Okay, Here’s an *Actual* New Year’s Post

I fully expect to contradict the opinions I presented in my previous blog post “Turn of the Year”. But self-contradiction is fun, right?

So I, like everyone else, enjoy evaluating the previous year before stepping into the next. The only problem is I usually forget about everything that’s happened in the year and end up waffling for fifty paragraphs about the last three months or so. But I won’t exactly be doing that here, because, well, I’ve never really been all that personal on this blog. If I wanted to, I could write endless blog posts about what’s going on in my brain, but I know from experience that that’s a terrible idea for a plethora of reasons. I actually have loose plans to write a blog post on that, so look forward to that vague possibility!

So instead of giving you my life story, I’ll try to keep things relevant.

Whilst it’s true that I started my Creative Writing university course in September of 2013, 2014 has seen most of the action in that regard; the majority of my first year and the beginning of the second have, of course, occurred in the last twelve months. And it’s a positive! Being the only guy in my year / group / class / whatever can be a downer at times, but I definitely like the people on my course. My one flaw in that regard is that I’m nowhere near sociable enough to know them that well outside of uni. And on the subject of university, I’m currently lacking some direction on my current pieces of coursework, so that’s quite lame. But I’ve got the opportunity to study something I love, and I got a First in my first truly important piece of coursework, so I can hardly complain, right?

On the subject of positives, I became an Uncle this year! Twice! My step-sister introduced us to the ever-cheerful Molly in September, and just last week (yes, Christmas Eve) my other step-sister welcomed Chloe to the world! As cousins who are essentially the same age, I expect a lifelong rivalry of biblical proportions.

A bunch of other stuff has happened this year that hasn’t been quite so awesome. Some of it’s personal, some of it’s to do with the world (and I know everyone always says that past year sucked, but 2014 really has been quite miserable in world news), and all of it makes me want to exclaim “ugh” in a magical way which will resonate with every living human being and cause them to turn their heads and nod in a consolidatory show of empathy. (There is no reason for consolidatory to not be a word, damnit.) But, seeing as the world does not revolve around me (or you, or anyone really, you’re mad if you think it does) I’ll have to make do with my sporadic Twitter rants.

My New Year’s Resolution. I know we went over this in Turn of the Year, but whatever, it doesn’t hurt. My resolution is going to be linked to this blog. As I’m sure you’re aware if you follow my blog (<3), I don’t update this place very often. My average is maybe one post every month and a half or so. And the reason for this is I’m always trying to filter what I write about. I try to make sure that it isn’t about something that only a limited amount of readers have knowledge in, that it’s something I can write at least semi-professionally about, and that it isn’t too self-centered, as we’ve already talked about. This has led to my blog posts being about one of two things: society, or writing. Usually society. And considering I’ve never studied any form of sociology, I think it’s time to change that.

Starting January 1st, or whenever the hell I feel like it, I’ll be writing more blog posts about more types of things! About how I’ve inherited my sister’s love for cheese, or how Steven Moffat is both a good and terrible writer for Doctor Who, or how the webcomic Questionable Content is really very awesome. I want too write about why Eastenders is rubbish and how I just listened to an audiobook/adventure/thing (Dalek War) and it’s opened my eyes to a new way of storytelling. Would you stick with me if I decided to branch out and write about those things instead of just why humanity is a bit shit?

Anyway, New Year’s food beckons! I shall publish this and get back to you in 2015! Thank you for reading my blog! The only thing better than rambling to oneself is rambling to other people!

Turn of the Year

It’s that time of the year where we all talk of how awful this year was and how everything will change in the next year. But don’t worry, I’m not here to be jaded and cynical about how this great revelation seemingly happens every year.

No, what irks me is that people will hold off on making any big changes to their lives until the New Year. “The New Year is when I’m finally going to stop doing this and start doing that and everything will change.” And that’s brilliant! Go, you! Stop doing that thing! Start doing that other thing! Show those things who’s boss! Become Lord of the Things! But bad puns aside, did it have to wait until January 1st, 2015? And if you slip up and fail, are you going to condemn yourself to wait until January 1st, 2016 to try again?

I’m hardly the person to be ranting about motivation – <ethereal being of your choice> knows I could use some of that – but the amount of people in the world who seem to believe that dates are fixtures of life in which everything has to revolve around unnerve me. There is absolutely nothing wrong with beginning your Mind Reform on the 5th April. Go ahead and start your Physical Rejuvination on November 18th, if it suits you. Hell, you could even break your Listing in Rules of Three habit on October 31st, nobody will stop you. Do not wait for the right moment; take the moment for yourself.

Over the next few days on Facebook you’re likely to see someone saying “New Year, New Me”. And that’s absolutely fine. I, for one, would consider making a status on July 17th (or whenever the hell an epiphany feels like showing up) saying “New Friday, New Me”. The message behind the sentiment is the same, so why not try for something a little bit different?

Inevitably, you will also see people saying “Ugh, great, time for the ‘New Year, New Me’ bullshit.” And whilst this blog post isn’t specifically dealing with cynical/jaded mannerisms towards common ways of thinking (which, newsflash, become common ways of thinking themselves), I’d just like to take the time to point at those statuses and say this:

NO.

BAD STATUS.

YOU WILL STOP WITH THE SUPERIOR CYNICISM COMPLEX NOW, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

A New Challenger Approaches!

For quite a while now I’ve been toying with the idea of making a blog dedicated to video games, and today I’ve done just that. Well, I’ve written my first post, anyway. At the moment there still remains a lot of tweaking to be done – the theme is far from final, there’s a plethora of pages to produce – but it’s ready for reading, if not full viewing.

To visit the gaming blog, 32 Bit Brain, you can either click the link there or, in future, the new link on the header.

I hope you enjoy reading it! I don’t know if I’ll post there more or less or the same amount as here; we’ll just have to see where this goes.