New Year, New Plans.

So how was everyone New Years Eve? Did everyone enjoy their hangovers? Wonderful.

Well this is the first post of the new year, and it’s more by way of a notice of some minor temporary changes to my posting schedule. Now don’t panic, you will be getting your regular three doses of Amanda Harper brand insanity. In fact I rather hope that in this my second year of running this blog I will achieve new heights of both entertainment, and all round randomness.

But, and this is an important but, I am up to my rather shapely breasts in writing the first draft of my second novel. What’s more I have a self-inflicted deadline of my birthday at the beginning of March to achieve. So what does this mean for your tri-weekly dose of random ruminations? Well usually I try for about 1,000 words per piece. Sometimes it’s a little less, sometimes it’s a little more. But I think it averages out at about the thousand words. Well from now until I finish that first draft I’m afraid I’ll be trimming down the length of most of my posts to allow myself more novel writing time.

Of course once the first draft is done and dusted we will be returning to our usual programming. But until then I hope you continue to enjoy my site, even if I’m not quite as vociferous as usual.

So eight weeks to write 30ish chapters. Let the mental torture begin…crap, writers block!

The Versatile Bloggers Award.

Okay we’re going to pretend that it’s awards time today, and all because of the blogger extraordinaire, and bearer of many wonderous tattoo’s Kana Tyler. On Friday the 18th she awarded me a Versatile Bloggers Award. This seems to be rather like a blog writers Oscar. Except that it actually means something, seeing as someone has to actually like your work to nominate you. Rather than just liking the brown envelope you just passed them. However this award comes with some responsibilities, and rules.

(Yes I do know there’s a difference between “award”, and “nominate”. But do you know what? I’m not a frikkin’ Nazi of the Grammar, Punctuation, or Dictionary varieties. So we’re going to use those two words in an interchangeable way. If you don’t like that…well I say bladders on sticks at dawn.)

Have at you vile knave! (Image via http://www.badscience.net)

1. She must link to the person who nominated her for the award.
2. She must share seven random facts about herself.
3. She must nominate the next fifteen winners, with links to their blogs. (note; blogs she actually likes.)

So that’s step 1 done, when I linked the blogger extraordinaire, and bearer of many wonderous  tattoo’s Kana Tyler. (Bet you love me even more now Kana. That’s two plugs in one post.)

Now my seven random facts.

1. I like dull overcast days best of all.
2. My first dog was a Kerry Blue Terrier, named Snoopy. He hated my sperm donor, and so bit him at any, and every given opportunity. Good boy Snoopy.
3. On my 17th birthday I was climbing a cliff in a local quarry. I fell, all my gear stripped, and after about a 40 foot fall I landed bum first on an upward pointed stone. This resulted in my breaking my coccyx for the third time, and my having a very red face.  These days I remember that “OH SHIT I AM GOING TO DIE!” moment every single damp day. *Shifts uncomfortably in her chair.*
4. When I was a little individual, I always wanted to grow up to be a 1930’s science fiction serial film heroine. Think Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, but without the constant screaming, the cowering behind Flash, or the wandering around without a gun all the time. Damn it Dale, stand up for yourself woman!
   

   "If he steps in front of me, just one more time I'll...." Shortly after Flash was found with his head stoved in. (Image via filesofjerryblake.netfirms.com)

5. I’m going on my first date in 4 years tomorrow. She’s kind of awesome, very hot, and I’m genuinely crapping myself.
6. Before I changed my name, I was named after 3 different people. Including a random stranger who just happened to be in the church, and having no family they asked my parents if they could be remembered through me.
7. On the night I was born a star fell from the sky, and crashed to Earth in the form of Star-Metal. That Star-Metal was secretly forged in to a sword of unsurpassed elegance, and killing power. A sword which one day will be used by the steampunk-heroine, and alter-ego of Amanda Harper, Acidgirl, to slay all the false gods. Thus freeing us all in a Red Sonja/Star Gate-esque manner, from an unknowing enslavement to our hidden overlo….No, not really, but I did try to come out face first. Thus causing my sainted mother to be cut wide open to get my shapely arse out into the world. One of these days she might actually forgive me for that. Though probably not.

