A Year in Titles

At the beginning of the year, I was struck by an odd idea – what if I gave each day a title, as if it were a chapter in a book? This would open the way of an autobiographical project to last me throughout the year, pushing me creatively and ending up with something interesting to look back on. I don’t even recall what most of these titles are about. They could be describing events, emotions, be comedic or be references to my gaming habits. But you’ll discover this yourself. So, without further ado:

JANUARY

01.01.16 Day 1: Quarrel Between Friends

02.01.16 Day 2: Word Play

03.01.16 Day 3: Island Life

04.01.16 Day 4: Thief

05.01.16 Day 5: Unlikely Encounters

06.01.16 Day 6: Tudor Sandwich

07.01.16 Day 7: The Infuriating Redundancy of Battery-Powered Lamps

08.01.16 Day 8: Hail Sithis!

09.01.16 Day 9: The Architect of Distraction

10.01.16 Day 10: Advanced Prose Friction

11.01.16 Day 11: Poemology

12.01.16 Day 12: Rise of Parody

13.01.16 Day 13: U Dissin’ Me

14.01.16 Day 14: Retreating from Writers

15.01.16 Day 15: Watch

16.01.16 Day 16: Vampire Heresy

17.01.16 Day 17: Basement Dweller

18.01.16 Day 18: Astral Planes

19.01.16 Day 19: Fleeting Pizza

20.01.16 Day 20: Rainbow Flock

21.01.16 Day 21: Coldplay Bullets

22.01.16 Day 22: Politics in the Face of Humanity

23.01.16 Day 23: Dinosaur Head

24.01.16 Day 24: Rabbit Sandwich

25.01.16 Day 25: Marjon Movie Module Magic

26.01.16 Day 26: Tauren the World

27.01.16 Day 27: A Victory

28.01.16 Day 28: Categorisation

29.01.16 Day 29: The Final Stretch

30.01.16 Day 30: Rare Appearance of the Iridescent Zebra

31.01.16 Day 31: Parting Shot

FEBRUARY

01.02.16 Day 32: Scripted Event

02.02.16 Day 33: Nimble Fingers, Nimble Feet

03.02.16 Day 34: Hot and Cold

04.02.16 Day 35: Brick by Brick

05.02.16 Day 36: The Rhymey Novel

06.02.16 Day 37: Atomic Piss

07.02.16 Day 38: Sunny Days (I Named This One Whilst Half Asleep)

08.02.16 Day 39: Fifty Six

09.02.16 Day 40: Cargo Bros

10.02.16 Day 41: Hotseat Bros

11.02.16 Day 42: Watch Your Language

12.02.16 Day 43: Hidden Chess

13.02.16 Day 44: Sniperscythe

14.02.16 Day 45: Bloodshed

15.02.16 Day 46: Green Hood

16.02.16 Day 47: Crab Without Anemone

17.02.16 Day 48: Fangs

18.02.16 Day 49: The Native Farm Parcel

19.02.16 Day 50: Old Habits

20.02.16 Day 51: Dragon Harvest

21.02.16 Day 52: Worlds New and Old Alike

22.02.16 Day 53: Sleepless

23.02.16 Day 54: Dental Cat

24.02.16 Day 55: Imaginary Theatre

25.02.16 Day 56: The Anti-Apocalypse Archive

26.02.16 Day 57: Celestial Revelations

27.02.16 Day 58: Gotta Catch ‘Em All

28.02.16 Day 59: The Three Pillars

29.02.16 Day 60: Off-Step

MARCH

01.03.16 Day 61: Farmstead

02.03.16 Day 62: Living Ghosts

03.03.16 Day 63: Pen and Paper

04.03.16 Day 64: Nothing Here Was Built to Last

05.03.16 Day 65: World Warper

06.03.16 Day 66: Camera-Aided Telekinesis

07.03.16 Day 67: Moving On Up

08.03.16 Day 68: Mellow Slaughter

09.03.16 Day 69: Decadent Tales

10.03.16 Day 70: Between Storms

11.03.16 Day 71: Dave the Technician

