I was going to do it... but there's a webcast on...

In terms of the last twelve months or so, I don't really think I've changed as a person that much, at least definitely not compared to previous spans of time in my life, going through phases of being obsessed completley with a book or a film for short periods as a kid.

By "changed" I think I mostly mean the things which are important to me. The things I read, the music I listen to, my favourite TV shows - basically the things I do with my time - they're pretty much the same as they were in May of last year.
But I only really considered it now. One of the things that has slowly crept up and ended up important to me is webcasts.

For those unfamiliar, a webcast (or the kind I usually watch) is usually when an artist or band streams something live on the internet for an hour or two, where they'll probably play some songs and talk with fans, who send comments on a chatbox, or tweet, or call in. Usually it's because it's an album release or to raise money for charity, something is being announced. And they're brilliant because although they're no substitute for a real concert, you're sat at home, interacting with both an artist you love and some other people, who maybe you'll still talk with in months to come, on Twitter, on Facebook, somewhere else. It's the weirdest kind of intimacy.

And they never seem like it at the time but I've done some really stupid things to watch things live on the internet in the last few months. Live4Pakistan was some time last summer, an event organised by Imogen Heap and Thomas Ermacora raising money for the Pakistan floods, and my best friend and her sisters and I spent an entire afternoon sat on the couch listening to Josh Groban and Kaki King and Kate Havnevik, and then after I went home I tuned back in, and sitting alone at my desk singing along when Amanda Palmer played "Creep" is still a really clear memory I have.

There've been times I've set my alarm at four AM on a Thursday for things, or put off doing an essay until late because Kina Grannis is announcing tour dates, once I was waiting for an Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley show broadcast from somewhere until I was nearly twenty minutes late for school and I had to run.

And it's funny, because I hadn't even acknowledged the things I'm willing to give up for these things up until just now. My mum offered to practise my German speaking test with me, which I'm really in no place to pass up on at the moment, and I told her just now I'll do it on my own later instead, but thank you.
"Why?" she said.
"Oh... well, Charlie Fink is doing a web-chat at 7, that's when we were going to do it."
"Is that a thing on the internet?"
"Yes..."
And I understand how stupid it sounds, to her and also to me. I understand how much of a nerd I am. But these things are my favourite sort of escapism, and there's not a lot I would miss this for.