Get ur blog on

I've been meaning for a good long time to resurrect this blog in some fashion, so I'm going to attempt to start now. I've been reading over some of the archives and attempting to work out why the posts aren't flowing as they used to (not that this flow was ever particularly rapid, but it was a lot better than it is now) . While part of it has probably been less inclination to write things and being distracted by other stuff, I think a large part of it is that the things I used to write about a lot just don't actually happen any more. A typical older post on this blog is about some crazy adventure or party in the weekend, and let's face it - such adventures and parties are now few and far between. And while there's definitely some things I've done I should have written about (and quite often started writing about, but never got around to finishing and thus posting) like the 48 hour film festival, or being in Taming of the Shrew, in the meantime there's definitely a limit to the amount of times I can come on and say "Still looking for jobs. Still not getting one. Still not doing much" - especially when other people are tripping about overseas or getting married or having babies or whatever.

In November 2004 I said:

All of a sudden this year seems to have been spent doing largely nothing. This will not prevent it from going down in Ben history as the Year of Karen (I'm applying to the Chinese calendar people to get this officially recognised), one of the all-time greats, but while this one aspect of things is certainly doubleplus good in a life progress kind of a way, and fantabulous in its own right, in other areas I have been much like a balsa log raft (tending to drift along and absorb liquid). I was pretty damned surprised when I suddenly looked up from whatever I was mucking around with at the time and discovered it was mid to late November. Wasn't it October like, five minutes ago? Did the month of say, July, actually go to the effort of occurring this year? I started off having a break, and now 8 months later, I, er, still seem to be having it. 8 months? Couldn't have someone been giving me updates? "Hey Ben, just so you know, it's September now. Heads up." As they say of course, time flies like an arrow, and fruit flies like a banana. But I can't help but feel I should have made more progress in some areas. Like the 'getting a job' area, or the 'moving out of home' area, or the 'malaria's scarier' area.

...and in September 2006, the same largely applies. I've probably absorbed less liquid this year, and I did succeed in moving out of home (although mosquito-borne-diseases still scare more than coughs-and-sneezes), but aside from that, there's not much to actually report. Life is not actively sucking or anything, it's just hardly worth a write-up. That part-time fill-in job I started to make some cash has been going for nearly 2 years now (this seems to be the way of fill-in part time jobs), and in all other respects, things just seem to be...mucking along. I think the same thing applies to sending people e-mail, at which I have become truly terrible - there's not much to tell them. I'm mostly...the same.

Few of the circumstances are described are not particularly desirable. So!

Since I think blogging is gnerally speaking a worthy endeavour, and since writing is something I like to do, and I like to think it's something I could do for a living one day, I think that I need to overcome this lack of interesting things to write about and write stuff anyway. What that will actually be I'm not sure, and whether it ends up being mind-numbingly tedious for anyone reading remains to be seen, but I'm prepared to give it a go at any rate. So I'm going to try and post something every Sunday as a minimum. Hopefully this will be one small step in a new "getting of my arse" sort of a scheme.

This was actually going to start this Sunday. Perhaps worryingly for the future of the enterprise I didn't have time...nevertheless, I'm attempting to be serious about an overhaul (I may even get around to - gasp - changing the colours again!), so today counts as last Sunday. This is somewhat disappointing, as we now all have to wait 3 more days for the new series of The Simpsons to start.

So, in getting this whole thing underway, what's up, in brief?

- Well, firstly, here's the state of TV journalism in New Zealand as represented in one sentence in an introduction to a story that was just on behind me:

"You've heard of Paris Hilton? Well now there's Wellington Hilton, and both have their detractors."

We won't delve too heavily into what is wrong with this, as it should be immediately apparent.

- Mel went to Thailand and there was immediately a military coup. Coincidence? I think not. I'm hoping she hooks us up from her new position as ruler of the country.

- Abby and I are going to propose Catch 22 at Dramasoc, hopefully to get it put on at Orientation next year. My thoughts on this veer wildly from cynical pessimism to excited optimism - probably more of the latter. Any and all assistance volunteered or expressions of interest at this stage are greatly appreciated. We want YOU to help make a really good show. (All except you, Tim. You're cut. You too, Shushy.)

- The Madcap Nominations have come out. I was glad to see Jabberwocky Redux nominated in the Best Comedy category; however I expect the actual Best Comedy award this year will go to "Ben getting nominated in the Best Director category". Meanwhile Daniel and I have had our surname misspelled for what is probably the 374th time for me and the 316th time for him.

- Dave is STILL SMOKING. "It's my last pack" and "I can quit any time I want" are rapidly assuming the legendary status of "It's 15 minutes from anywhere - just pop past."

Right. Now I have to go and make chilli. I hope to see you all here again on Sunday some time, when I expect I shall be nursing a hangover. See, Mr Caygill's stag night, there's a blog waiting to happen right there!

Back later (honest).