33 Week Challenge Week 19: Write Something Every Day for a Week

There is something fairly amazing about having the inspiration to write. I think perhaps I spend 98% of my life in a permanent state of writer’s block and the other 2% in a state where I think of so many things it’s hard to get it all down. I have ideas while I’m sleeping, I have ideas at work… I get most of my ideas in the shower actually. I like to think that it’s 98% writer’s block and not 98% unimaginative, but I suppose it’s a possibility.

So, I’m pretty sure it’s not in my original list but I have been thinking for some weeks now that I should make one of my challenges “write something every day for a week”. And when sudden inspiration hit last week, I made myself do this, and I couldn’t be happier. 3 characters had already fallen, not fully formed but I would say, fully loved into my mind a few weeks' prior. One character in particular makes me so happy. Firstly, I never write lead female characters for some reason, and here she is, a wonderful, excellent girlperson all ready for me to send off on adventures. Secondly, she is from the future. I was worried that I had started to write some sort of River Song fanfiction at first, but no, she is her own self, her own person, and also she has smiley faces on her shoelaces.

When I was younger I started a couple of “novels”, and they would always inevitably turn out horribly. I am quite good at coming up with snappy, opening moments, I am the queen of first chapters… and then I would just flounder. I’d know about 5 major plot points I would want to happen but I had this bizarre belief I had to start at the start and plow through to the end. I’d dawdle by trying to write character descriptions of characters I hadn’t even written yet and plot arcs that I had no control of. Disaster.

Then I turned to poetry. NEVER read the poetry of your youth, if you wrote it. You will come to hate your teenage self with a passion. My teenage self was obsessed with long, rambling lines of poetry sandwiched between bad rhyming couplets. I don’t know what she was doing, but it was rarely good. It got a little better, but I never really enjoyed writing poetry anyway, so I’m not really sure why I tried.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I discovered the joy and wonder that is comedy. WHY had I been trying to write deep, emotional things when I could be writing puns and hilarious gag characters? (For those playing at home, please see Grumpy, the friendly dwarf). And yes, I turned to play writing. WHY would I write tens of thousands of words when I could write ten minutes of frivolity? Especially when Underground Productions so kindly accepted not one but two of my scripts into it’s short play festival?

And yet, when this idea fell into my head, I knew instantly that it was a novel, and I also knew that some bad things were going to happen, and some things might be sad or unfair. But I also knew that it would have moments of comedy, and also that the tone wasn’t going to be sad and dark and gloomy. I have placed my main character out of her time, and this leads to some pretty amusing encounters with people, objects and things that my readers, but not my character, are completely familiar with. Also, my other two characters are kind of an amusing pair of petty criminals, and I enjoy their banter greatly.

I recently posted this excerpt on my tumblr, it’s one of the first things that came to me. Yes, I had the idea in a Laundromat.

***

Terry opened his eyes. His forehead lay on the filthy tiles of the Laundromat, a piece of lint playing gently in a breeze near his left eye. His right felt puffy and sore – she’d punched him. Oh God, the knitting needle. He looked down. It was still embedded in his leg.

“So. You be taking all the shinies from the washing boxes?”

Her boots came into view, the laces had little smiling faces on them at regular intervals. They looked at him. He found it difficult to match their gaze.

“You be taking the shinies no? Those shinies not for you to be keeping.”

Her accent sounded normal, but she spoke all wrong. It irritated him.

“Why are you talking like that? Stop it.”

She kicked him. “Why you be talking like that… like you be from the moves”.

“The moves?”

“The moves! The movies.” After a pause she added,  “the films,” but the word seemed to sit strangely in her voice, as though it had never been there before.

Terry stared up at her. She glared at him fiercely from within a pile of scraggly, blonde hair. Dirty blonde his mother would have called it - sort of a dull colour.  But it framed her young face like a lion’s mane, and gave her a presence he found intimidating. Or perhaps it was the knitting needle she’d imbedded in his thigh, he suddenly thought – one of those.

***

In fact, quite a few things came to my mind in that Laundromat. It was the week I was knitting, which is quite an amazing way to have ideas can I just say. You turn a lot of your brain off, but you also leave a lot of it on… and some of that is the creative part. It’s kind of genius, really, which is why it’s so tragic that the first line that popped into my head was:

“There’s a girl sitting in this laundromat and she’s knitting!”

Genius, Lizzy, really inspired. I can’t imagine where that idea came from, can you? But really though, what was important was the voice that came with it, the man’s face that appeared, the backstory that started to form.

