Saturday Song: Weight Of The World

I'm not very good at writing essays. I dislike the whole process. Thankfully I am finished with full-time education and never have to write another essay in my life if I don't want to. 

One year, while I was still in full-time education (I think it was university rather than school) I had to write two or three essays over the Christmas holiday. Obviously I left everything to the last minute and ended up having to stay up late into the night before term started to write the damn things (my own fault, I know).

Anyway, as well as being an unenthusiastic essay writer, I was also a slow essay writer. I would check the word count after every paragraph (sometimes every sentence) in the hope that I may have miraculously reached the word limit all of a sudden. While I stayed up late and plodded my way through these particular essays, I decided to treat myself after every few hundred words by listening to this song. 

Admittedly it's probably more suitable to be listening to it blasting from a car stereo with the windows down as you drive around the coast of somewhere sunny, rather than in your bedroom at 1 o'clock in the morning at a volume which won't wake up the rest of the house. But I still liked it.

Excuses

So I haven't made an appearance round these 'ere parts for several days now. Except yesterday when I posted a new bloglet. Yeah, except then.

But that wasn't actually me.

Well it was, but it was me from about a week ago when I had one of those rare moments of being organised ahead of time and I scheduled a bloglet.

Anyway, today's ramble is an excuse for why I haven't been visiting and commenting on other blogs recently. To make things more interesting, I have actually prepared two excuses. Only one is true. The other is utter poppycock. I feel kind of bad about lying to you, but it's probably okay if I tell you beforehand that I'm going to do it.


Excuse One
For about a week now we've been having yucky internet troubles in Casa del Groves which have put a stop to blogging, twitter and YouTube (basically all the good stuff). Methods for fixing this problem have included:
- Trying all cables in every possible combination
- Attempts to persuade the router to wake up by changing its view and putting it in different rooms 
- Crossing our fingers and hoping for the best
- Switching everything off and on again
- Swearing at things

Eventually, Mum and I discovered the ethernet cable under the carpet had been squished by years of us walking over it.

Ah, we'll just get a new cable then.

Nope, Dad will fix/bodge it with duct tape.

So in summary, the internet broke for a week but now it's been mended with tape.


Excuse Two
The aliens did it.

They were keeping an eye on Earth (as they always are) and noticed an unusually high amount of blogging going on last month. As you probably know, the aliens are wary about blogs. They find them so darn interesting that they have to read them all (to them, blogs are like pokemon). With all the blogging going on last month, they got so caught up with reading that they completely missed the annual space picnic they had been heading for.

Last weekend they finally finished reading, realised that they'd missed the picnic, and immediately sulked (there had been talk of someone bringing party rings). They decided to beam someone up to explain the sudden surge in blogging and yours truly was selected at random (I know, right? What are the chances?) 

Since then I've been trying to calm them down about the picnic, and convince them that we didn't distract them on purpose. I gave them a heads up that there'll be another increase in blogging next April. They said they'd take the longer but more scenic route that avoids Earth next time.

We parted on pretty good terms - I gave them some party rings for the journey home and they seemed satisfied.

Saturday Song: Runaway Horses

It has recently come to my attention that it's quite common to blog about a particular subject or theme on a particular day of the week. I have never been this disciplined with my blog (it's called inane ramblings for a reason, folks) but I've decided to have a go at it, just for one day a week to start with.

You can still expect the same rambly, inane musings you've grown to love (admit it: it's true), but Saturdays will now see a little more structure. Each week I'll choose one song to write about and include a video of said song. It's an idea I tried out (extremely unsuccessfully) on twitter that will hopefully work much better in bloglet format.

So, without further ado, this week's song is Runaway Horses by Belinda Carlisle.

The first album I owned (on cassette!) was The Spice Girls. That must have been around 1995. Before then, when my family and I went on long car journeys, we would always listen to my dad's CDs. Apart from Meatloaf, his taste in music was pretty good (don't tell him though) and my sister and I would be allowed to choose from 5 or 6 of his albums. I don't think we ever needed other options: we always chose Belinda Carlisle.

For some reason her album became known by Sarah and myself simply as 'Doo-Doo-Dares', so whenever Mum or Dad asked what we wanted to listen to, we'd request, in unison, "DOO-DOO-DARES!" Of the whole album, Runaway Horses was always our favourite. We would insist the volume was turned up and would shout along gleefully to the chorus every time it came round.

It's weird how even now when I hear the quiet tinkly build up at the start of the song I feel excited: I feel like I'm 7 years old again and sitting in the back of my dad's car. And it's ace.

What song transports you back to childhood?

Reflections

"This is your time to tell us about your A to Z experience. 

Share your pleasures, your pains, your setbacks, your gains."

Those nice people over at the A to Z challenge would like us to write about our experience. I've been kind of lazy and have just picked out a few of the questions posed on the A to Z reflections page. Let's get reflecting!

Who did you meet along the way that you found to be especially helpful or inspiring?

Maryann and Shiela were helpful (and patient) in answering questions I had about their blogs.
Jessica and Lucy often taught me something new.
Sarah was, and continues to be, inspiringly nutty.

Did you have a favourite blog post*?

Kind of putting me on the spot there. No, it's too hard to choose. I can't pick one ... you can't make me! *sulk*

Or a favourite series?

Sweet Tea Reads, which I think I only discovered towards the end of the challenge but I like Danielle's style of writing and will definitely be going back to read more in the future.

Which blogs did you discover during April that you will be returning to in the future?

Lots. I will be quite happy to go back to any and all of the blogs I've started following. Go ahead and click on my profile (or here) to see a full list. (Quick side note: if you're following me and I haven't yet reciprocated it's because either I've been lazy, or I've been thick and am unable to find the 'follow' button on your blog.)

Would you do the challenge again? Why?

This was the first time I've attempted the challenge so I didn't really know what to expect when I started. What I discovered was a fantastic sense of camaraderie among those taking part and some brilliant blogs which I will definitely be visiting regularly from now on.

From a purely selfish point of view, the challenge was also responsible for my blog views going through the roof (they're still nothing to shout about, but I was amazed at the increase), and (miracle of miracles) people actually started commenting on my blog!

So, would I do the challenge again? Do you even have to ask? 

* When are we going to adopt the term 'bloglet' officially? It's way better than 'post'.

It feels weird

It definitely feels weird.

Not having to post a bloglet today is an odd feeling after four weeks of trying, sometimes desperately, (I'm talking to you, end of the alphabet letters) to think of a topic for the next day. I'm not really sure what it is I will continue blogging about now. I'm also a little worried that people won't come and read my little inane ramblings now that they don't really have to.

You see, my main concern is that, without the excitement of the A to Z challenge, people will begin to realise my secret: I'm not all that interesting. (I wrote it small so that if you haven't already realised it, I'm not just blurting it out).

I will, however, endeavour to hide this little secret of mine for as long as possible and will be back on 7th May with my reflections bloglet.

In the mean time, if you're feeling a little sad that all the A to Z stuff is over, then do not despair! My friend, Hannah, who didn't quite sign up in time, is now working her way backwards through the alphabet all by herself. It would be awesome if you could go and cheer her on - she's on X today so would probably appreciate the encouragement. Nasty little letter, x ... *grumble* ....*mumble* ...