Showing posts with label university. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 April 2014

24/04/2014

I've seen so many great bands live in my short time here so far, and i can't be more thankful for that. Inspiration is hard to come by, but i've met people who've helped me in developing myself greatly this past year. I've also noticed people that were already there a lot more, and i'm more thankful to them than any others.

Blogging everyday is a bore, once every now and then is more fun for me. I finish University in a matter of weeks, then i've got to head out into the world. Me and Taz are moving away, and looking for others to join us, we don't like it here in weston anymore. I'm bored here, and everything's starting to grow stale.

I'm 1lb under 13 stone, my target weight at the gym, so that's developing greatly. I've played a solo gig, just me and my guitar, for the first time ever! It was one of the best, if not short, things i've experienced. I'm settling into who i want to be. My friend Ross was telling me about problems he's been having with people recently, and just listening, and offering a few short words of comfort and advice made me realise how much i actually cherish the people i choose to spend time with. If i don't make an outward attempt to spend time with someone, i don't really consider them important to me. The ones who matter are the ones you can see every now and then, and still enjoy the time you spend with them. Ross is one of those few to me, even if he is a crackhead.

Jo, Tarrant, Vicki, James, Dan, Gabby, Ross, GeGe, Luke etc..

Or something along those lines anyway!

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

19/03/2014

Today was a better day!

Today has been super busy! I got up this morning around eight, packed my bag for the gym, then had my light breakfast of protein and bananas. Shortly after i was picked up by Karn, who yesterday kindly offered to give me a lift down to the gym! He's becoming a really good friend t be honest, and he's one of the better people i know.

At the gym it was all about the biceps, shoulders, and chest today! I've always had skinny arms, so i superset my biceps when i work them, it seems to be the only way i can get results! There were a few newbies at the gym today too. I don't like to think of myself as a gym veteran, but i do cringe when i see new guys lift. But then again i was like that last year, so i keep my mouth shut. When ever i work out, i don't actually listen to music. I've tried it, and i find it too distracting. I start to bob my head along to whatever i'm listening too at that moment, and lose focus on the set. This raises the issue of being able to hear what others are saying in the gym. Most of the time i can tolerate it, because all the regular guys down there keep to themselves and focus on what they're doing. But there were two ass-holes there today who just wouldn't shut the fuck up. The gym is for working out, not to talk about you hurting your back when you "punched that guys lights out", you gollum fuck.

Anyway, after a quick sauna and shower, i met back up with Karn around eleven to play some pool! He beat me again, seven games to six, but it was fun all the same! He then dropped me off at uni, where i learnt about Hans Zimmer's use of samplers in Inception, and various video games. It was mildly interesting. I was also handed a Cajon at some point, which i'm borrowing for a few weeks from another guy called Matt! A Cajon is an acoustic percussion box, with a snare resting on one side to make an interesting percussive sound! I need this for the upcoming gig i have. It is the first time i will be playing solo! Yes. I AM PLAYING A GIG WITH MY OWN MUSIC. Exciting/frightening stuff!

I had work today as well, but it is my last day of work for the week, which is a bonus! The delivery shift went swiftly, and we left on time which was good!

Now writing this in bed while waiting for a video edit to bounce out on my mac. The video is part of a webseries i'm doing, which is focusing on the process of making an album! I'm having fun with it, and i'm using these videos for my final portfolio this year with uni!

Been listening to some old band stuff while writing this. There's talk that Mammoth may return soon, we shall see.

Thursday, 13 March 2014

13/03/2014

A HALF DAY.

Writing this early today because I am yet again heading out into town this evening! Currently sat in uni, working with Taz on our website we're trying to make. Spending an hour an a half battling with photoshop to try and make some fucking logos was actually surprisingly fun! We've settled on some of the visual aspects of the website, but we're now trying to get everything formatted correctly which is a pain.

Once this is done we're heading back to Taz's to do our radio show! Both of our combined playlists have given us plenty of stuff to choose from, so eclectic is definitely the word for tonights show! We're gonna be drinking while doing the show, so if you do listen then expect some serious degradation hahah.

THEN IT'S TIME FOR GROUNDHOG DAY AT LOVES CAFE, our favourite cafe in Weston i'd say. They hold film nights every week, and this week it's the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day! Then after, it's The Dragon Inn and DB's!! Standard thursday night it seems!

Short entry today, listening to Marmaduke Duke; Je Suis Un Funky Homme while typing this out. Taz's i-tunes is interesting to say the least...

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

12/03/2014

TODAY WAS FUN.

I feel like today was actually a fucking good one, and i'm in such a good mood this evening because of it!! Managed to get my ass out of bed this morning and get to the gym before uni! It was back, triceps, and LEGS day. I hate leg days. Legs are one of those things where you have to do them, otherwise the top of your body can get all swole, and the bottom can look like match sticks. I have thin arms and legs anyway, so skipping leg day is a huge no no. I had a banana and a protein shake for breakfast, then made myself some lunch to eat at uni.

