When I'm Not Writing

When I'm not writing, my time gets divided up with a few different activities, some regular, others less so. Work aside, because that's a whole other kettle of fish, I tend to do as much as I can to fill up my time. Sometimes it's productive. Other times, not so much.

The biggest regular activity is my weekly visit to the cinema. I've gone almost every week for the past seven years, or so, sometimes twice a week, and almost always with the same 2-3 people that I went to secondary school with. Take that as a load off your worries if your academic situation is in any way like mine was when I started college - none of your friends are in the same college as you, and none of them are studying the same subject. We managed to use the cinema to ensure we met up regularly, and as a result we've also seen a huge chunk of the movies that came out over that period of time.

Aside from that, and my various online activities, I try to work in a balance of reading, baking, and watching television. Don't get me wrong on the last one, though - I despise just casually watching reruns of something. I end up doing it, occasionally, for nostalgia more than anything else. Usually, I'm watching a particular series, and it's more likely than not that it's been recorded in advance.

The latest edition to any of my non-writing hobbies is photography. But let's just be clear: as of writing this, I am not a photographer.

I own a nice camera. It takes really good pictures. I enjoy taking them. But I can't exactly call myself a photographer. When I start taking pictures more often, when I start getting around with the camera a bit more, I'll describe myself as an amateur photographer. When I actually start making money from it, then I'll upgrade the description to photographer.

But not a moment sooner.

The most I've done is an excursion to the Botanic Gardens, to take as many pictures as I could in the blistering heat. And, because I'm so new to this, I want to keep doing things like that. I want to try get to the point when I'm taking pictures a lot, so I can call myself a photographer, of some description. But for now, photography is just a hobby, and one I'm not even sure I'm any good at yet.

Something I'd love to do would be to combine my various hobbies - taking pictures to accompany writing pieces, food photography when I get my ass in gear and go beyond a couple of different recipes, writing about film and television and stories generally. That sort of thing.

Is it bad that I want to make a living from hobbies? Maybe. I mean, from a bank's point of view, yeah. But in terms of personal fulfilment, I don't think I could find anything better.

Necessitea

Did you know that I liked tea? You know, aside from that blog post in which I showed Instagrammed pictures of cups of tea, and all those times I've mentioned tea here and on Twitter and Facebook and Google+, did you know that I liked tea?

It's an essential part of my day. I think I'd go mad without my tea. I almost did when I was in Taizé a couple of years ago. I survived on hot chocolate and water, and meals that I could only questionably be called food. (Or food that could only questionably be called a meal... a bowl of cold cocoa, two sticks of dark chocolate and an almost-stale loaf of bread smaller than my fist don't really constitute a healthy breakfast.)

The two things I craved most upon returning from Taizé were a cup of tea and a home-cooked meal. (That was both real food, and a meal-sized portion.)

However, tea isn't just necessary for my survival. I write with a cup of tea. In the summer of 2010, when I was writing some novellas, my busiest writing day consisted of a cup of tea for every 1200 words or so. It was a 10,000 word day, so you can imagine I drank a lot of tea.

And, of course, upon completing the writing of a book, the first thing I do is make myself a cup of tea. It's a no-distractions cup of tea, too. I don't bring my tablet with me. I don't carry a notebook. I just sit there and enjoy my tea, and maybe text a couple of people to let them know that I've written another book. Tea isn't just for survival. Tea isn't just for working. Tea is for celebration.

Tea is also a comfort for when life gets too hard, and a drink for watching quirky comedies, or for reading books. Tea is a drink for company, for family and friends.

I couldn't tell you how many cups of tea I have in a day. Once I get started, it usually gets quite difficult to stop. I'll finish one cup and begin making the next. In work, sometimes, I'll have tea left over from my break and it'll do me for while behind the counter. (This is really only when there are only two of us in, and I can't leave the register until the other person is back. Otherwise I wouldn't leave any tea in the cup - I wouldn't have a guarantee that I could finish it if I had to do something else.)

