Hi there.
First things first, thank you for stopping by and taking a look at my blog. Right now it really isn't much but I hope I'm able to keep this up so it turns into something useful and interesting. Throughout the next few weeks, months or even years I aim to populate this page with posts about my travels and interests. My first series of posts will be about the cities I visit this week during my inter-rail through Europe, but I'll go into more details about that later. I have a busy summer ahead and I plan to keep this page updated with my writings about where I go and what I do which should (hopefully) be of some interest to the few people that read this. However, this blog is also for unplanned ramblings about topics that I'm interested in (so don't expect much consistency)!
Although, one thing that will remain the same is the name: Paper and Pixels. In all honesty it took me an embarrassing amount of time to come up with a name, design and logo that I was happy with - unfortunately I can be incredibly picky when it comes to the smaller details. However, I'm happy with my results. The name itself reflects how I use a varying combination of digital and print resources for working. For example, recently I have been devoting a lot of my time to designing several websites and a book with Adobe's software on my beloved PC, yet a lot of my other creative processes take place on paper - such as note taking for university and the sheet music I use for saxophone and guitar. Therefore, I chose 'Paper and Pixels' as it's a nice summary for what this blog will be filled with. Well, that and the alliteration - because who doesn't love alliteration?
Next up, here's a little bit about me. As you might have guessed, my name is Andrew. I'm a student at the University of Glasgow where I'll be studying English Literature for the next three more years. I was born near Ayr (Scotland) on the 6/6/96 (which makes remembering birthdays easier for my parents) and spent the first six years of my life there. After that, our family moved south to a town in Cheshire, and about three years later we moved to Lyndhurst in the New Forest. From Lyndhurst we moved to Tervuren (near Brussels, Belgium) and after four and a half years of expat life we made our most recent move back to Ayr. Through all of the travelling I've made close friends, have had great experiences and ultimately ended up with a pretty confusing accent (which I would say was worth it).
But enough of the past, here's a little about what I'm up to right now. Having just finished exams for the first year of university I have a decent amount of spare time on my hands but I've tried to stay as productive as I can. This blog is probably the most obvious example of that as I've planned, designed and (most importantly) published it all in the past week. Although I've also been trying my hardest to finally improve my guitar playing. I've been playing for around six or so years but I'm self-taught so, whilst my playing isn't exactly where you would it expect it to be, I'm always trying to improve. Having said that, I like to think I know what I'm talking about when it comes to guitars. I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to different models and specifications and am currently upgrading my first guitar (a Peavey Generation EXP) with all new hardware by myself, but that's enough guitar chat for just now.
The main thing I've had on my mind is my inter-rail trip I have planned for this week. Whilst we leave tomorrow I still have a knawing feeling I'm forgetting something. During the week of travelling I will take as many photos and write about as many things as I can and then condense these into a post per city which will either be published on the day or a week after I depart for the next location, depending on my access to wifi, my phone's battery life and the usability of the Blogger app. For now, here's a brief summary of the trip:
On Wednesday we depart for Brussels where I'll spend the afternoon acting as the tour guide for my friends. We leave nice and early the following morning for Paris and the day after we take the long journey to Nice where we'll spend two days (hopefully) soaking up the sun on the beach and exploring the capital of the Cรดte D'Azur. After the beaches of Nice we have a short stopover in Milan for the afternoon and from there take the overnight train to Munich. After that, we return to Brussels for one last night and then fly back to Edinburgh the following day. It'll be a pretty hectic week but should be a lot of fun, filled with familiar faces and places as well as new and exciting experiences. Whilst that might sound a little cheesy, tomorrow couldn't come sooner. Now, back to the blog.
I'm writing this blog for a few reasons. Firstly, I want to improve my writing. For as many years as I can remember my writing has always been focussed on formal essays and note taking but never about what I want to write about. Whilst I can enjoy these tasks, especially now I'm studying what I want to study, I feel it's about time I use the skills I have developed over the years and put them into a format which is a lot less restricted and lot more personal. So, having said that, if anyone reading this has any criticisms or advice on my writing then please do not hesitate to get in touch with me as it would be really valuable to me. I'm pretty sure I'll look back at this post and cringe at my writing but, in all honesty, that's kind of what this is all about.
What's more, I plan on using this blog as a creative outlet where I can share ideas and experiences to anyone who cares to read any of it. I don't plan on promoting it that much and my main goal isn't to have a massive following of readers. If people read this then great, if not then no harm done. Simple.
In summary, thanks for taking the time out to read this (if you made it this far) and I look forward to what's to come. If you have any questions, suggestions or just fancy a chat then you're more than welcome to get in touch. I hope Paper and Pixels is a project that is interesting and entertaining enough to be of some value in the convoluted web of the internet and that you come along for the ride.
Andrew
"The future begins today.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman
