I'm not a huge football fan. I love watching the big tournaments (Euro and WC, basically), and I'm known to at least switch channels to check on the score every now and again whenever Austria is playing (or, if I'm in a bad mood, engage in some therapy by shouting at the TV *lol*). But that's the extent of it.
And yet, I have taken to listening to a football podcast while I'm out and about running or bouldering. Mostly because it has turned out that listening to a podcast where they spend an hour each episode discussing the guests fantasy "perfect meal" is not a particularly great idea when you're running laps. Lesson learned.
Anyway.
I've been listening to "That Peter Crouch" podcast - mostly because the hosts are somewhat entertaining and I don't mind if I miss the occasional minute here and there if my thoughts wander or I'm stuck thinking through a boulder problem.
Now, imagine my surprise when out of nowhere a very familiar name got mentioned while I was listening to episode 11. (Yes, I actually did a double take so big that it made me lose my balance and topple off the boulder onto the mat. But that's another story. It's safe to say though that, seconds later, I was feeling rather grateful to actually be on the mat already, because I was shaking with laughter imagining the scene.... )
Curious?
You can find the podcast on the BBC Sounds app, on (probably) whichever app you usually use for your pod-listening, or you can simply click here (or onto the pic). The part you'll want to be listening to begins at ~3:20)
As I have been mentioning in my last post, I'm currently listening my way through the back catalogue of Adam Buxton's podcast.
And while I'm super interested, entertained, intrigued, moved, and a variety of other things while listening, I'm rarely really surprised. That is, until I hit episode 84.
At around minute 11, a very familiar name popped up suddenly in an anecdote about a birthday party (presumably one that took place in London... hint, hint).
If you're interested in a bit of name-puns, banter, questionable fashion choices, and (I think) a bit of stardom bleeding through, have a klickety-click here to access the episode.
Have fun listening (and maybe someone feels inspired by this little anecdote?! I'd love to see it pop up in some fic some day... :) )!
As many, if not all of you know by now, I'm super bad at keeping up with this journal. The last time I posted on here before today? Nearly a year ago? Goddamnit!
But since I want to be better (and I really like the idea of keeping a somewhat regular account of what I'm up to -apart from my Instagram - come, check out what's going on @amruniel ;) ), I have come up with the idea of starting to write monthly reviews/recounts of what I was up to, what I did, dreamed of, loved, hated, you name it. Let's see if I can at least commit to one effing entry per month.
This can't be too hard to do, can it? CAN IT??!!
Anyway, let's see what July of 2019 had in store for me!
...oopsie?! Though that actually happened in June)
Podcasts: I have to admit I have never understood the appeal of podcasts. I always thought that listening to other people talking about whatever was just about as much a waste of time as listening to audiobooks was - in other words, it was time I would rather use for actually reading something. (I'm a little book-snob, I know. Nothing beats ink on paper. And I still stand by that, even though my stance on podcasts has changed dramatically.)
Life has its funny, mysterious turns, and so it happened that the habit of listening to BBC radio online that I formed last fall and winter (first in order to help improve my British accent for the pronunciation class I had to do, later also because I really really enjoyed some programs) got me looking up the first podcast I ever listened to - a cricket podcast of all things! That story also happened in June:
Ever since then I have listened to a few other podcasts, some of which I completely and madly fell in love with:
My Dad Wrote A Porno: If you, like me, have ever giggled about cringe-worthy sex-scenes in fanfics where you just KNEW the author had never actually seen another human being naked, let alone had sex, then this podcast is for you. I swear, I laughed until I cried. I snorted drinks all over the place. I literally (and loudly) groaned "uuuuuh nooooooo!" at some particularly dubious wording/descriptions - while out in public. And I had a BLAST! I can't wait until season 5 starts in September!
Cut Through Nutrition: A superb look at all things nutrition and the fallacies of non-nutritionists trying to explain their views by using nutritional studies and data. It's a super interesting topic, and while it is mainly targeted at medical professionals, the two super likeable presenters talk about everything in a way that makes it easy to follow for us laypeople, and in a way that educates while being super interesting.
The Adam Buxton Podcast: If long, rambly conversations that cover everything from common man-flu to death are your thing, Adam's podcast is just the right listen for you! I love, love, love it (and couldn't be happier that I still have over 60 episodes to go until I'm caught up!)
