Thursday, July 05, 2007

Blogoff post: Survivor


Welcome to blogoff number 2 - this time there are no eliminations, no voting off the island, everyone will survive. Just like the song!


I'm pleased about that. I hated the eliminations, seeing a friendly voice disappear each week. This blogoff is much more inclusive but with 21 people playing the game, we will have a lot of words to read each week. And its great to welcome new people amongst the now familiar bloggers. All the bloggers are listed in the menu under 'Blogoff Participants.' Please pay them a visit.


I was surprised that I was a survivor for so long during the last competition. I'm not known for my survival skills. Leave me on an island, and I'd probably starve, go bonkers or both. I'd be totally consumed by chocolate cravings, and would probably start hallucinating, imagining that everything around me is turning to chocolate... just like the Cadbury commercial. Maybe I'd come to my senses just as I start gnawing on the palm tree. But maybe not.


While I don't think I'd cope very well if I was alone on an island or in the jungle, its not the being alone bit that I would mind. I often crave solitude. Especially after a day at work where I've been surrounded by noise all day, the constant chatter, the voices raising, the endless voices on the end of the telephone. Sometimes I just want silence when I get home. A chance for my mind to rest, for my ears to relax, and for my tongue to be still. Perhaps that's why the internet is so alluring - I can converse with fingers on the keyboard, and there is no accompanying white noise.


All I need to cope with the solitude is pen and paper. Or a laptop. Although I guess a laptop wouldn't last long on an island - unless it came with a solar charged battery.


Have you ever felt that your life is just about survival? Each day blends into another, and you constantly get a feeling of deja vu, because you've done exactly the same thing the day before. My life is flashing before my eyes, and I have nothing to mark one day off from the next. I'm spending a lot of extra time at work, and the collage poetry is not happening, the writing isn't happening, I've barely got it together to even write this post. But I keep telling myself I will survive. It's a temporary phase that I'm going through. And in three weeks time, I'll be on holidays, and travelling to Byron Bay Writers Festival. Until then, I have to survive. I've already paid for the ticket.

This is the second blogoff organised by Courtney at Five Second Dance Party. Raising money towards breast cancer research, for four weeks we blog on a one word topic. If you would like to make a donation to the cause, click on the banner at the top of the post which will take you to Courtney's fundraising page.

10 comments:

Evey said...

I get like that sometimes too where I feel like I am in survival mode just trying to keep my head above water. Life is crazy sometimes. Enjoy your holidays when they finally arrive.

Good luck!!

Anonymous said...

It really does feel like every day is a battle to get through, I know exactly what you mean. I'm in survival mode right now.. just get the &%&$ done so I can go to sleep and do it all again. It's unfortunate- I wish it were easier for us to live our lives with a lighter step and a more carefree attitude.

Anonymous said...

Like Courtney said, sometimes it's amazing as to what we go through just to make it in normal life, let alone anything else. And then something BIG comes along and you're pretty sure that packing it all in and finding a good hole to curl up in would be a good enough way to spend the next, oh, 6 years.

I've always wondered how I'd fare on an island. Like you, I have a "solitude requirement" built-in to my psyche. I have to be alone for so many hours in a day or I get extremely agitated and cranky. My wife, thankfully, knows this and leaves me the heck alone when I need the time.

Cupcake Blonde said...

I do enough in my daily life trying to survive that I can't ever imagine taking on more. But then something comes up and I work it in and somehow I am still treading water and staying afloat. Some days I am amazed at how I managed not to just say "screw it all" and let everything drop. I guess it's in my nature to keep my crazy life going.

Jason said...

Have you ever felt that your life is just about survival?

I think Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five said it best... "It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under."

QueenieCarly said...

I guess you just make time for everything you need to make time for. It's like the more money you make, the more you spend, but the opposite. The more you have to do, the more you take away from other things to get it done. I've been feeling like I can barely keep my head about water for the last couple of months, but I'm clutching the belief that it's going to get better. I guess it is, slowly.

Anonymous said...

There is truly nothing like leaving work and feeling a sense of "survivordom". Truly. Another day closer to retirement, right?

Lynn said...

Great piece.
I think that you have just put into words what many of us feel.

Miss H. said...

Oh...I am not surprised that you survived in the last competition. I enjoyed reading (and will continue to enjoy reading) your posts.

Diane said...

hey dex, everyday is one day closer to long service leave. 3 months paid leave! Retirement still seems a long way off.