summer goal

get in shape.

not lose weight - weight doesn't matter and i don't care about numbers anyway. i care about being healthy and liking my body and i don't feel like i'm accomplishing either of those right now. i eat way too much junk food and get little to no exercise most of the time. i am no longer happy with this. this summer i will try to change these things through a series of somewhat simple steps (alliteration!):

• making a conscious effort to eat better, no matter how small (making better choices and cooking more rather than going out - this one will have to include the rest of my family, too)
• actually exercising regularly (walking on the treadmill or walking the dog, crunches, whatever)
• setting weekly goals
• positive thinking

i think i can do it.

sometimes i feel like using capital letters

I want to engross myself in my work but I don't know how to tear myself away from unimportant things. By "my work" I mean my schoolwork and by "unimportant things" I mean tumblr and the TV and candy and nothing. It's all too tempting. Even when I'm interested in my assignments I can't pull myself away from all these mindless things. It's not even like I procrastinate and do something productive like write or play bass or anything, I just do nothing nothing nothing.

Well, I have notecards to make, research to do. My paper is on the music business and how artists are sacrificing creative integrity due to pressures from record companies based on money. I bet I can find a lot on that, eh?

If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

 - Toni Morrison

quotes to live and write by, #1

i think my problem is that i am afraid of sounding like an amateur. which is stupid, because i am an amateur. not everything i write has to be good. not everything has to be perfect and beautiful and incredibly artistic. i am a teenager, and i am a beginner. i'm not going to like everything i write, and if i let that keep me from writing at all, i'll never get any better. so. i just have to write, a lot. and see where my ideas take me.

michael rider - lighthouse

when i first listened to michael rider's album lighthouse, i was pleasantly surprised by what i heard. not to say i didn't think it would be good, but my expectations were not too high either - i am not easily impressed, and in the case of lighthouse, i had no clue what to expect. but lighthouse impressed me with its varying different moods and feelings throughout the album. i think it shows a lot of potential for good things in michael's future. some tracks have more of a lady gaga-esque feel to them (first single "lovely lady," for example), and then some are more simple and stripped-down. but michael does both well. darker tracks still sound hopeful, and lighter tracks don't feel sappy or saccharine. but, i think my favorite thing about michael as an artist is that i really don't think he's trying to impress anyone. sure, like anyone, he wants people to enjoy his music, but i think this is all secondary to the fact that he is very passionate about and dedicated to what he does, and i hope this passion will take him places.

overall, lighthouse is an interesting new take on pop that is impressive for a first album and shows definite potential for the future. i'm really excited to see what the future holds for michael.

buy lighthouse on itunes
official site
youtube
facebook

working on a long-awaited review of my friend michael's album.

it's not going to be too fancy but i hope he likes it, since i've taken so long to get it to him. should be up tomorrow (aka, later today, since it technically is "tomorrow").

by the way, it's my birthday.

http://writeordie.com/

what a great site. depending on what you've set it to, when you stop writing, writeordie will either a) politely ask you to continue writing, b) play an annoying noise until you resume typing, or c) begin erasing what you have already written. if you're like me and get discouraged or distracted easily while writing, it couldn't hurt to try some good ol' negative reinforcement.

listening to the starting line

let's just add them to the list of bands i should have listened to earlier...

good stuff. pop-punk nowadays is so boring. nobody's creative anymore, everybody's making the same songs saying the same things and using the same chords to express it. i want something new and something different and fresh. maybe it's out there and i'm just not seeing it. it sucks that bands that try new and different things often don't seem to break out and make it. the same old, same old sells, i guess...

one of my favorite summer albums. i have "time bomb" stuck in my head right now. i remember the summer before my freshman year, i really only listened to this and a couple other albums. it's still one of my favorites. musically, nate ruess can do no wrong in my eyes.

what i write at night is always ten times better than during the day.