Tuesday 13 May 2014

Hello again.

Well. It's been a long time .... hasn't it? I've not posted in so long I have no idea how to start, so let's just look back a bit ...

When I was thirteen, my friend told me about having a blog and eventually I jumped on the bandwagon. Emily's Chronicles was born. In the beginning I was not very good at blogging - my posts were mostly pretty embarrassing and about things no one really wanted to read - but over time I found my niche, which was blogging about books, and art, and baking, and writing, and a bunch of other stuff. I accrued some followers (about 85 in the end, although looking now that has unsurprisingly fallen to 69), I finally changed my awful blog name to something hopefully slightly less awful, and I found some AMAZING blogs (you know who you are). It was amazing to make friends on the Internet, to have something that I could write and that other people actually wanted to read, and pretty soon I was hooked into the blogosphere. But unfortunately ... well, we all know that life gets in the way. School got more serious, I had less time, I was writing a novel - and something had to give. I knew I was probably spending too much time on the Internet anyway, and so I left my blog to die. 

Looking back, I realise that the way I left - with no warning or goodbye - was probably not the best way. I guess in the back of my mind there was always the fact that you guys are "just internet friends" - but actually I miss you. I miss your blogs, and I miss my blog too. I mean, there have to be priorities in life, you can clearly all live without me, and there are things that have to be put first - the Novel, the "real" people in my life and school (sigh) - but after a few lovely comments from some of you guys, I've had a bit of re-evaluation.

And I've decided - my blog doesn't need to be chucked out of the window. Because let's be honest here ... I'm at home at the moment (study leave, woohoo!), but am I finding all my time taken up by revision and creativity and friendship?

No. I'm just spending far too much time on Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, watching How I Met Your Mother literally every weekday, and, inexplicably, playing Bubble Shooter. Why, guys, why?? It's not like there's even levels to move up .... -_-

Basically, I've realised that it is no longer the case that my blog needs to put aside for other things because, newsflash, I do have time for it. And honestly, I think it's a lot healthier to spend your Internet time running a blog than some of the other things I mentioned above (Bubble Shooter, I mean you) because you're actually writing, you're building relationships, you're sharing the things that you care about. 

So here's what's going to happen: without letting Blogger take over my life again, I'm going to restart this blog. I'm not going to post as often I used to, because that's unrealistic, and hopefully with some feedback from you lot I'm going to work out what kind of posts it's actually worth me writing (ie, what posts you actually want to read). I'm going to stop spending so much time doing totally pointless things (Tumblr, and again the Bubble Shooter) - and most importantly, I'm going to start reading your blogs again! Because you guys are hilarious, talented, and frankly pretty awesome. AND I'M SORRY FOR LEAVING.

Now then. Before things get overly sentimental, who'd like to hear a bit about what I've been up to since September?

I knew you'd say yes!

OK so books. Let's take a look at the best things I've read over the last few months.
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. SO GOOD. As a fantasy fan it was about time, and it definitely lived up to expectations. 
Allegiant by Veronica Roth. A great conclusion to the trilogy. Excuse me whilst I go and pick up the pieces of my broken heart ....
~ Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Fantastic book written in the 1930s. Wow dystopian can get SCARY.
~ Sense and Sensibility. I love Jane Austen and this was fabulous as ever! ^_^
~ The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Davies. A completely unexpected French novella - only ninety pages long! - which really affected me ... I loved it.
~ A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. This is the book that I was reading when I left (it's still on my sidebar, at least it will be until I change it), and at nearly 1500 pages it took me until Christmas Eve to finish it. Let me tell you though, it was phenomenal. I might actually do a separate review post because I LOVE this book. A lot. A lot a lot.
~ I also reread the Harry Potter series .... third time lucky ;) Seriously my obsession just grows with age. They will never not be my favourite books. (Among other books, of course, but still. Favourite books.)

Aaaand .... films! (That I watched for the first time. I mean, I watched She's The Man last night and it's still one of the greatest films ever but you guys probably already know how much I love it.) Anyway:
~ American Hustle. I saw this in January and it was soooo good! I can understand all the awards! 
~ Spiderman 2. Saw that two weeks ago. Fantastic. And emotionally devastating. Looking back it had to come ... but I didn't see it coming!! No sir! ~wail~
~ Frozen! DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAAAANNN??? I'm aware that you Disneyaholics will have raved, raved and raved again about this film and I am very late jumping on the bandwagon - but that's what comes of extremely long hiatuses! My favourite song? Honestly, I love Love Is An Open Door (I'm listening to it right now, LIFE CAN ME SO MUCH MORE, WITH YOU, WITH YOU, WITH YOOOUUU!) but now I listen to and it just seems like a lie! Ugh I totally bought into Anna-Hans (Hanna?) - didn't see the end coming! 
~ Dirty Dancing. I watched it the other night, for the first time, and I loved it! :D
There are probably more, but I can't remember right now. 

