Tagged: memories

Fifteen years ago, to the very day

Today it is exactly 15 years since I went to school for the very first time. I can always place this date very exactly because I started school on my grandmother’s 80th birthday. She would have been 95 today, but she is dead just over four years now. So this date, the 13th of January, isn’t really important to me because I went to school, or because of my grandmother’s birthday, for I didn’t actually have much contact or a connection with her. It is important to me because it marks the anniversary of me finding out I was different.

It’s been fifteen years that I’ve known I’m weird. When you’re six years old it is a terrible revelation knowing that you will never be normal. You will never fit in. You know, when you’re little you are not aware that other people’s lives are different from yours. It was only when I went to school for the first time that I found out that other people’s parents weren’t “old”. When I got to school for the first time I found out it was not normal to have parents who were already middle-aged and grey when you are only six years and two months. I wasn’t aware how weird it was to grow up without any influence from pop-culture, to hardly watch any TV at all and to not listen to modern music. But most of all, I didn’t know how big of an issue all of this would be to the other kids. Continue reading →

Things that should be published. Maybe.

Sooo… It’s still the third week of NaNoWriMo. My little colourful calendar there in the sidebar is starting to look increasingly like a game of Tetris and I’m still winning the word count. I haven’t been behind yet, except for the second day where I was technically a few hundred words behind when midnight came, but I continued writing beyond midnight and by the end of day 3 I was all caught up again. So, this is the week of the 30,000′s. And the great and scary thing at the moment? My week-threes haven’t turned up yet. You know how I said that other people suffer during week 2, they hit a block, etc., but that I suffer during week 3, because that is usually when I run out of steam? I did run out of steam a bit in week one. Well, actually I started low on steam, but now I’m pretty chilled chirpy. We’ll see what the rest of this week holds. I’m trying to study for English Lit and doing an assignment at the same time and it’s a bit stressful. I write English on Saturday (yes, Saturday, sometimes I hate my university) and I also have to hit 40,000 words that day. And the 3,000 word assignment is due next week. I just want to curl up on the couch and watch How to Train Your Dragon, but all of that will have to wait for December.

We’ll see. But that is not all that happened this week. I found a couple of things that are just yelling at me to hold on and keep writing and studying and creating. One of them was this tweet that appeared on my Twitter dashboard:

It came at the right time. I need to continue writing, even though the odds aren’t in my favour this week. Then… Continue reading →

I’ll never make a good burglar

Wow, is it really that late? I might as well add “story of my life to this”, because feeling like this is pretty normal for me. I’d been watching videos on YouTube and never noticed where the time went. So, I hope it is still Monday! And here’s a new cartoon! (I’m relegating all the “so, what happened last week-stuff to the bottom of the post, so we can get to the important stuff first.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The moral of the story, kids? Just cough when you need to; it’s less disturbing than trying to be polite.

 

So… what happened in the last two weeks when I didn’t post? What happened was assignments. I had assignments to hand in on the 19th, the 20th, the 21st and the 28th. All of them essays. I hate it when it happens like this and it happens Every Single Year just before the recess because everyone wants to fit their stuff before the holiday. Anyway, it is now recess this week and I am slightly less tired than last week. I thought I’d try to draw some posts ahead of time to prevent these silences because things are going to be rough from now until final exams, but I think all of us know that is not going to happen because I have a stack of books to read in this week. And I do mean a stack. I am reading A Portrait of a Lady at the moment. (Which, very fittingly is on the frequently challenged-books list for Banned Books Week this week. I only found that out tonight. I’m not sure what about this book could make anyone want to ban it – so far it’s only been a lot of dry conversation – but then I’m only on page 100 [yay, that's almost 1/6 done!] so I can’t speak.) And I have several more to read when that one is done. In between, Tumblr, blogs and making graphics distract my attention.

[By the way, I changed my Tumblr url. I am no longer cartoonsandcreativewriting|tumblr, but I am now hobbitofunseenhogwarts|tumblr. I am just trying to spread this news as wide as possible, because I feel bad about abandoning the old url just like that.]

