Updates on everything, including my new alcohol problem.

I’m drinking whiskey right now. It’s 11.38am. And I am drinking whiskey. Delicious Jack Daniels. You know why I’m drinking whiskey? Because having a cold is a perfectly acceptable excuse for alcoholism.

In other news.

We have an actual proper full cast for The Raging Quiet. HUZZAH. And I reckon it’s probably the strongest cast all round that Directo and I have ever had. By the end of next week I think we’ll have roughly blocked most of the play, which is excellent progress. And the ‘making up a sign language’ is going really, really well – very proud of Alice and Nick for all their work on that so far. I think their signs are going to look really instinctive, which is absolutely right. The thing to work on is making them look coherent and deliberate – like a language rather than just elaborate mime.

I seem to have a moment with every play when I’m in a rehearsal, watching the blocking come together, seeing the actors do their stuff – and suddenly, despite the fact they’ve all still got scripts in their hands and all the furniture is made out of folding chairs, there’s a real sense that it isn’t a rehearsal, it’s a play. That those are characters, not actors. Characters I’ve been familiar with for a long time. And they’re suddenly real. And I remember why I love writing plays so much.

Anyway.

The step up from second year to third year is a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. For one of my modules I seem to have ALL THE READING and for the other I have THE MOST HOURS IN THE WORLD. I still haven’t been ‘out’ out yet this term because with everything for the course and trying to fit rehearsals in between, I’m rarely getting out of the department before 9pm.

I’m dealing with everything at the moment. It feels like I’m balancing it well. But if this cold carries on, next week is going to be a killer.

Spotify, you are letting me down!

For a while now, Spotify has been plaguing me with intermittent crackling noises. At first I thought it was my laptop (which has a habit of playing silly buggers), but it’s not. Then I thought it was my anti-virus software (supposedly Spotify doesn’t like being constantly scanned or something), but it’s not. And now I don’t know what it is and I’m having to consider getting rid of it altogether, because I can’t afford to be paying £5 a month for something that IS NOT WORKING. If anyone has any ideas as to what I can do to fix it, please do chime in. It’d be greatly appreciated.

Even more irritating – in a happy Spotify haze, I deleted all my music from my laptop a while back. The logic behind this was that I wouldn’t need to take up memory space with actual music files when I could listen to ALL THE MUSIC on Spotify. This logic has failed. Because Spotify has FAILED.

I like music. I like finding new music. The ‘radio’ function on Spotify pleased me greatly and I listened to a lot of Reel Big Fish. I can no longer listen to Reel Big Fish. Or The Smiths. Or the Kickass soundtrack. I might actually have to buy a Lady Gaga album. Maybe even two. And as much as I love Gaga, I also love not going even further into my overdraft.

So I’m going through the few CDs I have that are not Samantha Mumba or S Club 7 and ripping them all onto Media PLayer again. And glaring at the Spotify logo every now and then.

Gorram it, Spotify. Don’t condemn me to listening to Holly Valance.

Bon voyage

I’m off to the Boyfriend’s house tomorrow so we can set sail for France on the 8th. I return home on the 20th, so au revoir until then. I’ve really enjoyed writing this blog so far and it’s nice to see that people are reading. In my absence, which will no doubt be devastating for all of you, check out my dad’s blog (especially if you’re doing anything with the Open University).

See you soon. I’ll send you a postcard.

The websites I look at every day.

Since I succumbed to Google Chrome, the only toolbar I have on my browser is my Favourites bar. Oh, how long ago the days of Internet Exploder seem (and accidentally having about four malware toolbars that seemed to appear by magic). Anyway, it’s quite a petite little thing, so I only have room for the websites I obsessively check every day.

Google – Obviously. I like to search. It’s my homepage too, but I like having it up there as well. I pick up a lot of odd little facts whilst browsing, which makes me an integral part of any pub quiz team. Or it would if pub quizzes were more about useless information and less about sports and science.

Facebook – To my chagrin. I resisted for a long time, but it’s the only way I keep track of people these days, so it’s got a permanent spot on the toolbar now. At least I was never a Bebo girl.

