Results day...not exactly the best time in the life of any student. It is a day filled with worry, prayers, and at the same time as great celebration, can be filled with deep mourning over an opportunity missed. Yet, on this seemingly dark day for many unfortunate, I consider this day to have been a great success for me. There is a very simple reason for this, and that's that after two long years at Cirencester College, I have finally got the grades I need to become an officer in her Majesty's Armed Forces, but more specifically, in the Royal Air Force.
It seems funny to me now that I never originally wanted to go anywhere near a combat zone. I remember the days sitting in School thinking that one day I wanted to become some kind of Lawyer, putting people behind bars and raking in a ton of cash...until I took a law taster session that is. I found it to be the dullest thing I have ever tried to sit through in my entire life! At the time, I had been in cadets for around a year, and that's when I realised that maybe if I enjoyed cadets so damn much, I should think strongly about the RAF
Enough about the past though...I'm sure you got enough personal history from my last Blog...and this is not an autobiography after all. Maybe one day, if I become some kind of war hero I will write one, but until then you have to put up with my mad ranting.
The path leading up to today should have been paved with concern and apprehension....and yet the truth could not be more different. It was instead paved with YouTube vids, bad singing, good friends and of course, copious amounts of booze. This combination succeeded in numbing the thoughts of a potential failure and sitting behind a Sodding desk for the rest of my days.
After listening to Bon Jovi's living on a prayer, I received my A-level results:
-Chemistry = U. Yes, I know it does not seem like a fantastic start, but I knew that was going to end badly. I revised like a beaver on steroids and I still came out with a fail...I guess I just don't have the talent for it
-General studies = D. Now I know everyone says this subject is a waste of space, but the RAF accepts it, so I win this round world. And seeing as they only wanted an 'E'...
-History = C to be honest, I had the E I needed before I even went into the exam hall.
With these grades, I have the Two A-levels I need to become an RAF officer, and the right amount of UCAS points to become an officer in any other of Her Majesty's armed forces. I’m rather chuffed. So hopefully, by September 2011, I will be at RAF Cranwell training to become an Officer of the RAF...I do believe there is only one appropriate way to end this post...
God Save the Queen!
Thursday 19 August 2010
Tuesday 3 August 2010
The Adventures of a wannabe Writer: chonology
As my friends know, I am somewhat of an ametur writer. When i'm bored, upset, angry, or just have a moment of creative output, I tend to sit down in front of my laptop and type away, not to dissimilar for what I am doing here, but in far greater quantities of words. Now i have been trying to write and complete stories for a good 7 or 8 years of my life, which all things considered, is a rather long time.
Now the day that this whole obsesion with writing began was in my opinion, one of the most influential days of my life. It all started with a playground game that myself and my good friend Hamlyn used to play. The game involved two 11 year old geniuses (these were the characters...this is not a reflection of my vanity) names James Zilch and Thomas Stroy. The pair of kids basicly flew around kicking the heads off bad guys wherever the world needed them to do so. One day, me and Hamlyn decided to write the adventures of these two brave childeren in a story, titled 'Warfare'. Now this got a little out of hand for various reasons, but from that point onwards, I found that even though at the time, I had no tallent for manipulating the English language to express emotion or to describe events or characters, I had certainly enjoyed it. Now, 'Warfare' has slowly evolved, both myself and Hamlyn (tho' mostly Hamlyn) have found ourselves wanting to rewrite it, coming up with better storylines, better characters, and better ideas. But this has happened multiple times, which leads me to the pessimistic conclusion that I doubt 'Warfare' will ever truely be writen and completed. Though saying that, Hamlyn is welcome to prove me wrong at any time.
The next tale on my Adventures into the realm of fiction was titled 'Emotions of War'. This story was again a twin venture my myself and Hamlyn. The initial idea came from me this time however. The storyline involved a group of 5 teens, aged about 17 gaining odd abilities through a meteor. I know what you are all thinking...it's been done about 5 million times. But at the time, when I was only about 13, This was fantastic! The story was quite shortlived however. With GCSEs coming in, it became far more difficult to see Hamlyn and indeed to write along side him. Thus 'Emotions of War' never realy got past chapter 2.
Although there is another story between this one and the one just mentioned, I will discuss it later. This story is where my creative side realy came to bloom in a book called 'Double Edge'. This was my view of a seriously messed up world, where Power is the only asset worth having. The first few lines describe best how the world of Double Edge is set out:
"Control. That’s what this country is about. Complete and utter control of its citizens. Control is so important to the ruler that any opposition, even a foul mention is dealt with swiftly and decisively. There is no escape from this way of life. And those who try…are eliminated."
Double Edge is the codename of the main character. Edge is what is known as a 'Hunter'. Hunters are specialised soldiers who were kidnapped as childeren, had their memories erased and replaced with false ones and trained to be cold hearted Killers. But with Edge, not everything was destroyed
"Can something ever be truly destroyed, weather it be object or organic? As cities are rebuilt, so a body and mind can pick itself up and begin to put things back. Even if something is completely crushed, and only dust remains…sometimes those small fragments are enough to rebuild. The memory too, even if erased to the point of no return, shall always keep one thing…
And that is enough to rebuild an existence…"
This is another extract from the end of Chapter 3, inspired from the short extracts in the book 'My Swordhand is Singing' (which if you ask me is a book a certain Stephenie Meyer desperatly needs to read). The story however, never truely got off it's feet. But when i have finished what I am doing now, I swear I will come back and I will finish my story.