12.03.16 Day 72: Masta the Pasta

13.03.16 Day 73: Convention Adventure

14.03.16 Day 74: A Song I’ve Heard Before

15.03.16 Day 75: Not Colin Firth

16.03.16 Day 76: Invasion of the Giant Hyper-Intelligent Bird-People

17.03.16 Day 77: To The Library!

18.03.16 Day 78: Walking Through the Plague

19.03.16 Day 79: Ill at Ease

20.03.16 Day 80: New York Ninjas

21.03.16 Day 81: Tome

22.03.16 Day 82: Small Talk

23.03.16 Day 83: Fictional Moons

24.03.16 Day 84: First Out The Gate

25.03.16 Day 85: Eggcelsior

26.03.16 Day 86: Leggo Supeggheroes

27.03.16 Day 87: Irreggularities

28.03.16 Day 88: Last Leggs

29.03.16 Day 89: Easter Tuesday

30.03.16 Day 90: A Galaxy Away

31.03.16 Day 91: Presumed Dead

APRIL

01.04.16 Day 92: Foolishness

02.04.16 Day 93: Super Excitable

03.04.16 Day 94: He Who Wields the Mighty Hammer

04.04.16 Day 95: Delicat

05.04.16 Day 96: Braindead

06.04.16 Day 97: Shooting Off

07.04.16 Day 98: Screw Loose

08.04.16 Day 99: Paper Dude

09.04.16 Day 100: Round Table

10.04.16 Day 101: I Don’t Choose You

11.04.16 Day 102: Mounting Tempo

12.04.16 Day 103: A Feasible Existence

13.04.16 Day 104: The Company of Friends

14.04.16 Day 105: Keep Rollin’

15.04.16 Day 106: Hired, Tired and Wired

16.04.16 Day 107: On the Cards

17.04.16 Day 108: Progression

18.04.16 Day 109: Near and Far Horizons

19.04.16 Day 110: Ergodynomics

20.04.16 Day 111: Slam Dunk’d

21.04.16 Day 112: Critical Criticisms

22.04.16 Day 113: Overestimating an Underachiever

23.04.16 Day 114: Hard Homes

24.04.16 Day 115: Taking Flight

25.04.16 Day 116: Release

26.04.16 Day 117: Blogurt

27.04.16 Day 118: Strategizers

28.04.16 Day 119: Penultimate Pub Lunch

29.04.16 Day 120: Class Dismissed

30.04.16 Day 121: Slow Chaos

MAY

01.05.16 Day 122: Making Room

02.05.16 Day 123: Off the Script

03.05.16 Day 124: What Uncles are For

04.05.16 Day 125: The Great Goblin Massacre

05.05.16 Day 126: He Shoots

06.05.16 Day 127: Treasure Hunters

07.05.16 Day 128: Solutions

08.05.16 Day 129: The Ultimate Pen

09.05.16 Day 130: 100 Extra Fiber Bran Flakes

10.05.16 Day 131: Crux

11.05.16 Day 132: The Long Journey’s End

12.05.16 Day 133: De-Hermitisation

13.05.16 Day 134: Civil War

14.05.16 Day 135: Ring-A-Ding Ding

15.05.16 Day 136: Middle-Man MVP

16.05.16 Day 137: The Jaffa-Coloured Cake Fiend

17.05.16 Day 138: Meaty Chunks

18.05.16 Day 139: Losses and Gains

19.05.16 Day 140: Supersonic Soccar Saves

20.05.16 Day 141: IRC Sick

21.05.16 Day 142: The Best

22.05.16 Day 143: Gotta Go Quick

23.05.16 Day 144: The Greatest Doorman the World Will Ever Know

24.05.16 Day 145: My New Favourite Kristian

25.05.16 Day 146: Hopeless

26.05.16 Day 147: Escapism

27.05.16 Day 148: Hidden Present

28.05.16 Day 149: Once Bitten

29.05.16 Day 150: Stuffed

30.05.16 Day 151: Zero

31.05.16 Day 152: Gone in a Flash

JUNE

01.06.16 Day 153: Nerd Up

02.06.16 Day 154: Half a Life

03.06.16 Day 155: All in a Year’s Work

04.06.16 Day 156: The Escape of Team Dynamite

05.06.16 Day 157: The Dungeon Delving Duo