Basically, tea is a fundamental part of my daily life. I drink it when I wake up, when I'm writing, when I'm watching television or a movie, with my lunch, after dinner, when I'm reading, when I'm scheming, and often a cup or two before bed. I drink it all the time, and I'm not sure what I would do if I wasn't drinking it all the time. Tea is a necessity in my life.

Day 24: Childhood Obsession Marathon

Eight.

That's how many episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer I watched today. I couldn't help myself. I only stopped because we were sitting down for dinner, and I decided I needed to do something of relative value today. This was after sleeping in to eleven in the morning. That's late for me. Thankfully, Joss Whedon and tea know how to make everything okay.

When I was a child, I watched this show religiously. My friends and I were obsessed with it. Every week, when the new episodes aired, we would spend all our time out of class talking about it.

We were eleven.

Somehow, the idea that we might be too young for the show never crossed our minds. To us, it was okay to watch a show in which people were hurt and killed or had sex, and we readily accepted the same-sex relationship of Willow and Tara.

Of course, it wasn't the worst thing anyone in the school watched (in terms of how young we were to be watching it.) Plenty of people were watching South Park then, which is clearly and definitively more offensive, less tasteful, more racist and sexist and unsuitable for children than anything else that we laid eyes on.

I think the line, "It's not all like that" got us off the hook more than a few times when our parents walked in on sex scenes. To be fair, that's a true statement. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the original nerd show of the nineties, as far as I was concerned. (That, and Star Trek in its various forms... I watched a few of those, too!) Before my interest in Doctor Who, before Supernatural even existed, there was Buffy.

It was my childhood obsession in the days before we had Internet access, and before HMV closed I managed to buy the entire series boxset for €50. That was money well spent.

Buffy is one of the most influential television programmes of my life. It gave me an interest in the supernatural, it created some amazingly wacky characters, and it stood by a set of values that really stuck with me. Love and friendship and courage were some of the most commendable traits of my youth, and where I could show them I did. I think it's safe to say that Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed my life for the better.

Today's writing may have been limited to a single flash story, but it's one that reflects some of my childhood influences in fiction, the supernatural and horror. These are the roots I need to return to for The Blood of Leap, and as far as I'm concerned my time spent watching 90s television is well spent.

Whatever You Say About Glee

Let's make a point clear: I like Glee. Yes, the storyline is somewhat cliché and predictable, but it presents an enjoyable hour of television filled with covers of songs that don't always butcher the originals. Sometimes you can go a while without actually liking any of their covers, but aside from that they do a good job of actually singing them. Even if they ruin the effect of the song.

Whatever you say about Glee, though, you cannot deny the commercial success it brings to others. Ignoring the obvious example of bringing Journey back into the limelight for the current generation of music lovers, we have Fun.'s We Are Young. An indie single released in September 2011, it wasn't until Glee covered the song that the band reached commercial success with it.

And that's the power behind the show. Not it's ability to tell the same story we've been exposed to for years through shows under different guises, and not it's ability to sing a song in complete contrast to how the original artist wished it to be sung, but to ignite and reignite the flames that drive the music industry, albeit through cliché. The songs performed on the show have a history of doing well, not just the covers but the originals, too. While it may be something of a heresy for certain fans that Glee dare touch their favourite songs, the success that follows in many cases cannot be denied.

So while I recognise that they have butchered songs in the past, and will continue to do so in the future - for everybody hates to see their favourite songs altered and distorted - I must proclaim that the music industry does well from the revitalisation of songs performed by the show.

That and the humour one needs once a week as a pick-me-up is reason enough to continue watching the show. Though you won't find me rushing out to buy the merchandise, especially not at full price. (I'm guilty of buying cheap CDs, but that's about it.)

Next time you hate on Glee, just remember what it does for the songs they butcher: sometimes it can help. And sometimes that's enough.