Got to the gym at around one, got changed and began the onslaught. Did supersets on the back, and then moved on to the triceps, before finishing on legs. Spent a good ten minutes stretching out at the end which helped me last the rest of the day I think haha! Hit the showers (didn't have time for the sauna today!!) and then headed to the bus stop to get to uni!

I saw Taz, Adam, and Reuben when I got off the bus so I walked in with them. Once I was sat down and demolishing my chicken and mayo sandwich the lecture kicked up. This week it was creating music for video games, something that didn't really interest me that much. The final part was interesting, about placing sound in a 3D field, and being able to move around a sound to affect it's volume and stereo position! Apart from that though it was a real mind numbing hour. At the end of the lecture I got my marks for last terms work! All 2:1's, which i'm extremely happy with, and sets me up for  good overall mark at the end of this year!

Had work today as well, and it was actually the most fun part of the day!! Four pallets were delivered for me and Dan to work on, which is a tiny delivery! We took it easy, finished well within time, and decided to set a challenge for ourselves. Dan is also a fitness nut, prides himself on his strength and overall manliness, so it's a shame that I BEAT HIM AGAIN. YEAH BOY, I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS, AND I KNOW YOU CAN'T STAND THE FACT I WON. HAHAHAHAHAHA. But yeah, on our tidy up this evening we decided to do ten pushups at the end of every aisle. This was a total of one hundred and sixty pushups, in bursts of ten. Sounds relatively easy right? NOPE. Towards the end, we decided to do a special set of military style knuckle pushups. It was here that dan failed, and I was victorious! There's always next week eh Dan?

Got home at ten, had some ribs for dinner, and compiled together a bunch of music for mine and Taz's radio show tomorrow night! For the rest of the night i'm thinking of sticking a film on in bed, we'll see!

While writing this entry I was listening too Peace; 1998. If psychedelic delays, sixties style vocals, and crunchy drums are your thing check these guys out! They got pretty big last year, and have kind of faded from the public eye, but this tune has one of the best build sections I know of in music, so HIGHLY recommended!!

Sunday, 9 March 2014

09/03/2014

TODAY WAS A FUN DAY!

Was still in Cardiff this morning! Had a lengthy lie in with Jo after watching the Hunger Games last night, then semi-rushed around to get ready in time for her parents to arrive! It was nice to see them as well, we went for lunch in the centre of town and then did a little bit of wandering around the shops! Both me and Jo's dad tried this really weird pale ale from America called Shipyard i think. Smelt and tasted like nectarines, or some kind of citrus fruit. Never the less it went really well with my chicken club sandwich so meh.

The rugby today kicked off at three, so as soon as it did i had it up on my phone streaming. BIG game today, like i mentioned in yesterdays entry. After changing the ink in Jo's printer for her, and saying a long goodbye, i climbed into the back of her parents car and set off home! All the way back we had the game on the radio, while i streamed it on my phone. GLAD TO SAY ENGLAND WON. It was kind of expected of them to do so, due to Wales not really being in form at the moment, there were still some tense moments though!

After getting home i went round my dads to have a quick catch up, and pick up his old pool cue from him! I haven't seen my dad for a few months, so it was nice to sit down and chat. I don't really see him much at the moment because of the lack of time i have. Luckily it's the kind of relationship we have so not a lot of damage is done by not seeing each other, all that was done a long time ago haha! YAY for parent issues... I was picking up the pool cue because i've started playing a bit more recently! Me and a few guys from work have played a couple of times, and i'm enjoying it! It's giving me something else to get out of bed for as well which is never a bad thing!! 

I'm about to play a bit of guitar before i hit the hay tonight! Obviously didn't get to play all weekend, so i'll make up for that now!

While writing this entry i was listening to my friend Taz streaming on mixlr! Essentially it's an audio streaming website where you can put on mini radio shows to anyone who cares to listen! It's pretty nifty, and i gave it a go earlier on! I really enjoyed doing it, so that's another thing to do weekly!! Taz has been playing all sorts of singer songwriter stuff, so it's pretty chilled which is nice. One track he played was James Vincent McMorrow; Red Dust. This track's off of his latest album called Post Tropical, and has some INSANE songs on. A really beautifully written album, well worth checking out!