06.06.16 Day 158: Killed Off

07.06.16 Day 159: Orcs and Humans

08.06.16 Day 160: Excess Capitalism

09.06.16 Day 161: Loved

10.06.16 Day 162: The Spoils

11.06.16 Day 163: Whale of a Time

12.06.16 Day 164: The Other Side of the Glass

13.06.16 Day 165: Marketing and Magic

14.06.16 Day 166: Orchestral Score

15.06.16 Day 167: At the Gates

16.06.16 Day 168: Total Maturity

17.06.16 Day 169: Assigned Roles

18.06.16 Day 170: Space Cruise

19.06.16 Day 171: Mon Pear

20.06.16 Day 172: Vampires and Werewolves and Ghosts, Oh My

21.06.16 Day 173: The Cardboard Spyglass

22.06.16 Day 174: The Wrong Opinions

23.06.16 Day 175: I Worry for Tomorrow

24.06.16 Day 176: I Pray for Yesterday

25.06.16 Day 177: Sibling Soccar

26.06.16 Day 178: Here Be Dragons

27.06.16 Day 179: Happy Families

28.06.16 Day 180: Off the Grid

29.06.16 Day 181: Our Masters

30.06.16 Day 182: The Adorable Psychopath

JULY

01.07.16 Day 183: Stranded

02.07.16 Day 184: Out Back

03.07.16 Day 185: Dead Ends

04.07.16 Day 186: Temporary Solutions

05.07.16 Day 187: The Final Day of Exile

06.07.16 Day 188: Much the Same as Always

07.07.16 Day 189: Selective Allocation of Resources

08.07.16 Day 190: Sestra

09.07.16 Day 191: Post-Show

10.07.16 Day 192: Captain’s Log

11.07.16 Day 193: Death in Comedy

12.07.16 Day 194: Just Like Old Times

13.07.16 Day 195: Darth Theresa

14.07.16 Day 196: Roaming Far and Wide

15.07.16 Day 197: My Very Own Pokemon Adventure

16.07.16 Day 198: Almost Human

17.07.16 Day 199: Curse of the Glowing Yellow Orb

18.07.16 Day 200: Enflamed

19.07.16 Day 201: Losing Solidity

20.07.16 Day 202: The Plunge

21.07.16 Day 203: Paignton the Town Red

22.07.16 Day 204: Digging What’s To Come

23.07.16 Day 205: The Supporting Role

24.07.16 Day 206: I Choose You

25.07.16 Day 207: Close, But No Cigar

26.07.16 Day 208: Patience is a Virtue

27.07.16 Day 209: Retro Novice

28.07.16 Day 210: DCAU

29.07.16 Day 211: Prolepsis

30.07.16 Day 212: Maximum Power

31.07.16 Day 213: Picmikki

AUGUST

01.08.16 Day 214: Resolving Displays

02.08.16 Day 215: Triple Output

03.08.16 Day 216: Target Elimination

04.08.16 Day 217: Sol’s Seeking

05.08.16 Day 218: Becoming Another

06.08.16 Day 219: Inducing Nerves

07.08.16 Day 220: Unbound

08.08.16 Day 221: A Worldly Embrace

09.08.16 Day 222: Getting to Grips

10.08.16 Day 223: Birth of an Avenger

11.08.16 Day 224: Of Two Worlds

12.08.16 Day 225: The Endless Invasion

13.08.16 Day 226: Murder Time, Fun Time!

14.08.16 Day 227: Count Your Chickens

15.08.16 Day 228: Mundane Monday

16.08.16 Day 229: Misconstruesday

17.08.16 Day 230: Spendsday (Or: The Kindness of Guildies)

18.08.16 Day 231: Spurnsday (Or: Day of the Week Puns were a Bad Idea)

19.08.16 Day 232: Fri Not (Or: Seriously What Was I Thinking)

20.08.16 Day 233: Sat On My Arse Day (That was Predictable)

21.08.16 Day 234: The Sun ain’t out this Sunday (I Regret Everything)

22.08.16 Day 235: New Shift

23.08.16 Day 236: Ancient Technology

24.08.16 Day 237: Chilling in the Deep End

25.08.16 Day 238: Turbo Monk

