Yay! I'm Keeping Myself Occupied!

This week has been another week that has thrown me off my usual routine, I have been spending time with friends at awkward hours, I have finally formed a band, and I'm learning Spanish.

First off My friends have dragged me into a strange concept for a YouTube channel called TheMentalLibrary which is basically the insane group of idiots that used to hang around the school library. It isn't actually the complete set of idiots unfortunately, one idiot doesn't leave the house or socialise. The other idiot is camera shy so we haven't fully included her, although she is mentioned as being part of the group in the introductory video (which I will start editing shortly after writing this).

That YouTube channel is basically going to consist of Ash telling me to humiliate myself, and Ash telling Nathan (A.K.A Stunt-Man) to hurt himself. Ash will simply be involved in the skits that are semi-scripted. It's definitely a good job I have no dignity when a camera is rolling.

Last night I also formed a band, and within thirty seconds we were jamming along to Weird Al's parody of American Idiot. So far it seems like this band will be a pop-punk band (sigh) but I can live with that and soon I'll convert it to something that suits my preferences a little more. Although I don't mind pop-punk I'm more of a Horror-Punk kind of guy, I also like progressive rock/metal and psychobilly. My ideal form of band would be a progressive psychobilly band, with a musical style reminiscent of black metal, but I highly doubt that will happen.

The other point I made in my opening sentence was that I'm learning Spanish. I used to learn Spanish in school when I still lived in Birmingham, but since I moved to Stoke-on-Trent I stopped learning Spanish and started German instead (sigh). Recently my dad told me about a website that teaches you one of five languages for free, and I couldn't remember what it was called until a post on 9gag lead me straight to it. That website was called Duolingo!

I have so far done six lessons on it, I'm doing two lessons a day, and I will do that everyday (well that's the plan anyway). I've encountered a lot of words I already knew, but I've also been learning some new words. I'd also like to say that it is teaching me Spanish better than my old teacher did.

My last post was full of talk about stories. I have been working on the My Little Pony Fan Fiction piece, and I wrote three chapters in one morning. Which if it had followed my original idea would mean that the story would be complete, however, while I was lost in the story I changed it slightly taking the mid section of it down a completely different road. I had no plans to do such a thing, but I did, and it's coming along nicely.

Adventure! (Not Really)

I have now returned from my holiday in Abersoch in which I had plenty of adventures, I also had a nice adventure the week before whilst going to my college interview. Unfortunately I don't remember the adventure in Hanley very well my brain has been overrun with the crap that wasn't even remotely interesting.

The majority of my holiday was spent sitting around with my notepad in hand trying to write something worthwhile, which ended up becoming a piece of My Little Pony fan fiction, the story is based on something that Eragon learns from Oromis and then tells Murtagh in the Inheritance Cycle, I can't remember which of the four books he says it in, but when the story is complete I will post it on www.fimfiction.net I will also post a link to it on here so you can read something that I've actually put effort into and not just completely spammed out.

The other main highlight of my holiday is that my brother and his wife both read the stories I wrote whilst still in school. My brother liked both of them, and gave me some constructive criticism on both, he could also tell that the second story was rushed. My sister-in-law didn't enjoy the first story but she saw the appeal in it, and found it well written, she did at least enjoy the second story, even though some of the imagery made her cringe. I took the faces she pulled as a compliment.

I'd also like to point out that I have now got a lovely tan, I am now almost as dark as my walls.

I'm personally quite proud of my accomplishment, I don't usually go that dark when exposed to sunlight for a week.

All joking aside, my current project is to finish writing the My Little Pony fan fiction I'm working on so I can get it appraised (hopefully) by at least someone. I will also be working on my main stories set around the fictional Lancashire town of Riverbrew. The first story of which is called XIV (Fourteen), and I have completed draft one of that, I have also completed draft one of book four (Bringing Down the House), The sole reason that book four was drafted out before books two and three was because that involved a spaceship and I promised my middle-aged friend that I'd write a story with a spaceship just for him.

I'm also tempted to start a little blog which I will fill with short stories, and I can update that from time to time adding then I can have something a bit less depressing available online. I'm not really sure what to do with that if I start it, I'll maybe add some of the shorter Riverbrew stories to it, I have many ideas in my head but I think some will just be a little too much for a blog.

Going back to the Riverbrew stories, I have found the original unfinished draft of (what is now set to be) the second book in the series I'm calling Misadventures from Riverbrew. I will have to make a lot of changes because if I remember rightly this version is set in a town reminiscent of Tunstall, and not in Riverbrew. So I have a leg up on that already, I even have the finished plan for it and during my holiday I planned out book three.

I have a few other story ideas in my head, all will most likely be set around Riverbrew, with the exception of those set after the final book in the Misadventures in Riverbrew series). All I am going to say is one involves genocide, the other involves a jellyfish, the other stories are part of a series, which may be a bit too clichéd for me to even bother with.

