101 Things In 1001 Days

This isn't the first blog that I've attempted. Ever since I started using the internet as a pre-teen I've been writing journals and publishing them in various places, but I'm no good at sticking to a plan. My motivational skills are poor and I'm prone to putting things off and never actually getting round to doing the things I want to do.

A few years ago I discovered the website Day Zero Project (https://dayzeroproject.com) which allows its users to create lists of up to 101 goals that they want to accomplish, and then gives them 1001 days to tick them off. My first attempt at this was poor and I only managed to achieve 10% of the things that I put on the list, but I learned from that and created a new list once the original 1001 days were up. One of the goals that I've put on this list is to keep a record of everything that I manage to accomplish from the list and I thought my blog would be the ideal place to do that, not just so I can look back on the things I've done but also because if I aim to write a blog every month or so with my latest accomplishments it will hopefully encourage me to look at the list regularly and put my plans into action.

I started this list on September 1st, 2014 which means I now have 670 days to go, and I've currently marked 11 of my goals complete, with various other ones in progress. Here are the things I've already ticked off:

4. Attend my 100th concert. 
Live music is one of my great loves and I was nearing 100 shows when I started this list. I achieved this goal on the 2nd of November, 2014, when I went to see Motionless In White play at the O2 ABC in Glasgow. I'd seen MIW twice before and I was really into them in the year or two previous, but by the time this tour finally came around I was kind of over them. I still really enjoyed their set but it wasn't one of my favourite shows, I went on my own and left after their set (they were co-headlining with Lacuna Coil) so I was out of the venue by 9pm. The next day I went down to Leeds to see the first of 7 dates on The Blackout's Wolves tour, which was much more memorable.

10. Meet up with my high school friends.
In February I got back in regular contact with one of my high school best friends and we've been catching up over lunch and seeing movies together, which has been great because I don't really have any friends in my hometown anymore after being away at Uni for so long.

29. Go on a road trip. 
This one also relates to The Blackout's tour: I was originally going to four shows at the start of the tour but then a friend with a car invited me to come to another three dates with her, so we made our way to Bristol, Nottingham and Cardiff on an eventful few days that involved breakdowns, getting lost, powercuts and amazing concerts.

46. Visit London.
I've made two trips to London in 2015: once for The Blackout's farewell tour and once to attend this year's Kerrang Awards. Both were fun trips where I got confused on the tube and hung out with Southern friends who I don't get to see very often. The Kerrang Awards weren't nearly as exciting as they're made out to be but our only aim was to see Sean Smith who was interviewing bands backstage and we achieved that aim so it was a successful trip.

49. Photograph a concert.
When I was younger I used to take my camera to every concert and take photos of the bands during the show, but I got out of that habit a couple of years ago when I decided that I preferred to enjoy every second of the show without trying to document it. However, I managed to take pictures at The Blackout's last Glasgow show in March when I was ill and had to sit at the side rather than be down the front.

51. Help sort through Granny's things.
My Granny died in 2009 but I was too upset to go along when the family rushed to clear out her things, so I didn't get to save the mementoes that I wanted. I was worried that the books I wanted were gone forever but they were found in a suitcase in a cupboard in my house so I finally got a few, some of which go back generations. The books I saved are The Complete Works Of Shakespeare, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Grimms Fairy Tales, Roman and Greek Mythology, and Longfellow's Poems. I've opened most of them but haven't actually gotten round to properly reading any of them just yet.

65. Volunteer for a charity.
I started working in the Shelter charity shop in town around the time that I started the 1001 days, and I've now been there for almost a year. I'm the shop's 'media manager', in charge of replenishing the DVDs, CDs, video games, cassettes, vinyl and audiobooks on the shelves. I also work on the till serving customers, help out with the gift aid database and check prices of our stock online.

75. Buy a dress.
When I started this list I didn't have a dress that fitted me, although I rarely go anywhere that necessitates the wearing of one. I've now got four dresses which I bought from the shop: a kneelength black velvet dress which I've worn a couple of times, a short strapless cream dress with black lace, a casual flannel shirt attached to a leather skirt, and a really short black dress with big 80s shoulders which I wore last time I was in London.

92. Visit Wales. 
I've been to Wales twice since I started this list, once to Cardiff and once to Merthyr Tydfil, both to see The Blackout.

94. Write a letter to someone who has inspired me. 
I sent a Christmas card to The Blackout but I don't know if it ever arrived. I also wrote messages to each member in memory books that my friends made for the band when they split up.

100. See The Blackout for the 50th time. 
My 50th, and penultimate, Blackout show was at Glasgow Garage on March 26th 2015. It was the same venue where I'd seen them for the first time in 2008, so it was a nice way to end things.

