It has been quite a while since I last used my blog but with this entry I want to go on about something with which I have been wanting to go on about for quite some time and this of course the music of 1991. What a year for music this year was. As far as I am concerned 1991 is the greatest year of all time in regard to the music that year produced.
First of all seeing that I am a big time U2 fan I have to mention their amazing 1991 album 'Achtung Baby'. Featuring the sings 'the Fly', 'Mysterious Ways', the incredible 'One', 'Even Better Than The Real Thing' and 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Ride Your Wild Horses'. One debate is as to which of their back catalogue of albums is their best, most would respond with either 'Achtung Baby' or 1987's 'The Joshua Tree'. 'Achtung Baby' brought with it huge change for U2 and with it U2 launched into the amazing Zoo TV world tour.
1991 also saw the release of Metallica's self title album which is also known as the 'Black' album. Every song on this is a classic. 'Enter Sandman', 'The Unforgiven' and 'Nothing else matters' are still classics. 'Sad But True' has been covered and sampled by the likes of Snopp Dogg and Kid Rock. Brilliant album from start to finish.
Another of my favourites from 1991 is Pearl Jam's début album 'Ten'. Mostly known for the singles 'Alive' and 'Jeremy' I also love the songs 'Even Flow', 'Black' and 'Why Go'. I also think this this is by far Pearl Jam's Best album.
It was a big year for 'Grunge' maybe even the year that saw the beginning of this new genre of music as Nirvana released their classic 'Nevermind'. With 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'In Bloom' and 'Come As You are' really setting it up perfectly. Have you seen the Youtube video where a child awakes to the song 'Breed'? Classic video.
The year of 1991 also saw the release of R.E.M's 'Out of Time' which features 'Loosing My Religion' and 'Shiny Happy People' which also saw Kate Pierson from the B-52's join in on vocals. Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' also came out this year, an album which features the singles 'Black or White', 'Heal The World', 'Jam' and 'In The Closet' just to name a few.
Also in 1991 the Red Hot Chilli Peppers hit it big with 'Blood, Sex, Sugar, Musik' with the likes of 'Under The Bridge' and 'Give It Away'. Guns'N'Roses put out 'Use Your Illusions 1 and 2' and Primal Scream put out 'Screamadelica'. Blur didn't hit the big time until they released their 'Parklife' album in 1994 but they did release their début album 'Leisure' which features 'She's so High', 'Bang' and the very excellent 'There's No Other Way' the video to Which Damon Albarn has a very dodgy looking hair cut.
Have I missed out on mentioning anything else that is worth mentioning? But what a year it was, definitely my favourite year in music. Is there another year which could possibly challenge or surpass 1991 as the greatest year in music?
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
I love to write but I don't take what I write too seriously. I enjoy it and will keep going with it while being happy to share it with anyone and everyone who would like to have a read of anything I may get to come up with, without thinking of any sort of gain for myself from it. However even though it is just a hobby, a pass time for me it would still be nice to see something in print.
Something I have been thinking about for quite some time now it to take some of the stories I have written, gather them together and print them up in maybe a book or magazine like format, maybe get 100-200 copies printed up and sell them between family and friends with the though of donating any and all profits from such a project to charity. If I was to do this the charity of choice for me would be the Make A Wish Foundation.
My main problems are however, first of all I am not a naturally confident person. I keep trying to tell myself not to worry as my efforts would be going to a good cause. Secondly if I do go ahead with this, how should I go about it? Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on rewriting two groups of stories. One of which is a series of continuing short stories based on the ideas of Vampires. The other story is the story I wrote for last Novembers NaNoWriMo. Both still need a fair bit of writing and rewriting.
Thing is now, should I just say 'feck it' and go ahead with this project? Then if I do, should I only do up one of the two stories or go ahead with both? If I only do up one then which one should it be? If I go ahead and do both should I keep writing the way I am at the moment alternating between the two? Adding to one story then taking a break before going through the other one, or maybe stick to completing one story at a time. Maybe I should keep the writing as a hobby and do nothing at all with the finished stories.
Is it worth my while to do any of this? I don't know. If I do print anything up I may not even get the cost of doing so back, then again it may prove to be a successful project. So now the question is what should I do? I am quite confused.
Something I have been thinking about for quite some time now it to take some of the stories I have written, gather them together and print them up in maybe a book or magazine like format, maybe get 100-200 copies printed up and sell them between family and friends with the though of donating any and all profits from such a project to charity. If I was to do this the charity of choice for me would be the Make A Wish Foundation.