What was also important was that I knew that while I had dreamed up a fairly exciting and interesting scene, it didn’t have to be the first chapter, and I didn’t have to follow linearly, or know what was going to happen next. I started this week with nothing, and I’ve come out of it with 4000 words. I did this by sitting at a blank page and writing headers like, The Girl doesn’t like Coles and The Girl finds herself somewhere strange. Then I would look at that header, and ideas would start to flow, and I would write punchy, opening-esque scenes to go with each one. One day perhaps I’ll have 100s of scenes like this, and I’ll start putting them in order, and there’ll be joining up scenes and auxiliary characters and you know, a proper plot and it will all look lovely. Or maybe I’ll continue to write disjointedly and all over the place, and that will be a narrative feature I shall use to tell this tale. Who knows? The point is, I feel like I could go on doing this till the 2% runs out, and maybe even increase it up to 3%, or 4. It’s been a great week.

I take way too many of these photos in my pj's.

Just quickly, I’m going to TiNA (This is Not Art) in Newcastle in just over a week and I’m pretty smegging excited. Alex and I are going to meet with our faces and I’m going to volunteer in some capacity and I’m going to go to a million events while I’m not volunteering and I’m going to stay in a youth hostel in a city I’ve never been to before and it’s all going to be amazing. I can tell you with honesty that I would not have done this before this year, before these challenge blogs.

Also, a shout out to Eloise Kemish and Kath Chown who are both ladies I don’t really know all that well but who have recently told my face that they read and enjoy my blog. It really means a lot to hear that from people, and I thank you both, and every one else who secretly lurks on this page for lurking, and for reading and for validating my existence. You guys are all the best.

Also to Alex, who wrote the best blog today. It made me smile while processing timesheets at work, which is an unthinkable thing.

33 Week Challenge Week 18: Run the Bridge to Brisbane

Spoliers

Well, fuck. I just ran 10km.

Last year I would have told you I was allergic to exercise, now I’m an orange belt in karate and just ran the Bridge to Brisbane. It’s an identity shift of epic proportions.

This is actually one of my biggest challenges, because far from being a weekly thing, I have spent considerable time training for this one. I’ve endured shin splints (one of the worst pains of my life) and I’ve run in a storm. I’ve become psychologically connected to the same 90 minutes of music to the point where I’m not sure I can run to anything else. More to the point, when I hear those songs in other contexts, I can’t be sure I won’t just drop what I’m doing and run away. Sometimes, that’s all I want to do.

I actually enjoy it. Well, that’s a stretch. I enjoy the feeling you get afterwards, and the feeling you get after certain little wins along the way. A few weeks ago I was aiming to beat 5km without stopping. I was running through New Farm, exhausted, and had just about given up. I was only a block from home and I honestly didn’t think I could go any further. Then, the little voice in my ear said “Time: 35 minutes, Distance: 5.05 kilometers” – I literally whooped. If that feeling wasn’t good enough, the look on the face of the jogger passing me the other way made it totally worth it. Sort of stunned understanding. I’m pretty sure that was the day I then proceeded to run another 1.5km.

I apologise if this is boring you. It would have bored me last year. Lots of things have changed about me this year. I’m more spontaneous, I say ‘no’ less often. I make more time for myself, but I often spend that time doing more interesting things than incessantly scrolling my twitter feed. I mean I still do that too, but not always.

I’ve never been a competitive person, I mean, I’ll get shitty if I lose at monopoly just like anyone else, but I can drop it easily. But this year, mostly due to karate, I’ve been all about pushing myself to be better. Sometimes this means I get really angry in a karate class because I’m not as good as I think I should be. But then it means I try harder, run faster, or further, kick higher. It means I actually put in the hard yards and practice at home (unheard of… piano lessons, cello lessons, singing lessons, drama lessons, physical theatre classes, a short lived string of high-jump successes in primary school – they can all attest to that). Now I’m competitive with myself.

And yesterday, I beat my only Personal Best. I ran the Bridge to Brisbane in 1 hour and 12 minutes.

I have to say, I did get a little bit competitive… there was this guy dressed as Darth Maul a couple of meters ahead of me for the entire length of the course. He was wearing a plastic mask over his entire head, a full, black costume and knee length boots. Oh yeah, and a double light sabre. I was thoroughly impressed with him, but I kept thinking “if he can do this dressed like that, the least I can do is beat him over the line”. I just couldn’t catch him though. Every time I saw him, he was just that little bit too far ahead. And then, in the last 500m, I pulled something else out, and I practically sprinted. You bet your ass I beat Darth Maul.

