Friday 30 January 2015

What I'm Listening To | January.

My playlist posts always seem to go down well, so I thought I'd make a monthly thing out of it. I will still post themed playlists like this one and this one, but every month I will post a round-up of the music and artists I've been listening to on repeat.

Tom Misch & Carmody - Out To Sea - EP - I first heard So Close on the radio late last year and really liked it. I rarely hear something new on the radio and keep listening, let alone stick around long enough to find out who it's by. Anyway, I did, and then I went and downloaded the EP. These guys have a really unique sound and I love it. If ever two voices were made to duet, it's these two.

Shift K3Y - Touch - EP - I mentioned here that I was loving Shift K3Y's song Touch, and when my friend played me another of their songs 'Make It Good', I just had to get the EP. Granted, those are the only two songs on there that aren't remixes, but the remixes are really, really great. To be honest I think I love Touch so much I could listen to anyone do anything with it. 

MKTO - Classic - OK, so you guys know how cool I am by now right? What with my obsession with 1D, my intense passion for coin collecting and the fact that I have no inhibitions when it comes to dancing along the street when my iPod's on full blast. With all that said however, I do still sometimes cave in to listening, and loving, chart music. This song and Wrapped Up by Olly Murs are just too happy and upbeat not to like. I don't think I could ever write a song like this, due to the fact that I'm way too pessimistic, but that doesn't mean I don't love listening to them.

Early Mariah - I've been trying to work out what kind of songs I want to write and sing, and it led me back to listening to some early Mariah, most notably Vision of Love, One Sweet Day and Emotion. Even though my favourite Mariah album is The Emancipation (because I grew up with it), earlier Mariah songs are flawless, and listening to them inspires me to strive for perfection.

The Trevor Nelson Collection 3 - OK, let me get this out of the way quickly, I worship at the church of Trevor Nelson. I bought the TN Collection 2 early last year and it changed my life. It introduced me to some incredible songs like Sexy Cinderella and Saturday love, and reawakened my love for Love Come Down and Me & U. I've only just downloaded Volume 3, but so far it's fantastic! At the moment I can't stop listening to Thinking of You by Sister Sledge, and the Ginuwine's classic Pony. 

Monday 19 January 2015

Last Week in Links 1.

I sneakily figured out how to open YouTube on the computer at work, so have been watching Ted Talks over my lunch break. This one in particular stood out to me, as I've never heard it put so eloquently, or such an easily actionable way to change our intrinsic biases. 

I watched Whiplash this week, and it was fantastic. The film is very intense, and puts the audience in the mind of the main character so well that I was shouting out things for him to say, and feeling like I was there myself. If I had to some it up in three words they would be blood, sweat and tears. 

This has inspired me to try and take a photo a day on my (new) iPhone and upload it to Instagram. I got out of the habit of taking photos on my old phone because the camera was pretty awful, but it's something I want to get back into, because you're able to capture so many more organic moments with your phone. 

This made me feel so much better about not being successful in what I want to do at twenty one. Because I love music, and really that's what I want to be doing with my life, it's very disheartening to see people already at the height of their career at the same age as me, see One Direction, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift etc. So, reading this post, that shows you the ages that great authors published their first books and their breakthrough books helped to put things into perspective a bit more. 

I'm not a fashion person, even less a dress person, but if I could wear nothing else but the dresses in this collection, particularly the space inspired ones, for the rest of my life I would die happy. 

I really love what Charlavail is wearing in these photos, I need to get me some olive green tights!

OK guys, I have something to admit, this past week I downloaded Candy Crush: Soda Saga and I'm so freaking obsessed. I'd never played it before, the nonconformist that I am, but I was definitely missing out. It's awesome. 

Saturday 17 January 2015

My Goals for 2015

So, I've split this post into resolutions, i.e. the boring stuff, and goals. Resolutions are things that I didn't do so well last year, and want to work on in 2015, and goals are bigger things that I want to accomplish in the coming year.


