All Things Hated...

So a long, long time ago I wrote about All Things I Love...  Can't remember it?  You can check it out here, it's a bit more upbeat than the sequel.

I've decided to do a follow-up piece about the things I hate.  Because you know, life can be ridiculous sometimes and it just makes me mad.  

Music or Sound That Cuts Out
I can't stand it, whether its the radio going in and out of signal, or in my old house the TV used to get messed up if you were using the hoover.  I really can't cope with sound cutting in and out.  I have to mute whatever it is until it sorts its shit out and decides to work properly.

Stupid Spelling Mistakes
I cannot cope with one more Facebook status that goes along the lines of: *rant rant rant* 'and breath...'

Breath?  Breath?  What the fuck is that?  Breathe you blithering idiot.  Breathe!

Keira Knightley

You're not allowed to have that annoying voice and overact that much.  That's not okay.  Also you can't kiss Orlando Bloom AND Johnny Depp in a movie.  And then leave Johnny to die.  No.  Not okay.  No.  Shut up Keira.

People That Say Sarcasm is The Lowest Form of Wit
It's fucking hilarious.  Shut up.  

Greedy People
Oh you feel you're undervalued and underpaid?  Remind me of that 6 figure salary you get again.  That's absurd.  Let's make the whole country come to a stand-still whilst you protests your little hearts away and have a day off to perk yourselves up.  

You don't see every fucker on minimum wage doing that do you?  No, we're more than deliriously happy with our £6.31 an hour.  You crack on.

The Weird Love Everyone Has For Cheryl Cole
Or as my friend Dan calls her; "Cheryl dull as dishwater has a French surname now".  Okay so she was part of a very successful girl band.  And then she married a footballer.  Oh and then the footballer may or may not have cheated on her.  Oh, okay, because no one else has ever done that before...

Awkward.

People Who Think They're Ridiculously Special
Don't get me wrong, everyone is special in their own way.  But I can't stand people who take something that happens to anyone and everyone and makes it out to be an overly big deal.  The kind of people who won't shut up about it and feel that everyone must pander to them.  Oh its your birthday?  Do you know how many people have one of those a year?  Everyone.  Sit down and shut up.

Clothes Sizes
So what you're saying is, I'm a 14 in that shop, but a 16 in the one next door?  And the 6 shoes are far too tight but the 7s slide right off?  That seems logical.  Excuse me while I wear this bin bag for the rest of my life...

Getting Out of Bed
It's bloody comfy in there.

So those are pretty much my main pet peeves of life.  Better stop there before I even contemplate about things I hate when driving.  Why do people drive 35 on a 50mph road?  What the hell mate?!  Okay, and breathe...

All Things Music: Day Seven

Well it's day seven, and the end of my music challenge.
I woke up to my alarm again, and listened to the radio whilst I procrastinated from my essay with Facebook.
Other than that, all other music has been heard on TV whilst I caught up on some soaps.

This challenge has shocked me a little.  I knew that I listened to music a lot, I love it - so why wouldn't I?

But it seems that music is an uncontrollable force, it is everywhere.  In the background of shops, taxis, restaurants... blaring out of speakers at clubs, being mixed at events... slyly creeping around TV shows, as well as being purposely played via radio, Internet or iPod.

Personally, I can't concentrate without sound; my body genuinely reacts negatively to silence.  I have had countless coughing fits during exams and funerals; my bodies way of breaking the silence.

So yes Tom, I listen to a lot of music, but unwittingly so do you.  And with this discovery, I raise my iPod with pride and victoriously place my headphones on my head.  I think this calls for a bit of Queen...

All Things Music: Day Six

No.  No music today.  I can't face it.

All Things Music: Day Five

Today started with my alarm clock singing at me (a bit of classic Ne-Yo).  I carried on listening to his album as I got dressed and left the house.  I listen to my iPod on the walk into uni where I sit down to edit the footage I got of the festival.  

Side note: I'm really disappointed with the sound on the footage.  It seems that the mic couldn't ignore the mixes that were playing or the general sound of background chatter, so the audio in the interviews isn't usable.  However, I can't film it again, because we can't get hold of the guy who organised it (probably still hungover), and we have a deadline so I have to make the best of it.  

Watching and listening to the footage over and over again builds my music intake and my appetite so I head to the Student's Union for lunch, where the TVs are playing one of the many music channels that are around.  

After lunch I do a bit more editing, before heading home; iPod in hand.  I'm rocking out to a bit of Kate Nash when I get in and start tidying my room.  Once it's finished, I then trash it by throwing dresses, handbags and shoes around deciding what to wear tonight.  

Once I'm (finally) dressed, I hang up my iPod for the day and walk to my friend's house for predrinks.  There's music playing somewhere in the house, but it's faint in the background behind everyone talking and getting rowdy from a few too many jagerbombs.  About 11, we all pile into numerous taxis and head into town.

The rest of the night is filled with a lot of very loud music and a few cheeky beverages.  Plus all of us singing to each other in the kebab shop afterwards.

Music always brings everyone together.

