This month I gave The Tombstone Project some love; both to the project itself, and the actual Word file. Firstly, I went back and dug up some old poetry from my teenage years, some of which turned out to be surprisingly decent, especially given what I thought about it at the time. Secondly, I began writing more “journal” style entries specifically for the project, talking more personally about my life with the freedom of not having it made public until after I’ve, y’know, snuffed it. This doesn’t mean I’ve immediately begun spilling everything that goes on in my brain onto the page – people I know will still be reading this, after all – but so far, irregular, personal updates have provided me assurance that my autobiographical works aren’t entirely made up of phrases like “I can’t go into specifics”, or otherwise silent omissions of importance.
As for the Word file, well, I added page breaks after each entry. I won’t bore you with the specifics but it was a pretty unorganised mess before this. Anyway, now that I’ve done that, we’re sitting at 450 pages, although that’s at paperback size because I don’t know how to change it back. No, seriously, I am stumped, and not even Google is helping. It sounds like a simple problem but it’s not, okay? I’m good with writing and I’m good with software but apparently I am not good with writing software. Add it to the list of life’s great ironies.
Am I rambling about inane nothings? Sorry. I have plenty that I could talk about in terms of what’s happened to me this month, but at the time of writing, that’d fall under the “silent omissions of importance” I mentioned earlier. I won’t give a vague impression of what I’m omitting, either, because people jump to all sorts of incorrect conclusions. Instead, I’m just going to apologise for the low word count this month and jump straight towards the section where I ramble about my hobbies for a paragraph or two.
I took a bit of a left turn and streamed for 10 days in a row, after having not livestreamed anything for a few months now. The reason? World of Warcraft! We’re ramping up to the release of the new expansion, and anyone who knows me knows what the game means to me. I’m beyond in love with the world, characters, and gameplay of that universe, and I’m super excited about where the next expansion, Shadowlands is taking us: the afterlife. As you may be able to surmise by the existence of this project, I spend a lot of time thinking about death, and while that’s usually in more of a serious, existential way, I also thoroughly enjoy fantastical stories which explore what happens to use when we die.
Besides that, though, I’ve also enjoyed Gamescom this month (not least for the animated WoW short it premiered), dabbled in poetry, delved into the book Mythos by Stephen Fry in the hopes of better understanding Greek Mythology, and took a breath to appreciate the changing of seasons. Much of this month was spent in a sweltering heatwave, but in recent days the heat has broken and the coolness of autumn has taken its place. This time of year always makes me nostalgic and introspective, reminding me of starting school, or university, of taking comfort in certain fictional worlds; of rare quiet moments where I’ve sat and appreciated the breeze, the waning sun, the distant sounds of life in various gardens and roads.
There can be no perfect afterlife. It would always be autumn, but the winds of autumn are appreciated for their heralding of change, and perfection demands stasis, lest it be imperfect for its ephemeral nature.
It’s been quite a month.
Perpetually Perturbed 