Sorry I’ve been away so long.
This is just a short note to refer you to my new blog, which will explain my absence.
Enjoy 🙂
Tag Archives: inspirational
Welcome To 2013!
So, welcome to 2013, and what will be my second year of blogging. Yes, I started this blog twelve months ago and didn’t really think it would get anywhere – like all my blogs, I figured I’d crash and burn by the middle of February. But here I am a year later with a blog that seems to still be going strong. Of course, most of my views aren’t actually people who read what I say – the majority of my referrals are people looking for “inspirational pictures”, so they stumble across my inspirational posts, presumably steal a few pictures and leave, never to be seen again.
Of course, there are some people I know of who do read my blog, and if you’re one of them, thank you and please stick around! I’m actually going to try and make this into more of an all-rounder blog so as well as writing and moaning about stuff, I’ll be exercizing my right as someone’s fiance to have bits about wedding planning in here, and I’ll also try and do a lot more about being a student – tips and tricks, a little student survival guide. I also want to review a lot more things; got some exciting stuff coming up over the next few months so that section of the blog should get a little busier.
For now, however, I shall leave you all to see in the year however you see fit and I hope that in 2013, you achieve everything you are hoping to achieve and that 2013 is successful, peaceful and happy.
Peace out,
Maddy x
Resolutions
This year I’m not making new year’s resolutions. Last year I made quite a few and I think I did keep many of them – I said b I’d finish a novel and I did, I said I’d do Nanowrimo and I finished the month with over 100k words, and I said I’d think about losing weight and although I’ve yo-yoed a bit when it came to my weight I’ve ended the year lighter than I was when I started, so I consider that a success.
My reason for not doing resolutions this year? Its because all the things I resolved to do were okay, but they were minor successes compared to the things I never dreamed I’d do in 2012. I never imagined that I would write a short story that would get me a place at an awards ceremony in London and a piece in the Wicked Young Writers anthology.
I never imagined I’d get engaged in 2012, or that I’d do so well in my A Levels (one of my resolutions was to get three Cs, so getting ABB felt incredible), and I think the biggest achievement for me was raising over £300 with my fiance for Birmingham Children’s Hospital in memory of my brother, by running a half marathon on what would have been his fifteenth birthday. That was just incredible, and will always be my proudest moment.
So in 2013 I’m going to go with the flow and let life surprise me, because if there’s one lesson I’ve learned this year, it’s that the best achievements are the ones you least expect.
One of the most beautiful blog posts I’ve ever read.
This blog post is just beautiful – read it.
Inspirational Post time!
It’s been a while since I did one of these but they seem to be popular (every day people get to my blog by searching for “inspirational pictures”, so I’m not going to complain if it increases site traffic!), plus I enjoy finding them. The theme for this one is working hard, inspired by the fact that I’m at uni and need to work hard (despite what people might say about students!).
Moomintroll’s Book Of Thoughts
I intended to post this sooner but I’ve been neglectful of my blog, and I do apologize.
Look what my other (better) half got me for my birthday –
It’s “Moomintroll’s Book Of Thoughts”, and it’s lovely! It reads like a Moomin version of “Chicken Soup For The Soul” (another favourite of mine), and I thought I’d share some of the nicest quotes with you all 🙂
“By the end of the hairs on my long, long tail!”
It’s just a great thing to say in general. I think I should start using that as my exclamation of surprise in the future, rather than “oh my god” or the recent one, “jeez”.
“Moomintroll wrinkled his snout, but said nothing”
I like this one because it’s something I do a lot – I wrinkle my nose up when I’m laughing, and often I can’t control it and my nose wrinkles up anyway. I think I’m more like the namesake of my nickname than I realized!
“I’d raise my eyes towards the clear blue sky that musn’t perish, that keeper of the burning amber sun that I do cherish”.
I think that’s just lovely 🙂
“You bob along like a cork in the rainbow-coloured mist of the water, but the heavy surges keep pushing you back towards the shore. You end up being thrown back to the sandy beach, laughing and taken aback by it all”
I love the imagery and the simplicity of the statements… Tove Jansson writes what would normally be the most simple of statements, and yet he has a way of writing them that makes them beautiful.
“How wonderful to be a Moomin”.
How wonderful indeed 🙂
“He thought about the sea, the rain, the wind, the sunshine, the grass and the moss… and how it would be impossible to live without them”.
Again, such a simple statement, but it highlights the beauty of nature and just how much we take it for granted.
“Mamma, wake up”, Moomintroll cried. “Something altogether dreadful is happening. They call it Christmas”.
Just a random one that I like, it’s funny.
“We have to bring provisions along,” said Moomintroll.
This quote is quite nice in itself, but probably nothing special. It is nothing without the picture that goes with it –
“What an exciting life we live,” thought Moomintroll. “Everything could be turned upside down in a moment – for no reason whatsoever”.
“Isn’t it strange,” said Moomintroll, “that we who are going directly towards the most dangerous place are less frightened than those who are leaving it?”
“There’s no need to pretend that you are radiantly beautiful, because you are”.
“Then he held the lamp up high over the Snork Maiden and gazed at her thoughtfully. Her fringe gleamed in the lamplight; he saw that she was unbearably sweet”.
“Perhaps the happiest one of all was Moomintroll, who walked home with his mother through the garden, just as the moon was fading into dawn. The trees were swaying slowly in the morning breeze rising up from the sea”.
An Appeal
I know it’s not too long since I was bugging you all for sponsors for the 10k midnight walk I did recently, but this time the challenge is much bigger. I’ve never personally relied on the hospice, but wanted to support the charity should I or my loved ones ever require it. However, Birmingham Children’s Hospital – the charity I’m participating in the BUPA Great Birmingham Run half-marathon for – has had a very profound effect on my life – indeed, I wouldn’t be here, writing this blog today if not for the people at BCH, which is why I really want to raise so much money for them. At three months old, I had a life-threatening illness, and without Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the past almost-eighteen years wouldn’t have happened and I wouldn’t be alive.
