Thursday 4 December 2008

Practise Pad

I think I might start utilising this blog to play around with some little vignettes I have floating around my noggin at any given time. It will hopefully be an effective method for practise.





So...spose I'll give it a bash...





DIALOGUE GAMES





Bloody opinionated...she knows that's what she's being. How can someone have that many opinions about one thing. She's getting really animated now, it's engaging and irritating to watch at the same time.





What?





That was meant for me, was I staring too hard?





Are you alright?





Say no, say that you're not really, you've got things on your mind and you'd like to tell her that...Yeah, course, why wouldn't I be?





Were you listening to what I was saying?





Yes and not really, don't say that though. Don't tell her you are always listening but you don't always take it in because you can't help but think of things she's said before...Nah, not really, you bore me.





Fucksake...I'm a dick, but she finds that funny, she thinks I'm funny.





Ha ha - that's fine, you're too stupid anyway.





She doesn't mean that...I don't think she means it anyway, besides, she's probably right.





Can I have a cigarette?





I like the way she smokes a cigarette, she's one of those few people who really, really enjoys it without being heavily addicted. Secretly she likes smoking because of the way it looks, some form of vintage nostalgia thing. That strikes me as silly...but in a nice way





Don't look at me like that





Oh, wait, how was I looking? Did my thought process translate as disapproval... smoking is bad for you.





So's your face





I think she's funny too. Better give her a cigarette



You smoke...



Yeah, but I don't care what happens to me



Oh but you care about what happens to me?



She smirks at me as though she's caught me out in some elaborate lie

Here, smoke...have two, smoke yourself silly!

She's looking at me with a furrowed brow, I think she sensed the very subtle snap in my tone that surprised even me...I feel bad now.

Are you sure you're alright?

Yeah, really, I would tell you if I wasn't

She doesn't smirk this time, she hasn't caught me, my lie stays airtight. She's looking at me, biting her bottom lip, this makes me feel weird...

You know something...

She leans in, eyes wide and expectant...what?

Has anyone ever told you...

She plays with the cigarette I gave her, almost nervously

...that you're funny looking.

She laughs, relaxing slightly but not completely.

Let's go smoke

I follow her outside, kicking myself every step of the way

DONE - Don't know what that is but it was fun to play around with dialogue - internal vs external.

Monday 1 December 2008

Monday, Bloody Monday

This is going to sound cliche but up until fairly recently I didn't really appreciate the full meaning of this particular cliche but weekends are far too short!


As I've mentioned before I've recently started a new stage in my career that involves working Monday to Friday, 9 til 5pm and I think I'm really struggling. Before now I have always worked a shift pattern; working in the arts normally means that shift work is inevitable and because I never knew any different I assumed that working 9 until 5 was probably better, everyone leads you to believe that. But now that I'm actually doing it...well, I don't know, it's a bit too routine.

I used to quite enjoy having a couple of random days off in the middle of the week; maybe a Tuesday and Wednesday or Thursday and Friday - it was good to mix it up. That and there was the added bonus of it being relatively quiet to drink in town midweek, much fewer fuckwits cutting into my drinking time with their obnoxiousness!

Monday flies through to Friday fairly quickly but oh boy is the weekend over even faster - they should really make weekends three days, two is not enough.

The routine of the week makes it feel like time is literally slipping through my fingers and more alarmingly slipping away from me completely before I even had a moment to assess what I might have done with it given half a chance...or even a quarter of a chance...there's a lot you can do with a cheeky wee half!

Even this blog, I started writing this on Monday (hence the title) and it's been published on Tuesday...where the fuck did Tuesday spring from?

When you really sit down and think about how much time you spend doing things you don't really like, well, you'll give yourself a fright followed by gin soaked wallowing. So best not to dwell on it really...I think I speak for most of my peers when I say work = boo!

So effectively what I want to be able to do is manage my time to it's full potential; this should include working in some format to pay the bills and keeping me in the style to which I am accustomed, acheiving all my goals and seeing the places I want to see, an hour for lunch, making sure I spend enough time having good chat with my friends and family, quick shower and fitting in some leisure time before bed.

This could be linked to my aforementioned issue with sleep...there are 24 useable hours in every day you know.

I think I'll go spend 4-6 hours putting all this into a colour coded spread sheet...