 Using the wifi at work, hello river!

Completing this challenge also draws to a close another one, raise money for charity. I raised $300 for the Red Cross – thanks so much to everyone who donated. I’m now going to add my own contribution and send it off to them, I do hope they buy themselves something special, a new dress, or those special earrings they’ve had their eye on for a while. Or you know, foreign aid and needles… one of them.

I've turned anonymous commenting off

It's nothing personal, it's just that I can't stand not knowing who is saying things. Particularly because I can't reply to anyone, anyway... but it's so much worse when you're anonymous. You should be able to post with a google account or openID... sorry if you don't have those things. If you whinge enough at me I'll turn it back on. But let's face it, you're probably not going to do that...

L

It's hard out here for a nerd

Oh lordy is it hard out here for a nerd at the moment. There is so much nerd glory in my life I’m running out of time for things like eating and sleeping. Let me fill you in…

Doctor Who  (no spoilers for “Night Terrors”)

For the first time since becoming a Doctor Who fan, I am watching episodes with other fans. That is to say that no one else knows anything more than I do, and I have to wait! Oh Moffat* do I have to wait! I’m really enjoying it though, I thought it would be agonising, but actually it just makes it feel all the more exciting. Dissecting each episode after it comes out with fellow Who-fiends, many of whom are only into it because I wouldn’t shut up about it near them, is the best! After 2 viewings, I feel pretty great about “Let’s Kill Hitler” – so many answers! So many new questions! I absolutely adore Alex Kingston and Matt Smith is ever more owning the role and making it amazing. I am hoping that Season 7 will be the Doctor and River. I do love Amy and Rory, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like their time is coming to an appropriate end. Hopefully Rory will only have to die one or two more times – a body can only take so much.

Game of Thrones

Just got into this. It’s the best fucking thing. One episode to go. No one tell me how it ends or I’ll fight you. Holy Moffat is this show amazing. I can’t even… form logical sentences about it, particularly because of how episode 9 just ended. You know what? I can’t even write about this at the moment, but here, laugh uproariously at this image, as I did.

Torchwood: Miracle Day (STOP. Rant time. There will be many spoilers. ALL the spoilers for all seasons ever.)

So I’m only watching Torchwood due to some sort of perverse desire to torture myself now. I feel like it still deserves it’s place in my nerdblog because 1. It’s Torchwood, 2. I have a strong loyalty to Captain Jack, who I am pretending is TRAPPED in this terrible story line and can only be RESCUED by my staring at him and wishing a lot, 3. I am devoting a lot of energy to caring about it, because I am a nerd.

WHAT IS GOING ON TORCHWOOD? Firstly, Jack is not gay, and by making him ‘act’ gay you have kind of ruined the whole point, which is that his sexuality is fluid, flexible and not a defining feature of his character. Or rather, the fluidity is a defining feature, but no 21^st Century category is. Now, I have no issue with the 1920s love story/back story with Angelo… it was sort of sweet and interesting. Well it was, until it suddenly had little to nothing to do with the plot. Also the bit where Jack gets all uppity because Angelo has an issue with the idea of two men loving each other could have been saved with one extra sentence. Jack says something like “god forbid two men could love each other!” and all that needs to be added is “trust me, where I come from you can marry an eight-tentacled creature from Zerk, if you want, which you wouldn’t.” That’s something the REAL Jack would have said. Also Jack fucks some random guy from a bar but Ianto gets cock blocked by tinned beans and then dies? Are you serious?

Secondly, there are no aliens. This is Torchwood, outside the government, beyond the police, tracking down ALIEN LIFE ON EARTH and….  Need I go on? I want aliens.

Thirdly, is this not the same time stream as say… Amy and Rory’s? Did they just casually forget to mention to The Doctor that no one can die and governments are burning people alive and also everything is a police state and there are terrible storylines running rampant through the streets of America? This is one of the reasons I am holding on, I am watching in the vain hope that this will somehow be explained, I don’t even care if it’s a Russell T Davies ‘woops never mind it actually happened like this’ switcheroo special.

