Wednesday 10 March 2010

ONE HUNDRED!

I've actually done ninety-nine.
If I make one up now it's all fine.
Then it's all above board.
It's one hundred I've scored.
After this I can draw one big line.


Sorry, When I did that video I spent two days on one limerick. I couldn't finish 100 days with only 99 things to show for it!

I cannot believe I actually made it to the end of this. Not for any particularly great reason apart from the fact that I usually don't. I'm the kind of person who'll say things on a whim ("sure, I can write a limerick every day!" being one very relevant example) and then very quickly either forget, or make up some excuse to myself about why it was a stupid idea in the first place so it's fine for me to quit.

I don't know exactly why I kept this up when I've let so much fall by the wayside in the past but I'm really glad I did. It's been great for me to say "here's something I think I can do quite well" and not feel like an idiot in actually putting myself out there and doing it. Or, perhaps more correctly, ignoring the bit at the back of my head that's almost constantly telling me that I am, in fact, an idiot and carrying on regardless.

I have no idea why I chose to write limericks in the first place. I suppose because they were always my 'party trick' so to speak, In that a) I can rhyme things quite easily and b) I don't go to many interesting parties... But I think I also like them for the very fact that they're stupid. I've had some frankly terrible days since I started this challenge but coming home and putting my energy into trying to come up with something really silly has turned out to be surprisingly helpful. I know that you're not supposed to avoid problems, but maybe there should be a proviso where limericks are concerned.

Something else I'll be taking away from this is the fact that actually, people are quite nice. Perhaps that shouldn't have been a revelation to me but, mostly through twitter and Facebook, I've come across all kinds of people with very nice things to say - be they other hundred day-ers with support and ideas, people who enjoy limericks and have written me messages to say they like what I'm doing, people with no relation to the 100 days thing or limericks who've still been very nice, and even my friends (who, even though they're my friends don't often get to see anything even remotely creative that I've come up with because I just assume they won't be interested - sorry people!). Over the course of this, I've been amazed at how willing people are to help you along the way.

I've also had my eyes opened to the kinds of things there are out there to try! The idea of doing one thing a day has proved to me that anything can be a work of art if you keep it up. Maybe building one Lego car wouldn't be seen as too creative, but 100 models? Amazing. Similarly the Twitter plays, the lists, the poems, the different photos, the artwork, the writing... I'm just using umbrella terms because I don't want to miss anyone out. I think we've all shown that anything can be a bit special if we put our minds to it.

I definitely think I've come out of this a better person. I mean, I'm a bit more confident in my own abilities and I can rhyme off the top of my head. What other skills could I possibly need to make my way in the world? (Maybe I'll be a rapper next!)

I can't honestly say I'm going to keep up the limericks. I sort of hate them a little bit now. But I think I am going to keep up this blog. Well, I'm going to try anyway. It seems a shame to consign all this work to the depths of cyber space. I have a massive pile of Uni work to take me through 'til may, but after that I'm not sure. I've already come up with a rough idea for a little film I want to make - a silly idea, naturally - and after that, I have no idea. But I'm hoping everyone's going to keep in touch?

If I didn't get your project in the limerick, well, I only have five lines! And it might not have been very rhyme-y. But I can practically guarantee that at some point I've looked at it and though "that person is brilliant". You all are.


Photos, lost gloves and great twitter plays,
Lots of poems, Lego, changing ways.
Facebook culling, and art
Plagiarism and 'starts'.
Well people, That's 100 days!


(I feel the above blog post should be read with, say, Don't Stop Believing or similar in the Background. Glee versions preferably. I'd hate to leave you lot after 100 days with you all still under the impression that I have good taste!)



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Tuesday 9 March 2010

Ninety Nine

This is the penultimate day! How did that happen?

Anyway, I thought, since tomorrow's limerick will probably end up being something about it being the last one, I'd do something a bit different for the ninety-ninth instead. Therefore, I sat up for half the night cutting letters out of old newspapers. As you do.



I realise that might not be readable. I couldn't read it once my eyes had gone all blurry (who knew it'd end up being true?). So what it says is:

For kidnappers - also some spies -
There's a problem you don't realise.
The notes that they leave
Offer them no reprieve.
Cutting letters out gives them cross eyes.


A lesson for us all...






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Monday 8 March 2010

Ninety Eight

My blog stopped working properly a couple of days ago. Within sight of the finish line of this whole thing. To be fair, whatever it was I have to give it full marks for timing - that was very impressive.