26.08.16 Day 239: Round Two

27.08.16 Day 240: Painting the Town Blue

28.08.16 Day 241: All Is Not Well

29.08.16 Day 242: Fall of the Warlords

30.08.16 Day 243: Rise of the Legion

31.08.16 Day 244: Reanimation

SEPTEMBER

01.09.16 Day 245: When the Bell Tolls

02.09.16 Day 246: A Christmas Come Early

03.09.16 Day 247: King Kablooey

04.09.16 Day 248: Earning Access

05.09.16 Day 249: Make Believe

06.09.16 Day 250: Endlessly

07.09.16 Day 251: Unfamiliar Interface

08.09.16 Day 252: Preparations

09.09.16 Day 253: Under the Sea

10.09.16 Day 254: Lost to Time

11.09.16 Day 255: Birthdeque

12.09.16 Day 256: A Reputation to Build

13.09.16 Day 257: Hitting Every Branch

14.09.16 Day 258: Bricking It

15.09.16 Day 259: Double Lunch

16.09.16 Day 260: In the Winds

17.09.16 Day 261: Of Elves and Customers

18.09.16 Day 262: A Lengthy Prelude

19.09.16 Day 263: Hall of Vampires

20.09.16 Day 264: Hobbitual

21.09.16 Day 265: Bearing Into It

22.09.16 Day 266: Solitary Refinement

23.09.16 Day 267: Best Laid Plans

24.09.16 Day 268: Power

25.09.16 Day 269: Relenting to Temptation

26.09.16 Day 270: Rise and Shine

27.09.16 Day 271: Mudflingers

28.09.16 Day 272: Wizards on a Spaceship

29.09.16 Day 273: Mystery of the Unclaimed Gift

30.09.16 Day 274: Against a Brick Wall

OCTOBER

01.10.16 Day 275: Ill-Afforded Luxuries

02.10.16 Day 276: Under the Roof

03.10.16 Day 277: Bulletproof

04.10.16 Day 278: Button It

05.10.16 Day 279: Not So Bad

06.10.16 Day 280: Jab

07.10.16 Day 281: 100% Accurate Transcript

08.10.16 Day 282: Swearing is Caring

09.10.16 Day 283: Organised Chaos

10.10.16 Day 284: In Other Worlds

11.10.16 Day 285: Bubble

12.10.16 Day 286: Knowledge Unwanted

13.10.16 Day 287: The Long Decision

14.10.16 Day 288: The Grand Nothing

15.10.16 Day 289: The Void In-Between

16.10.16 Day 290: Rhyme Without Reason

17.10.16 Day 291: Nest of Sharks

18.10.16 Day 292: The Gaping Mellow

19.10.16 Day 293: Vigilante in a Fire Truck

20.10.16 Day 294: Unexpected Brilliance

21.10.16 Day 295: Subject to Approval

22.10.16 Day 296: Deadly Hijinks

23.10.16 Day 297: Sneak Thief

24.10.16 Day 298: Leave Her Alone

25.10.16 Day 299: Miscommunication

26.10.16 Day 300: Dusk of the Final Era

27.10.16 Day 301: Graduation Day

28.10.16 Day 302: Remastered

29.10.16 Day 303: Cunning Stunts

30.10.16 Day 304: Adorable Terror

31.10.16 Day 305: Bending Minds

NOVEMBER

01.11.16 Day 306: Faltering Forwards

02.11.16 Day 307: Sea of Leaves

03.11.16 Day 308: Awaiting Anything

04.11.16 Day 309: Best Mates

05.11.16 Day 310: Today’s Youth

06.11.16 Day 311: Hidden Potential

07.11.16 Day 312: Doubling Up

08.11.16 Day 313: The World Waits with Baited Breath

09.11.16 Day 314: Doomsday

10.11.16 Day 315: Fallout

11.11.16 Day 316: Naming Games

12.11.16 Day 317: Royal Dirt

13.11.16 Day 318: Elite Squad

14.11.16 Day 319: Blood

15.11.16 Day 320: Those Who Came Before Us

16.11.16 Day 321: Extreme NASCAR

17.11.16 Day 322: A Stroke of Luck

18.11.16 Day 323: Calamities

19.11.16 Day 324: The Detection Detective

