The Weekend the World Turned Blue

I find it funny when someone is asked if they watch the news and they say no because it's all depressing and there is never anything uplifting about it. I'm sorry but that wasn't in the mission statement when Sir Trevor MacDonald tapped his first pile of news on the desk all those years ago. Surely nobody can think that the world is a perfect place where only good things happen but to be able to accept that that is not true yet still not watch the news is simply a crime. News is what drives our days: it gives us things to talk about and debate, it provides us with a view of what the world is really like and for this reason it keeps us firmly in reality. The news should be watched, listened to, read and digested by everyone in the world because we learn from it as much as we create it. That 'reality' that I mentioned before was firmly bolted onto everyone's conscious at the weekend with the terrible news of the tragic murders in Norway and then with the sad news that Amy Winehouse lost her life. People should watch the news even if these kinds of thing are prevalent - there is no point in ignoring it because things are always going to be like that.

The Importance of Remembering

Notebooks. I live and swear by them for everything from university lecture notes to writing in my spare time and I've got a fair few floating around the place filled with just about everything you could think about writing down. In the last couple of days I've found myself searching out some of my older ones and having a thumb through them to see what they hold. Most of the stuff in them is lists, little bits of maths from my time at high school and lots and lots of poetry but, no matter what the content is, everything holds a memory for me. It is one of my habits that I'm most happy about because through these multiple notebooks I've managed (inadvertently) to paint a picture of myself from about 3 or 4 years ago which otherwise would have been lost and fleeting flashbacks in my head would be all that I have left. I find that it's important to remember who you were as well as who you are. The person that you are now owes a lot to the person that stood in your shoes in the past and having things to remind you of how you once were is one of the most invaluable tools at your disposal as we all seek to better ourselves.

Different Years, Different Ears

You might have noticed that there is now a new tab residing at the top of my blog - 'Taste of the Moment' - which has come as a result of a shift in the music that I'm listening to at the moment. I've always been one to have one of those music libraries that almost makes no sense; a mix of almost everything is something that I've always found myself with. I take great pleasure in putting my music on shuffle and seeing where it takes me but recently I've started to do that a lot less. Instead I've become an album listener (that being the whole album in one sitting) which somewhat signals a change in my approach to music listening. And it's not only the way I'm listening to music nowadays, it's also what I'm listening to as well. I've found myself going back to my Dad's music collection again for more Bowie, Clapton, Young etc and I've certainly been rewarded. In today's post I'm going to talk about a couple more artists (on top of the ones mentioned above) that I've taken a real liking to in the last few months.

Mind Numbing

I'm sitting in front on my laptop trying to work out what I could write about tonight and nothing is coming to me - and I mean nothing. Some people might put this down as writer's block but I put it down to being idle. Over the last 2 and a half months I've not really done anything that stimulates my brain. Even my holiday is a distant memory that feels like it could have been a year ago instead of a month. I ask myself what I've been doing with my time since I finished university and I sadly come up with very little. I've only finished 1 book this summer and I've hardly got started on another one since then. I've not even found the energy to watch the films and TV shows that I planned to watch which is crazy since I've had so much time before my trip and after to do such things that I can't understand why I haven't. It's now brought me to the conclusion that I've numbed my brain and that I'm going to have to train it back up to be on top form when the new university year comes around. It's not going to be easy and finding the motivation is going to be the toughest part of it but it's something that I've just got to do.