My Baffling Brain

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. This week I'm celebrating: - I've changed my dissertation idea completely. My original idea just wasn't working; I started to dread working on it, and I had no idea where I wanted it to go, and I didn't feel attached to any of the characters. I have a couple of new ideas, and I'm really excited about both of them. Now I can't wait to work on it :) - I just had three days off, and it looks like after my weekend at work I'll have another three. This is good for dissertation writing, but not so good for saving money! Luckily I got paid today, and because of all the overtime I did last month I have managed to save quite a lot.

I decided to take part in this bloghop because I believe staying healthy is really important, although I'm not the healthiest person! Thanks to Stephen Tremp , Alex J. Cavanaugh , L. Diane Wolfe and Michael Di Gesu for hosting! Here are some things I do to stay healthy: - I try to have a healthy breakfast, as I believe it really is an important meal. My favourite healthy breakfast is berry granola with fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries on top, covered in low fat vanilla yoghurt - yum! - The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is some stretches, mostly for my back, arms, legs and neck. My job involves a lot of manual labour, and it causes a lot of aching joints and gives awful back ache. Since I started stretching every morning and night, and aching has pretty much stopped. If I forget to do the stretches, the aches come back, so it definitely works! - My job also involves walking a lot, and walking is great exercise. I'd rather walk in a nic...

The Express Yourself meme is co-hosted by  Dani  and  Jackie . Each week bloggers must answer a different question, so they can get to know each other. This week's question is: What are some of your favourite author quotes?  Here are a few that I found: "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default."  — J.K. Rowling “Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out.”  ― J.K. Rowling “I don't believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.”  ― J.K. Rowling “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.”  ― J.K. Rowling “We all need to be mocked from time to time, lest we take ourselves too seriously.” ― George R.R. Martin “A rea...

Ok, confession time: this time last week, I had no idea what Towel Day was. That's right, I signed up for a blogfest that I knew nothing about. However, I'm very glad I did, because this week I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Volume 1, and I loved it! Also, I now know exactly what Towel Day is all about, and I'm happy to report that I know exactly where my towel is :) I saw the film when it came out at the cinema, although that was ages ago so pretty much the only thing I could remember was that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42. Now, having read it, I know that the Earth was commissioned, paid for and run by mice, and that the dolphins were trying to warn humans of its imminent destruction, but their warnings were mistaken for tricks. Both of these species are more intelligent than humans, according to the book, and that I find easy to believe! I love the writing style of the book, and the humour, which is funny without being ...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. This week I'm celebrating: - I went to see Iron Man 3 on Monday, and it was awesome! Then on Tuesday I watched The Avengers with my mum, since she hasn't seen it before. A good film week :) - I'm getting somewhere with my dissertation, although it's rather slow moving at the minute. I do have a concrete idea of what I will be doing, and I've started planning it. No doubt I'll do a blog post about it soon, because I'll probably need your help!

It's time for the Secondary Characters Bloghop, hosted by  Theresa Paolo , Jessica Salyer , Jenny Morris , Suzi Retzlaff , and Kelley Lynn .  Sometimes secondary characters steal the show, (or the book) and become our favorites. On May 22nd we want you to tell us about your favorite secondary characters from books or movies, or both! Whether it's the funny best friend or that goofy kid next door, we want to know what secondary characters  you just couldn't get enough of and why. As soon as I heard about this bloghop, I knew exactly who I would include.  First of all, from the Lord of the Rings series, I've always thought Samwise Gamgee didn't get enough credit. If it wasn't for him, the ring probably would never have been destroyed. Frodo himself said that he wouldn't have gotten very far without Sam, and it's true. Sam really should have got all of the glory! Of course, you have to remember that he didn't have to bear the burden...

The Express Yourself meme is co-hosted by Dani and Jackie . Each week bloggers must answer a different question, so they can get to know each other. This week's question is: What are you reading right now? It can be anything. I tend to read two books at once; one on my Kindle, and one paperback. I'm trying to get through as many as possible, since I'm not doing very well on my Goodreads challenge to read 50 books this year. I'm about 4 books behind, so I need to get reading! On my Kindle, I'm reading Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. It's been on my Kindle for a while, but I've only just got around to reading it. I'm only 10% through, so it hasn't really gripped me yet, but the premise seems interesting. The paperback I'm reading is actually Japanese Manga, my favourite series: Fullmetal Alchemist , by Hiromu Arakawa. My boyfriend got me the first four volumes for Christmas, and I've only just got around to reading them. I've read part o...