Step 3 is going to be kind of tough. I’m not sure that there are fifteen blogs that I read regularly, and actually like but, hey we’ll do our best

1. Consider the Tea Cosy.
2. Stacy Bias.
3. The Musings of a Lesbian Writer.
4. Threads of Aether.
5. DeShocks 
6. Sadhbh Warren.
7. Ukulele Hunt.

That is literally it. I spend far more time writing blogs than reading them, so I just don’t have 15. It would have been 8 except that I’ve already plugged the blogger extraordinaire, and bearer of many wonderous tattoo’s Kana Tyler twice already…ah crap.

33 years old and I have a plan.

As some will have noticed yesterday, I missed my usual 9:30am deadline for posting my regular blog.  As I mentioned in my little apology, this was because of celebrating my 33rd birthday the night before.  For me, as I am sure it is for many other people, the days around my birthday are a period I use to take stock of the previous year and the year to come.  As part of this I decided to explain this blog to my readers.

I must start by saying I love to write.  As a pass time it ranks right up there with girl watching in Dublin City with my friends and kicking arse in World of Warcraft.  I derive so much pleasure and joy from putting pen to paper.  Though in my case fingertips to keyboard is much more accurate.  I started this blog at the insistence of one of my adopted little sisters, Claire.  She felt, rightly as it happens, that this blog would only be a good thing for me as a writer.

To begin with I didn’t really know what I wanted to do here.  There were so many things I could have done with this space.  After all I am lesbian, transexual and I have amongst other things been a professional dominatrix, a carpenter, a caterer and even a silk screen printer.  I have so many interests in my life that they all permanently spill into one another.  But while I am lesbian ans transexual, they are not what my life is about.  They are aspects of who I am and not the definition of what I am.  The same goes for all of my varied jobs, though the professional dominatrix is an exception that I will get to shortly.

So for the last few months I’ve been experimenting here.  To be honest, I’ve learned a lot from that experimentation.  For one thing, I feel my writing has improved a great deal over the last twenty odd posts.  But from all of this I have realised what the structure of this blog needs to be for me to enjoy doing it.

So Tuesdays will be about the universe and everything in it.  I might write about how to clean a pc properly (actually I will be writing a tutorial on that soon, due to a few requests), but I might equally write an article on the state of world politics.  Don’t be surprised either, to read something about the idiocies people believe about science. Or how about something on how babysitting can be the best contraceptive?

On Thursdays I will usually be reviewing something.  It might be the continuation of my series about movies I loathe.  It might be about those wonderful movies I would kill to see on the big screen.  Expect book reviews, game reviews, television, technology and even occasionally music will rear its head.

Saturdays are deep thought territory.  I will be continuing my pet project, covering the emotional and psychologically beneficial aspects of the BDSM lifestyle.  These posts are very important to me, as they are my attempt to bring across to other people just how important and good for some people BDSM can be if it is used properly.  On Saturdays I will also be covering the LGBT spectrum with posts on my perspective with regards to gender, sexuality and LGBT rights.  Though don’t be surprised on a Saturday to find a post on the importance of barbarians to modern society.

These are my plans for the next twelve months, though if something sufficiently important comes up that my be thrown out the window for a short while.  My posts on democratic responsibility are a good example of something more important taking priority.

So I hope that the content will still be random enough to fulfill the promise of my blog’s name.  And I hope that those who have enjoyed regularly reading my work will continue to do so and that the comments will keep coming in.  Feedback is the funnest part of blogging, even the feedback that gets sent privately.

So on with the next year and first on the agenda, that piece on babysitting.  Cause boy did this weekend put me off kids for a good while, let me tell you…