Music?
~ Permafrost by Laurena Segura. This is a beautiful song. Here:


~ Discovered a pretty awesome band called City and Colour. Get on Spotify my friends!
~ May or may not have got very very into Taylor Swift ... yes I know. Not very indie. BUT WHO CARES! 
~ I SAW ELBOW GUYS. YES ACTUALLY I WAS THERE AND THEY PLAYED STARLINGS AND AND AND ... YEAH. GUYS. I'M NOT OVER THIS YET.
~ I also saw WICKED! IT WAS SO GOOD! I'd never seen it before and didn't know any of the songs but it was just amazing!!!
~ I also saw the Romeo and Juliet ballet, which whilst not entirely faithful to the plot was beautiful and I loved it.
~ Incidentally, that reminds me, we studied Romeo and Juliet in English before Christmas. I became obsessed with it. It is beautiful and I love it.
.... just remembered that this is still the 'music' list. Ah well, now it's the everything else list too!
~ Speaking of English, I studied and fell in love with the poetry of Wilfred Owen. Disabled - check it out. The last two lines hurt my heart.
~ I have written slightly more of that novel ... it's slow progress though. I've somewhat lost the plot. (And when I say somewhat, I mean almost totally.)
~ Discovered Humans of New York. Love love love.
~ Yes, I have exams. But let's not talk about them.
~ Aaand I've done some other fairly normal stuff. Bought some clothes. And some books. Been on holiday. Given presents. Received presents. Been out with friends. Murdered peopl-- just joking. Normal stuff.

... And that, my friends, is an incomplete list of some of the things I've done in some of the time since I left.

Moving swiftly onwards.

I think that's all from me for today - wow, this whole post writing thing is pretty hard when you're out of practice - but I WILL be posting again soon! Maybe on Thursday. We shall see. Now it's time to go and read some of the amazing blogs I've been missing, so I'll leave with a few amusing pictures!

THIS IS SO TRUE AAAGHHHHHH!!!!






I cry, friends. I cry.


^THIS.




... OK so that turned into quite a lot of amusing pictures ... it's been a long time, kay! Now then ... I will see you very shortly!

~ Emily 

12 comments:

  1. YOU'RE BACK! YOU'RE BACK!!! I've missed your lovely posts sooooo much Em.... We should literally have a party now that you're returned to the lovely blogosphere because I know I'm not the only one who wanted you to come "home." Welcome back!

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    1. Thank you so much, this has actually made my day! I AM HOME ~sobs~

      I have missed you guys' posts, I'll nip off to your blog RIGHT THIS SECOND! :D

      Delete
    2. No, you coming back made MY day!
      Awesome. See you there :D

      Delete
  2. Haaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiii Emilyyyyyyyy.

    We MISSED you.

    But, you know, sometimes it's good to take a break. Then you come back all shiny and preppy and it make it fresh. :)

    *dances merrily away*

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Haaaaaiiiiiiii Treskieeeeeeeeeeee.

      Thank you!

      This is very true. Not sure *just* how shiny I am, but we shall see! :D

      Delete
  3. aw yay yay yay yay YAY YOU'RE BACK AND WE'RE NEVER LETTING YOU LEAVE AGAIN!!

    just, ~sigh~ it's so good to have you back, you've been severely missed. a little while back I happened to notice that a lot of blogs had stopped being updated, yours included. I wrote a post on it and everyone said they missed you and FINALLY YOU'RE BACK.

    also, looks like you've been UBER busy in the centuries that you'd left us, and that image about ginny marrying her celebrity crush? if someone were to ~cough~ make that aware to James blunt ~cough~ that i`m ~cough~ just sitting here....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. OK THAT SOUNDS SLIGHTLY SCARY BUT NICE TOO!

      YOU DID??? IMMA FIND THIS POST!!

      Hahaha I know .... I feel you. ~cough~ Johnny Depp ~cough~ I'm right here ~cough cough~

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  4. Dear Emily,

    You smell.

    Sincerely, your secret admirer.

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  5. I'm really glad you're back! I've kinda taken a break too because of exams but I'm gonna try and post more! The Amazing Spiderman 2 was really good - I really loved Dan Dehaan's character. Wilfred Owen's poetry is just beautiful - I studied Dulce Et Decorum Est last year in English and although the word choice at times can be very gruesome it really captured the essence of trench warfare in World War One! :D x

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    1. Yay for more posting!

      Wasn't it? I know, so did I -- for both characterisation and *ahem* aesthetics ;)

      I knoooow -- we studied Anthem for Doomed Youth and Disabled, but I have read Dulce. It gives you a real sense of the truth about war and the capabilities of humanity to do terrible things.

      Thanks for your comment! :D x

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  6. Yay! You're back! This makes me so happy. xD Sense and Sensibility, Brave New World and Lord of the Rings are some of my favourites. I love Harry Potter too, of course. (: The Library of Unrequited Love sounds brilliant; I love books about bookishness. ;)

    I can't believe I haven't seen Spiderman 2 yet! Ahh, silly me. Andrew Garfield is a brilliant actor too. Have you read Never Let Me Go? It's one of my fav books and he plays one of the lead characters in the film. :)

    Those pictures are hilarious hehe. xD Anyway, welcome back! :))

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    1. Yes yes yes, WHAT BRILLIANT BOOKS, and you should definitely read The Library of Unrequited Love, it's so good!

      You neeeed to see it! It is actually fantastic in every way. And Andrew Garfield .... he's just beautiful. ~deep exhale~
      Ooh no I haven't .... TO GOODREADS!

      Aren't they? XD Glad to be back! :D

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Thanks for commenting! :)