Beginnings, ends, and beginnings of ends
"Mum! I'm starting a new blog. What should the URL be?"
"Why are you starting a new blog? Will it be serious?"
"Not really, but it'll be less taking the piss out of you."
"Okay."
"And what should the URL be?"
"Well I quite liked 'This Be The Blog'."
"That was the blog title, not the URL."
"What was the URL?"
"'deceptivelyoptimistic.tumblr.com'."
"Oh."
"What should my new URL be?"
"I don't know. Can't you just keep the old blog?"
"I'll call it a derivative of Elizabeth."
"As in, you'll call it a derivative of Elizabeth, or you'll call it A Derivative Of Elizabeth?"
"I'll call it A Derivative Of Elizabeth."
"Why?"
"Because that's what people call me."
"They call you A Derivative Of Elizabeth?"
"Someone did once, but no."
"Then why are you calling it that?"
"Because everyone calls me a derivative of Elizabeth."
"Are you leaving empty paracetamol packets in the cupboard?"
For a little over too long, I had a blog on Tumblr where I did little more than recount the stupidest moments of my life, cheap comedy at its best. I intend to continue to do that, but I felt that by suddenly "growing up", I should mature what I post a little bit, even if my decisions don't mature. I also see a lot of people doing "proper" blogs and wanted to contribute my little bit of useless to the internet.
Though I believe there's a song my dad always sings about the beginning being a good place to start, it actually seems more sensible to discuss the ends first. As well as finishing up with the old blog, a few other things have come to an end as well recently (for those interested, I did a final post of 100 things I learnt in 18 years here).
A few weeks ago I turned 18, and despite doing my best to hide my age from everyone for a long time, I guess the cat's finally out the bag. Eighteen months of fobbing people off that I'm 21-25 have finally come to an end.
I loved being a child, which is why I see this as an ending rather than a beginning. The better you know me the more you realise how much I hated this transition. Suddenly I am an "adult", and find myself straddling the gap between terrible decisions and responsibility. We all know I'll find a way to mix them well.
I assigned myself two weeks to recover from the shock, and then did a massive party to celebrate, but we'll get to that later.
Several days ago my 14 year stint in compulsory institutionalised education came to an end, and within three hours I had lost track of time and days and all purpose of life, to be filled with the horror and dread at all the possible things that could go wrong with aforementioned celebratory event.
So I did the best part of a year's worth of growing up in about two weeks, now leaving me months to try and get myself together enough to embark on three more years of slightly less compulsory and slightly less institutionalised education. I have begun the slippery slope into adulthood.
Now, the beginnings. Along with beginning adulthood, I've started a new company. Several months ago, a music journalist friend of mine started tagging my bad decisions with "#thinklikelib", and several years ago I went to a book festival and saw Guy Browning say words to the effect of "to complete the unachievable you must either know everything or nothing." He managed to direct a film with no knowledge of film-making and it was reasonably successful, and for that, he is my hero.
So, combine an awful inspirational quote and my attitude and wa-la. I'm going to start putting on gigs via a company called Think Like. I'll sort out the social media and share it soon, I swear.
Two years ago today was my prom, leaving a school where I had about seven or eight really solid friends, although since then I don't believe we've managed to all be in the same room at once. Around five months ago I realised I should probably do something big for my 18th, but fuelled off the memory that I left school with literally a handful of mates, I wasn't in best spirits. Regardless, I asked around at the potential of the idea and was shocked to find that everyone was pretty damn keen on it.
On the tightest budget ever I put together four acts at an in-city venue and everyone got very drunk and danced very badly, despite a worrying moment at 6.45 where the total party crew of four hung around the entrance wondering if anyone else knew where the venue was, and one guy took to the mic to read out amusing tweets.
I suppose what I want to do here is muddle through my insincerity and say a huge thank you to everyone involved. From Dan the venue man, Simon the sound man and all the bar staff I didn't get chance to meet, to Josh Kemp, Further Than Forever, Willowen and Arthur Walwin for playing, and everyone in between. Special shout out to my dad for driving over 500 miles to ferry people about over Friday and Saturday, and to my best friend for turning up even though the odds (a McJob) were stacked against him.
It's a massive cliche, but thank you to everyone who turned up, danced, and sang along to artists they'd never heard of before. Also thank you to everyone who bought me alcohol.
NB: Artists, everyone loved you all. The amount of times I heard, "how you do know them?" or "everyone is so good!" was mind boggling. Everyone loved everyone and I was so overwhelmed I nearly cried. Twice.
I'll be putting on more gigs over summer, but let me give you this hint... Keep September 4th free.
And the beginnings of ends. Last Tuesday I dyed my hair red, very possibly for the last time. After being a redhead for three and a half years it'll be weird returning to my natural state, but my hair is currently more damaged than the economy.
