I'm not ashamed to admit this....

But I was super proud of myself today.

Admitting to being proud of yourself, or opening saying to someone you think you did a good job is sometimes seen as being arrogant - basically an unattractive quality, even though most people say they find confidence attractive, I've yet to see someone actually point at someone who's talking about their superior abilities and say "wow, how sexy are they?"
No. Most of the time you'll just hear someone say "who the hell is that prick?"

You know? Yeah - anyway.

Today I got my uni results back from the last year and I did good! I'm not saying I'm all superior, but compared to my last year self I am - in your face, past Sam, you didn't think I could do it, but I did!

So, I'm obviously not one of those people who minds admitting their achievements (online, in a non face-to-face capacity... I wouldn't do it in real life, because, HELLO! I don't want to be that prick!).

I got my Children's Literature results back, and basically got a 2:1, I think... in Uni terms. I'm not really sure how the scores work. I got a grade 3 pass... maybe that's a 2:2? Who knows. I passed, and that's all I care about because I found that course really difficult. Sure, the reading was easy, but critical writing isn't my bag!

My major achievement and so the one I'm really proud of is from the Advanced Creative Writing course, where I got a distinction. Me. Got a distinction.

Words fail me (but not really... perhaps I should rephrase; words that make sense fail me, because I keep writing things out of sync and my spelling and typing abilities have left me since getting that grade) - I've never done well in the academic world. I do really well in the not paying attention, doodling in the margins of books world. Really good at that (again, tooting my own horn *brushing that dust of my shoulders, man*), but anything that meant doing anything which was to be graded by professional people was my downfall. I could get through classes ok, join in well enough, but presenting work in any way that was deemed well thought out or even in any way intelligent was just a no-go for me. Until today!

As I'm sure you're aware (if you've read this blog before), I have a dream of writing for a living. Novels, screen plays, blogs, hell - I'd write obituaries if people didn't mind me re-imagining their loved ones lives and turning them into fantastically dramatic and enthralling plights of fancy, so getting something back from the university to say I did a good job (I wrote a sci-fi short screenplay) is the icing on top of my laptop.

I'll go to sleep happy tonight and the just dread the moment someone at works asks me what grade I got and what my screen play was about, because even though I don't mind tooting horns on the internet, tooting in real life is something that I just can't do (hehe, I said tooting) so that will be awkward.

Until next time,

Sam

Just rub my tummy like a genie's lamp

Yes. This blog title seems somewhat rude... I don't know how but it seems rather suggestive. It's not supposed to be, I swear!

As I mentioned in a previous blog, my poorly tummy has been giving me a hard time as of late. The best day was probably last Friday when I didn't get to sleep until... wait for it... 7 in the morning. I then woke up again at 12 and then had to sleep the majority of the day (the only sunny day in the past 10 or so, no less) just to recoup my hours. Not good. It's starting to really irk me. I don't like to be irked. I also don't like having something wrong with me.

I'm one of those people who prides themselves on not ever having been to hospital. I've never broken anything, I've never even had a filling at the dentist. Probably because I don't go enough to be told I need them. Same with the hospital actually... I probably should have gone to hospital many a time in my life; when blood is pouring out of some horror-movie-worthy wound you normally do go to hospital. But not me. I just bandage it up and carry on as normal! So on Friday night I was actually considering going to hospital. That is how bad the pain is.

Not to worry though gentle viewers, I do have a doctors appointment on Thursday, but I'm kind of scared of going. Not because I'm scared of doctors. But... well... I've already been dismissed once about this problem and I'm kind of hesitant about going because I don't want to get dismissed again. I want to explain the symptoms and be told exactly what it is and how to treat it. But I know I'll be trying to explain the pain and I won't be doing a good job, so here is the pickle. Do I dramatise it? When it happens it is the most gut wrenching, life hating pain I've ever experienced (you know life hating pain. When you hurt so bad you hate life and just want to not be a person any more), but it's hard to really tell someone that without sounding dramatic. But I should just be dramatic... shouldn't I? I know I'll get in there and I'll downplay it. I must force myself not to.

Hmmm. If I get told I just need to eat handfuls of Rennie's again I'll scream. I promise I will!

So, I'll keep you posted on my well being and I'll also try to come up with actual topics for these blogs. I'm losing my touch, I know I am! Apologies!

Sam

ps. I feel I should always add a writing update to my blogs because it at least forces me to keep it out in the open and not bottle it away. Chapter one is basically done re-write wise. I'm currently re-working chapter 3... 2 is 'done' but I'm sure I'll be tweaking...

Books and biceps and Brrrr....

How fast has the temperature dropped of late? I'm not complaining. Those who have been around this blog for over a year will probably be well acquainted with my love for autumn and that little known event that follows after the leaves fall and everything is all eerie at night and spooky... Yep. Halloween. But, it's FAR too early to blog about my most favourite time of the year so let's move on past that for now and I'll revisit in a few weeks!

Back to the weather. I love it. Sunny mornings (mostly) and brisk air. I love the random rainstorms one minute and the glorious evenings the next minute. Is anyone else as in love with UK weather as me?! I love the randomness of it all!

Speaking of it being September I must bring up the hot topic of the month. School. Ah, back to school! This year I'm doing my 3rd year (but not final, it's a long story) - 2 courses towards my degree. One is Children's Literature, the other is Advanced Creative Writing. I'm looking forward to them both but I'm also nervous. Not of the work itself, but the fact that I'm working FULL TIME as well as doing them. I'm sure I'll be fine, but I worry for my (already almost none existent) social life. Bah. I'll figure it out. I have almost all my books now I think after a hefty spend on Amazon (well, I had vouchers, and I did get most of them from independent sellers to offset my book killing ways) - so far the stack looks like this:

Some good books in there - note, the actual children's picture books. I look at them and think they will be easy peasy, but then... I highly doubt it. Writing for children is notoriously hard so we'll see how it goes!

Moving onto other things, I recently purchased the Davina McCall work out DVD. Jeez, it's tough. I heard it was tough, but I didn't believe it would be too hard. I can honestly say that when putting my all into it I come out aching, but that's a good thing! It is... Soon I will be buff as anything. But not really. I'll try though!

I don't have much else to report. Recently been suffering for mild to severe stomach pains and think I might have some sort of ulcer or something so I'll be going to the doctors for some forced testing. I went last year and they told me I just needed to take those chalky tablets for indigestion. I told them then it wasn't indigestion and a year later I'm going back to tell them again. Ah, the joys of GP's offices!

Sam

ps. On a fun note I'm on something like book 37 or 38 of the year! Follow my progress on Goodreads if  you're interested in learning the names of teen fiction books! :P