Today I learnt something new. I learnt about name days - as one of my friends was celebrating her's today. All this while I had been under the mistaken assumption that name days were pretty much the same as birthdays, only realised my error today. On the plus side though, turns out I got a name day too :D and it falls on the 28th of October, so that was kind of sweet.
Today also happens to be the birth anniversary of the most famous Rastafarian of them all - Time magazine's most influential musician of the last century - Nesta Robert Marley a.k.a Bob Marley. In honour of him, have changed the song on the sidebar, to one of his most famous songs, one that I'm trying to learn at the moment, although that particular effort is not coming along entirely all that well :P
It's more than a little difficult getting back into writing mode after such a long break away from it - I guess the hardest part is just concentrating long enough to string together the few sentences required to gain momentum, however I think I'm getting back there.
Life is currently crawling along for me at themoment, have to wait for a few things to sort of fall into place which are entirely not in my hands, and patience is not really a virtue I posess in abundance, when it comes to waiting in particular...
That being said, updating the blog seems the easiest way of getting the time to fly faster. Been running through a collection of Neil Gaiman short stories titled smoke and mirrors, and was motivated to get those creative juices cranking again. Having immensly enjoyed most of the sandman series, his stories were the next logical step, and so far have enjoyed most of them.
His style is very distinctive - insanely incomprehensible at times, yet hilariously mind bendingly different. His adept blending of myth and folklore with references and allusions to both historical events and fairytales is simply incredible. My favourites of this collection thus far are two stories, one which is an extremely dark and different version of Snow white titled "Snow Glass and Apples". The other - a particularly brilliant 100 word story titled "Nicholas was" is the one that has prompted me to give creative writing another shot.
On a totally different note, I also finally got round to watching The Illusionist albeit on DVD instead of in the hall. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Edward Norton is THE MAN! He's always been an actor I've admired since he burst on to the movie scene with a role that redefined the depths of evil - the character of Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear. He pulls of another great performance, and the climax of the movie is really really brilliant. A definite must see for anyone who hasn't yet done so.(Statuatory warning: The movie does start of a bit slow, you have to give allowance for the mood setting being in a sense a period movie)