Friday, 7 March 2014

07/03/2014

Today was a tender day...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went out last night! Taz (my future Bristol roommate) came round my place after we finished uni to do the usual pre-drink/chat thing. Me and Taz always manage to find stuff to talk about, hence why he's one of my favourite people. We stuck on some records while we were drinking, first listening to my favourite album of last year; Black Milk - No Poison No Paradise. Was also nice to find out that it was a limited edition purple splatter disc copy, one sexy ass LP that one. Then we put on the COOLEST record I own; Dread Zeppelin - Un-led-ed from 1990. Essentially Led Zeppelin, but mixed with reggae, with Elvis inspired vocals! Funky as hell at points. Also worth noting that i've taken a sample from this record to use in a project i'm working on! More on that later... After the records we hit the Dragon Inn, which is probably my favourite pub in Weston-Super-Mare, where we met up with a few guys I work with. From that point onwards it was a pretty standard night out! We moved on to the Loft for super cheap drinks before hitting our main hangout on nights out, DB's. I lost Taz I think around three in the morning? Neither he or myself can remember haha... I was turfed out at half four, then I stumbled to the taxi rank to eventually get home and fall asleep on top of my clean laundry. Good times.

I eventually got up at midday today! Felt a little tender, so I sat for an hour in front of the tv drinking apple juice and groaning like a seal. After the usual post night out shit and shower however, I felt all dandy again. Left home at around two o'clock this afternoon to run down to the train station to get a train surprisingly! Was in a folky mood, so I stuck on The Tallest Man On Earth, Frank Turner, and James Vincent McMorrow for the journey. Arrived in Cardiff at half four, and was hugging my girlfriend ten minutes later!

Speaking of which, meet Jo! :

 
Obviously she's the attractive one on the right!! I'm in Cardiff for the weekend to visit my baby. She's here for uni studying law, and is much more intelligent than I am. Luckily she can't sing to save her life so we balance out pretty well! I didn't come up here and see her enough for her first term this year, which was my fault entirely. This term i'm doubling my efforts and spending as much time with her as I can. Otherwise I get all grumpy and no one wants that!!
 
We went out for a meal tonight at Ruby Tuesdays. Basically it's a TGI Friday's rip off, but the food was AMAZING. With each meal you get unlimited drink refills, and unlimited fries! I had ribs, men like ribs, so I had ribs. Jo had ribs too, and chicken, and shrimp. She's more manly than me when it comes to food sometimes haha.
 
We're not doing anything else big tonight, just going to spend our time together. No idea what we're going to do tomorrow except go to the bank, but i'm sure we'll find something!
 
Right now i'm listening to Hunger by the band LITE. Taz showed me this band, because he's all about math rock at the moment.  They're a really cool Japanese project, and i'll be seeing them at ArcTanGent festival this year! Which is gonna be huuuuge! My summer is actually shaping up to be a good one this year! Anyway yeah, LITE are an awesome band, so anyone who wants to should definitely check out their latest full length called Installation!
 
Gonna go now, need another shit, and want to see my girlfriend!



Wednesday, 5 March 2014

06/03/2014

It is a good day. My first blog post...

I don't really know why i'm starting this up. I guess one of the major reasons is that this year is my "transition" year. By that i mean that this year i will leave education, and move out in to the big bad world to start the rest of my life.

I'm currently twenty years old, live in a small town on the coast of the south west, and have a gorgeous girlfriend of almost three years! As mentioned earlier, i will be leaving university this year with a FdA in Music Production. Essentially one day i want to be a studio technician, but the more i think about it, the less drive i have for that particular career, we'll see...

Once uni is over, myself and a close friend are planning to move out of home, and in to a small flat in Bristol. This is where we have decided to try and make a name for ourselves in the music business, through gaining experience with musicians local to us, and being poor for a very, very, VERY long time. I've known this guy for eight years now, so who better to start the next part of my life with? Chances are he, along with other friends, will be heavily mentioned throughout this year, so you can learn more about him later. I mean we'll probably fuck up the whole living away from home thing, but who cares if we have some amazing stories haha!

The next part of my life worth mentioning is probably the best part of it, my girlfriend. I met her when i was seventeen, in my first year of college, sat at a table in the canteen on campus. We didn't speak to each other, so i don't think it really counts as a first "meeting", but i saw her, and instantly knew that i had to talk her. That evening i was speaking to a friend of mine, and asked who the girl sat opposite us was. He told me her name, i hit her up on Facebook, and we've spoken every single day since! It turned out, weirdly, that we lived quite literally down the road from each other. We were the same age, lived in the same village, and we had never met before! We still talk about that and find it funny, but anyway... We've travelled together, visiting France, Spain, Ireland, and Lanzarote. We enjoy going to music festivals together, and plan to live together one day, once she's out of education herself. The bottom line is, i love this girl, have done for a very long time, and want to for a lot, lot longer. She has enough patience to love me, i couldn't ask for more.

I play a lot of music myself with my trusty guitar, and sometimes with my bass if the opportunity arises. I enjoy drinking far too much, mainly for the social aspect, partially for the drunkenness. I eat far too much protein but hey, it's better than smoking full time, which i managed to quit doing this year!!!

I'm looking forwards to reading these entires back next year, if i stick with it that is. ALSO i'm going out tonight! So tomorrows entry should be entertaining!