 

Okay then, I’ll see y’all again next week! Or maybe sooner, if I can get a vlog made. I want to make a video again and I can only do so if I get the house to myself. For some or other stupid reason I can’t make these things if I think someone can hear me, which is kind of  really stupid, seeing that I then put it on the internet for all to hear. Anyway… If I don’t make a video, until next Monday then!

 

I will now undertake a nocturnal excursion through the house and hope it doesn’t lead to another disaster…

Happy Bloggiversary to… uh, me!

Today this blog is one year old! Yay!

So how about right now for a time to go down memory lane?

Today one year ago, I wrote my first post on here about how much I hated that security gate in the library. I still hate that security gate, but it’s a new one now, so it hasn’t given me problems yet. That doesn’t stop me from feeling nervous every time I have to walk through it.

I wrote and drew that very first post when I should have been studying for a test. But I decided that this was way more fun. (I failed that test by the way.) My habits in blogging have not changed much in a year. Actually I should be sleeping at the moment. ;)

I didn’t get any views on the blog that day, but the next day I got two. Goodness knows where those two came from. I didn’t get any comments either, until I asked my friend to come and read. Now I have neither shortage of commenters or viewers. Everyday this still amazes me. This blog started as a little diversion, a little cure for boredom and a big factor in procrastination. Now just look how it has grown. Today, it lies at over 52,000 hits all time. And hundreds upon hundreds of comments.

The day that I signed up for my WordPress account (my old account, for my previous blog), I said to myself, while viewing the homepage: one day I want to write something that will end up on here as well. A girl can dream, can’t she? :P But it proved to be more than a dream, because on 17 January this year my blog was indeed Freshly Pressed. When it was only 7 months old. I was so completely overwhelmed by this. The reaction, the comments, the stats going haywire… I didn’t know how to handle this dream come true. But is it not often like this? You dream and dream, but when it becomes reality, it scares you. This happened to me when going to  university for the first time. I’d dreamt of going for years, but when I finally got there, I was scared stiff. By evening, I was sick from nerves. The same thing happened with FP. I was scared stiff by the email notifications streaming in about one or two per minute. I didn’t know what to do with it all!

Fun fact:

This blog started off under the name “Cartoon Dramas”, the same as the URL. It was only for cartoons. I was not interested at that stage in publishing any of my creative writing on it, because I knew what a commitment that was. But then… I started following Mara’s blog (eccentricowl.com). At that time, she ran Weekly Writing Challenges. I wanted to participate, so I needed to publish a story on my blog. So I did. And later decided to change my blog name to suit the new content. Today… I pretty much blog beyond the content designated by the title all the time. Like now. And last time. This state of affairs will probably still be continuing for a while, because exams start next week. Of course, I cannot escape without a nasty timetable either. I write three papers in one week. Most excellent.

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So I’m sorry for the lack of cartoons. Or, for that matter any kind of content. I have just finished with my assignments for this semester (and, my word, it was an extravaganza) and handed in the last of the little bastards today. Next week, exams start. I don’t think I will be around much for a while then. I would have queued posts so that the blog could keep running, but I didn’t have time to make any. Heck, I didn’t even finish drawing this week’s cartoon, and I really wanted to. It was a good one, I thought, but it will just have to wait. That’s something to look forward to.

Well, well, this was a strange post for me. The shortage of visuals and whatnot… I’m not quite used to this Just Writing. And… I think I just forgot what I was going to say. That just shows you what my concentration levels are like at the end of a semester. I think I should just stop now with this post, before it all goes completely down the drain.

Oh yes, just one more thing. Seeing that the blog is now one y/o and everything… Can y’all please complete this poll? Especially if you’re a regular reader, I’d really appreciate it.

I’m not going to do anything with this info – it’s just for me. I’m just interested in finding out where my readership lies. From the comments, I’m getting the idea that it is in the younger generation… but you can never really tell. Thanks in advance! :D

PS. I celebrated my bloggiversary by downloading a million (okay, about 70) Lord of the Rings screencaps. For… you know… making graphics once the exams are over. ;)

Gah… I want to do a vlog again. Actually I should, seeing that I still have a few announcements and things to make. I’ll have to see what I can do.

Expect me when you see me!