I will most likely stick to using Riverbrew as a setting for the majority of my stories, like how Terry Pratchett uses Discworld. I'd like to turn Riverbrew into a believable place, but unfortunately I've never been anywhere near where Riverbrew is supposedly situated. Upon writing that situation I realised that I actually have no idea what is where I positioned Riverbrew, so I checked and apparently there is a small town already there, so I moved it to a place currently known as Flashers Wood, that area is currently farm land but smeg it, I'm replacing it with a town in my version of England.

I know I have big plans, but I can dream can't I. At least I've realised that my talent doesn't reside in making music (but don't get me wrong, I'm still going to be composing, or at least trying to compose), and at least other people agree with me when I say I can write stories, the only hard part is putting the effort in to write them. My choice in career won't help me since I'm going to need a lot of time in order to do this, but unfortunately any career choice will destroy my time and I need to have a job I can't live on royalties until I start earning them, and even if I do start earning them, it's not too likely I'll be able to live off them.

I'll admit now that I'm no Stephen King, I'm no H.P. Lovecraft, nor am I Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler or George R. R. Martin. I am however an idiot teenager who needs a hobby, and who already has a bit of a knack for writing.

Some Fun!

Despite my unfortunately boring day, the last week has actually been quite a lot of fun, especially Saturday which was awesome. There have been some other bad parts of my week which I'll get over and done with first, I'd like to end this post on a happy point for a change.

Apparently my mate Nath has been depressed, much like me, however, he hasn't really been talking to anyone so no one knows whats wrong with him. The fact he hasn't been speaking to me or anyone probably means that I won't be forming a band, again. It feels almost like I've been friend-dumped, but I'm trying to remain optimistic.

I've been continuing with my YouTube videos that I started the other week, and I've been enjoying doing it, it's given me a nice excuse to play Minecraft, I've also done an episode of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade because I thought it'd be fun to spice things up a little. It's been keeping me occupied for long enough to figure out what to do with the remainder of my day.

Today I stated writing a new song, it's a strange attempt to combine black metal with psychobilly, I'd also like to add a bit of prog to it, but I don't see that happening any time soon. At the moment it consists of a title, a fully written introduction and a mental chord pattern for the verses, I need to figure out a way to smooth the transition between the two, then I can figure out some lyrics. I'll get there soon enough, I pulled through with my other songs.

Anyway the highlight of my week was definitely Saturday, when I went up to visit my friend Zaina, who you might remember from my "totally not a date". If it was just me and her that visit would have simply been great, however Ash also came to visit her. Both me and Ash are crushing on Zaina, but both of us are friendzoned by her, and both of us have friendzoned her. The night was filled with laughing and innuendos and probably a bit too much staring. I also think they found out a little too many things about me that they probably didn't want to know...

As a side note I'd like to say that I finished reading Carrie (by Stephen King) earlier. It was an absolutely brilliant book and well worth the read, so if you haven't read it and are interested in horror-fiction, read it. I've now taken The Shining (also by Stephen King) down from my bookshelf and will start reading that, might even say a few words about it when I'm done.

Friendship is Magic

My plan to win over Lydia's mother has failed, which means I am to remain single for the foreseeable future. This does have one major advantage though: I'm now allowed to have friends. Unfortunately I don't really speak to my original best friend anymore, I lost him sometime during the relationship with Dana, but thankfully I now have a new friend to take his place.

So for the time being my mate Ash will be considered my best friend, as he is my first real friend. I highly doubt he'd be replaced by a female anytime soon on the sole basis that I am no longer in contact with females, and those I am in contact with are much manlier than I am, so I don't consider them dating options. I'd also like to admit it isn't hard to be manlier than me.

My current hope is that my other friend Nathan will visit me, or at least tell me where he lives so I can visit him, and then the two of us will be able to form a band. I'd also invite Ash to join us, but unfortunately he isn't a drummer, which is what we'd need. I already have a name idea for the band, but since there is no band as of yet, the name will stay in my head.

If a band is formed it will most likely end up a horror punk band, since we both like punk and I get the feeling I'll be the primary lyricist so I'd end up including a lot of horror themed lyrics, or my lyrics will consist of taboo subjects. I have other ideas for what this band would become, but it'll most likely become something entirely different.

I have also restarted my old YouTube channel and I'm working on another Minecraft play through, I'm hoping that this one will last more than twelve episodes, and I'm hoping someone will actually view it, (I'll put a link to the first episode at the bottom of this post). There are two reasons why I've started doing this again after two years, the first and foremost being: Ash reminded me. The second reason is simply that I have nothing better to do with my free time.

Since it is the first of the month, I may as well record the plans I have for it, first of all I have a college interview on the twelfth, which I'm both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. following that on the Saturday I'm going on holiday to Abersoch, and I'm looking forward to that very much. I plan on taking my guitar and a notebook so I can compose a song or two, I may practice my drawing skills a bit.

The half term has pretty much ended now, school is back open tomorrow. I won't be going though, I've finished with it. I should now consider getting myself a job, I reckon I stand the best chance of getting a job at the newsagents where I do my paper rounds. I do need a job, I also need to visit my GP at some point so I can get a letter from him.

As promised here is the link to the first episode of my Minecraft Let's Play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5nyXx_QdsM