20.11.16 Day 325: God of the Insignificant

21.11.16 Day 326: The Golden Day of Gaming History

22.11.16 Day 327: Static

23.11.16 Day 328: A Pleasant Visit

24.11.16 Day 329: Fledgling Legends

25.11.16 Day 330: Full Dive

26.11.16 Day 331: Bane of the Newforged Craftsman

27.11.16 Day 332: Gentle Push

28.11.16 Day 333: Respite’s End

29.11.16 Day 334: A Knave in Every Throne

30.11.16 Day 335: The Onset

DECEMBER

01.12.16 Day 336: The Plague

02.12.16 Day 337: The Ghoul

03.12.16 Day 338: The Exodus

04.12.16 Day 339: Stagnant Suspense

05.12.16 Day 340: Remembrance

06.12.16 Day 341: Fragmented

07.12.16 Day 342: Well Placed Luck

08.12.16 Day 343: Celebrations

09.12.16 Day 344: Half

10.12.16 Day 345: Into Dust

11.12.16 Day 346: The Cause

12.12.16 Day 347: Busy Is Best

13.12.16 Day 348: Coming Up Short

14.12.16 Day 349: Flight of the Rebellion

15.12.16 Day 350: New Life Festival

16.12.16 Day 351: Fighting Fate

17.12.16 Day 352: An Imbecile’s Indecision

18.12.16 Day 353: Tea For Two

19.12.16 Day 354: Lava Plume

20.12.16 Day 355: Fluffy the Destroyer

21.12.16 Day 356: The Starving Artist

22.12.16 Day 357: Catalogue

23.12.16 Day 358: Safe Travels

24.12.16 Day 359: Dancing In My Chair

25.12.16 Day 360: Festive Chaos Fun

26.12.16 Day 361: Leftovers

27.12.16 Day 362: Becalmed

28.12.16 Day 363: Accursed Curse Claimers

29.12.16 Day 364: Thdunk

30.12.16 Day 365: The Unfaltering March

31.12.16 Day 366: Consolidation

Well, did you make it this far? If you did, I’d love to know what you thought, and if I should continue in 2017. If so, I hope to see you back here next year!

2016 in Retrospect – Change

I find that change, in retrospect, brings out the most emotion in me. Whether it’s the loss of friends or the beginning of some new era of my life, I’m always struck by the ever-changing nature of life, and how, through tragedy and comedy, the world is ushered into new chapters and can never be the same as it once was. And I used to find that horrifying, but now, I find it quite the opposite. But, to be less vague and emotional:

At the beginning of this year, I acknowledged how it would be a defining year for me, as it’d mark the end of my time at University and, somewhat alarmingly to me at the time, was going to force me out into the “real world” in pursuit of a job. Which, yeah, I should definitely have gotten before leaving uni, but that’s a self-criticism for another time. My New Year’s Resolution for 2016 was ‘Actualization’, meaning… well, I’ll let last year’s blog post speak for itself:

I will write my dissertation. I will finish my degree. I will find a job and I will live with it and in it. I will write fiction, and I will work on a story, and I will learn to live outside of my comfort zone even if that currently scares me in irrational volumes. I have spent twenty years of my life hanging back, for multitudes of reasons, and it’s time to stop. And just saying it won’t make it any easier, or make me any less likely to fail. But it’s time to start trying to try.

