Not knowing

Except for one very long eighteen month patch, I've worked since I was in school. I've done an awful lot of things in the last decade or so, and yet there's one question that always stumps me.

What do you do?

See it used to be really easy when I started off. I worked in MacDonalds. Simple. Then things got more complicated. I left to study law. One would think then I was just a student, but no, I was dabbling with the internet. I was working on staff on a web community and doing fairly well thank you. I was interviewing people, and writing and moderating the community. It brought nothing in the way of money but it was still a lot of work, and it did eventually bring me actual work. It started me off doing web design. It also kind of allowed me to branch out and start reviewing for a tech magazine. Yep, I was actually a writer. Sadly, I didn't have the foresight to use my own name. The problem became that I ended up just saying IT is what I did. Anything more just became a long winded conversation.

IT has been in the background now for quite a while. If ever I know that in a few months I'm gonna need some money I'll put the feelers out for work. That said since I started studying Drama and Writing, I've not really done all that much work as an IT tech. So I wouldn't call myself an IT guy any more. That just doesn't feel like my job.

Since I have discovered acting and theatre as something I loved doing, it's become even more difficult for me to tell people what my job actually is. I suppose that really it's because I really no longer have one. Sure, I do take on the odd former client or two as an IT consultant, but for the most part that's quite rare. During the summer of course, I was an actor. Seriously, for twelve weeks I was acting almost everyday. Of course it may have looked like three grown people playing and joking around with puppets, but it was work. It was. Honestly! It was work!

I don't feel like I can say that now though. The last paid acting job I had was, well it was way too long ago now. So long in fact I'm getting ansty over the lack of acting I've done. So, as you can see, I can't exactly call myself an actor. It's not really true. I spend most of my time not acting.

Maybe, just maybe this entire post is convincing me that I just ought to take the Dave Lister approach to the question 'Occupation?' and answer 'Bum'.

Martin's Crazy Night

This, my blog is a long neglected thing. I got to a point where I was posting regularly and then I sort to stopped. Well, a good friend of mine, Fiona Angwin, has begun blogging recently. It has spurred me on to recommence writing on this blog. With any luck it'll stimulate my atrophied writing creativity. It seems that when you've spent so long writing when it isn't really for yourself, you get a little limited.

The other night however, I had a burst of creativity. Some would, no doubt, call it madness. Others would wonder why I haven't been committed. A few two nights ago I decided to test the claims on Stargazing Live and see if I could see the northern lights. As it turns out I didn't, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology I had a photography experience like never before. I didn't feel like I was alone.

Allow me to explain. I am no stranger to waiting around to get the perfect photo. On several occasions I have grabbed my camera and run out of the house when it is snowing in order to get some rare photos of untouched snow. Likewise, when I was trying to get a shot of the sunrise I was out in the middle of the night to set up and be ready for those all to brief moments when you can actually photograph the sunrise. The point is, I'm trying to explain that if you are waiting to photograph a specific thing you can end up waiting for hours, on your own and in the middle of nowhere. I suppose I'm also trying to assure myself that it's normal.

Anyhoo, back to the story. There I was, out at midnight on the shore, in the pitch black (away from horrible light pollution) with just my cameras. I've done similar many times before. The difference this time? My Nexus 7. My wonderful tablet. I tend to slip it in my coat pocket and carry it everywhere these days. In fact I'm sitting in a Starbucks typing this blog on it now (albeit with the aid of a keyboard case). You might wonder why the tablet made the difference, and the answer is my friends.

Out, in the pitch black, miles from another human, I was having a rather fun filled conversation with some of my closest friends. Make no mistake, for a brief moment out there, the conversation was flying rapidly and so well that I may as well have been in the bar with them talking in person. It was entirely down to them that I began laughing, joking and with a few bits of stimuli (David Attenborough, Blair Witch and bizarrely a stray dog) I created a little video. Yep, out the shore with nothing else to do I had a burst of creativity.

WARNING: THE VIDEO IN THIS LINK IS EXTREMELY SILLY AND SHOULD NOT BE VIEWED BY ANYONE OF A SERIOUS DISPOSITION!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzHkyi4TeaM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Okay, I'll admit that the video is a little barmy, but for me creativity is strongly linked to fun. If I'm being creative  should be enjoying it. If I'm not who else will?

The video of course got me thinking. Maybe I should try a vlog. Maybe I should see if my creativity can be translated into something? Of course the thing is that very few people watch vlogs. In fact as I think about it I don't know many other people who create vlogs, let alone watch them. So, here I am warning you all....

expect more blog posts and....

keep an eye out for my forthcoming vlogs. After all, it'd be nice if someone watched them!