Switching
I did quite a lot of searching, mainly to see if I could export all my old blogs into blogger, can’t unfortunately, but maybe they will sort that out in the future. While looking almost everyone was saying wordpress is loads better but I just don’t get it, all you can do is write stuff. I think maybe there are two types of blog writer, those who look for an audience and those who provide their own. All these people were talking about getting more traffic on wordpress and being higher up in search engine results and stuff that just doesn’t matter to me. For one my readers are pretty much all from youtube and also it doesn’t really matter how many people read it. Blogspot just seems more fun, there’s loads of little interesting things you can include. If I were a reader I would actually go on my page on blogspot rather than just read through Google reader like I normally do.
So yes, I’ve decided to go for it, no more posts on here, but I will leave it open as a record. Hopefully in time Blogspot will add an import function that can handle wordpress blogs and I’ll be able to put all these old ones on there, but for now they can just stay here.
As for you, my beautiful readers whom I have grown to love, apologies for the inconvenience but it should only take 30 seconds to add the new blog to your reader and if you don’t care enough to do that then why are you still reading this?! Piss off!
Here is the link…
musicfromblueskies.blogspot.com
p.s. remember to update your blogrolls too!
Byeeeeeeeeee! ❤
There’s something you should know…
I’m thinking about moving… Here
What do you think?
I’ve been on wordpress for quite a while but it’s annoying how blogspot seems to be… Well better! I’m also getting quite a bit of traffic and you can use adsense over there. Seems a waste not to use it.
The main problems are everyone would have to add the new one to their blog thing, google reader or whatever you all use, and that would inevitably result in losing readers. But to be honest I don’t mind how many people read these and the people I care about would follow me, it’s not exactly difficult. More importantly I might lose all the old blogs. I like having them all in one place. I’m not sure if it’s possible to export it and import the whole thing, comments and all, into blogspot.
So if anyone has any advice, especially people who have used both or who know about importing the old blogs into blogspot, please comment on here.
In other news I’m thinking about writing a Christmas EP. I think that makes six I’m currently planning. Not sure about this one though, all depends on how easily the writing comes.
ORWELL WAS RIGHT!
Five unrelated things:
- I just went to the shop and spent £19.84.
The guy behind the till didn’t seem to care much for the reference. - Last night I got back from spending the weekend down south at Ian‘s party. It was all kinds of awesome, we saw a numberplate that ended with WTF.
- I filmed a video with Ed while we were waiting for Ian to pick us up, I’ll edit it tonight probably and upload it within the next few days.
- Thanks for everyone who commented the last blog, the blog itself is only 317 words long and the comment section is over 5000! I’m very glad this is a two way street.
- Have you seen my new video? It’s very good.
Freedom
I just got a comment, don’t worry – I know that’s how the last one started and then I got angry! But I just got a comment, actually it was on that last blog, this time from a perfectly lovely and intelligent sounding man named James. It began like this;
One thing that makes America great is our freedom of choice. We Americans have the right to support who and what we want. We can decide on our faith, our political views and if we don’t agree with any pre-existing ones we can start our own. This freedom is what defines us.
You hear a lot about freedom from American people, and that’s fine – it’s a wonderful thing to have, a wonderful thing to build a society on. But the idea that freedom defines them, is also something I’ve heard in some form or other many times before. And I must confess I’m a little confused. I live in a country where all of those things are also true. In fact it’s true in most countries across the world. Certainly there are places it’s not true, but surely if there is an established norm, it’s for people to have freedom.
In the UK we have freedom, but it’s never really spoken of. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand maybe it’s wrong to take such an important thing for granted, but perhaps it’s good that it’s just assumed – it’s built into us, we don’t need to talk about it, just like we don’t need to talk about gravity for it to affect us. The idea of not being free is pretty much unthinkable. I quite like it that way.
So my question is, why has freedom become such a defining feature of the USA? Are people there any more free than others?
That’s not rhetorical, I’m curious.
Very angry, you might not want to talk to me for a while.
I posted a bulletin on myspace linking to by last blog about my positive feelings on the election result. I just received a comment on that bulletin from a 17 year old American Christian girl. I don’t single these characteristics out, that is everything I know about her. She said this:
its too bad your just like the rest of them. i really liked your music. 
And she deleted me as a friend.