I’m delighted to say that I managed to achieve this, for the most part. I most certainly finished my dissertation. I graduated University with a 2:1 in Creative Writing. And I’ve got myself a job that I actually enjoy going to, and that I’m pretty good at… or, so I like to think. Of course, I’ve not written or published any fictional works, and I’m certainly not financially independent. But this is a blog post for looking back on 2016, and my (self-inflicted) descent into penniless hell is 2017’s demon to tackle.

2016 has personally been a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I graduated, achieved elements of the previously mentioned actualization resolution, and actively developed as a person in regards to maturing into the adult world and learning to get shit done. (Not that I’m by any means perfect.) But I’ve also had low points; creative stagnancy and personal emotions have caused many gloomy days. I’ve said more goodbyes than I’d care to this year, either through circumstances of natural change or of my own volition. I’ve had to introduce elements of frustration and negativity into my life to keep my head above water in certain situations. And the future is as unknown and as frightening to me as it was at the end of 2015, a feeling I’d hoped to have conquered by the end of this year.

As far as the state of the world goes, I can’t say it’s been amazing. Democratic votes such as Brexit and Trump have been a sour note for me and my world views; the spread of hatred and violence appears not to have slowed one bit, and the prospects for next year are, to put it simply, glum. That being said, one should never count their politicians before they’ve declared war (sorry, that was awful), and you can never tell what the future will bring.

As for the so called Curse of 2016, I’ve been somewhat lucky in not knowing many of the celebrities who have passed away, though the recent loss of Carrie Fisher has been a personal note of sadness. What is getting me down is the irrationality of those who lean too heavily on the idea that 2016 is a year to escape from death; comments on Carrie Fisher’s health during her hospitalisation that claimed that we merely needed to make it to 2017 for her to be okay caused me to grit my teeth on many an occasion. It’s hard to put into words exactly what irritates me about this, but the general gist of it is that while it has most definitely been an unfortunate year regarding the frequency of famous deaths, the notion that it will simply cease in 2017 is highly irrational; these years, these groups of months only exist because we perceive them to, and to base your feelings and expectations around this is exactly the kind of ignorance that this world cannot afford to entertain right now. Anyone over the age of 40 can’t so much as cough now without social media making jibes about hiding them away and keeping them safe until the passing of the year, which I’d personally find somewhat offensive were these comments directed at me.

But hey, rant over. 2016 is (almost) a closed book, to be either shelved or stowed away in the attic and forgotten, depending on who you are. We’re mere hours away from a whole new year, and, human perspective or not, it’s always exciting and intriguing to try and predict just what kind of retrospective I’ll be writing a year from now.

Happy New Year. I’ll see you on January 1st.

(Sidenote: This evening I discovered the song Soon Soon by Tom Rosenthal which put me into the state of mind to write this blog post. It is a charming song with a beautiful music video, and I highly recommend it.)

A Short Word on Christmas

Christmas, to me, has nothing to do with religion. It has nothing to do with consumerism; I push aside my cynicism for one month, specially for December 25th. It’s not about getting things (which is, I’ll admit, a nice plus) and it’s not about spamming overdone Christmas songs and movies that we’ve all seen and heard a thousand times.

Christmas, to me, is a celebration of family, love, and relaxation in the midst of what is literally the darkest time of the year. A time to do away with grudges and scepticism, and simply celebrate, relax and do things differently for a few days. To eat too much food and show your appreciation for those around you.

So, with earnest and excess cheesiness, I have this to say: Merry Christmas, everyone!

Revisiting Harry Potter

Kindle Unlimited is a service that’s been interesting me for some time now, and as my reading habits have been slipping more and more, I decided to claim my free month trial. Rather than using this trial to read new and interesting books, as was the plan, I was instead distracted by the fact that the Harry Potter books were on there, and thus set about re-reading Rowling’s famous series.