"Why are you starting a new blog? Will it be serious?"
"Not really, but it'll be less taking the piss out of you."
"Okay."
"And what should the URL be?"
"Well I quite liked 'This Be The Blog'."
"That was the blog title, not the URL."
"What was the URL?"
"'deceptivelyoptimistic.tumblr.com'."
"Oh."
"What should my new URL be?"
"I don't know. Can't you just keep the old blog?"
"I'll call it a derivative of Elizabeth."
"As in, you'll call it a derivative of Elizabeth, or you'll call it A Derivative Of Elizabeth?"
"I'll call it A Derivative Of Elizabeth."
"Why?"
"Because that's what people call me."
"They call you A Derivative Of Elizabeth?"
"Someone did once, but no."
"Then why are you calling it that?"
"Because everyone calls me a derivative of Elizabeth."
"Are you leaving empty paracetamol packets in the cupboard?"
For a little over too long, I had a blog on Tumblr where I did little more than recount the stupidest moments of my life, cheap comedy at its best. I intend to continue to do that, but I felt that by suddenly "growing up", I should mature what I post a little bit, even if my decisions don't mature. I also see a lot of people doing "proper" blogs and wanted to contribute my little bit of useless to the internet.
Though I believe there's a song my dad always sings about the beginning being a good place to start, it actually seems more sensible to discuss the ends first. As well as finishing up with the old blog, a few other things have come to an end as well recently (for those interested, I did a final post of 100 things I learnt in 18 years here).
A few weeks ago I turned 18, and despite doing my best to hide my age from everyone for a long time, I guess the cat's finally out the bag. Eighteen months of fobbing people off that I'm 21-25 have finally come to an end.
I loved being a child, which is why I see this as an ending rather than a beginning. The better you know me the more you realise how much I hated this transition. Suddenly I am an "adult", and find myself straddling the gap between terrible decisions and responsibility. We all know I'll find a way to mix them well.
I assigned myself two weeks to recover from the shock, and then did a massive party to celebrate, but we'll get to that later.
Several days ago my 14 year stint in compulsory institutionalised education came to an end, and within three hours I had lost track of time and days and all purpose of life, to be filled with the horror and dread at all the possible things that could go wrong with aforementioned celebratory event.
So I did the best part of a year's worth of growing up in about two weeks, now leaving me months to try and get myself together enough to embark on three more years of slightly less compulsory and slightly less institutionalised education. I have begun the slippery slope into adulthood.
Now, the beginnings. Along with beginning adulthood, I've started a new company. Several months ago, a music journalist friend of mine started tagging my bad decisions with "#thinklikelib", and several years ago I went to a book festival and saw Guy Browning say words to the effect of "to complete the unachievable you must either know everything or nothing." He managed to direct a film with no knowledge of film-making and it was reasonably successful, and for that, he is my hero.
So, combine an awful inspirational quote and my attitude and wa-la. I'm going to start putting on gigs via a company called Think Like. I'll sort out the social media and share it soon, I swear.
Two years ago today was my prom, leaving a school where I had about seven or eight really solid friends, although since then I don't believe we've managed to all be in the same room at once. Around five months ago I realised I should probably do something big for my 18th, but fuelled off the memory that I left school with literally a handful of mates, I wasn't in best spirits. Regardless, I asked around at the potential of the idea and was shocked to find that everyone was pretty damn keen on it.
On the tightest budget ever I put together four acts at an in-city venue and everyone got very drunk and danced very badly, despite a worrying moment at 6.45 where the total party crew of four hung around the entrance wondering if anyone else knew where the venue was, and one guy took to the mic to read out amusing tweets.
I suppose what I want to do here is muddle through my insincerity and say a huge thank you to everyone involved. From Dan the venue man, Simon the sound man and all the bar staff I didn't get chance to meet, to Josh Kemp, Further Than Forever, Willowen and Arthur Walwin for playing, and everyone in between. Special shout out to my dad for driving over 500 miles to ferry people about over Friday and Saturday, and to my best friend for turning up even though the odds (a McJob) were stacked against him.
It's a massive cliche, but thank you to everyone who turned up, danced, and sang along to artists they'd never heard of before. Also thank you to everyone who bought me alcohol.
NB: Artists, everyone loved you all. The amount of times I heard, "how you do know them?" or "everyone is so good!" was mind boggling. Everyone loved everyone and I was so overwhelmed I nearly cried. Twice.
I'll be putting on more gigs over summer, but let me give you this hint... Keep September 4th free.
And the beginnings of ends. Last Tuesday I dyed my hair red, very possibly for the last time. After being a redhead for three and a half years it'll be weird returning to my natural state, but my hair is currently more damaged than the economy.
Comments
Post a Comment