Monday 26 May 2008

Who Are You?


I'm back for another entry. :)

I'm thirsty...nevermind. I'll go look for fluids later.

Today's topic? A frequent question that many people ask each other and more often, themselves. It's kind of difficult to answer the question don't you think? It takes time to figure out something like this. Like a super long and complicated math problem. You can only figure it out if you add certain things, multiply a few and take away other parts, most likely making mistakes along the way.

You always hear that life is about finding yourself. I agree, but only to an extent. Throughout your life, you discover new things about yourself. You grow out of things and you grow into other things. It's just how it all works.

But if you think about it, don't you think it's more about creation? You make yourself who you are. Other people can affect that, but in essence, it's all up to what you do. What you choose to do with that. Someone can do something horrible to you. What are you gonna do about it? Cry about it and blame the world? You could choose to, or you could choose to learn something from the experience and take the lesson with you.

I, for one, have mostly learned by making mistakes. Lots of them. If you know me personally, you'd probably know what I'm talking about. I'm the sort of person who just does things. Impulsive. Some say it's a bad thing, others say not so. Again, it's just up to what you prefer. I don't mind being spontaneous like that. It gets me into trouble sometimes, but involves less thinking. ;)

Of course I'm not always impulsive. I do have the capacity to think before making an important decision. And I usually do. Especially when the consequences of making a bad decision are more than I want to deal with.

I'll share a bit about why I think I enjoy the spontaneity of my actions. I live for the moments in life when you just feel ALIVE. Do you know what I mean? When you burn with a fire that just can't be put out. Sometimes, you can breathe. At other times, you don't want to. It's when you are just filled with emotions. It's a rush. A rush, that I live for.

That is something I've discovered about myself. You can argue that 'that's something you found out about yourself, you didn't make it happen'. I agree. It is something that I can't change about myself. The rush is not something that I can replace.

There are things that you can't change about yourself. Certain parts of your life that you just can't change. For example, you can't change your family, your age, time or who you love. You may be able to lie to yourself and pretend that you can change these things, but in all truth, you can't. In the end, it all remains the same.

What you CAN change, however, is you attitude about it. Instead of blaming it on the injustice of the world, you can decide to look at it all differently. Choose to see the good in the situation. There's always some good in a situation. Even if it's learning a lesson the hard way. Don't gimme all that crap about 'but it's not my faultttt...'. If you see like that, it probably is.

Throughout our lives, we sculpt ourselves. (I'm not talking physically.) Consciously or not, we make choices that change things about ourselves, we discover things about ourselves that we were not aware of before and we become what we are.

Course, all this comes with a lot of reflection. You have to see yourself the way others see you. You mature emotionally. Once you become aware of yourself, you know what you want and you are able to make better decisions based on what is best for you as a person.

I am a big believer in being sure of who you are as a person. Being aware of where you stand. It's really important. You become confident in yourself. You can answer the question. You finally know who you are. Essentially, you become whole.

It's fulfilment. You can claim to have lived your life. Really lived it. Even if it doesn't last very long.

Living life to the fullest takes on a new meaning.


Willing to take it on?

Sunday 25 May 2008

On My Playlist: That's What You Get - Paramore

Who's heard this blaring on MTV??

Mostly, it's just everyone who happens to flip to that channel. It's at it's most frequently played level right now. Either that, or it's nearing it.

The song is great to listen to. (You know what I mean right? It's like, one of THOSE songs that you have to bop or tap your foot to.)

By the lyrics, you can tell it's really not supposed to be a happy song. It's presentation may be deceiving. It sounds fun, sounds entertaining, but if you listen to the lyrics...you'll realise that maybe it's not so happy.

Don't get me wrong, I think the song is great and deserves as much, if not more, attention than it's getting. Paramore is an awesome band. They all seem to have their heads screwed on straight and make good music. What's not to love?

So yeah, if you live under a rock, or don't have a tv or have lost the remote, here's the music vid for the song. What are you waiting for?

:)

Saturday 24 May 2008

Movie Review: Once


By the sounds of it, or rather the no sounds, Once really hasn't been a big hit among people. By people, I mean my friends. By my friends, I mean the people I talk to mostly every day.

It was a Sundance Film, so not many of you guys may have heard about it. Lemme tell you now.

IT'S AWESOME.

Really.

It was made on a low budget, two handheld cameras and Dublin as a setting. As you can probably tell, it's about music. I first heard about it on YouTube. Some of the people I watch frequently made the recommendation, so I watched it. Expectations were high, and I wasn't disappointed.

In a nutshell, it's about two people that meet through music. It's a love story, but not really, portraying the lives of struggling musicians.

Once is formatted as a musical, with songs that beef up the storyline. The typical reaction to 'musical' is 'Oh, they randomly burst out into song instead of talking...'. Not this movie. The songs are performed at completely appropriate times. (I do love musicals when everyone randomly bursts out into song and dance, but that's a different post altogether don't you think?)

The soundtrack is brilliant. Most of you may have heard that it has won an Oscar for it's brilliance. Falling Slowly obviously deserves a mention, but Say it to Me Now is my favourite. It's so full of passion and the delivery is completely believable.

Glen Hansard (The Frames) and Marketa Irglova both do a perfect job at portraying their characters though they aren't professional actors. The director, John Carney, made the right decision casting professional musicians that could sorta act. I don't think it would have been that effective if he casted professional actors that could sorta sing. Would take away the rawness of the film.

And the quality of the music of course.

If you love music, there's nothing about this film that you won't like. I highly recommend it. Now that you all are on holiday...mostly, you have the time to go watch it. So go watch it. It's pure gold.

What it lacks in professionalism, it makes up for in heart.

:)

P.S. For those of you who haven't noticed, this post has a load of links for you to click on. It's just basically for you to get more info on whatever it is that is linked. For example, clicking on 'soundtrack' will take you right to the MySpace page for the soundrack of the movie. Simple right? Duh. Click away!

Friday 23 May 2008

BAAAAAACK!

Hello People.

Exams are over, and I'm relieved. I have my laptop and guitar back in my possession. Turns out my withdrawal didn't kill me. It almost did. ALMOST. But not. So I'll just take that as a good thing.

I really don't have anything to talk about. I don't feel like being serious right now. And I don't feel like thinking very hard. My brain should have time to recover. Re-solidify you know? But because I said I would, here's an icon for you guys:


Yeah.

Who's reading this?? I don't actually expect anyone to be reading this. Exams are just over, I don't really have a large audience...

WAIT

I have an idea. From this point onward, I'm gonna add one of those 'people who have visited your page' counter thingies. Or in other words, a widget. Please hold (but not really) while I go get one.

MISSION COMPLETION!
(If you know where that's from, you are beyond awesome.)

So. I've been thinking. Yes, it was in the time span that I was making the widget, what's it to ya? I thought I'd change up how I update the blog. Now, you can expect to see posts about new songs, videos, artists, movies, tv shows and I guess whatever I feel like talking about. Of course I'll still keep posting what I've always been posting, this stuff is extra.

Extra because I have time, and I like typing on this keyboard. :)

If you are reading, leave a comment or write in the tagbox and say 'hi' or something. Lemme know what you think...and keep coming back so that the counter can count you again. Right now, it says '1'. Very sad...

:)

Thanks for reading!