I think I've fixed it now. However, if I haven't, this limerick probably sounds pretty cocky for no good reason. I think it's OK to be cocky if I've actually won...




I won't be let down at the last,
By some malware-y thing that trespassed
On my final three days,
What a cheek! I'm amazed
That it thinks I can be thus outclassed.




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Sunday 7 March 2010

Ninety Seven

I get quite excited by TV shows sometimes. Today is an exciting day.





I'm glad the last two months is done -
They've not been tremendously fun,
But now from the dark,
I emerge - what a lark!
House MD is back on Sky One!




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Saturday 6 March 2010

Ninety Six

I can't remember which day it was (but I think it must have been about two months. Or so. Less than 96 days ago anyway...), but quite early on in this I did a post about shopping. I spent a long time shopping today and I still hate it.


This one's fairly rubbish, but it's late. As ever...




Shopping at least two months on,
Has got no more fun as time's gone.
In fact, I would say
It's got worse in a way
Because everyone's now a moron.





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Friday 5 March 2010

Ninety Five

Hmmm... A new twist on a limerick is a bit tricky. Essentially it's only words (If your mind just went to a Boyzone song there like mine did we are clearly kindred spirits and will rule the world one day...) and if you mess around with it too much it won't be a limerick because of the rhymes and stuff.

Never mind! I'm getting a bit sick of limericks anyway, so new twists here we come!




Tehy rcoekn taht plepoe can raed
At an amlsot qtiue uusal seped
Wehn the ltteers aern’t rhgit.
It’s a pterty odd shigt,
But I tnihk it mghit wrok… We argeed?





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Thursday 4 March 2010

Ninety Four

From now on the word "scrunch" can be taken to mean rush, or "pinch" in that, "in a pinch" kind of way. Because I say so.

Oh, and there was someone sitting next to me on a train eating a Cornish pasty at around 9:00 this morning.




A Cornish pasty is only for lunch.
Or for dinner if you're in a scrunch.
But in the morning the smell
Could equate to hell,
And I might have to give you a punch.

Ninety Three

I've been watching the #100days hashtag on twitter today trying to come up with something to write about. Thre's some kind of holiday prize thingy about Cape Town using the same tag and I actually just ended up staring out of thw window imagining I was in Cape Town. As usual hough, doing nothing to actually get me to Cape Town...

Also, I wasn't eating fries. I reckon I will be soon though since I put the idea in my own head. Damn rhymes.




I'd like to win a Cape Town prize,
But sadly, I think I've surmized,
That you enter to win,
And while it would make me grin...
...I'll just sit on my bum eating fries.




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Tuesday 2 March 2010

Ninety Two

It's sunny today. That's probably pretty glaringly obvious (boom boom) but I've been sitting inside all day, and it's even making THAT more bearable. Plus, unless you want a limerick about the work I'm doing (trust me, you don't) I'm afraid the weather is basically my only choice.




There's a bright, burny thing in the sky,
And I know I should remember why.
But it's been ages since,
We saw its last glints
But it doesn't half make long days fly!

Monday 1 March 2010

Ninety One

Having nearly finished an English and Drama degree, I haven't read anything for three years. That sounds fairly unlikely, I'll admit, and it's also untrue. But that's what it feels like. I've been reading two or three books a week for more or less the entire duration of my time at Uni and I can't remember the last time I got to choose what those books were. And if, by some miracle, I've finished my reading well in advance I will immediately put the TV on. Or go on youtube. Or watch a DVD. Basically, anything passive (because sometimes turning pages and moving your eyes can feel too much like hard work).

I've been thinking a lot about what will happen when I'm finished recently, mainly because I dont actually know what will happen. But the thing I'm dead set on is that the day I hand in my last prject, I will get off the bus outside the library, go straight in and pick up the most obviously 'chick-lit' book I can find, go over the road to the shop and buy a lot of chocolate, go home, and remind myself what it feels like to read something a bit vapid and enjoy it.

It's not that I dislike Uni, it's just that I daydream about reading something that I've chosen, and especially something a little bit shallow.

In other news, I've never used the word 'man' at the end of a sentence in 'surfer-dude' style before.





When this 'degree' thing is finally done,
I will read crappy books - at least one.
Just because I can,
And you can't stop me, man.
And that's when I'll know that I've won.




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