My main problems are however, first of all I am not a naturally confident person. I keep trying to tell myself not to worry as my efforts would be going to a good cause. Secondly if I do go ahead with this, how should I go about it? Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on rewriting two groups of stories. One of which is a series of continuing short stories based on the ideas of Vampires. The other story is the story I wrote for last Novembers NaNoWriMo. Both still need a fair bit of writing and rewriting.
Thing is now, should I just say 'feck it' and go ahead with this project? Then if I do, should I only do up one of the two stories or go ahead with both? If I only do up one then which one should it be? If I go ahead and do both should I keep writing the way I am at the moment alternating between the two? Adding to one story then taking a break before going through the other one, or maybe stick to completing one story at a time. Maybe I should keep the writing as a hobby and do nothing at all with the finished stories.
Is it worth my while to do any of this? I don't know. If I do print anything up I may not even get the cost of doing so back, then again it may prove to be a successful project. So now the question is what should I do? I am quite confused.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
A STRANGE OCCURANCE
As some of you may know, all through my life I have had experiences which you could say were a bit super natural or paranormal, moments which con not be easily explained. Well it has been quite a while since my last 'strange' encounter. Been a while that is until this morning.
Having been up quite early I decided to head back to bed and I fell asleep fairly quickly. About an hour or so later I awoke to and straight away felt a strange presence. Having not yet opened my eyes, I had this feeling that I was not alone. Before I could do anything I felt what seemed to be two hands wrap themselves around my neck. All of a sudden I became paralysed. I could not moved what so ever.
A second or two passed and I began to struggle to breathe. Ten or fifteen seconds passed and I still could not breathe. Still being paralysed I knew I had to do something quick or I would not survive this moment. I fought to open my eyes and as soon as I did I was once again able to breathe, through my nose at first. I could feel power return to my limbs and I got out of bed as quickly as I could and found that I was indeed alone, and I could no longer feel a presence.
I generally don't mind the strange moments that I experience, though as this shows, not all of these strange experiences are pleasant. Seriously hope I do not have another moment like this one.
Having been up quite early I decided to head back to bed and I fell asleep fairly quickly. About an hour or so later I awoke to and straight away felt a strange presence. Having not yet opened my eyes, I had this feeling that I was not alone. Before I could do anything I felt what seemed to be two hands wrap themselves around my neck. All of a sudden I became paralysed. I could not moved what so ever.
A second or two passed and I began to struggle to breathe. Ten or fifteen seconds passed and I still could not breathe. Still being paralysed I knew I had to do something quick or I would not survive this moment. I fought to open my eyes and as soon as I did I was once again able to breathe, through my nose at first. I could feel power return to my limbs and I got out of bed as quickly as I could and found that I was indeed alone, and I could no longer feel a presence.
I generally don't mind the strange moments that I experience, though as this shows, not all of these strange experiences are pleasant. Seriously hope I do not have another moment like this one.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
NaNoWriMo 2011
If you have been on my facebook page at any stage you probably know by now that NaNoWriMo which stands for National November Writing Month and it is a challenge whereby if you accept it, you are challenged to write a story in excess of 50,000 words in just one month and obviously being the month of November.
Ever since I have been a kid I have been writing short stories, but unfortunately over the years I have lost so much of what I have written, so a few years back I decided to start typing up what stories I still had a well as stories I could remember, and of course I continued writing new stories too. I have also been posting these stories on-line.
Even though I love to write short stories I have always wanted to write a real long story but until now I have not been motivated to do so, therefore I took up the NaNoWriMo challenge. The story I decided to write is called THE PATHFINDER MISSION, basically it is about a starship by the name of THE PATHFINDER, it is the end of the world and planet Earth is being evacuated, so The Pathfinder is charged with finding a new home for the human race.
So for 30 days and 30 nights even though I have existed on Planet Earth I have been living aboard The Pathfinder. Unfortunately right from the start of the month I was behind on the daily word targets but I had always been fairly confident that I could catch up but when I got up on the morning of November 29th I still had 13,400 words to reach the 50,000 target. Up to this day I had only 3 days where I had written more than 2000 in one day, 2,500 twice and 2,300 once and with a 14 hour effort I got through over 7,500 words.
I ended the story before the 50,000 word mark as I felt I that by going any further I was only dragging out the story, however I still had time to go so I wrote an introduction to the story to bring the word count up, and my validated effort reached 50,055 words therefore I am a NaNoWriMo winner.
So many of you kept me motivated all month long even when I thought it was beyond my reach, so me being a winner makes all you guys a winner too. Thank you all so much for helping me reach a personal goal, and who knows Maybe I might just get to try this again next year.
I have been posting the story in 15 parts on-line at short-fiction.co.uk where I post under the name 'actung'.
