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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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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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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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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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.

.

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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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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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!

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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Ninety

90% of the way through! 90% of the way through and I finally manage to write this early on in the day rather than last minute. That right there is progress. It's mainly because I have to spend all of day 90 writing songs for my Famous Five spoof musical (it's a final assessment thing for uni - It's nowhere near as good as I'd like to think it sounds.)

I have to admit I'm not going to miss limericks. I arbitrarily chose them at the start of this as something I can do quite easily, and I don't think I saw myself properly seeing this through to the end. Anyway, nine tenths of the way through, I feel like it's time for rebellion. I'm sticking it to the (limerick loving) man. Take that, why don't you?




I've been doing this for 90 days,
And it's gone in a bit of haze.
I don't really know
Why I don't just go
A little bit rebellious and fit as many words/syllables into the last line as I possibly can AND not make it rhyme! Ha! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.




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Eighty Nine

I'm not in the habit of eating rodents. I promise.





A hamster would really be nice.
With some chips, potatoes or some rice.
Now I know they're not food,
But they (not being rude),
Taste a hundred times better than mice.




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Eighty Eight

It's a bit windy today. It's also worth mentioning that I have a mild tendency towards exaggeration. So naturally, bearing those two things in mind, when a dustbin got knocked over by a stiff breeze just outside my house, I exxagerated.

Also, it's not gloomy at all. I feel I should mention that as there's quite a pleasantly warm burny thing in the sky which could be the sun but it's been so long that I've forgotte what the sun looks like. Whatever it is, it's nice and I don't want it to go away.





I can't really see through the gloom,
But I'm guessing it's safe to assume
That it's windy as hell
Cos my dustbin just fell
And I've just seen it fly past my room.




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Eighty Six

I've amazed myself today. That sounds a tad big headed, and I'm sorry, but I have been amazing today. I got everything on my very long 'to do' list done and then some. I've spent a lot of the day using 'I am a machine' as some kind of inspirational mantra (well, desperate times and all...) and only now, when I've finished everything, have I had time to reflect on the true and life-altering implications that would have if it were true.


It's 'cos I'm deep.




I think I might be a machine,
And I know you might take that to mean,
That I work hard. But no,
I mean what makes me go
Is just oil and hot air and steam.




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Eighty Five

I have some work due in this week. Fortunately, what I have due in is a collection of poems and a few pages of a musical so it's pretty fun. Even so, I've been sitting around all day not knowing what to write, which feels a hell of a lot less fun. I'm getting there now but it has come at the cost of my sanity. Oh well, fortunately I'm the human embodiment of the phrase" chin up". Onwards and upwards.





I've done lots of fun things today.
Wrote some poems and part of a play.
So it's just really strange
That I'm getting deranged...
All this and it's not a Monday.



Also, because I spent a lot of time yesterday covered in pink icing and margerine and sugar and all sorts, here is my limerick video again:










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Eighty Three

I wrote the following limerick on Sunday:



I really really like to bake.
It's good therapy for heartache.
It's easy and cheap,
And it may not be deep,
But afterwards, you can have cake!

Today I made a video of sorts for that limerick (Which was the messiest thing I've done in ages...) so I'm counting that as my thing for today. That, and the emotional rollercoaster that is me trying to upload a video on to any video site...

Here goes...




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Eighty Two

We were supposed to be making videos for this weekend. Unfortunately I'm having minor technical difficulties.





I'm forced to create words like 'Bamera'
Or even weirder ones like 'Zamera'
As I need to excuse
Lack of video use.
I'm sorry! I've broken my camera.




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Eighty One

I had my friend round my house for Dominos yesterday. We occasionally end up at one another's house watching rubbish and eating rubbish. Yesterday's visual rubbish was '16 and Pregnant' on MTV - have you SEEN it?! It's great! The eaten rubbish was, as previously mentiond, pizza. I had a bit of dissertation-induced cabin fever before we had our pizza time as I hadn't left the house in 5 days and had even managed to sustain a genuine Typing Related Injury. So naturally, when I gave myself a bit of time off, my feelings came out a bit strong.



Oh Domino's Pizza I do
Really really and truly love you.
Maybe that's bad.
My arteries are sad.
But I guess they must just muddle through.




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Eighty

I was walking back from the shops this evening juggling some milk and some bread and the largest umberella known to man and there was a car in my way. On the path. It was some kind of posh make - I made a mental note of exactly what kind, but it wouldn't rhyme with anything so I dismissed it. Anyway, there was a car on the path. And I was in a mood. And it was raining. All of these factors together = Limerick. Damn Straight. I bet the posh car driver regrets it all now...


You do have a very nice car.
And I bet people think you're a star.
But it's just not a laugh
Parking on all the path.
Guess what? You're not some kind of Czar.




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Seventy Nine

Double special again. I'm quite tired and I can't really be bothered to make an excuse for my laziness, so we'll just call it that. Laziness.

I've been thinking about a chocolate bar I really want all day. I even looked it up on Wikipedia to find out if it was still aorund so I wouldn't get my hopes up about having one if they didn't make it anymore. I couldn't tell. So the natural progression of chocolate research is to go from Wikipedia to Limerick. Blatently.


I wanted something for my lunch,
But I have a quite worrying hunch,
That they make it no more,
Is anyone sure?
What became of the Nestle bar, 'Crunch'?