I've been a very bad blogger this week, this is my only post! I'll have to do better next week :) Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. This week I'm celebrating: - One of the members of my Creative Writing Masters course had the idea that we should all make an anthology together. I submitted my pieces on Wednesday, and although I feel they were a little rushed, they were still good pieces. I submitted a short story and three pieces of flash fiction.  - I've had all of my marks back from the assignments I've done so far, and they're good, so that's certainly something to celebrate. - And of course, I'm still celebrating Misty, my new kitten. A couple of you have asked for pictures, so here you are: Fast asleep on my knee :) Me and Misty, I look a little dishevelled since I had just woken up f...

Time for my favourite weekly bloghop! It always makes me happy, thinking about things I'm celebrating and reading about the things that other bloggers are celebrating :) Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. This week I'm celebrating: - My holiday is booked! I'm going to Alicante, in Spain, for 10 days at the end of July. Can't wait, I haven't been on a holiday abroad for about five years! - I'm getting a lot of overtime in for the holiday - I was worried I wouldn't be able to get much, because we're overspent on wages, but I'm getting the two extra days a week I want :) - Kitty! Still celebrating kitty, and we've settled on Misty as her name. She's getting bigger already, and she's super playful. I spend my whole shifts at work looking forward to a cuddle from her when I get home...

The question for this week's Express Yourself meme ties in with the A to Z, so I thought it would be a good idea to include it in my Reflections post. Express Yourself is a meme hosted each week by Jackie and Dani . This week's question is: What was the best part of the AtoZ Challenge? If you didn't participate, then what was the best part of April? The best part of the challenge for me was visiting everyone else's blogs; there were some really interesting themes during the challenge, and a great number of blogs that I looked forward to visiting each day. I learnt a lot during the challenge from other blogs, so that's great.  And now for my reflections: I really enjoyed the challenge this year, and I found it much easier than last year simply because I scheduled my posts beforehand. It was much less stressful without the mad dash to write a post on the day I needed it.  Other people have mentioned that they seemed to have less traffic to t...

I didn't get a chance to write a goals post for April because of the A to Z challenge, but my main goal was to get both of my assignments done well in time for the deadline the 24th, and I managed that one fairly successfully. Here are my goals for May: - Start the research for my dissertation - I've worked out a timetable for my dissertation: research in May, planning in June, drafting in July (for Camp NaNo) and editing and revisions in August. Then I can fine tune it at the beginning of September, and get my critical analysis written ready for the deadline on the 12th September. - Read at least 5 more books - I've only read 11 so far this year out of the 50 that I want to read for my Goodreads challenge, so I have some catching up to do! - Work at least 30 hours a week - Now that I've got a few deadlines out of the way, I'm hoping to get some overtime in and start saving some money. I'm hoping to go on holiday at the end of July and to Centerparcs a...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Viklit over at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week. I'm celebrating one main thing this week, and it's quite a big one! Last week I told you all that we had to get our dog put down. Well, it's amazing how much presence a dog can have in a house - it just felt so empty without him there. It didn't help that my mum went out of town for a couple of days, so I was on my own in the house. I had Smoky (our 15 year old cat) but it was strange without Alfie's paws pattering around. So my mum decided it was time for drastic measures: Yep, we got a kitten. It's incredible how such a tiny thing can bring so much life and joy. While she is no replacement for Alfie, she fills part of the hole that he left behind. I look forward to getting home now, instead of dreading returning to an empty house, so she's certainly pro...

Time for another post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group , created by Alex J. Cavanaugh. First of all, thank you to everyone who has visited and commented on my A to Z posts, I've had a lot of lovely comments, so thank you! I haven't returned the favour as much as I would have liked to, but I'm trying to catch up! I've had a busy few weeks. I spent most of this month working on my assignments that were due on the 24th of April, so that's mostly what I'll be talking about. As usual, I'm wondering if I've done enough to get good marks on them - I always feel like I could have worked harder, spent longer editing them, just to make them a little better. I know this is a common feeling with writer's - not feeling like your work is good enough. But there really isn't any point worrying about it anymore - I've handed them in now, so I can't do anything about it. I did work really hard on them, so I'll just have to hope that...