Phew, now I’m angry. Better finish with…

POTTERMORE

You KNOW I got early entry. So, so exciting! I have been all over the first book and there are so many things to discover! It very much has a great J. K Rowling feel. It’s a like a super mega version of how her website used to be (/is still?). One of my favourite things was the story of how Petunia and Vernon met, and better yet how shit went down when they had dinner with Lily and James. Also reams and reams of wand lore, one of my special interests.

Exciting News: I’m a Gryffindor!

More exciting news: Microsoft Word not only recognises the word Gryffindor, it autocorrects it to have a capital G.

I’m really, very happy with my wand also, it’s 14 and a half inches, which is exceedingly long… this might be because I am tall but also (I hope) because according to Ollivander’s wand lore, big personalities and great witches/wizards often have long wands.

Go on, have a little snigger about my “long wand”, you’ll feel better and no one can judge you, you’re probably home alone, eating nutella and writing a blog about your nerdy fucking life. No wait… that’s me.

*I now use Moffat in place of the word god… in Moffat we trust.

P.S No challenge last week… obviously, but there’s a big one this week! Get excited! If you want.
P.P.S If you want to be my friend on Pottermore (and you do) I'm NifflerSand142

33 Week Challenge Week 16: Make a kite that flies

The ancient art of kite making and flying is a beautiful thing. Before anyone ever worked out and recorded the physics and mathematics that go into making such a little thing fly so high, people worked that shit out in their heads and flew kites anyway.

It’s like when I was trying (badly) to do maths at school, and we were talking about parabolas. All these intense formulas and equations to work out parabolas, but anyone who has ever caught a ball as it comes down, knows how to intuitively calculate a parabola. Were the ancient kite makers the same? I’m genuinely asking, I haven’t done any research or anything. But did they just intuitively know how light and how strong a kite should be? Was it trial and error working out where the cross pieces should go? And those kites that look like dragons and stuff… amazing!

So, do you remember 2 blogs ago I said “next week I’m going to make a kite”? I note no one picked me up on it when I posted the knitting blog. “A scarf is not a kite”, not a single one of you uttered, “where the fuck is my kite?”, none of you said. Well, I *did* actually go out and buy all the things needed to make a kite. I now shop so regularly at the Mitre 10 up the street that the shop assistant there recognises me. We passed each other in Coles last week, he said hi. Anyway, I told him what I wanted to do and we discussed the relative merits of yarn over fishing line (I bought both…) and then I waited. It was Ekka week. Everyone who’s ever spent more than 2 years in Brisbane knows: it gets hella windy during Ekka week. Every year without fail. Until this year. Fail. There was a public holiday in the middle of the week, a perfect day, I thought, to make and fly a kite. But instead, it was kind of dreary and overcast and I decided to knit instead. It didn’t really ever get windy, and the drizzle turned to rain.

~But would I let my bloggeroos down? Hell no. I made a damn kite anyway. Now, I don’t know SHIT about maths or physics, and the whole idea completely daunted me, but for you, dear readers, I persisted. I found a website, I did the maths, I fucked it up and I tried again. I made a beautiful fucking kite, and then today… there was a slight gustiness to the air. ‘Could this be the day?’ I thought. I ventured out with my beautiful new kite. I went into New Farm park, and muttering, “screw what the couple making out on the grass think of me” I ran like a small child until my kite took flight. It tried to resist, but I knew best… and then. Then we were flying.

Here is a photo of my awesome kite:

Haha! That’s right. I’m a big fat liar. Everything from the ~ on is a big, fat lie. Remember how I said I would never lie to you? Yeah, that was a lie too. I do actually really want to do this challenge, but my life is really getting away from me at the moment. So many things! So many colds! So much TV to watch! I think I might like to write some other things on this too. Don’t worry – I’ll still be writing challenge blogs every Monday (even if I have to lie to get them done) but maybe later in the week sometimes I shall write about other things I think of, if I think of them.

When I do get around to making the kite, you shall all be the first to know. There is a massive piece of dowel in my room, as well as a small saw and all sorts of other bits and pieces, they shall glare at me until it is done. And I mean, when a saw is glaring at you in your own bedroom, you make the damn kite.

I had to cover my face. It's quite late. The zombie face has come out. Also, if you look really carefully, Disney characters are doing terrible things to each other in the picture behind me.

33 Week Challenge Week 15: Knit something and finish it.

Well, knitting (challenge no. 28, as suggested by Hilde)

It’s possible I’ve found my top boring-to-blog-about-unless-I-can-think-of-something-real-quick weekly challenge. First, I cast on, then, I knitted a row, THEN I pearled a row THEN I repeated the second and third thing, and then again, and again and again… after a while I changed colours. I mean… really. There’s only so much you can say. But let me take you back, deeeeep into my past, where this all began, and hopefully make something interesting of it.

