It's been a while...

Hi there, it's been a while, hasn't it?

You've probably noticed (if anyone follows this blog at all), but there's been a lack of blog posts lately, in fact, I've barely written at all. I planned to over the Christmas holiday once I had handed in all of my uni coursework, and just found myself feeling very uninspired . My usual format of blog posts weren't interesting me at all, despite enjoying various new music lately. I know that I've uploaded posts like this before, but I struggle with creativity at times, especially as I've gotten older. I think a lot of it stems from exam targets at school, and whilst university is a results based environment, there's a significant amount of time that I'd like to fill productively. I've said before on here that I'd like to start a business of sorts, or being my own business, especially with local job prospects being sporadic at best.

Anyway, back to the blog! I admit, I like life orderly (at least by my own terms, anyway) and I've flirted before with the idea of incorporating different types of posts - outside of music - within this blog. Last time, I decided to keep ELECTRAGRRL totally music based and house topical/arts/film/fashion etc posts elsewhere, however, I found it difficult to juggle the two with other things - my own bad time management, I know! However, seeing as this has more readership, I've considered blending the two once again. It'll be kind of nice to have a central area for proceedings, my only reservations are that it may get a tad cluttered. Let's see how it rolls!

I aim to be posting more often, however I've recently joined a social media website/app called Backspaces, here's mine. Backspaces is what can only be described as a combination of the image aspect of Instagram and the text immediacy of Twitter, except with a longer word allowance. In combining both of these, the user can tell stories; it is best described as an app for diary entries. I'm quickly becoming hooked to it, however the amount of users it has it very small in comparison to Twitter or Instagram; as far as I'm aware, in my group of friends, or even extending that to Facebook alumni, I am the only one who uses it. Have a look at my profile and sign up to get a feel of what Backspaces is about - it's free!

That's all I can think of for now, if you see any new tabs pop up on the head bar in the next few days, don't be too shocked!

Life update!

Apologies, cyber denizens, but this blog has taken a backseat these past two weeks! It's taken me a while to get back into the swing of things with some early days and late nights and prioritising my activities is becoming a must!

Last week, I started back at university for my second year on an English and Creative Writing course. We were told during our first year (practically a taster year for different subjects) that it didn't count towards our degree, and that our highest credits during out second and third years would give us our ratio, therefore I'm more determined this year to do all my required reading (which is a hell of a lot of reading!) and complete all of my assignments in good time!

I also plan on making the most of the opportunities that being a part of the university community throws my way, and intend to take part in the student magazine and even possibly join the student radio team. My department were also advertising for novice copywriters, so that may also be something that I'd like to try, with the possibility of being paid.

Apart from that, there's this blog, which I plan on upkeeping, and hopefully, when I feel that my writing is of a good enough quality, I'll start throwing reviews and the like at music websites and build up a little portfolio! I also plan on getting back into writing regularly, as is par for the (uni) course.

I'd also like to try my hand at customising denim jackets. I know, I know, I've mentioned the whole clothes thing in previous posts, but it feels rather large scale, and the denim customising is something that I can do easily on my own without having to rely on anyone else yet, and also without the expense of printing. I've found a lot of nice materials so Hobbycraft, here I come!

Anyway, my gift for the day/week/month! The Maccabees at this year's Reading Festival, I've been listening to them a lot all week :)

Flux and Flow

ALEXISONFIRE TICKETS ARE HEEEEERRRRRREEEEEEE!!

Ahem.. excuse me... but apart from that!

Been a quiet one this week - apologies apologies! I finished work at the factory last Friday, and since then I've just had a bit of a laze and seen some friends and spent some quality time with my nan and grandad :) I have a ton of reading to do for uni that I need to get on top of too (about 12 books!), plus job search, and I'd like to try paint/draw some more too. Also, upkeeping this blog (because all writing is practice!) and getting back into writing fiction and fan-fiction - yes, I was one of those in a former life! - is something to keep me busy too.

I'm currently catching up on Reading & Leeds 2012 highlights, and watching The Maccabees, The Cure and Florence and the Machine atm, although I'll probably watch as much as the highlights as I can by later. I'm totally jealous of my friend who spent the entire weekend at Reading, it sounded like it was an absolute blast!  I've often struggled to justify the price of festivals due to the ticket prices compared to the amount of bands that I'd want to see, but my friend said that they saw at least 20-25 bands with only occasional overlaps, and apart from that there was tents with various activities and shopping and things going on, which was more than I'd ever thought was there to be honest, so I think next year I'll definitely have to go! Plus Muse are due for the festival circuit next year (though I have a feeling that they'll opt for Glastonbury) so I'll definitely put some effort into getting down there!

Apart from that, I've not much to say for now, but I think I may leave you with a LIGHTS live set just to give this post some purpose :) She's talented and a total beaut!

Busy busy, I'm knackered!

A few Sunday's ago, I found myself sinking into a quagmire of sand in a crowd of hysterical teens, graced by the occasional stench of weed and ducking from view from a swinging boon and camera. Yes, that's right people, I somehow found myself on T4 on the Beach.

'How!?' I hear you cry! Well, feeling somewhat obliged to accompany my bessie, I found myself watching The Wanted (alright), Tulisa and Dappy (not), Lawson, Stooshe (both surprisingly good) and Marina and the Diamonds (oh, Marina! <3). Not my typical event I will admit, although I also confess to knowing all the words to 'Too Many Man' by Boy Better Know (guilty pleasure, love it!).

