Well. Blogging. This is new, modern, very twenty-first century. A new year, a new blog and a first post that is likely being replicated all over the internet by other keen people with a similar new year’s resolution. My name is James Damm, for the purposes of this blog Jimbo Van Damm, and for the next year this is going to be my attempt to write fifty-two blog posts or one a week. Let’s see if I last the first three…
So for anybody reading this I guess a bit of an introduction and a motive for writing a blog in the first place is required. If I’m going to have the ego to deem my thoughts and feelings worthy of your time I guess some justification is required in return. Who am I? What is the content of the blog going to be about? Is the title of the site a reference to Jean Claude Van Damme?
Who am I?
I’m a twenty-four, soon to be twenty-five, year old graduate living in Leeds. Originally from Northumberland I grew up in a place called Morpeth, went to university in York for four years and I have been in Leeds on a graduate scheme for the past two and a bit years. For Christmas I got my girlfriend Lucy an art set and on our Tuesday date nights in the coming year the idea is a different pub each week where we chill out, drink beer, and do creative projects. I can’t draw and while I write fiction (to be covered below) I’d like something ongoing to show for my time. I want this to be a more personal project and my own voice rather than anything super professional so my day job or career won’t be covered. Now that’s cleared up what can you expect in a blog by somebody who has no idea what they’re doing or what the blog is going to look like yet?
Politics
I’m one of those pesky millennial snowflakes who eats avocados, drinks cappuccinos and voted for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. Twice. The Daily Mail might hate me and everything I stand for but I like to consider myself pretty well informed on UK politics. It’s an interesting time (if you find everything burning around you to be interesting)… Which I do.
Reading/ Writing
On a weekly basis I help organise and run a writing group in Leeds. Shoved in a drawer is the second draft of an seventy-five-thousand word book I’ve written in the past couple of years and a few other ideas sit in an early phase. The plan is to publish it one way or another in the coming year. That’s hopefully interesting, right?
Films and Television
Netflix counts as a hobby… Once upon a time I reviewed films on Youtube with marginal success. The channel has long since become a dumping ground for holiday videos of me and my friends getting drunk but my interest in the latest releases remains. Expect rambling posts about why The Shield has the best finale of a show to date and Jaime Lannister is the best Game of Thrones character.
Social Issues
That’s a heavy subtitle isn’t it? If there are two primary social issues I’m passionate about it is homelessness and mental health, unfortunately often interlinked. Did you know six hundred people have died rough sleeping in the last year? Or that fifty-five percent of deaths are suicide, drug or alcohol related? Look at me spreading some facts out there already. You can read more here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46613609
Conclusion
So there we have it. A first blog post where I try and cover off potential subjects and topics I haven’t even written about yet. Most of the early readers of this blog will be family and friends, all too aware of who I am and what I’m about. But to anybody out there who has no idea who I am hopefully the above will be enough to whet the appetite for more content or cause you to click exit and never hear from me again. How do you end your first blog? Confirming that the website title is indeed a reference to Jean Claude Van Damme and a gif of him dancing terribly? Let’s do it.
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