I currently have another batch of goals marked 'in progress', so hopefully it won't be too long before I'm writing an update to my list of achievements. If you're like me and struggle to motivate yourself into achieving the things you want, I'd recommend making a Day Zero list and checking it regularly - the feeling of accomplishment when I'm able to tick something off really makes my day!

The 2015 VMAs: my picks and predictions

This past week saw the launch of the nominations for the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, music's most controversial night out. Past years have seen memorable moments like Madonna kissing Britney, Lady Gaga wearing a dress made out of meat and Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift, but this year we haven't even had to wait for the ceremony to start for the VMAs to attract headlines. The publication of the nominated videos last week caused Nicki Minaj to call out racism and sexism in the music industry, which caused Taylor Swift to misunderstand and call out Nicki Minaj. Now that the pair have worked things out, it's time to look at the categories and pick my favourites. Sadly, voting is only open to US residents so I can't vote, but here's who I would vote for if I could (and who I think will actually win):

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Beyoncé – “7/11″
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood”
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”

My pick: Bad Blood
I don't think any of the other nominees are as good as Bad Blood here. The video is aesthetically pleasing, it sets out to tell a story and accomplishes it, plus there are all those cameos! My only complaint with this video is that it sets up a huge cast of characters who only get a few seconds of screen time each, which is disappointing because I want to learn all of their backstories and find out why they're all there helping Taylor out.

My prediction: Bad Blood
I honestly can't see how anything other than Bad Blood can win this award, although the VMA doesn't always go to the video that involves the most work - last year Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball beat Fancy by Iggy Azalea which is a far more interesting video in my opinion. Beyoncé has won a lot of VMAs but I don't think 7/11 is an outstanding video, neither is Thinking Out Loud, but both Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran have big fanbases so they're both possibilities, especially after the Taylor/Nicki thing. Uptown Funk was a huge song but the video isn't a strong contender, and Alright is a great video but I don't think the song is well-known enough to get the votes, it's the only one on the list that I haven't seen on TV.

BEST MALE VIDEO
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
The Weeknd – “Earned It”
Nick Jonas – “Chains”

My pick: Alright
Having watched all five nominations, Alright is definitely the best video of the bunch. It's striking in black and white with beautiful cinematography, but I don't feel like it has a cohesive narrative which I believe it set out to do.

My prediction: Thinking Out Loud OR Uptown Funk
I think Ed Sheeran is the only one of the nominees with the kind of fanbase who will vote constantly (plus he's friends with Taylor Swift so I would imagine her fans will pick him too), even if the video is pretty dull. If he doesn't win I would predict that Uptown Funk will, purely because it was such a huge song that everyone loved. I believe Earned It was too explicit to be shown on daytime TV in the UK, so its content is likely to hurt its chances of success, and the Nick Jonas video was just too boring to discuss really, I'm not sure how that got nominated.

BEST FEMALE VIDEO
Beyoncé – “7/11″
Taylor Swift – “Blank Space”
Nicki Minaj – “Anaconda”
Sia – “Elastic Heart”
Ellie Goulding – “Love Me Like You Do”

My pick: Blank Space
I really want to say that Nicki Minaj is right and she deserves the award but I cannot fault Blank Space, it's definitely my favourite video out of all the nominees. The story fits perfectly with the lyrics, the art direction is flawless and Taylor does a great job of playing her character.

My prediction: Anaconda OR Blank Space
This is the category where we'll see how badly Taylor Swift was hurt by what went down on Twitter the other day. I think her fans will vote for her, but everyone else will vote for Nicki Minaj and I won't be disappointed either way. I'd also be quite happy with Sia winning, although her video is much simpler it's very powerful without detracting from the song. I can't stand Ellie Goulding though and I found her video incredibly boring, her scenes started out promising but led nowhere and they were interspersed with footage from Fifty Shades Of Grey which is very divisive in itself.

BEST HIP HOP VIDEO
Fetty Wap – “Trap Queen”
Nicki Minaj – “Anaconda”
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – “See You Again”
Big Sean ft. E-40 – “I Don’t F–k With You”

My pick: Anaconda
Anaconda is definitely the best of the hip-hop category. Nicki, like Taylor Swift, is playing with the stereotypes that surround her and having fun; I think this is the only video that made me laugh out loud. It has a little too much product placement for my liking (a lot of the hip-hop videos did) but this video is vibrant and entertaining just like its star.