All Things Music: Day Three and Four

Day Three - Saturday

It was rugby day in work Saturday, which means a delightful 15-17 hour shift.  So this means my music intake was constant as we had a playlist going apart from when the games were actually on TV.  Even when I went on break, there was music playing from other clubs and in the background of shops/restaurants.  Today was definitely not my fault!

Day Four - Sunday
I'm halfway through the week already and I'm proving Tom right, it seems that I can't do anything without music, so I thought I'd try to avoid it a little today.  I'm still so tired from yesterday's shift I decide not to go anywhere more than 20 metres from my sofa so that eliminates the risk of background music.  I settle down to watch TV all day.  The only issue is; there's background music in almost every scene!

There's also a jingle on nearly every advert and some of the trashy American shows that I watch have "live" singers or bands at their parties.  I can't escape.  

So I've indirectly listened to just as much music as I would've listening to the radio really. 

All Things Music: Day Two

So I stayed up to listen to Nicki Minaj's new song on some obscure American radio station. It was 45 minutes late, so I spent even longer listening to random music than planned before I went to bed.

I woke up to my alarm again (Jessie J's album today) before listening to my iPod on my way into uni. We were doing filming today so I didn't have time to slack off, 'ahh this should bring down my music hours for today' I thought. Wrong.

So we had to go to a Cider and Ale Festival at Cardiff University for our story. There were loads of barrels of Ale and Cider, and bottles of wine and mead. So much mead.

There was a DJ to the side of the stage who was playing some really good mixes.  He was mixing them himself as we were all milling about, which impressed me.  He started talking to one of our team and gave us his Soundcloud link, so I'll have to check him out again and see if he's got any cheeky downloads available.

When we'd finished filming, we were invited back to the festival to check it out.  This time they had live bands playing, some were quite alternative but it was fun to check out some of the local talent, most of which were Cardiff University students.

I drank a bit too much mead during the evening, so wisely decided at this point to head home to bed.  (Never drink mead: it's not a good idea!)

So my music intake was really high again today, even though a large portion of that was subconscious, but it's really hard to escape background music - it's everywhere.  Even supermarkets have radio stations these days.

All Things Music: The Challenge

I walk into the kitchen with my friend Tom to cook some noodles while we have a break from the essay we're working on for uni. I flick the radio on as we walk through the door. "Do you have to have music on to do everything?" Tom asks me. I think for a minute... It seems that I would.

My laptop is still working its way through my playlist in the other room because I can't concentrate without background noise and anyone in the hallway is definitely experiencing some conflicting sounds.

So I'm looking at my life. I do listen to music a hell of a lot, who doesn't? But I'm interested to see just how much. Therefore, I present The Challenge. I will keep a record of how much music I listen to and how I listen to it for a week. And I will share it here, with you.

Day One:

I woke up to Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah from my iPod alarm; score 1 for music and I haven't even opened my eyes. I have to walk into town to sign for my house so chuck my headphones on and work my way through Jessie J's album until I get to the estate agents.

When I get home I put the radio on in the kitchen while I spend a good hour cooking an amazing paprika tortilla and cleaning the kitchen - it is now spotless! I return to my room to eat so put Loose Women on in the background while I sort e-mails etc. I mute it occasionally to listen to some youtube videos; my music intake is increasing rapidly...

I shower (in silence!), get dressed (to music), then put my headphones back on to head to my mates house to do some uni work. I'm there all afternoon and evening (we have a vair important deadline tomorrow), and while I'm there we take random breaks to show each other new music that we haven't all heard before on Spotify and Youtube. I also put my headphones on from time to time when I'm really trying to concentrate and drown out the boys bantering with each other.

I listen to my iPod again on my way home and put it back on my alarm clock, ready to wake me tomorrow. Then I start my TV intake, no more music tonight.

Wow, day one alone seems to have shown a lot of music in my day-to-day life. I'm in lectures tomorrow though, maybe that'll change things a bit. In the mean time I'm waiting until midnight when Nicki Minaj releases her new song online...

All Things Brit

And she's arrived! Rihanna is at the Brits.

She's been trending on Twitter non-stop the past two days due to her two new remixes with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown having stormed the internet. In the midst of rumours that they are back together, Rihanna has shown up to the Brits alone, with a smile on her face and looking as gorgeous as ever.

I really like the blond hair...

All Things I Love...

Everyone's different, yes? Glad you agree. So different things make us all happy right? I'm told that some of the things I love are quite random and weird things to admit. Personally, I just think I'm easily amused. But I've decided to let you decide. You. You there, reading this. Hey you - bored of Facebook clearly. (I really don't blame you.)

So yeah, back on topic; here's all the things that I love...

• Rainbow colours
• The feeling of achievement you get when finishing something
• Watching reality TV (guilty pleasure - I'll admit it!)
• Traditions
• The smell of freshly boiled water

• Getting post
• Belting out a big song and getting all of the words right
• Photographs
• Bedrooms with character

• Cooking
• Baking
• Learning how to use new things (software etc...)
• Making playlists for any occasion
• Trying new things
• The Clothes Show Live

What things do you love?