Resolutions
  • Take vitamins every day
  • Go to the gym at least once a week
  • Take my camera out at least once a week - ready-made blog post right?
  • Go to the cinema once a week - I have the Cineworld Unlimited pass and I need to start getting the most out of it.
  • Make time for blogging/Blog at least twice a week
Goals
  • Read 25 books - read more about this here
  • Get 100 views a day on this blog - I'm not sure if this is goal is too big or too small, but, either way, it's what I'm aiming for. 
  • Save £2000 by May - not 100% sure if this is feasible, but I'm definitely going to need quite a bit of cash to go travelling with
  • Make and sell a product on Etsy - OK, so this may sound kind of generic, and that I haven't really thought about it at all, but the truth is I really have. This is something I've wanted to do for aggess, but just haven't got round to working out all the details with. I know what I want to sell, the next step is just figuring how to make it to the highest standard while still managing to keep the production relatively cheap. Anywho, as if there wasn't enough to be excited about this year #watchthisspace. 
  • Visit 10 new countries - sooooo I already have one lined up - I'm going to Trinidad in February! Woohoo!!!! I've got loads of family out there, and as my cousin was already going for Carnival, I thought I'd tag along! I'm so excited I want to cry. 
  • Post at least two videos of me singing on YouTube - this is something I realllllllly want to do, but am just ridiculously nervous about.
  • Write and share three original songs - the studio session with my dad the other day was really great, and I think, with a lot of work on my part, we could get some cool songs out of it. 
  • Make, and stick to a blogging schedule - I had this locked down last summer when I was doing nothing else, but now I've got a pretty much full-time job, I need to come up with a schedule that makes the most of the little free time I have, while still leaving me time to do more relaxing things like binge-watching The West Wing. 
  • Move out of home - since coming back from uni I've been living with my mum, and it's not the best, so ... another goal for this year is to move in with my friends, and I'm pretty sure this might actually happen towards the tail end of this year. 

Saturday 10 January 2015

January Currently

Yep, the post title is exactly the same as one of Elise's, but she just says it, and does it, so well. Also, as per usual, I'm about to tell you how busy I am (Mindy wouldn't like that), and that again I'm working a full week next week so, this post is just a little update in the style of Elise (if you don't read her blog you really should).

listening to a LOT of One Direction, I'm slightly obsessed, and it's driving me crazy.

watching The West Wing. One of my friends mentioned it the other day so I thought I'd take this opportunity, where I don't currently have a series I'm burning through, to watch it. I'm about half way through season 2, and I love it. I feel like The West Wing has inspired so many modern TV shows,  I'm noticing loads of parallels. 

reading Say Yes. Still. Have you got the picture yet that I'm busy? I just feel like I haven't caught up with myself yet, I need a few days off to be able to plan my time a bit better. Hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow.

needing to go to the gym. I've not been for over a month and I'm really feeling it. Also, they have the best showers. 

working thirty-nine hour weeks. I know, I know, everyone does it, but before I got this job I was literally doing nothing, so it's still a bit of a shock to the system. I just realised I don't think I told you guys that I got promoted!? I'm now a supervisor - check me, 50p more per hour! I still haven't told them that I'm planning to travel for 3 - 6 months in May, but ... meh. 

singing in the studio. Yes! You read that right! I went to a studio practice room with my dad on Tuesday and actually did some singing! It took a while to get into it, I had to sing His Eye Is On The Sparrow to ease myself in (that's the song I sing around the house constantly), but it went well. My dad has his own band, so spends a lot of time playing around with Logic, so he'd made some trial backing tracks that I sung over which was fun. I couldn't think of any lyrics, so I just sung the words to Vision of Love over his funky-disco track and Little Things over the techno. 

feeling cold, tired and miserable. Yay Winter!

thinking about my goals for 2015. Don't fret, as soon as I know them you'll know them.

spending wayyyy too much money in the sales, I bought four jumpers for work, loads of earrings and the Star Wars Vans that I've wanted for ages, they were half price!

hoping to get a new post out on Monday! 