My prediction: Anaconda
Nicki Minaj is the most mainstream artist on the list with a huge fanbase behind her and she's also the only woman on this year's line-up. The Big Sean video looked really impressive but it didn't really go anywhere, I'm not sure how I rate his chances of winning because I think he's a bigger star in the US than he is in the UK (I'd never heard the song or seen the video until these nominations came out). See You Again, on the other hand, was a huge hit song and the obituary footage from the Fast And Furious films might boost its chances of winning if the voters are feeling sentimental. I think Trap Queen has also been a big song over the summer but it felt like I was watching a hip hop video from the early 2000s, it used all the same tropes but didn't say anything new.

BEST POP VIDEO
Beyoncé – “7/11″
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
Taylor Swift – “Blank Space”
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
Maroon 5 – “Sugar”

My pick: Blank Space
Like I said previously, there's nothing I can come up with as a critique to this video, it deserves to win everything!

My prediction: Blank Space
I think this one is hard to call, the first four are all nominated for so many awards and have big fanbases so I think it'll be a close call. The only one of these I haven't previously mentioned is Sugar, which is a fun video and actually my second favourite out of the category although I struggle to believe that it was all filmed in one day.

BEST ROCK VIDEO
Hozier – “Take Me To Church”
Fall Out Boy – “Uma Thurman”
Florence + the Machine – “Ship To Wreck”
Walk the Moon – “Shut Up and Dance”
Arctic Monkeys – “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?”

My pick: Uma Thurman
I hadn't actually seen this video before even though I really like Fall Out Boy, and I was pleased to see that they still make videos that are really good fun. I love the way that it plays with the personas that the band members are perceived as having and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they didn't just do some kind of parody of the dance scene from Pulp Fiction.

My prediction: Shut Up And Dance
The only reason I'm predicting this one is because it's the only one I've actually seen on TV and it seems to be that one big indie pop song of the summer. I think it's a fun video but I would have preferred to see it with actors rather than the singer of the band. I also think Fall Out Boy will be a popular choice because they have really hardcore fans and so do Arctic Monkeys, although I can't believe their video is actually new enough for this year's awards. Hozier probably stands a good chance of winning because that song is amazing and the video is also really good, I just don't think the two go together at all - Take Me To Church is such a powerful song that it would have benefited more from a performance video I think, I found it really hard to concentrate on the storyline because of the song. The Florence video is also okay but I wouldn't give it much of a chance. The real disappointment here for me is the lack of any hard rock videos, this category is more 'alternative' than 'rock' to me and it really shows how rock has fallen out of fashion with the mainstream music media.

ARTIST TO WATCH
Fetty Wap – “Trap Queen”
Vance Joy – “Riptide”
George Ezra – “Budapest”
James Bay – “Hold Back The River”
FKA Twigs – “Pendulum”

My pick: Pendulum
This category is kind of hard to work out because the VMAs is supposed to be about music videos yet they seem to have nominated these artists as overall packages rather than choosing them on the merit of their videos. I think FKA Twigs is the only one of the five whose video showed real promise for making innovative work in the future, she kind of reminds me of Bjork in that her videos are more like art pieces than promotional clips. She also has a unique aesthetic which none of her fellow nominees have.

My prediction: Pendulum
Again, I'm predicting this solely based on the video here and not who I think is the most promising artist overall. That said, Vance Joy, George Ezra and James Bay all came out with these successful songs six months and more ago in the UK and none of them have had a big follow-up hit yet. Budapest and Hold Back The River are both performance clips which suit the songs but aren't worthy of a VMA and Riptide is the only one of the four male videos that I really found interesting. It almost has a David Lynch-esque feeling to it, but I didn't feel like there was any sort of story or link tying the images together which was disappointing to me.

BEST COLLABORATION
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood”
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – “See You Again”
Ariana Grande & The Weeknd – “Love Me Harder”
Jessie J + Ariana Grande + Nicki Minaj – “Bang Bang”

My pick: Bad Blood
Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar are both given ample screen time in this video, they both have characters who make sense and the supporting cast do just that: support without completely stealing the spotlight from the two performers. Plus, of the five, it's the most exciting to watch.

My prediction: Bad Blood
Bad Blood is the one here that makes the best use of the collaboration. Mark Ronson looks hilariously out of place in Bruno Mars' gang, whereas Jessie, Ariana and Nicki don't come together as a gang enough for my liking; the whole time that Jessie J is performing she has a group of girls following her and it doesn't feel right for her not to have Ariana and Nicki standing either side. The same problem befalls Ariana Grande in Love Me Harder, she's talking to her partner in the song but she and The Weeknd are only seen together here standing back-to-back, which just doesn't make sense. See You Again is the one I'd rank second most likely to win because I think it works the best as a duet, although not necessarily as a collaborative video.