Climbing: As I have mentioned in my "Tailenders" Instagram post, the first time I hear Greg James and Felix White enthuse about cricket I fell of the boulder wall because they made me laugh so much. Clever people (like you, dear reader ;D) might extrapolate from that, that I started to go climbing again. And they would be right! I do it a lot less frequent than I used to, about once a week roughly, but I'm really enjoying it again. And what's more, I kind of start to really like bouldering.... Which is... a story for next month, I think :D
So, this is it... my first monthly review. Let's see if I can make this a habit........... (if not, you can always reach me over on Instagram... or via PM/DM here or there... or via mail for those of you who have my email... or.... pretty much everywhere except here it seems... oopsieeeeeee!)
By pure chance I have stumbled upon a little gem of a picture...
Three years ago today, a very happy girl got bitten by a plot bunny. The first in about a decade, and the first in a new fandom.
Coincidence would have it that said girl had to spend the evening/night dog-sitting while Himself and his parents went off to see some opera. With a lot of spare time on her hands, she decided to open up a new Word document and see where the idea would take her.
Three months later, the girl embarked on her first NaNoWriMo adventure, working on the plot-bunny that had been constantly gnawing at her for the past months despite her never opening the doc up again after that first night in August.
Three years later, the self-same fic has grown to a whopping 270.872 words, and is nowhere near finished!
And here is the snapshot I found in my enormous pile of pictures rescued from my old phone, taken sometime during the evening of August 2nd, 2015 and sent to Himself to show him I had a good time without him around (or because of it ;) ):
(Emoticon to save you from spoilers ;) ) (And please note my choice of soundtrack - you just can't go wrong with Elton John and George Michael belting out "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" while starting out on what turned out to be an epic V/O fic!)
I spent my July evenings/nights stuck in front of my computer typing away furiously!
When I decided to sign up for Camp NaNo this time around (very last minute, let my tell you!), I figured, I would set my goal as a very low 15.000 words. After a whole year without getting any creative writing done (and another instance of all of my muses deciding to go AWOL from one day to the other), I thought even this low number might turn out to be quite a struggle.
How wrong I was!
In reality, I have passed my goal on day 13! ;)
Inspiration hit me big time somewhen in the night between June 31st and July 1st, and I dashed out the first 11.000 words in about a week.
The next four-thousand words were a bit more of a struggle, but seeing that I actually spent a few days not writing between day 8 and day 13, I still got a good amount written during each session.
Thankfully, CampNaNo gives you the opportunity to change your writing goals up until the very last day, so I upped the goal to 20.000, knowing that I would have to spend some time on a super secret project (*winks at silvan_lady *), and kept on writing.
Long story short - yesterday I finished CampNaNo 2018 with a whopping 28.000 words written! Woohoo!
And here's my stats for proof:
;)
And that (in combination with the still super secret project) ultimately is the reason why some of you are still waiting for my to answer mails, write comments, or get back on your replies! Sorry, not sorry! :D
Sometimes I forget the pure joy music can convey, but -fortunately- every once in a blue moon I stumble upon something that forcefully reminds me of the power of music.
When I first (and completely accidentally, thanks YouTube!) watched it, I was caught somewhere in-between crying and beaming like a complete loon. Now, a good few times later, I still have no words for the magic.
Or, as we in the Orlando-verse like to call it: Bana vs Mortensen ;)
(For the record, today I'm rooting for the Aussis, not necessarily because they are the underdogs here, but because any team that goes by The Socceroos deserves to be supported and loved!)
What did capture my attention was the accompanying Facebook post:
The Johnny Cash song he was listening to?
"First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"
The first time ever I saw your face, I thought the sun rose in your eyes. And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave, To the dark and the endless sky, my love.
And the first time ever I kissed your mouth, I felt the earth move through my hands. Like the trembling heart of a captive bird That was there at my command.
And the first time ever I lay with you, I felt your heart so close to mine. And I know our joy would fill the earth, And last 'til the end of time, my love.
The first time ever I saw your face.
I will let you make of that what you will..............................................................................