Ever since I have been a kid I have been writing short stories, but unfortunately over the years I have lost so much of what I have written, so a few years back I decided to start typing up what stories I still had a well as stories I could remember, and of course I continued writing new stories too. I have also been posting these stories on-line.
Even though I love to write short stories I have always wanted to write a real long story but until now I have not been motivated to do so, therefore I took up the NaNoWriMo challenge. The story I decided to write is called THE PATHFINDER MISSION, basically it is about a starship by the name of THE PATHFINDER, it is the end of the world and planet Earth is being evacuated, so The Pathfinder is charged with finding a new home for the human race.
So for 30 days and 30 nights even though I have existed on Planet Earth I have been living aboard The Pathfinder. Unfortunately right from the start of the month I was behind on the daily word targets but I had always been fairly confident that I could catch up but when I got up on the morning of November 29th I still had 13,400 words to reach the 50,000 target. Up to this day I had only 3 days where I had written more than 2000 in one day, 2,500 twice and 2,300 once and with a 14 hour effort I got through over 7,500 words.
I ended the story before the 50,000 word mark as I felt I that by going any further I was only dragging out the story, however I still had time to go so I wrote an introduction to the story to bring the word count up, and my validated effort reached 50,055 words therefore I am a NaNoWriMo winner.
So many of you kept me motivated all month long even when I thought it was beyond my reach, so me being a winner makes all you guys a winner too. Thank you all so much for helping me reach a personal goal, and who knows Maybe I might just get to try this again next year.
I have been posting the story in 15 parts on-line at short-fiction.co.uk where I post under the name 'actung'.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
PLEASE READ THIS
November may the month of NaNoWriMo, a month of writing that I am currently taking part in, but November is also the month of Movember, a month when men all over the place don weird and wonderful moustaches or facial hair in general for charity. This year I am taking part but since I already have facial hair I will give Movember a bit of a twist.
Now I have been able to grow facial hair since I was 12, so when I was 18 I had a pain in me back side shaving so around about this time of the year in the year 1992 I began to grow a full beard. After about two weeks it began to itch and itch so bad that I shaved. I started with shaving the cheeks and when I got to the chin I noticed that this part of the beard had never itched so I kept what was left and it has been there now for nineteen years which is more than half my life.
So what I will do for Movember is give what facial hair I have a new designer look but only if I raise at least 150 for Irish cancer society. So the deal is that if I raise over 150 euro by midnight November 22nd I will go get the designer look the following morning, have photo's taken, post them to my facebook and use one as my profile pick.
If you want me to give my facial hair a designer look then do what is said in the film 'Jerry Maguire' and SHOW ME THE MONEY. Come on people, who is gonna sponsor me.
Now I have been able to grow facial hair since I was 12, so when I was 18 I had a pain in me back side shaving so around about this time of the year in the year 1992 I began to grow a full beard. After about two weeks it began to itch and itch so bad that I shaved. I started with shaving the cheeks and when I got to the chin I noticed that this part of the beard had never itched so I kept what was left and it has been there now for nineteen years which is more than half my life.
So what I will do for Movember is give what facial hair I have a new designer look but only if I raise at least 150 for Irish cancer society. So the deal is that if I raise over 150 euro by midnight November 22nd I will go get the designer look the following morning, have photo's taken, post them to my facebook and use one as my profile pick.
If you want me to give my facial hair a designer look then do what is said in the film 'Jerry Maguire' and SHOW ME THE MONEY. Come on people, who is gonna sponsor me.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo stands for National November Writing Month, bu the National part should be replaced by Worldwide, for I am sure that it is something that does take place worldwide.
If you write seriously or just for fun, you are more than likely aware of what the whole NaNoWriMo thingy is. It is a challange more than anything else that challenges writers who take it up to begin and complete a novel length story of at least 50,000 words in just one month.
I have been writing short stories for as long as I can remember but I would like to write at least one Novel length story, just for the sake of being able to say I have actually written one, so this year I am going to take the challenge.
I have never come close to writing so many words in one month, so it will be some challenge for me to not only see if I can come close to writing 50,000 words in one month but to also have all those words in just one story. I have never taken myself seriously and write for fun, but I may as well give this a go.
As for the story I will aim to write,I have a basic Idea for it already. I won't start writing it until Novembere 1st. I may as well go all in on the challenge and give it a real go. However prior to November 1st I can organise and plan the story. Within the month itself the concern is with quantity more than quality. After the month has ended if I have completed over 50,000 word, I could alway begin to edit and attempt to improve the story.
In the weeks to come I can hopefully plan well enough to give this a real go, and if I do complete it I will post the whole thing, in parts of course, at my regular posting spot short-fiction.co.uk. Posting this blog entry will also, I hope, inspire me to complete this challenge and not abandon it, as I am sure there will be moments where I will feel like giving up.