That is the most outrageous thing I have heard throughout this campaign, and it didn’t come from Sarah Palin! How can you let political beliefs stand in the way of music?! MUSIC! They shouldn’t even stop you talking about politics, in fact it’s better to talk politics with someone who disagrees with you. Disagreements are one of the most important parts of life, whether you decide on one answer, agree to disagree or come to a compromise, it’s how we can all coexist in this world with such a beautiful multitude of opinions and beliefs.
That girl found out I supported Obama and that was enough for her to cut me out of her life, and that is the way to a very lonely and unstimulating life. Imagine if I cut out every republican I know. Not even know… just listen to, or watch, or read, or anything – that would be almost half of my life cut away.
That kind of close mindedness is everything I hate about the world right now. The idea that we have to stay within small groups of people with whom we agree is not only impractical, as the more you get to know people, the smaller the groups would be until it’s just you, all alone, but it’s also incredibly dangerous on a worldwide scale.
So I guess the point, other than to express my anger, is to beg you to look beyond politics, beyond religion, beyond race, beyond sexuality, and appreciate that the world can only be fixed by people who can accept each others differences and work towards the same goals, whatever they think the best way to achieve them is. I think John McCain is as good an example as anyone. Last night he was gracious in defeat and I’m sure he will continue to do what he thinks is right, to argue his case and to accept when the majority of people agree or disagree with him.
Well having got that off my chest I’m still pissed off. I think I’d be over it by now had she spelt you’re correctly.
Waking up
It’s currently 7:43am, and though I have yet to close my eyes and sleep, I can see many signs of the world waking up around me. My house is making noises, the curtains have a light glow around the edge and any small traces of drunkenness have well and truly worn off.
Tonight, or last night if you’d prefer, I stayed up to watch the US general election. I was willing to see it through alone, but stickam made it a far more exciting night. I’ve talked to many close friends over the last seven hours and I sensed in them the same feeling of hope that I have been carrying since I began to get into this race. I remember staying up to watch the vice presidential debates, that was the first time I really started thinking about the issues and about how I felt, and of course about what a catastrophe it would be if Sarah Palin were ever to lead the most powerful nation in the world. Since then I spent a lot of time following the election, more than I ever have a British general election to date, and I found myself agreeing with Obama time and again and was wondering if he was too good to be true. Not only were his policies the most sensible, but he is likable, understanding of a new and different generation, and a truly inspirational speaker.
I’ve had a video playing on my channel today. It’s Obama’s speech in the Virginia rain, possibly my favourite of his, even over tonight’s. I honestly haven’t been so impressed and inspired by a politician in my lifetime. When I saw that speech for the first time, though the content, the context and of course the accent are all different, I was reminded of Winston Churchill. Now lets face it, when it comes to speech making there is no higher accolade.
The fear that it was too good to be true, though continually diminishing, didn’t disappear until the Californian result came through and Barack Obama was officially the next president of the US. After all, this is a country that decided after four years of George Bush, to have another four.
Of course, all of this has been just to get to the starting blocks. Come January we will begin to see if Obama can be the president we all hope he can. I at least believe he can.
It’s 8:05am now, and though I am done for the night, the world is definitely waking up.
To my American friends…
Tomorrow is November 4th, the day of the US general election. Eight years of George Bush have (finally) come to a close and you all get to decide who his successor will be. Unfortunately no matter how much it affects the rest of the world, we can’t vote. But you can, and you should because this is the closest thing we have to a fair society, everyone deciding together which is the best course of action.
I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, I just ask you to vote. If you have somehow managed to avoid the election build up and are still clueless, take a quick look at the candidates. It really won’t take long for you to grasp the major differences between the two men’s policies, and decide which you believe to be the most sensible. I also ask that you remember that we are a global community. However you know me, I doubt it would have been possible ten years ago. That connection we have is new, and it’s growing stronger all the time, and I think it’s important that the man in charge of the most powerful nation in the world understands what’s happening in it.
I’m going to give you my opinion briefly, but I stand by the original point that the most important thing is to vote, and to vote based on what you think is best, not what I or anybody else thinks.
Were I able to cast a vote, it would be for Barack Obama.