By far one of my greatest victories however was a story called 'Anonymous', which is the only story I have so far seen through to it's very end (that said I am still editing, though a second draft will be released shortly). For the life of me I cannot remember where I got the idea from, nor can I remeber when I actualy began to write it. But it took me nearly a year and a half to finish. I still remeber the sheer joy that took hold of me the day I finished it. 'Anonymous' revolves around a young mercenary who was never realy named as a child. Whilst out on mission, he saves a young female politican, who recruits him as a bodyguard. But this man goes against his morals when he falls in love with her (there's a shocker eh lads). This causes him to become tangled in a series of events leading him into conflict with his troubled past, his Love for the girl, and his closest companion.
The book I'm working on now belongs in the gap between 'Emotions of War' and 'Double Edge'. There is a good reason for this and thats that i've tried to write it before. The book is called 'Devil Inside' (though i realy want a new title). I'm not going to go into any detail in this one because I don't want to spoil the suprise.
If you have read all the way up untill this point, I honestly congratulate you and your persistance. I'm sure you are expecting some form of reward, but you will just have to accept the reward of the knowlage that I probably won't write another one of these for at least a week...unless I find something worth writing about
Now the day that this whole obsesion with writing began was in my opinion, one of the most influential days of my life. It all started with a playground game that myself and my good friend Hamlyn used to play. The game involved two 11 year old geniuses (these were the characters...this is not a reflection of my vanity) names James Zilch and Thomas Stroy. The pair of kids basicly flew around kicking the heads off bad guys wherever the world needed them to do so. One day, me and Hamlyn decided to write the adventures of these two brave childeren in a story, titled 'Warfare'. Now this got a little out of hand for various reasons, but from that point onwards, I found that even though at the time, I had no tallent for manipulating the English language to express emotion or to describe events or characters, I had certainly enjoyed it. Now, 'Warfare' has slowly evolved, both myself and Hamlyn (tho' mostly Hamlyn) have found ourselves wanting to rewrite it, coming up with better storylines, better characters, and better ideas. But this has happened multiple times, which leads me to the pessimistic conclusion that I doubt 'Warfare' will ever truely be writen and completed. Though saying that, Hamlyn is welcome to prove me wrong at any time.
The next tale on my Adventures into the realm of fiction was titled 'Emotions of War'. This story was again a twin venture my myself and Hamlyn. The initial idea came from me this time however. The storyline involved a group of 5 teens, aged about 17 gaining odd abilities through a meteor. I know what you are all thinking...it's been done about 5 million times. But at the time, when I was only about 13, This was fantastic! The story was quite shortlived however. With GCSEs coming in, it became far more difficult to see Hamlyn and indeed to write along side him. Thus 'Emotions of War' never realy got past chapter 2.
Although there is another story between this one and the one just mentioned, I will discuss it later. This story is where my creative side realy came to bloom in a book called 'Double Edge'. This was my view of a seriously messed up world, where Power is the only asset worth having. The first few lines describe best how the world of Double Edge is set out:
"Control. That’s what this country is about. Complete and utter control of its citizens. Control is so important to the ruler that any opposition, even a foul mention is dealt with swiftly and decisively. There is no escape from this way of life. And those who try…are eliminated."
Double Edge is the codename of the main character. Edge is what is known as a 'Hunter'. Hunters are specialised soldiers who were kidnapped as childeren, had their memories erased and replaced with false ones and trained to be cold hearted Killers. But with Edge, not everything was destroyed
"Can something ever be truly destroyed, weather it be object or organic? As cities are rebuilt, so a body and mind can pick itself up and begin to put things back. Even if something is completely crushed, and only dust remains…sometimes those small fragments are enough to rebuild. The memory too, even if erased to the point of no return, shall always keep one thing…
And that is enough to rebuild an existence…"
This is another extract from the end of Chapter 3, inspired from the short extracts in the book 'My Swordhand is Singing' (which if you ask me is a book a certain Stephenie Meyer desperatly needs to read). The story however, never truely got off it's feet. But when i have finished what I am doing now, I swear I will come back and I will finish my story.
By far one of my greatest victories however was a story called 'Anonymous', which is the only story I have so far seen through to it's very end (that said I am still editing, though a second draft will be released shortly). For the life of me I cannot remember where I got the idea from, nor can I remeber when I actualy began to write it. But it took me nearly a year and a half to finish. I still remeber the sheer joy that took hold of me the day I finished it. 'Anonymous' revolves around a young mercenary who was never realy named as a child. Whilst out on mission, he saves a young female politican, who recruits him as a bodyguard. But this man goes against his morals when he falls in love with her (there's a shocker eh lads). This causes him to become tangled in a series of events leading him into conflict with his troubled past, his Love for the girl, and his closest companion.
The book I'm working on now belongs in the gap between 'Emotions of War' and 'Double Edge'. There is a good reason for this and thats that i've tried to write it before. The book is called 'Devil Inside' (though i realy want a new title). I'm not going to go into any detail in this one because I don't want to spoil the suprise.
If you have read all the way up untill this point, I honestly congratulate you and your persistance. I'm sure you are expecting some form of reward, but you will just have to accept the reward of the knowlage that I probably won't write another one of these for at least a week...unless I find something worth writing about
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