I'm listening.

This week I have been on the search for new listening material, as you may or may not know (I'm assuming you will), I have a wide and varied taste in music. I listen to mostly punk, alternative rock, progressive rock and classical, all these genre could be broken down further.

I have given up on commercial radio as I am tired of being force fed bland pop "hits". Generally I only listen to two radio stations  and neither of them play new/modern music (For those of you who are interested I listen to BBC radio 3 and 4).

I no longer read the music press as they seem to be only plugging and pushing the same dross as the popular music radio stations and I've never been a fan of music television.

So where can I find new music? Who can I turn to to find the music I would enjoy? I do like to read online band/album reviews. During my Master's degree in Music, Mind and Technology my fellow students and lecturers would suggest listening material from time to time, this would lead me to read about the band/artist and this would spread into me finding not only the suggested music but maybe related stuff. Good times.

The Horrorpops

Now I have to do all the looking myself, I have to search through millions of artists and billions of tracks to find something which I like. This works very well for me but takes time, I have found a whole genre of music which I never considered this way after listening to one band (for those interested the band were the Horrorpops, pictured here to the right).

From there I found Nekromantix, Tiger Army, Koffin Kats, Three Bad Jacks and many more related acts thanks to itunes. But itunes can only take you so far before you've gone full circle and it is telling you to listen to the band you started with. Also as I said before my tastes are quite varied and I might like to have a new genre suggested. Amazon is also quite good, until you buy a gift for someone on there then it suggests things like Take That's new album, sorry Amazon but I don't think so.

As I've been crafting this blog I asked the world of Facebook to suggest music for my listening pleasure. A friend suggests I try http://www.mapofmetal.com/ and you know what, I am and it is good, currently listening to Moonsorrow who I had heard of before but not listened to before now. The site started by play Black Sabbath at me really loudly (I had the volume on my MacBook all the way up) which instantly made me love the site! "What is this that stands before me?" A MAP OF METAL!

So once again my thirst for new music is sated again for now... but for how long?

By popular request here it is, the quote of the week!
"I was more scared when I couldn't get a good internet connection" - D. Johnson when asked if the film Paranormal Activity was scary.

If you have any suggestions for new listening material then please feel free to comment on this post with who you think I might like. Thanks D x

Should I say that?

I often spend quite a long time crafting lengthy replies to Facebook statuses, emails and SMS text messages only to delete them before posting.

I don't know whether that is due to my obsession with how I think other people see me or whether I am overly critical with my writing.

I know some people don't edit what they say in the above mentioned mediums, this is evident when you look at the standard of English used. But believe it or not I check and edit most of what I post online.

Even my tweets are carefully edited to not cause offence and to avoid people thinking badly of me. Does anyone else suffer from this crippling writers embarrassment? I'd like to just write something, put it out in the wide world and not worry about what others will make of it.

Maybe this obsession comes from my years at high school and college when I suffered from dyslexia, which meant I struggled to write. I was diagnosed with dyslexia shortly before starting university, since then I have worked very hard to overcome the negative affects it may have had on my life and embrace the positive aspects. I'm still not 100% how to spell in English, you know often words aren't written how they sound. I have to memorise every word, so it isn't a case of spelling the word it is remembering it as a whole word. 

Or maybe it is because I love me and I want you all to love me too... what a cock I sound.

Golf season is about to begin for me.

After the long winter break which some of us take from the sport of golf I am about to pick up the clubs again and head out for my first round of the year.



I've been out on the driving range a number of times over the winter, even more so over the past few weeks. Now I can't wait to get out there and play.


I don't really have much else to add to this blog, just a short one to say how much I'm looking forwards to the golf to begin! Role on Sunday... I might head down to the range now to hit a few, could always do with more practice.

Yet another distraction in my life.

Ever feel like you spend half you time planning to do things and the other half avoiding doing them? Well I do, I seem to always find something more important to do than what I planned.

Tomorrow, for example, was planned as a work day for me, but I managed to find something "more important" to do. Okay I do need to do what I've now planned, which is taking my MacBook to the Apple store to get a repair done but it is usually something much less important.


Today I planned to work from 9 until 3, I got up and to work early making a start at 8.30! Great! But by 11 I was running out of motivation so I decided I would take a break maybe practice my archery for half an hour then get back to work. It is now 8.15pm and I still haven't gotten back to it, although I have checked my emails, facebook and twitter about 5 times each.


This leads me to believe that today we have our priorities all wrong. It is way to easy to procrastinate with useless things, I know I'm not the only person that has honed this idleness to a fine art. I put in so much effort in avoiding working on things that it seems to be my job. I am a professional procrastinator! And this blog is just another tool in my endless struggle to always look busy whilst doing very little.

I'm even thinking about leaving this very blog until later, maybe get a drink and check my emails which might mean replying to people, I just checked twitter and facebook so I don't need to check them now, although someone might have posted something new... it wasn't always like this, during my Master's degree I planned things and stuck to the plans, even a few months ago I was better, working 9 til 5 sometimes longer. Over the last few weeks I have slipped back into the ways of the idle, however admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, I'll sort it all out tomorrow...