Having stayed up for many late nights watching this race unfold, I found myself siding with Obama on almost every policy. The economy, health care, the environment, foreign policy… I haven’t got the time to go into detail on each one, but if you have any specific questions leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them. But beyond agreeing with the policies, I have been very impressed with the man behind them. I rarely get into politics. I don’t really trust politicians. They always seem at least a couple of generations away from me and totally unapproachable and unable to understand anyone under the age of 30.
But I don’t find that with Obama. He manages to be inspirational without being corny, intelligent without being superior, and he is able to connect with a generation that was all but ready to give up on politics before it ever became politicised. I think he is just what the world needs in these unstable times.
But I can’t vote so what I think doesn’t matter. What you think, does.
I’ll leave you with a beautiful quotation from Katrina that pretty much sums everything up;
“Go vote tomorrow or you’re not allowed to bitch about what happens.”
Numbers
I just passed the 10,000 mark. I never really thought about the numbers much but for some reason this one just hit me. I tried to visualise it in a few different ways and it’s scary… In a good way.
I played a gig the other day, there were about 25-30 people there. I’d have to play that gig every day for a year to reach 10,000 people.
To fit 10,000 people in my bedroom you would have to shrink them until they were approximately 1.3cm tall.
If all of my subscribers stood on each others shoulders (with incredible balance) making a human tower they would reach the stratosphere.
Feel free to argue with my maths, but before you do you should know two things. (1) I have a degree in maths and (2) I am the co-creator of ‘Jazz Maths’, a branch of mathematics whereby any answer you give is correct as long as you say it with confidence and flair. If my degree lets me down, I just say I was using Jazz Maths, it’s incontestable.
Happy Halloween
Oh I just heard the first firework of the night.
No trick or treaters yet, I saw a story on the news – the shit local news – that the police hired out a screen at a cinema and are letting kids go watch the new Bond film for free just to get them off the streets. Interesting idea, but what they should really do is host a full Premiership fixture list like they do on the first and last days of the season, plus I think New Years(?) That would take a few more kids off the street than one cinema screen. Though I suppose the police have little sway over the FA. Ah well.
Anyway, I recorded a song today, I wrote it after I finished reading Looking for Alaska. It’s not quite finished, I want at least one more verse or something, but I quite like it. I’ve put a demo on myspace. Would love to hear your opinions as always, especially if you’ve read the book. But especially (yes I know, both especially) if you haven’t read the book because I tried quite hard to make it a good song in it’s own right as I think these type of songs rarely are. Oh and if anyone knows John Green, feel free to send him a link! I’ll write the lyrics so far at the bottom.
It will be November in a few hours and I’m still not really sure what I’m doing with regards to this nanowrimo thing. I want to use it to motivate me in a way that’s helpful to my life, i.e. not write a novel. However my previous idea of writing a song or blog every day, I’m not sure about. Blogs don’t really accomplish anything, I write them because I have something to say. And songs can’t, or shouldn’t, be rushed. So I think I’m going to give up being specific and just set aside an hour or two each day for songwriting. Starting is usually the hardest part so by doing that I should get a fair few new ones this month.
Last thing, by the end of the night I should have reached 10,000 subs. That’s a lot of zeros.
Ok lyrics to the song, it’s tentatively called ‘Alaska’ but that may change. Oh and as for spoilers… yeah kinda. So don’t read if you’re bothered, but it’s an old book so I guess most people won’t be.
All these last words
But I can’t know hers
Don’t want to be holding on
Somewhere I don’t belong*
One more time
Through my mind
Something I could have said
Signs that I should have read
But she found her way out at last
The crisp blue ink read “Straight & Fast”.
Count the days
Till I can get away
From those emerald green eyes
Flying towards the flashing lights
We’re more than just
Ashes and dust
More than what’s visible
We are invincible.
Don’t wait for your time to pass
Before you look for your great perhaps.
*The second half of the first verse are all that remain from the song that this started out as, before I read the book. They may well be changed.
nanowrimo
Stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place in November.
I like the idea of encouraging people to write, but a 50,000 word novel in a month I think is enough to put most people off this idea, including me. So personally I’m going to set my own writing challenge. All my writing currently consists of this blog and songs, so that’s what I will be attempting. I’ll say I have to write either a song or a blog each day. I’ll put a minimum word limit of 500 on blogs because sometimes I do short ones, and no; a picture does not count for 1000 words.
I think I might make a video about this, help get people writing. Thoughts?