I haven't posted in a LOOOOONG long time, and I will most likely disappear into the void for at least another couple days or weeks after this, but holy shit, I really need to interrupt my hiatus to record what Orlando posted on his Instagram for all posterity (or for future days where I'm in need of some serious cheering up ;) )
In a stunning turn of events, you all find myself still alive and kicking ;)
I know, it must have seemed as if the earth has opened up and swallowed me up without any warning, and for that I'm really sorry. I want to apologize particularly to those of you who worried about me, sent me PMs, etc.! Mea culpa!
For those of you happy to know I'm still here and not interested in anything more, I'd suggest to stop reading here now and go on to do something you'd rather do :)
For everyone else - here's a (short and inadequate) explanation:
As you might remember, my last post was on June 20th, where I (probably drunk on some celebratory birthday bubbly) stated I was hopeful to manage to keep on writing halfway regularly despite the exam looming... ...well, no. Turned out, there was WAY more material to study than I had anticipated. As in TONS more. That woman drove me crazy over the course of the semester, but she really, really hit rock bottom in my favours during those last 10 days of June. So, I more or less spent the remainder of the month non-stop studying, with the occasional break for food or sleep. I somehow managed to actually got summing up the material done the night before the exam, with less than 24 hours of "real" study time on my hands. Despite that, the exam went rather well after all (having the first look at the questions my the prof went up a notch in my favours again, let me tell you ;) ).
Riding on a high after having finished the semester FINALLY, I actually did fire up the computer shortly before midnight on the 30th and created a cabin at CampNaNo for me. I really was all psyched up about tackling another month of writing and possibly even get the whole fic as close to finished as possible.
Fast forward to the next day and I found myself in the situation to really, really, really have no energy left to do anything, least of all to make myself turn on the computer and tackle Day 1 of CampNaNo. I, for the first time in months and months, couldn't make myself even THINK about the fic. I was too tired, too wrung out.
If I have learned any lesson those past years, then to listen to my body and my mind when they tell me it's too much. So, for once, I did the sensible thing and decided to give myself the weekend off and start tackling the writing a couple days late.
On Monday, I honestly didn't feel much better about writing. I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea to go back to the story and wrestle the scene I was writing into something I actually liked. I had no inclination, no impetus, and frankly no energy to sit down and struggle through something I wasn't feeling at the moment, just for the sake of hitting some arbitrary word-goal I had self-imposed on myself. And truth to be told, it wasn't just the writing - it was the very simple act of switching on the computer that seemed like too much of an effort for me.
I was tired, unhappy, unmotivated and altogether in no mood to even browse the internet, let alone engage with people or do something productive.
I promised myself to get back to it the next day on a daily basis, but each and every new day I lacked the motivation to do anything. It just felt RIGHT to not be writing for the moment. To not be posting stuff or reading posts or browse or just generally kill time in front of the screen.
Then Himself told me he would go on a week-long climbing tip with a friend of our the next week, and I found myself in the funny situation of life imitating art big time. In the fic, I have two OCs that are based on exactly those two people leaving for a climbing vacation... and now the real them actually did the same. A sign, right? So, I was pretty adamant about me using the time alone to make up for lost writing-time and hammer out a couple thousand words each day.
That was, until I actually found myself alone and all my good plans going down the drain due to immense demotivation and the bad timing that led to me discovering a new YouTube channel I got obsessed with. A channel that has been in existence for 11 years, so you can guess how many videos there are for me to catch up on....
So, another week went by with me NOT firing up the computer.
Then, Himself was back again, and with him a couple of things we had to attend, a few outings we wanted to do, and a handful of evenings spent doing nothing at all, just enjoying the summer, the rest of the month passed as well, hardly noticed by me.
And now, it's August and I am... back, but not back? I certainly needed the time off the computer and away from my story, and while it completely threw my intended schedule off, the interruption also freed me from said schedule, giving me enough peace of mind to be okay with the fic possibly not being finished during the summer, and possibly even not finished before the next "real" NaNoWriMo.
So, my plan for now is to enjoy (and survive) the current heat wave, and try to get some writing done here and there with no set schedule or fixed word-goals for the moment until I get back into the flow or hit a part of the story that forces me to keep on writing and regularly at that.
I will, however, try to set aside an evening or two each week to work my way through the waiting posts and comments that have accumulated over the past months. In short, I'll be here and yet not here for the foreseeable future, and as usual I'll keep you updated on any writing that gets done around here :)
I hope you're all having a lovely, wonderful and relaxing summer! *hugs*
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