You know how everyone has that teacher? That one amazing teacher who they will never forget? Well my primary school was populated by them. I had one shit teacher. And she was REALLY shit. It’s as if she got all the shit quotient to compensate for all the amazing teachers around her. I loved every single one of my other teachers, but there was only one Mrs. Pratt. She was the King, the President, the God of all the amazing teachers of my youth. Mrs. Pratt made me love geography, and reading, and writing – but also times tables and maths and other things I was hopeless at (it didn’t last, but still). She made me take pride in excellent grammar and spelling. She introduced me to a life-long love of random facts. Every week she would write 10 words on the blackboard and by every Friday we had to have researched those words to talk about. They were cryptic (for 9 year olds), and there was yet no such thing as Google, so you had to ask your mum and dad and your grandparents, you had to pull out dictionaries and encyclopeadias (HEY Microsoft word, don’t you dare tell me I spelt that wrong, I won the spelling competition in Mrs. Pratt’s grade 4 classroom with that word, I’ll fight you and your American ways!). If you were me, you pulled out your “Tell me Why?” and “Here’s More Tell Me Why?” books and you learned.

Mrs. Pratt taught my whole class how to finger spell, after we read “Helen Keller’s Teacher” together. This began yet another love of mine, and when I was 19 years old I went to TAFE to learn Auslan. She also, (and this is what this whole thing is leading up to, obviously) taught us how to knit. She had parent helpers, and we were divided into groups. And each week you learnt a new skill; knitting, sewing buttons, French knitting… and one other. I can’t remember it exactly… I think it had something to do with hammers and nails… I remember enjoying it immensely. My French knitting was 2 stories high by the end… we tested them by throwing them off the balcony.

So, I guess you could say, for a professional procrastinator, knitting is my ultimate, it’s the be all and end all… because, despite knowing how to knit since I was 9 years old, despite having fondest memories of learning how… I have never. Not once. In my whole life. Ever. Actually. Finished knitting. Anything. In fact, this afternoon as I was nearing the final row it dawned on me that I didn’t know how to finish! I youtubed it… it’s called binding off and is really easy, but the point is that having never made it that far… I’d never needed to know! Hilarious.

And now I have finished something! I cannot even describe to you how good about it I feel. Ok, yes, it’s  scarf, which is potentially the easiest thing ever to knit… but it’s a completed scarf, it is a scarf that is currently wrapped around my neck, and that is an achievement of the highest heights! I dedicate this scarf to Mrs. Pratt.

Funny story, we had a Mrs. Pratt, who was actually lovely, and a Mrs. Nice… who was also lovely. True story.

Photographs from the first knitting day:

We had to roll our own wool balls from those big loop things. It took some time. Here, Samara demonstrates how grateful we are to the wool gods, for their gift.

Here, I am demonstrating how this knot of wool looks a lot like a squid.

Hilde thinks it looks more like a wig.

 Scarf!

33 Week Challenge Week 14: The Hour of my Disconnect

Challenge Number 31: go a week without social networking sites.

Day 1 – Monday

4:30pmish – signed out of everything on my laptop

4:45pm – running late for a meeting, trying to sign out of everything on my phone while walking to a bus.  Holy crap! How do you sign out of twitter? I don’t even know! I’ve never actually done it.

4:50pm – on the slowest bus ever. I spur of the moment decide to just delete the apps from my phone. They sit there, wiggling at me, willing me, desperately to leave them be. But I delete them, furiously. And while I’m at it, I delete an infernal game that I have been addicted to for far too long, “Smurfs” – I suspect it’s like Farmville, except that the workers are blue. Honestly, it’s been ridiculous how addicted to it I am.

6:30pm – wish to write status “there are more interestingly dressed people on this bus than have ever been seen on Brisbane transport. Ever.” Don’t, obviously.

7:15pm – home from meeting, emails sent. Now what should I do? I know… I’ll write about the last 3 hours.

9:40pm just watched the Emma Thompson “Sense and Sensibility” for the first time. I wasn’t able to live tweet my experience so instead resorted to yelling “translations” at my housemates and friend, Mim. Also, I couldn’t stop laughing at things Mim said and wanted to facebook them. That’s my story.

