this now, 700 words in), is that it will hopefully teach me to filter out the general amount of crap that I write anyways. I’m a rambler when I talk and I’m a rambler when I write, ‘specially when I’ve had a couple of Coopers green ones. (Speaking of which...)
So – without further ado, congratulations to everyone who ploughed through this far and let’s see if we can’t make it interesting…