Now, whilst I’m comfortably familiar with the series thanks to the movies (which I’ve seen on multiple occasions), I’ve only read the actually book series once, and that was when I was around fourteen. Whilst it was enjoyable, I don’t remember being particularly blown away by the novels, and apart from filling in some of the gaps from the movies, they soon fell into obscurity. However, reading through the series a second time round has proven to be a splendid idea. I’m now positively entranced by the wizarding world that Rowling has created, and rather than taking the story at face value, my mind now reels with the possibilities of further stories told within that some world (perpetuated, of course, by the recent release of Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them, which I have yet to see). I’m enthralled by the idea of apparition; intrigued by the consequences of living in a world where things such as the polyjuice potion, the pensieve and invisibility cloaks exist; excited at the prospect of what other Dark wizards get up to and the potential narratives behind that; curious as to the magical governing of other countries; and, of course, tickled by the idea of the wizarding world existing alongside a 2016 world, where there are smartphones (and therefore cameras) everywhere.

There’s also a rich vein of rediscovery to be found from having foreknowledge of the series. Knowing the perspectives and plans of certain characters can be invigorating, enticing and exciting; the ability to understand why Dumbledore’s eyes light up “triumphantly” at a particular spot of bad news at the end of Goblet of Fire, for example, allows you to see the story from a whole other angle as it unfolds. Furthermore, reading this from an adult perspective offers even further insights into the behaviours of some characters, such as why information is withheld rather than shared, and what some unheard conversations between teachers and adult characters might sound like. And finally, I found myself taken off guard by the amount of comedic moments found in the series; some of them, like Fred and George bouncing snowballs off the back of Professor Quirrel’s turban, are even funnier with foreknowledge.

Finally, as somebody who was once caught up in the popular idea that J.K Rowling’s actual writing is overrated based on her popularity, I have this to say: that is incorrect. I’ve found her writing to be easy to read, excellently descriptive, accurately characteristic through applications of free indirect style, to contain very slight and clever foreshadowing, and most impressively, to be thoroughly well-plotted and consistent throughout a myriad of fully-constructed characters, events and in an extensively designed world. There are some minor plotholes that I’d raise, such as why Harry doesn’t see Thestrals pulling the magical carriages at the end of Goblet of Fire, but none of these compromise the story when pulled up for closer inspection, which is a rare trait to find in a lot of fiction nowadays.

The Facebook Rant

The evolution of Facebook is the prime example of corporate greed and overzealous advertising infecting a website and successfully normalising its own implementation to the point where almost its entire userbase doesn’t even notice what’s going on in front of their own eyes. Ask a Facebook user where the ads are on the website and they’re likely to point to the sidebar, and maybe even say with a self assured smirk, “Yeah but I don’t see them because I’ve got adblock.”

Here’s the thing. The Facebook feed used to be where I could hear my friends. You know, those people who I wanted to hear more from personally about their lives and general goings on because I’m actually somewhat fond of them. But scroll down your timeline. All you’re going to see is shares of movie trailers and memes and 7 second videos that autoplay with black bars above the top and bottom telling you to watch them. You’ll find your feed interrupted with regular little advertisements that are almost indistinguishable from the myriad of shared content. You’ll find that, whether you realise it or not, you’re contributing to the litter, as “liked” material will get randomly chosen to be slapped on someone else’s feed. Instead of stopping to look at a friend’s photo as you might otherwise have done, you’ll probably scroll past it in the semi-trance state we all enters as we lazily scroll (or swipe) down our feeds, half absorbing the emojis and the brands and the 240p rehosted videos that don’t attribute credit to the original creators.

And then there’s those pages that gain the system. The ones that tell you to vote by leaving a particular reaction on a post, or by either commenting or sharing it, not because they actually give a fuck about what the result will be but because it will allow their page to fly upwards through Facebook’s algorithms so that when they advertise their merch or their site (where they can score on their own ad revenue), more eyes will see it. They’ll adopt pop-culture and repeated low-effort comedy simply in a long-term effort to sell you shit, and that’s 90% of what clutters the website today.

