Tech Virgin... Tries Vlogging! Part II...

So here it is. Warts and all. And there are quite a lot of production, presentation and knowledge warts on display. 

What can I say? I'm not very good at it and I panic in front of a camera. But it was my first attempt. And this opening try lasted miles longer than my first attempt at sex...

Tech Virgin... Tries Vlogging! Part I...

I have just completed a Tech Virgin column on vlogging. So to accompany the written piece, I attempted to create a vlog and edit it.

It's pretty basic and it's miles too long, but I may well do a few more to get my skills up to scratch. I find the filming and appearing in front of a camera bit of it quite odd. Sadly, I have a face for radio and a voice only a hard-of-hearing mother could love. But I like the editing and putting the thing together process. 

Also, when I eventually do post it, please don't be scared or intimidated by the technical terms such as 'the pressy go button'.

Back on the Mats

It's been a largely frustrating past three months on the martial arts training front. I've kept in touch with some form of light hapkido training and I've also done some boxing and some sparring drills, but BJJ has been a non-starter. A dodgy fall at hapkido saw a neck and shoulder injury, then another incident saw me tear some intercostal muscles. 

This meant I also missed a hapkido grading I was aiming to attend, which would have put me a step closer to my second dan grading, and it also meant a chance to compete at BJJ was not happening. 

This week, however, I have finally completed the triumvirate of hapkido, boxing and BJJ, and my body doesn't seem to be in too much agony, This is hopeful as it suggests I'll be back in full training mode within a few weeks as long as I don't do anything too stupid or push my body to quickly. 

At BJJ, I also did some no-gi with a very helpful and lightning fast no-gi competitor. If I end up not working in London next year, I'll be moving my BJJ training to a gym nearer home. I am also planning on doing no-gi instead of gi for a while, so it was good to have a chance to do some of it.

Goodbye Buffy...

Fluffy Buffy came into our lives in April 2001. We got her and her mum, Large Marge, from a cat rescue home in London and they rapidly became part of the family. 

Marge, sadly, died six years later. Buffy, however, thrived and has been with us ever since. Until a few days ago. 

There had been lots of deliveries and pick-ups from the house, so we didn't see much of her. But that wasn't unusual. She had morphed from a killer and a hunter into a gentle and sensitive cat. In the last five years, she'd often spend large amounts of time curled up in the house in the quietest place she could find. This usually meant sleeping on or under our bed. She'd also sleep with us during the night. It was cute. How we adored that cat. 

We'd seen less of her over the last week or so, but we put that down to her hiding from the various deliveries. We had still seen her, though, and she was eating. Then a few days ago, her health basically dropped off a cliff. She curled up in my office for a day or so and she wouldn't interact. The next day we saw her outside and her back legs buckled and we took her to the vets. 

The upshot was that she couldn't be saved, despite the best efforts of the vet and her team. So we put her to sleep. I've been through the process of Kitty Dignitas with two old and ill cats and one seriously injured cat. And it remains awful.

I will miss her terribly. Rest in peace, Buffy. You were one much-loved cat.

On Writing and Martial Arts...

The two rehearsed readings of The Selkie are done and dusted and I am now in rewrite mode for two weeks. Then I will put the script away for a few months as I embark on a new project and come back to it in the new year.

Writing as a discipline is like any other discipline and I think the links between writing and martial arts training are very strong.

The most important thing at both is that you have to put the hours in and actually do it. 

Work pressures pre-redundancy prevented me from writing for large parts of the year. When redundancy happened, though, my writing discipline kicked in and I got through the first draft of the play very quickly. I did lots then and I will continue to write lots going forward. I may not get this time again and I have to ensure it is not frittered away.

Ironically, when redundancy happened, I had extra time to train, too. This was exciting. Then a bad fall at hapkido and torn intercostal muscles further down the road meant I couldn't train much hapkido or boxing and BJJ was a non-starter. Thankfully, my body seems to be back up and running, so I'll be returning to the BJJ and hapkido mats proper next week. I am delighted about this as I need to get back to training. I need do it properly again.

But 'properly' has different meanings for different people. For me, it means training three to four times a week at most. To be honest, my body can't take much more than that. But martial arts has always been a recreational thing for me and, even though I have competed a bit, it's always been about the training, overcoming problems and celebrating the slight improvements. 

It's a similar thing with writing. The slight improvements and overcoming problems are the things that make you better and the reason you put the work in. I've been a professional journalist for 29 years and a sometimes decent playwright for some of that time. I can do character and dialogue. But understanding things like structure, balance, momentum and plot are areas where I think I have got better and have made continual improvements. Structure, balance and momentum are also cornerstone tenets of many martial arts. 

The Selkie represents an advance for my writing because I've taken lots of previous lessons onboard and, while it is by no means an unflawed piece of work, I can see the bits where it flies. But I can also see the holes and it's sorting those out that is the next step. 

And that remains the same with my hapkido and, when I get back to it, my BJJ. I know where I'm OK at both of these things. But I know where the massive holes are and my martial arts journey and my writing journey will be about trying to fill some of them in. 

I don't think that makes me sound like too much of a twat. But it may do.

Redundancy: Part III...

With draft one of The Selkie now in a decent place and the two rehearsed readings in the bag, I am about to turn my attention to my second writing project of a planned three before the end of the year.

This is a graphic novel based on a friend's idea involving Count Dracula. I can't give too many details away at the moment, but he's doing the art and I'm co-writing the script with him.

We've already storylined most of the first book, which we are hoping will be an ongoing series. And get picked up by Netflix. And make us loads of money. With critical success. And a thriving merchandising arm.

We're also getting to grips with how to format and write a graphic novel script. This is an entirely new skill set for both of us. But as we're both massive comics fans, we should be able to turn our comic consumer heads into comic creator heads.

It's going to be hard work but it will also be a lot of fun. I am bigly looking forward to this...