Also, I had to sign in to facebook to get someone’s banking details they’d sent me in a message. I swear. I didn’t check anything, even though you bastards have already left me 11 notifications. GAH!

Day 2 – Tuesday

I had to log in to facebook again because I needed a photo I stupidly haven’t saved to my computer. So proud of myself, didn’t read anything, didn’t check any of the 1 million notifications. But still, it totally felt like cheating. It’s funny how much of my life is on that website, terrifying really.

On a less serious note, I’ve had the Macarena stuck in my head all day and I haven’t been able to get it in every one else’s head by occasionally tweeting “Aaaaay Macarena!” – well I guess I just did. Suck it bloggeroos of the future!

Meanwhile, I did everything on my to-do list AND am about to go for a run and there’s no one to validate my awesomeness. I think I might just start texting people on mass: “Hey friends, guess what? I did something kind of banal but I NEED YOU TO KNOW ABOUT IT IN MINUTE DETAIL!”

Day 3 – Wednesday

Today, I have actual withdrawals. Fidgeting, slight headache, and all I can think about is social networking. Seriously.

Day 4 – Thursday

Tragically – I’m kind of lonely. My housemates and boyfriend are really busy, and I don’t go to uni anymore and see one million people, so sometimes social networking is all I have. That’s not the sad part – I am so down with that. I love being a child of the digital era. But without it, yeah – I was lonely today. BUT THEN I saw a movie with Mim, who is amazing fun. That was pretty sweet. Plus people are texting me a lot more often this week so that’s kind of cool.

Also, also, on Tuesday I ran 3.5km and today I ran 4.5km. WITHOUT. STOPPING. I am kicking butts and taking names. I’ve also completed 2 to-do lists and finished some assessment for a certificate I am 6 months’ late to complete. So, it’s *possible*, I suppose, that social networking may, *at times* hinder me slightly. It’s worth noting, at least. For science.

Day 5 – Friday

I’ve been thinking today about that entry about being lonely. I’ve had as much, if not more social interaction with real humans this week. Definitely more, in fact - I’ve had two coffee dates, seen a movie, there was that Sense and Sensibility night, people keep texting me just to say something anecdotal or pleasant or whatever. And it’s been great. I think what I really meant was I was bored.  Sadly, yes, I clearly am getting confused between “lonely” and “bored” simply because I often stave off boredom by stalking friends, acquaintances and strangers on the internet, and this has made me think I am constantly socialising with people. This is not accurate. I quite like being alone, just so long as I can look at your photos from your overseas trip 3 years ago when I’m bored…

Day 6 – Saturday

I went to Toowoomba last night, and then picked up my little brother from a 5 week camp today out past Crow’s Nest. These are events I would usually like to document, but be frustrated that I couldn’t because a lot of the time I was out of internet range. But in this instance, I didn’t get frustrated even once, because I never intended to status about it in the first place.  Winner.

Day 7 – Sunday

I woke up this morning convinced that if today was the 7^th day, I must have miscalculated, and could definitely log back on tonight. But then I used my counting words/fingers and also some logic and realised that was far from correct. Obviously, when I said a week, I meant 7 full days, which means 4:30pm on Monday. The crushing disappointment!

No, not really. I’ve actually totally coped. And it’s fine. The one big thing I have gained this week is my mornings. I usually spend at least half an hour (usually more) on twitter and facebook in the mornings and am often late to work because of it. But not this week, I’ve been sleeping in! I’ve been ready on time! I got to work before the box office opened at least twice (achievement unlocked!) – this is a new and exciting thing for me. I am going to attempt to maintain it to a degree. The big problem is my twitter feed. I follow over 200 people, and it is very rare that I don’t see every single post from those accounts. As in, I check it last thing at night and then scroll through the last 8 hours worth in the morning. That is intense. And totally unnecessary. While I’m not about to stop checking my things in the morning (because I actually find it a nice way to start the day; connected, informed, and laughing at something Rob Delaney said) I don’t need to read everything. I have lists – why don’t I use them?!

Day 8 – Monday

Well there you go. Just under an hour to go and I feel fine! A successful challenge! And one of the easiest blogs to write.

I’ll sign back in at 4:30, but then I’m off to a meeting at 5:30 so I shall have to start trawling through all the exciting things I know you’ve left for me after that. And also post this blog! It’s weird, it’s like I’m talking to you from the past.

Also, this coming week I’m going to make a kite! Honestly, my life is so thrilling!

Lxx