The hospital also made my brother’s last days comfortable for him and for all of us, and gave us some wonderful mementos and memories of him that will last forever and we’ll always cherish them. If I can help in any small way to help the hospital to provide the same service to the countless other families like us who pass through their doors every day, I’m going to – and I’d love it if you could all help me with this. I have a JustGiving page where I discuss my reasons in greater detail, but it’s going to be a big challenge to train myself to run 13 miles by October. My intention had been to run the Manchester 10k next year – much more achievable – but the Birmingham half marathon takes place on October 21st this year, what would have been my little brother Owain’s 15th birthday, and everything about it seems perfect.
http://www.justgiving.com/madison-matthews/eurl.axd/a1ab18fa3c6a834d8d8dcdbe029e06c9
Please, please sponsor me and help to raise money for this fantastic cause!
Inspirational People
A schoolboy dying from a brain tumour has stunned his family with his bravery after responding to his terminal condition by saying: ‘You can’t win them all.’
Sometimes it’s nice to see an inspirational young person in the news, combating the stereotype that we’re all horrible yobs who spend our time smoking and frightening old women and don’t give a damn about the future. However, sometimes it’s awful, and you find yourself wishing that the young person you’re reading about had no reason to be in the newspaper. This is one of those times.
This young man is sixteen years old and he’s had a brain tumour for the past five years. They thought he was recovering, but he relapsed recently and it is terminal – he has a matter of weeks to live, but he’s bravely responded by refusing treatment and saying “You can’t win them all”. It’s an unimaginable situation to be in at any age, but at sixteen? It’s a reflection on his incredibly mature attitude, because I have no idea what I’d do in that situation, but I doubt I’d be as accepting of it.
His aim now is to make it to his school prom on the 28th of June, but they are unsure as to how many weeks he may have left to live. I really hope every effort is made – even if they have to bring the prom forwards! – to allow him to go to his prom, and I also urge all of you to look at HeadSmart, a movement started by the Samantha Dickinson Brain Tumour Trust, to encourage faster diagnosis of brain tumours –Â http://www.headsmart.org.uk/home/
Aaaand hello writer’s block.
I had my first exam today! Drama, the re-sit of the paper I did in January and I’m so pleased with the questions, they were so much better than last time and exactly what I’d hoped for. I’m not entirely sure how I did – I messed up timing with painkillers and ended up doing the last half an hour or so with a few concentration lapses because I was in pain, and time constraints are evil on that exam because there’s so much to do, but I’m hoping it’ll be enough to get me maybe a B, which is great because it brings me closer to getting into university. My hand is killing me from all the writing I’ve done, but I’ve got eighteen days to recover before my next exam (Psychology, which is also a mass of writing to do but I’m feeling prepared for that one), and then two days until Epic Exam #3, English. Then I’m done with exams and college!
The words were really flowing yesterday – I was finding it really easy to write, I knew where the story I’m writing was going and everything and yet today, when I tried, it just didn’t work – the characters are completely different to how they were yesterday for some reason, I just can’t write them in the same way. I guess maybe the sheer amount of writing I’ve done today has taken it out of me and I need to give it a break. I’m still hoping to post them up here soon so that rather than me just blabbering on about my writing like I have done for the past few months, I’m actually going to post some writing up, which is what this blog was originally intended for. When I’m better, I am going to work on sorting out videos of me singing to come up on here too, I promise 🙂 Things got a little sidetracked by my misbehaving kidneys, and they’re still refusing to toe the line but we’ll get there eventually.
So, I think it’s best to leave the writing for tonight and maybe tomorrow – or maybe to just have a whole weekend away from writing and needing to think too much, and just doing things I enjoy. Face painting this weekend, pwning some n00bz on Black Ops tomorrow and then a week off to recharge my batteries and do some more revision to make sure I’m as ready as possible for the exams. It’s kind of hit me today just how important these exams are, and I’m not going to take them lightly.
Oh, and for those of you awaiting a new “inspirational pictures” post (yeah, I see you all, getting to my blog by searching google for numerous variants on the phrase “inspirational pictures”, and I’m sorry I’ve not posted any more recently but I haven’t been feeling inspirational!), it will be along soon. Not sure when, but soon.
And now, in conclusion, the mushy section of this blog post. I’ve been with my boyfriend for seventeen months yesterday (the 31st) and he’s made me so happy in those seventeen months, I don’t know what I’d do without him, so if he reads this (and I hope he reads this, because I read his blog 😉 ) I love you and thank you for everything you do for me and, to quote the vernacular, this one’s for you 😉
Inspirational Pictures #3: A De-Motivational Special!
Well, today’s “Inspirational Pictures” might not be inspirational ones, but ones which may make you smile and laugh. If you spend a lot of time on the internet (essentially, if you’re a geek like me and proud!), you’ll probably have stumbled across these at one point. You’ve probably seen the motivational posters – a picture of a landscape, or entwined hands with a heartwarming caption to ensure you that no matter how bad things get, one day, you too might hold hands with someone, or fall off a mountain through the clouds to the beautiful floor below, or whatever it is those pictures are trying to encourage.
Demotivational posters do quite the opposite. They use the same format, but the captions… well, I wouldn’t exactly call them motivational. And as for the pictures… they might not warm your heart. It’s hard to explain, but if you’re a newcomer to the world of demotivational, you’ll understand once you’ve seen these choice examples, my personal favourites.
Enjoy!
the life of a moomin 