I know I have said before that I know all that confident in what I write, but it is better to have what I have already written and will continue to write in a place where it can be read rather than on pieces of paper, or in a computer file or in an out of reach spot in the back of my mind. So the challenge is on, can I complete it? Well time will tell. :)
If you write seriously or just for fun, you are more than likely aware of what the whole NaNoWriMo thingy is. It is a challange more than anything else that challenges writers who take it up to begin and complete a novel length story of at least 50,000 words in just one month.
I have been writing short stories for as long as I can remember but I would like to write at least one Novel length story, just for the sake of being able to say I have actually written one, so this year I am going to take the challenge.
I have never come close to writing so many words in one month, so it will be some challenge for me to not only see if I can come close to writing 50,000 words in one month but to also have all those words in just one story. I have never taken myself seriously and write for fun, but I may as well give this a go.
As for the story I will aim to write,I have a basic Idea for it already. I won't start writing it until Novembere 1st. I may as well go all in on the challenge and give it a real go. However prior to November 1st I can organise and plan the story. Within the month itself the concern is with quantity more than quality. After the month has ended if I have completed over 50,000 word, I could alway begin to edit and attempt to improve the story.
In the weeks to come I can hopefully plan well enough to give this a real go, and if I do complete it I will post the whole thing, in parts of course, at my regular posting spot short-fiction.co.uk. Posting this blog entry will also, I hope, inspire me to complete this challenge and not abandon it, as I am sure there will be moments where I will feel like giving up.
I know I have said before that I know all that confident in what I write, but it is better to have what I have already written and will continue to write in a place where it can be read rather than on pieces of paper, or in a computer file or in an out of reach spot in the back of my mind. So the challenge is on, can I complete it? Well time will tell. :)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
A Second Story Published.
First of all I haven't quite got around to completing what I had set out for myself in my last blog entry but I will get to that in a bit. But before I do I would like to announce that I have been fortunate enough to have a second story published.
Almost 11 months after intrest was shown in a story I wrote entitled TORTURE by US magazine Horrotica I get an e-mail informing me that my story SCENT is to be published in the Autumn edition of 221b magazine. The magazines accepts entries through competition where the winning entries will feature in the next issue so I entered one story more out of intrest than anything else, and I have been informed it will feature from September 23rd.
The story SCENT came out of a friendship between myself and someone I have got to know through short-fiction.co.uk. I began to write SCENT and periodically e-mailed what I had written and got opinions back on it and continued writing accordingly until the story was completed. Then came across the competition and entered the story. So Rei :) thank you.
Now in my last blog entry I said it was time to really get going on my writing due to the sheer amount of thoughts and ideas I want to get through. Unfortunately my laptop went down not long after that post and I have lost a bit of what I had begun to work on, but I will eventually get there on what I want to get through.
I am still working on continuing my vampire series only the next part will have a different title than what I have said it would be and that will probably be my next entry at short-fiction.co.uk. Since my last blog entry I also had an idea for a story I hadn't previously mentioned is a story called ALTER-EGO which I have posted at short-fiction in two parts. It is a story I had a little bit of fun with since I have an alter-ego of my own and it gave me good cause to mix in elements to this story of stories I have written in the past.
Anyway People are still reading what I write, and comments are quite good and nice so I'll keep on writing, so until next time :) .....
Almost 11 months after intrest was shown in a story I wrote entitled TORTURE by US magazine Horrotica I get an e-mail informing me that my story SCENT is to be published in the Autumn edition of 221b magazine. The magazines accepts entries through competition where the winning entries will feature in the next issue so I entered one story more out of intrest than anything else, and I have been informed it will feature from September 23rd.
The story SCENT came out of a friendship between myself and someone I have got to know through short-fiction.co.uk. I began to write SCENT and periodically e-mailed what I had written and got opinions back on it and continued writing accordingly until the story was completed. Then came across the competition and entered the story. So Rei :) thank you.
Now in my last blog entry I said it was time to really get going on my writing due to the sheer amount of thoughts and ideas I want to get through. Unfortunately my laptop went down not long after that post and I have lost a bit of what I had begun to work on, but I will eventually get there on what I want to get through.
I am still working on continuing my vampire series only the next part will have a different title than what I have said it would be and that will probably be my next entry at short-fiction.co.uk. Since my last blog entry I also had an idea for a story I hadn't previously mentioned is a story called ALTER-EGO which I have posted at short-fiction in two parts. It is a story I had a little bit of fun with since I have an alter-ego of my own and it gave me good cause to mix in elements to this story of stories I have written in the past.
Anyway People are still reading what I write, and comments are quite good and nice so I'll keep on writing, so until next time :) .....
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