Amruniel's Ramblings

Right, a few days late, but here's the next instalment of my monthly review! Yay!

( Read more... )


And that's it for this month! Thanks for reading, guys!

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!

( The Good, the Bad, and the ... Lazy?! )

So... apparently THIS happens when you put a ginger out into the sun... 🤣🤣🤣🤣😅🤷💪

A post shared by @ amruniel on Jun 14, 2019 at 10:53am PDT

...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:

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am from Austria. My knowledge of cricket is roughly this: it's played with bats and a ball, and said ball sometimes gets up close and personal with a piece of sandpaper if the Australians are involved (yeah, this made international news). Oh, and thanks to Harry Potter fanfiction I'm also aware that there's a thing called the Ashes (don't ask 🤷🤣) So, why have I been bingeing on a cricket podcast of all things lately? Because two weeks ago I heard @felixwhite and @greg_james on 5live Drive while climbing and their excitement about some catch made me laugh so much that I fell off the boulder. I checked out their first live show, laughed even more, found their podcast and have become addicted in a matter of minutes. As of today I'm all caught up, and while I still have next to no clue about how cricket is actually played (but can throw around words like mankading and two-paced pitch like a pro) and even the hugely entertaining @matthoran1010 knows more about the game than me, I can by now say with real authority that @jimmya9 is not only super entertaining, extremely likeable, and has a great sense of humour (and knows his shredders and printers!) but also proves that I just love listening to Northern Bastards™️ (apparently it's not just @sean_bean_official -interesting 🤔). Apart from that, the podcast has taught me that people look at you strangely when you walk around with a face-splitting grin; scoot away from you on public transport when you start snorting with laughter about something they can't hear; and just cannot deal with it when you literally become the embodiment of 🤣 when Mattchin gets on a roll with Spankers and Dirty Balls. In the last couple of weeks I have gained a new catch phrase (which nobody around me understands or reacts to correctly), have been cursed (or blessed) with a whole army of theme tunes stuck in my head (We like to... CRUSIC!), have learned A LOT about the sad trials of Jos Buttler, and know one thing for sure: I'll tune in the next time, even if it's a bit spicy, that is! 🌶️ If you haven't listened to this podcast (and I know you haven't!) give it a try - until then, GO WELL!

A post shared by @ amruniel on Jun 15, 2019 at 1:43pm PDT

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!)     

 Well, folks - it is here! 

If you want to see what my super secret project was, just click HERE! 

#london got pride 🌈⚡️💥❤️🧡💛💚💙💜#gaypride be FREE be HAPPY be LOVE be JOY be SAFE be SEEN be CELEBRATED 🌈♠️

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Orlando Bloom (@orlandobloom) am Jul 7, 2018 um 7:25 PDT

'Nuff said! ❤️💛💚💙💜

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*

Total Words Written: 239.414

Why do I always end up with at least one of the boys naked whenever I get slightly distracted while writing? :D

Not that I particularly mind, I mean... naked men are nothing to be frowned upon, ever, right? ;)
But now I'll need to get one of them dressed again while keeping the other from getting undressed, and all that hassle just to be able to keep writing plot.
Ah well, the crosses we writers have to bear.......

In other words, I'm done with writing for the week and will have to try following up on the vague idea that inspired today's writing session on -hopefully- Monday.

I'm wishing you all a very lovely weekend... and still hope that there is somebody out there who's willing to embark on the CampNaNo adventure with me...

Total Words Written: 236.878

After a few days with too little time left to tackle my monster, I finally managed to write tonight.
I probably shouldn't have, but my brain needed a break from considering the differences and consequences of structuralism and post-structuralism anyway.

I did come up with a surprising twist, though. One I haven't seen coming and that might add an interesting, unplanned twist to my story, depending on how I decide to go on from here. I could resolve the issue easily, or I could keep it open and have a secondary (or tertiary? I'm definitely losing track here) plot-line that adds a bit of mystery to the overall plot. Hm. Hmmmm.

Since I'll be going to the theatre tomorrow evening, and might end up with yet another night without time to write, I'll have enough time to consider both options, I guess.

I'll keep you posted ;)

Total Words Written: 234.115

Didn't get as far in the scene as I expected to, but I think what I wrote gives a good look into both the character and the relationship, so I'm pretty happy with what I came up with while writing.

Additionally, I have managed to catch up with the posts and comments in the community I talked about yesterday, which means that I'll be tackling your PMs, posts, and comments at LJ and here starting from tomorrow.

Brace yourselves, replies are coming :D

Total Words Written: 232.056

What's the thing that's said about the best laid of plans?
Exactly - they tend to go horribly awry.
Just as mine did.

On the upside, I did manage to write a bit. Not as much as I actually should have, or wanted to, but at least I somehow reached and exceeded my minimum word-goal. And I obviously did decide on one of the two possible ways of continuing I talked about yesterday.
So, there's that at least.

But, frankly, this doesn't help my bad conscience concerning all of you even a bit. I don't know how long I've been promising to finally, finally, finally get back to you all, and I'm too scared to actually take a look, and I *still* haven't managed to despite my best intentions. *sigh*

I swear, I'd completely understand you all de-friending unreliable me.
(Though I very selfishly hope you won't!)

Let's see if I miraculously manage to keep my promises tomorrow... *sigh*

Total Words Written: 229.728

Thanks to the long weekend, you have the privilege of witnessing one of my infrequent Sunday updates ;)
Thanks to the climbing gang going out for birthday-drinks tomorrow night, you (most likely) won't see a Monday update tomorrow, though...

Which is actually a good thing since I'm still not sure about where to take the story next *sigh*
Maybe the influence of a cocktail or five will kick my muses into working-mode and give me that one eye-opener I need to know what to write next.
(Or it deletes the few ideas I have floating around in my brain... Hm. Well, I'm going to risk it anyway ;) )

I'm actually rather happy to have been able to write as much as I got done tonight... my damn knee is acting up like crazy today, and on top of not really knowing how to sit at the desk pain-free a blasted headache has taken up residence in my temple, not making the process of staring at the screen, struggling for words any more pleasant.
But I got it done, and in the end that's what counts! (And I actually don't think the part I wrote tonight is that bad...)

Anyway, I'm dragging my poor head to bed now. Let's hope that helps. (And who knows, maybe a good idea or two will come to me in my dreams............)