Here we (I) go again

A message from the author, that would be me, Joe.

This blog, that I own and which is mine, first appeared in April 2012, almost three years ago. I still like the name, but I've elected to remove all of the 28 previous posts, at least until I give them a read-through and make sure I didn't write anything I shouldn't have way back in my 'wild' days, but I don't think any of it was too stupid or too incriminating so it should reappear shortly.

Anyway, I'm going to start writing/blogging again, as much as I can and I'll see where it takes me. A daily entry would be a real achievement but I reckon weekly would be more realistic. I realise I am pretty much just one voice trying to assert itself in the cacophony of shouting and traffic and vines and tweets and webs and pages and sites and trolls and bugs and spam and hacktivists and terrorists and journalists and the NSA (hey guys!), but the point of this is to practice writing, so I may as well bail on regardless. Also, I wanted to start writing a diary in the new year, and I started, but then I missed a week (one out of two ain't bad), and I couldn't bear the thought of continuing the diary with the constant reminder of my failure manifest in that empty, entry-less week, which doubtless would've puzzled scholars for centuries as they tried to figure out exactly what I did for those seven mysterious, undocumented days, so I'm going to return to this blog as a slightly different reminder of defeat, but a reminder of defeat that comes with a cool selection of fonts. 

"I could do with a couple of bottles of stout" - I haven't been out or had any alcoholic drinks since Friday the second of January (2015), twelve odd days, and as I began to read my first book of this term, Jennifer Johnston's Shadows on our Skin, this line within the first ten pages both taunted me and summed up my mood at present. I'd really like a pint of shtout. I plan to go off it indefinitely, however, so that may well become a recurrent feature of the blog posts to come.

2015 - I like the number, I've got a good feeling about it, all the better for this thing then, maybe I'll have something interesting to write about.

Slán go fóill and over and out,

Joe.

The Tamaill Tiger

Sure hasn't it been a while - a tamaill - which just for old time's sake can be my (cue fanfare) Irish Word Of The Week! A word which has absolutely no connection with the Sri Lankan militant organisation, the Tamil Tigers. Though if we accept tamaill to specifically translate as the word 'while' and not just a period of time then that kind of makes sense i.e. those are some 'while tigers'. Thus after almost two years without writing anything in my sensually titled blog, I announce my return with a joke that is both obscure and largely dependent on you having a grasp of colloquially mispronounced and idiomatic Fermanagh-isms which should really be the subject of a lengthy post or thesis at a later date. Anyhoo I digress, to paraphrase the -Terminator - I'm Back!
Well we'll see what happens. The thing is, a lot has changed since I created and then slowly became less interested in this blog, but not too much I hope. I remember once being told by my year 13 Politics teacher that most peoples' brains peak at the age of seventeen and being utterly terrified and thinking, "Fuck! I'd better write my life-defining, legacy-leaving play/novel/tv-series/screenplay/short story/poem or just something!" So I eventually wrote a blog for a bit and then gave up.
Two years later and my portfolio of writing has not expanded to any great extent and, if Mrs. Beeson is to be believed, my best years are behind me. My mind is now gloop. And to make matters worse, I have become a 'recreational alcoholic', or 'student'. The little boy who achieved the heights of 'best academic in Year 8' has become this:

That's right. I am out of control.
The bottle pictured above may well have contained over a sixth of its maximum contents by the time I got my fiendish hands to it. Won't somebody please think of the children.
So I return to my pretentiously titled blog at a time in my life when, specifically, I am lying in bed at home in Fermanagh with self-diagnosed tonsillitis (an experience which may affect my relationship with my as yet unborn son who shall be named Tonsil) having come home at the weekend to play hurling only to be struck down with illness - oh the horror! But more generally I am midway through my second term at Trinity College Dublin where I am studying English Literature and I have realised that I am doing a lot more thinking. At first this thinking manifested itself in my return to Twitter, something which happens once or twice a year since I do tend to go through phases of stuff. But as I sat struggling with the immense pressure of being funny in my Twitter 'bio' I had a nice wee epiphany (these tend to be more frequent the more thinking I do). I thought why 'micro-blog' when I can 'macro-blog', or 'blog'. So I came back to Oftentimes, just to touch base (awful phrase) and hopefully it will be a little less awkward the next time I decide I'd like to write having got the initial reunion over with. I wanted to write about what I was thinking about when trying to cram everything about me into a limited paragraph or even a single phrase but that can wait for another day now that the pleasantries are almost complete.
On a more narcissistic note, when I type 'Oftentimes' into Google my blog is way down the list instead of where it should be and well, that just ain't right.
Finally, I glanced at my old blogposts and noticed one entitled 'Stupid like a fox', my fox favouritism and phrase usage has not waned in two years so I can't have changed that much. I think that's a good thing. I like me. #narcissist

Joe