My LJ friends page – I’m not really on LiveJournal anymore and I didn’t have a massive friends list even when I was, but I like to keep up with the people I met on there, even if I’m rubbish at commenting.

WordPress – Hello, new addition!

Hollaback – A genuinely amazing website where women and members of the LGBTQ community can share their stories of street harassment and discuss methods of combating it. Street harassment is one of the social justice issues that really riles me, so I check it every day to remind myself that sexism is not dead, feminism is absolutely necessary, and no woman or LGBTQ person needs to stay silent.

ONTD Feminism – One of the few LJ feminist communities that gets regularly updated. It’s by no means perfect (it’s very US-centric and the members seem to argue amongst themselves quite a lot), but it’s still got a broad selection of interesting articles.

Feministing – It’s another US-centric feminist site, but I prefer it to The F Word simply because the layout is a bit more reader friendly (although I do regularly check The F Word too). I also feel like it’s important to be up to date with US issues because of the sheer size and power of the US in the Western world. Plus, it’s about the only place I get my US politics knowledge from (again, important stuff to know, I reckon). They have a fantastic vlogger too – NineteenPercent. Check her out.

And, to my shame – Fandom Wank – Firstly, not a porn site. It’s essentially a website where people laugh at people having arguments on the internet. I’m immature. But I will never not find it funny to read people arguing about their marriage vows to Severus Snape. This website reminds me that the internet is a wonderful place, but it is also the product of people, and people are silly and petty and fight over stupid things. And that’s funny.

What’s your first internet port of call?

Money

I’m starting to get a bit worried about my finances next year. I get an allowance from my parents as well as a maintenance loan, so I’m by no means in the worst financial position for a student to be, but Exeter is a fairly expensive place to live at times. And I’m going to be putting a fifth of that allowance aside each month in an attempt to save money for my MA, which means I’m going to have to think carefully about what I’m spending my money on.

I got into bad habits last year. The Impy (Imperial Pub) is pretty much an annex of the main Drama building, so going there for a meal is always going to be easier than a 25 minute walk back to my house, especially if I’ve got another class/rehearsal imminent. So I’m just going to have to plan better. Packed lunches all the way.

I also failed to get a job this summer. I did try, obviously, because having a job is always better than not having one. But I’m now thinking that I didn’t try hard enough. I could’ve done better with that. Hopefully I’ll be able to get something at Christmas, or my friends and family can look forward to some very heartfelt homemade presents this year. I might look into self-publishing again to see if there’s any way people would be willing to pay for my original stuff, but there’s the very strong possibility that they won’t, which will put me even further out of pocket.

It’s tricky, because I also want to try to be a bit more sociable this year. Any tips on having a free/cheap night out wherein I still get to get tipsy? Other than batting my eyelashes at the Boyfriend and getting him to buy all the drinks.

It’ll be worth it if I do manage to save money though. Doing an MA is always going to be worth a bit of stress this year. And my education is definitely more important to me than Cheesy Tuesday at Arena. I’d just like to work out a way to have both.

Hello there, WordPress

Earlier tonight, my good friend Roy introduced me to the concept of having a ‘Google presence’. For someone who’s been on the internet (in various guises) since the age of 12, it’s a bit bizarre that this didn’t really occur to me before.

At the moment, if you Google ‘Emily Holyoake’, you find a few obscure/embarrassing references to my time at secondary school, and a couple of links with Exeter Uni. And my Twitter. And my doppelganger’s Twitter. If that. For someone hoping to one day my writing her profession, that’s a bit poor. So this is my first step towards having a proper Google presence to be proud of.

I’ve done a few blogs before, mostly under pseudonyms, and I’ve never been very good at keeping them up to date. Many have been abandoned. I’m going to really try my best with this one. It’s going to be a bit of a mixed bag, I think – mostly about writing (because that’s what my life is mostly about), but possibly about personal stuff as well. Hopefully, at some point, a person (possible even more than one) will find this blog and find it interesting. Maybe one day people will come here because they’ve actually seen/read/heard about my plays. Maybe not.

Fingers crossed. It’s nice to be here, WordPress. Be gentle with me.