Simply. That’s how my DS Lite now operates. I have gone from 5 games to 800 games overnight. At a time when I should be studying and not much else.. Anyway, I wanted to talk about why I started this blog – or more so what inspired me to begin writing stuff again, taking photos, writing music, making video art, all of the stuff that makes me feel good about myself, my life and perhaps even makes me feel OK about being 31, single and having no plans for even a relationship, let alone the M word. I had never been one for blogs particularly – I had to write one for university, but purely as a design journal / process documentation type thing. I did write personal stuff on it but never really felt comfortable baring my life for all and sundry. It kinda felt fake – like when your dad buys a “cool” t-shirt and a pair of adidas sneakers and a cap, and tries to act all hip around your friends while they secretly roll their eyes. Not that I was trying to be cool – but I have never been one to share my random thoughts with many people. My couple of really close friends, yes – but that’s about it. So it didn’t feel right – I just wrote that stuff because I thought that’s what you are supposed to write. The result being a wooden, awkward log of random thoughts, images and my second year musings on the theory of design. I shudder to even dig it up now. I do know it’s still online though.
So last year, I had planned to go to Vietnam for a semester – my university had offered me and two other people a place in HMC. I wont go into details, but lets just say that work got in the way, and I declined to go – instead taking six months of school to work full-time. Quite the opposite of what I had planned. Maybe I’m getting old after-all. During this time, I took a break from creating things. I kinda needed a break to be honest, so it was OK. This drought of ideas and motivation continued for a good 10 months – during which time I mostly worked, played video games, and occasionally studied Japanese. I was listening to Alex and Beb throughout this time – and it was Alex that kept me going with my Japanese study. Not that my motivation for that was lacking, but I was sick of Pimsleur style super-formal rubbish, and was getting dis-heartened that despite a couple of years of moderate effort, I still couldn’t understand a thing when I watched Japanese TV or movies. Alex’s podcast was the first one I found that actually taught spoken Japanese – and it was such a breath of fresh air for my Japanese study. Around this time, I also became friends with some Japanese people living in Melbourne – one of which I see a lot of. She also has been helping me learn to speak every day Japanese. I appreciate that formal Japanese is important to study, but you would swear they spoke two different languages.
Anyway, fast forward to a couple of months ago, and I was going through some older episodes of Learn Japanese. One of them featured Rob Holbrook, in a minor role – but he provided great input. I can even remember what he was talking about – “おねさん、なまちゅうちょだい”. I found Rob’s podcast at that point and began to go back through old episodes – it was great to discover Alex was also a part of News From The Other Side, along with a huge cast of other characters – ex-pats living in Japan, presumably teaching Japanese. From my perspective, even more than the actual content of the podcasts, what I found interesting was how this social network of ex-pats exists across cities. It suggests to me that there is a real cultural isolation for がいじん living in Japan, and as a result a strong community forms. Also interesting is the involvement by Japanese in this community, and the relationships that exist. Is it a little bit hipster for Japanese to hang out with foreigners? It seems so, in my opinion.
Im getting off topic slightly, and will return to that topic at a later date… Back to News From The Other Side – I can’t remember which episode this was from, but I distinctly remember a conversation that took place, and Rob was talking to Alex about how people need to stop treating myspace, facebook, blogs, youtube etc any differently to television – how it’s all become one in the same. He then talked about receiving criticism from people who don’t contribute anything – and by that meaning not contributing to.. the creation of content I guess – in whatever format or medium that may be. It got me thinking about what I had produced in my first couple of years at university, and the fact that I had practically stopped doing ANYTHING. I remembered how good I felt when I did actually create something – put something into the world which is mine. Something that I was proud of, and fucked if I care what anyone else thought because I was putting stuff out there, and unless you have / are, then I dont care what you think. It was that moment, while sitting in my car outside a pizza shop, hungry, listening to the podcast, that spurred me back into action with a new frame of mind.
I didn't necessarily decide to create a new blog right there and then, but I knew it was time to get back into action. I knew that I wanted to be someone who was putting stuff out there, not just consuming it from the other end. I dont intend for this blog to be the product of my efforts - merely a part of documenting the process that is my life. I guess it's not that different to my first blog when you consider it - though I feel a hell of a lot more comfortable than I did before.
No comments:
Post a Comment