Anyway, for just over a month now, I've been working in a hinge factory where my Mom works, full time, and whilst I'm now bringing in the wonga, I'm pretty knackered from early starts. Ironically, I've seen more of people recently than I did when I was unemployed, going out for meals, cinema, drives, but hey - I can afford it now :) Even though I am pretty tired, it feels nice to be contributing towards my keep and giving my Mom some money back too, and no matter how much I moan that the work is boring (it is), I realise that I'm  lucky to have a job at all :)

Also, I apologise for the lack of action on here recently, but I've genuinely felt too tired to think. Shorter posts for the time being perhaps, or at least until I return to uni :)

Nice busy week!

Ladies and gents - I am ill!

Yes, that's right, a sore throat that i had been nursing since Friday/Saturday decided to mutate into full blown flu by Sunday, and I felt so rotten that I really couldn't be bothered to try and write some of the things that I'd planned to do in the past week.

Talking of that past week, it had been nice and busy for a change! The Jubilee bank holidays meant that we had extra 'family time' and myself, my Mom and my step-dad decided to travel to the countryside for a day out, but that pretty much failed due to our having a useless sat-nav and our getting place names/post codes wrong!

I've been to the cinema a few times this week, first on Tuesday to see Prometheus (good, but not quite great!) and then again on Saturday to see Snow White and the Huntsmen, largely so me and my bestie, Di, could oggle Thor and his mighty arms, although Kristen Stewart's one facial expression annoyed me quite a bit; she did - just about - crack a smile at the end, but you could tell it was painful!

Wednesday, myself and a few friends trekked around some guitar shops in Birmingham. I didn't try any myself, I admit to feeling a tad intimidated by the place! It was here that we got drenched in a June (!) monsoon - I have not been so soaked in my entire life! No part of me escaped!

Thursday a few of us went around town, and Di met baby Alice for the first time - so cute!

Apart from that, I've been recuperating! Hopefully I'll be posting more regularly this week.

Organisation!

I'm gonna write this post now as an attempt to organise myself and my weekly features!

Monday or Tuesday, depending on release date, I'll compile a list of weekly releases.

Sometime in the first half of the week, I'll put a few reviews up of my favourite singles of that week.

Album reviews will be uploaded in the second half of the week to allow for digestion time, and both single and album reviews will be listed (separately) on the Rapid Reviews page.

The New Waves will be updated whenever I hear/see a band or artist worth posting about.

The Life Logs will probably be the most regular, just if something worthwhile occurs in my existance or if I feel the need to have a whinge ;)


Now, time for features that I've yet to start!:-

1. Wonder Woman of the Week

This will be a weekly feature where I choose a woman who inspires me (or has been heavily featured for whatever reason in that week) and discuss them and say what exactly makes them so great! 

    2.  Fashion Files

This was inspired by some other bloggers, whom take post about their daily outfits, fashion and beauty products. As much as I like clothes and things, I don't think I'm enough of an interesting dresser to warrant photos everyday. Same goes for beauty products, I just stick to what I know. However occasionally I may post on this sort of thing, especially if my outfit has been inspired in some way (eg. yesterday I felt like Kathleen Hanna, today more a pre-Electra Heart Marina and the Diamonds) or if it's for some special purpose.

    3.  DIY Ditties

Regarding the DIY aspect, that's self explanitory - tutorials for when I feel the need to share my creativity. This will most likely increase once our little customisation franchise gets up and running.

And I think that's it! Hopefully, this won't get too hectic (although I can see it getting that way)!

Go forth! LLAP!

Just one of those days..

That's what yesterday was.

I woke up in an epic mood. Got invited for a day trip to Birmingham with the guys from the band and mutual friend's of ours but turned it down because I wanted to write up a contribution to The Guardian. They advertised a link via Twitter asking for thoughts on the legacy of iconic British punk band, the Sex Pistols to commemorate the Jubilee (35 years ago they unleashed 'God Save the Queen' on a coinciding and infamous jubilee boat trip ).

But first, I wanted music on my iPod.

I left my Japanese Voyeurs B-Sides CD ripping onto iTunes whilst I took a shower and came back to find that my computer had entirely crashed and would now not even turn on, with the CD stuck inside. Now that requires fixing.

Left the house to buy the 2:54 self-titled album only to find nowhere stocking it (I resorted to good ol' reliable Amazon), when I my aunt rang me whilst up town to say there were job vacancies at TK Maxx. I enquired, and the woman that I was speaking to had absolutely no idea what I was going on about. So I got on the bus home when my aunt txt me to say that the jobs were for their distribution centre so I'd have to go there to get a form -_-

I then attempted to write the article at my Nan's (I could write many a detailed page on this topic but was contested with a pretty short word count), and accidentally deleted more than half of what I'd actually written because I was looking at the wrong count.

It was just one of those days and I was close to pulling my hair out!

Luckily, I was due to see a group of my friends up town for our weekly get together and, I won't lie, got intentionally rat-arsed just for the hell of it. It was a good night even though we just ended up doing frequenting our regular haunts - Varsity (a pub where the band played), Babylon (cheesy '80's/ '90's music with 1 playlist), Planet (charmingly dingy rock/metal nightclub), along with a bar called Numa.

A sucky day turned into a great night (from what I remember)!

My Mom has the Jubilee weekend off so we may be venturing out to do something interesting.

Also, not sure if you'll see that Voyeurs review any time soon, given that the disc is stuck in my desktop. If they can't salvage the disc, I'll cry (it was a limited run, number 231 out of 250). Ah wells.