Monday 5 January 2015

What I Got For Christmas

So, I rarely post the same things as other people post, because I'm boring/original/totally out of the loop (delete as appropriate), BUT I got some pretty cool shit for Christmas, so ... queue the bragging! My biggest gift was from my dad, and he's bought us some time in a rehearsal space in a music studio where we're gonna write some songs together and try to get me more comfortable singing in front of people, because, if I do want to be a singer, I really need to be able to sing in front of people. I'm not sure exactly when we're going to do that, but hopefully as soon as possible. I've been holding back on my dream for so long, just pushing it to the background trying to drown it out, but now I've come to the realisation that life is what you make it, and if I really do want to make music, I need to freaking do it! Wow, writing that almost made me cry - hopefully that's a good sign.

So apart from that present I got a few bits from my mum including this mug she made me. Cool eh? I'm trying to convince her to start selling them on Etsy, I think they'd go down a treat.

I got these DVDs from my cousins, and I want to watch them now! I saw both these films in the cinema this year and they were amazing. 

I got this MAC makeup from my aunt. Woohoo dark lipstick! It's a bit more purpley that I usually go, but I'll try and make it work.

For reasons unknown, someone always gets me Marc Jacobs' Daisy in some form or another, and this year my grandma got me this set of mini bottles. 
  
 My dad also got me this POP figure. I am trying to collect them, but at £10 each, it's not that feasible for me at the moment, what with trying to save money for travelling and all.

Anyway, I had a pretty good haul this year, and, if I say so myself, gave pretty well too. Along with these things I got a ton of chocolate, but, it's been a week since Christmas, so that's all gone. I love Christmas, and as much as I love getting presents, I think I prefer giving them more. When I'm rolling in it in the future I can't wait to buy people all the things they want (as well as multiple copies of my albums, films, books and action figures (yes I went there) - mwahahaha).

Friday 2 January 2015

What I Read in 2014

As I mentioned here, I set myself a challenge to read 52 books this year, and I'm disappointed to say that I failed miserably. However, that's not to say that I don't think this challenge was a success, or that I didn't enjoy it, because I really did! Even though I didn't reach my target, I still read more books this year than any year before this, and rediscovered my love of getting lost in a good book. I feel like the books I've read this year fall into three distinct categories (alright, two distinct categories and one that I've just shoved the ones that don't fit under), Biography, Thriller/Mystery and Drama. It was tough, but I've ranked them in order of greatness, do you agree?

Biography
  1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns) by Mindy Kaling
  2. Yes Please by Amy Poehler (I still have a bit left of this to read)
  3. #GIRLBOSS
  4. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
  5. Bossypants by Tina Fey
Thriller/Mystery
  1. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
  2. The Shining Girls by Lauren Buekes
  3. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
  4. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  5. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
Drama
  1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  2. The Universe Verses Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
  3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  4. The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
If you'd like to read my detailed reviews of most of these books (some I read before I started this blog), you can find them here: Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3

In 2015, I'm planning to spend as much time as possible travelling, and, seeing as travelling is when I seem to get most of my reading done, I'm going to set myself another reading goal. I'm not going to go with 52 books again, because that was ridiculous, but I'm hoping to read more than the 14 I've read this year. So, with all that said, I'm going to set myself the goal of reading 25 books in 2015. (See what I'm doing there with the numbers?) If you've got any recommendations, please please please leave them in the comments, part of the reason I failed this year is because I just couldn't decide what to read!

Thursday 1 January 2015

Merry New Year!

Get the reference? I should hope so! Sorry I've been slacking post-wise towards the end of 2014, but 2015 will be a fresh start for Lost In All My Selfish Thoughts (just misspelled selfish as elfish - should definitely have done something with that for Christmas!) - original right? But no, really, I will be sitting down tomorrow, on my first day off in agggges to make some lists and cement some plans. #watchthisspace