VIDEO WITH A SOCIAL MESSAGE
Jennifer Hudson – “I Still Love You”
Colbie Caillat – “Try”
Big Sean ft. Kanye West and John Legend – “One Man Can Change the World”
Rihanna – “American Oxygen”
Wale – “The White Shoes”

My pick: American Oxygen
It feels weird not having Rihanna nominated for a whole lot of these awards, especially when BBHMM was released just within the parameters for consideration, so I hope she takes this award. The social message isn't as in your face as in some of the other videos but I really like the old news footage which slowly gives way to the images of war that America are currently involved in. It uses patriotism to ask important questions and it doesn't feel like you're being preached to.

My prediction: I Still Love You
This video is cliché but it gets its point across very effectively and emotionally. Following the marriage equality bill I think US voters will really get behind a gay wedding story which this video delivers. One Man Can Change The World and The White Shoes are both about racism and black lives but neither one has an obvious arc and I came away unsure exactly what the message was. Try, on the other hand, has a very obvious message but I didn't like it as much as any of the others. The message here is that women are all beautiful without makeup which is a nice message but it feels really dated, suggesting that there's something bad about women who do choose to modify their appearance and that you can only be happy once you remove those modifications. Also the younger girls in the video over-act and it didn't feel natural at all, which totally contradicted the 'natural is best' image.

Professional categories - no fan voting:

BEST ART DIRECTION
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Charles Infante)
Snoop Dogg – “So Many Pros” (Jason Fijal)
Jack White – “Would You Fight For My Love” (Jeff Peterson)
The Chemical Brothers – “Go” (Michel Gondry)

Skrillex & Diplo – “Where Are U Now” with Justin Bieber (Brewer)

My pick: So Many Pros
I almost didn't look at the professional categories because they're not really a part of the award ceremony but after watching some of them I'm glad I did. Snoop Dogg's video is made up entirely of 70s style movie posters with Snoop and friends coming to life in them and the amount of different costume changes and work that went into animating everything must have taken so long to do. I can't come up with any criticism of this video's aesthetic, I loved every second.

My prediction: So Many Pros
I really hope the professionals who vote in this category were as impressed as I was with So Many Pros, although I really like the visual style of all five videos. Bad Blood has its dark action movie look, Would You Fight For My Love has a great set and beautiful colouring, Go is really quirky with its costumes although the settings aren't as spectacular as some of the others and Where Are U Now is fun to watch and works well with the song.

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
Beyoncé – “7/11″ (Beyoncé, Chris Grant, Additional choreography: Gabriel Valenciano)
OK Go – “I Won’t Let You Down” (OK Go, air:man and Mori Harano)
Chet Faker – “Gold” (Ryan Heffington)
Ed Sheeran – “Don’t” (Nappy Tabs)
Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Never Catch Me” (Keone and Mari Madrid)

My pick: I Won't Let You Down
OK Go are known for having insane choreography in their videos and this one is no exception. When it first started I thought it was just going to be them performing a dance routine on their little scooter things, similar to their treadmill video, but just as I was getting bored they moved to the outdoor scenes which blew me away. I loved the synchronised swimming style routine and the scenes with the coloured umbrellas, and by the end I was convinced that there wasn't another video that could top this. The final part where the huge group are opening and closing their umbrellas so that it looks like one of those scrolling LED light strips that spells out messages amazed me.

My prediction: Don't
I thought the Ed Sheeran video was kind of dull (it seems like I find more of less everything Ed Sheeran does to be a bit dull) but I think it will win votes because of the weird dancing style. The only time that the dancing impressed me was the scene with the couple moving together, other than that I didn't think it was very effective. I think Never Catch Me is also a contender because it uses young people and is the only one which uses dance to convey a social message. I liked Gold but the movements aren't as complex as the others, and 7/11 is only really made interesting through the editing. I'd like to think that I Won't Let You Down will be the winner but I wouldn't be surprised if OK Go win this award a lot.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Never Catch Me” (Larkin Sieple)
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud” (Daniel Pearl)
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Christopher Probst)
FKA Twigs – “Two Weeks” (Justin Brown)
Alt-J – “Left Hand Free” (Mike Simpson)

My pick: Two Weeks
This video was beautiful right from the start when I realised I could see dust particles in the air around FKA Twigs, but when I realised that the whole video was one very slow pan out from her face it became the winner for me. I can imagine that must be very hard to get right and it was executed perfectly here.

My prediction: Two Weeks
Most of these videos impressed me with their cinematography but I don't think any of them were as unique as Two Weeks. Never Catch Me was really cinematic (like Alright, which I thought would have been nominated here) and so is Bad Blood. Left Hand Free isn't particularly exciting, the images are pretty but not extraordinary, and I wasn't impressed with Thinking Out Loud at all, I felt like the cuts were in all the wrong places and there were points where the shots weren't set up as well as they could have been.