And the most depressing thing is that 99% of users just go along with it. They’ll continue to like, share, comment, tag a mate who conforms to this hilarious stereotype, share an injustice that the media is blowing up to muffle something more important, scroll aimlessly downwards absorbing endless amounts of non-information. A year or more ago I blocked the three most common pages that polluted my feed: The LAD Bible, I Fucking Love Science, and another one that I’ve thankfully forgotten the existence of and cannot recall. But the amount of asinine shit that still makes its way to my screen, telling me what to think and when to laugh and who to hate, is really dragging me down.

And I should quit, right? That’d solve the problem. But I can’t. Because in-between all of the grey-matter is the stuff that I actually want to see. I want to know that my friends are out there and having fun. And I’m not criticising the people who like posts that make them laugh, or share something that’s exciting or hilarious. I’m frustrated with Facebook, and their algorithms, and the way they manipulate each and every user into becoming just another coin in the faceless piggy bank that is their corporation.

Blog Post Delayed

Okay, here’s the thing. I just wrote 350 words of a blog post and they just… kinda… sucked. I know my blog has been very patchy over the past month but I don’t think I’ll be able to pull one out right now. My apologies! Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week.

Why not try my other blog, where I recently discussed my opinions on Assassin’s Creed 2, Brotherhood, and Revelations?

Death, Grief and Remembrance

It’s funny. The day you lose someone isn’t the worst. At least you’ve got something to do. It’s all the days they stay dead.

– The Doctor, Doctor Who.

The first time in my life that I knew somebody who died must have been when I was around five or six years old. Our next door neighbour, a friendly old man by the name of Eric, passed away. I can very faintly remember my father telling me that he wasn’t going to be around anymore, or something to that effect; that he had died and left us and wouldn’t be coming back. And, retrospectively, I can remember / imagine the great discomfort my father must have felt having to break the concept of death to a small child. And I remember being completely fine about it. Well, my childish brain reasoned, I’d probably see him in heaven somewhere further down the road. So long as I didn’t go to hell for not doing my homework, that is. And then I went back to my life.

I also remember him telling me and my sister that our mother had about 24 hours to live when I was nine. And I remember vivid patches of the day that she actually did pass away some months later when I was ten. And I remember going back to school a few months later and being taken out of an RE lesson before it started and being told that it was going to be about death and being asked if I wanted to help a teacher with something else for a while. And I remember politely declining and returning to class and getting on with life.

It is difficult to find the words that are correct to share without telling too much of what others would rather keep personal, or that some would feel uncomfortable reading. But every year on December 5th, I feel it necessary to, in one way or another, mark the passing of this almost mythical figure in my life. And this year, for whatever reason, I’ve found myself finding memory after forgotten memory assailing me in the strangest of times and places. And whatever the catalyst to this stream of memories may be, I’m extremely grateful. I remember when we got the internet for the first time; I posted onto a forum saying that I liked a particular show, and every single reply got sent to my personal inbox. Alarmed and frightful, I remember my mum comforting me and assuring her irrationally frightened son that it’d be okay. And I remember a dozen other such small memories that had been lost before.

We don’t know what comes after, or if anything even does, and it is therefore imperative that we carry our lost ones with us as we continue through life, motivated by their memory and shaping the world in their stead. And after eleven years, my resolve to do this has faltered not one bit.

Where’s the Blog Post?

So I actually had a blog post in mind for Tuesday, but when it came to actually writing it I couldn’t focus and postponed it until the next day. But then, go figure, yesterday I made the bad decision of going outside with a cold, which in turn ended up with me on a bus for an hour and fifteen minutes coming home which meant that by the time I got in, I was ready to do nothing else other than sleep. So I’m afraid this week’s a bit of a write-off. Come back next Tuesday!