Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Since I've Been Gone

It's been about two months since I posted. There's a very good reason for this - I'm lazy. I sort of gave up on the Internet as a form of communication for a long while, and while I hope to blog a lot now that I'm "back", I don't think I'll be doing much else in such proportions. I like talking to people face to face, not through "chat" on Facebook; I like actually doing things rather than just talking about them; but I also like writing, hence the blogging.

In short, I haven't done much since I last posted. I had a quiet Christmas with my family (couldn't get away from them, actually...), and Christmas week I went to Newgrange. By accident we (my friend and I) went the day before the solstice. We were really just looking for something to do, since we hadn't seen each other in about six weeks.

I'm not going to list everything I received for Christmas from my family, though I'll give special mention to the True Blood DVDs I got. The only reason I'm mentioning them is because I've watched the first two seasons and I'm currently watching season three on FX. Also, I've started reading the books they're based on. Loads of fun, them! I've only read one so far, but I have the second one.

A review of that will come soon. I've also got a few other books to review... I read them in a binge session. It was a delightful time. Loved the books I read and can't wait to tell you what they are. But not yet.

See, I'm plotting out a new format for my blog. I want to do reviews on Wednesdays. It's to encourage me to read more. I have four books to review so far, and many more to read in the meantime, so the next month's worth of reviews will just be what I read within a short space of time. But I'll be reading more, like the books for my English course, and some stuff on my Education and Theology courses. More on those later. The blog will have other stuff, too, like original pieces of fiction or poetry, but with a very particular reason behind them...

See, I went to a workshop hosted by Gavin Kostick and arranged by the Irish Student Drama Association. It was a good ol' day, that, and I learned quite a bit. I intend to put it to good practice. One of things he suggested will be part of this blog, when I get around to initiating it. That won't be until at least this Monday. I'll have other things popping up as weekly or monthly features in the future, but not just yet.

Oh, I also wrote a movie! It's not very long, but it's been entered into a competition in college. It's a sort of zombie apocalypse movie. I really enjoyed writing it!

And... well, aside from buying more books, rearranging my bookshelf, working, writing a bit, reading and college, I've only done one other significant thing that I can convince myself to talk about - teaching practice. Now, nothing against the students or the school, because they were actually quite nice, but I don't think I could ever teach at primary level. There's a particular type of energy with kids of that age, and it was sort of damaging to my existence. I think the stress of TP, overall, caused me to have at least three emotional breakdowns. I feel so bad for the friend who had to put up with all of that.

So, I'm back...ish. We'll see if it lasts. But for now, I've got to do stuff. Blogging, as fun as it is, isn't entirely productive. Or entirely in-keeping with my 'Reactivate everything today' plan... This is why people shouldn't leave! Too much catching up to do - and there's always catching up to do!