BEST DIRECTION
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Joseph Kahn)
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk” (Bruno Mars and Cameron Duddy)
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright” (Colin Tilley & The Little Homies)
Hozier – “Take Me To Church” (Brendan Canty and Conal Thomson of Feel Good Lost)
Childish Gambino – “Sober” (Hiro Murai)

My pick: Take Me To Church
I think Take Me To Church does the best job of telling a complete story here, although the ending isn't as satisfying as I'd have liked. It was hard for me to choose here between Hozier and Taylor Swift but I think the abundance of un-fleshed-out characters lets Bad Blood down.

My prediction: Take Me To Church
I wouldn't have nominated Alright here because I think the choice of images is what stops the video from being great, the shots are set up beautifully but the story isn't clear. I don't think Uptown Funk is a winner here because it moves around too much and I'm not sure that the performance scene at the end really works. I thought Sober was an enjoyable video but it's much more contained than my two favourites so I don't think it stands much chance.

BEST EDITING
Beyoncé – “7/11″ (Beyoncé, Ed Burke, Jonathan Wing)
Ed Sheeran – “Don’t” (Jacquelyn London)
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Chancler Haynes at Cosmo Street)
A$AP Rocky – “L$D” (Dexter Navy)
Skrillex & Diplo “Where Are U Now” with Justin Bieber (Brewer)

My pick: L$D
I was completely unaware of L$D as a song and video until I watched it for this blog which is a shame because it was really fun to watch. It's really colourful and trippy which matches its title, and it wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the psychedelic editing. Before I watched it I was convinced that Where Are U Now would be my favourite because I also love the doodles added into all the shots of Justin Bieber, as well as the scenes showing people drawing on the frames, so I'd also be really happy if it were to take the prize.

My prediction: 7/11
7/11 is up for a whole lot of awards even though I think it's a fairly average video. I think the editing is where it shines, the harsh cuts really match with the song and MTV loves to give moonmen to Beyoncé. Bad Blood is well put together and so are L$D and Where Are U Now, but the only time I really noticed the editing in Don't was when the dancer was in the pool and the sound changed to create the feeling of being underwater, which isn't that impressive compared with the amount of work in the other videos.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Ingenuity Studios)
FKA Twigs – “Two Weeks” (Gloria FX, Tomash Kuzmytskyi, and Max Chyzhevskyy)
Childish Gambino – “Telegraph Ave.” (Gloria FX)
Skrillex & Diplo “Where Are U Now” with Justin Bieber (Brewer)
Tyler, The Creator – “F****** Young/Death Camp” (Gloria FX)

My pick: Where Are U Now
I think the doodling that's overlaid onto this video makes it so interesting to watch that it has to be my favourite. There are so many frames featuring different artwork that you could watch it 100 times and still notice something new, and the mix of normal scenes and colourful ones is just right. Being able to see people coming in and drawing their artwork onto each cell is also a nice touch, it really made me appreciate the amount of work involved in putting a video like that together.

My prediction: Telegraph Ave.
This category is very hard to predict. As I was watching Telegraph Ave I didn't understand why it was nominated right until the very end when Childish Gambino is suddenly taken over by some sort of tentacle monster. While it looked impressive I felt like the effects came in much too late for me to favour it over the competition, but the critics might think differently. The effects in Two Weeks are so subtle that I didn't realise it was digitally manipulated until right at the end when it had zoomed out enough to show that FKA Twigs was giant compared to the dancers, at first I'd assumed they were far away until I saw their limbs moving in front of the singer. Tyler, The Creator doesn't have that many effects in his video and Bad Blood uses fairly standard explosions and text, although it does look stunning. I'm really looking forward to seeing what wins in this category.

One big surprise for me this year is that there isn't a category for Best Lyric Video which was included last year, as far as I know the lyric video hasn't fallen out of favour but perhaps there weren't enough innovations in the field to warrant a special category. The MTV Clubland Award has also gone this year, despite the growth in popularity of dance (or EDM) music in the US.

Voting for the VMAs is open now for US residents at http://www.mtv.com/news/2219077/2015-vma-nominations/ if anyone wishes to vote for their favourites or vote for mine on my behalf. The show is broadcast live on the 30th of August and is hosted by Miley Cyrus, come back after that to see if my predictions were right!

July wishlist

From top left:

Anchor Pendant, £13.99, Monster Merchandise

(monstermerchandise.net/product/anchor-pendant)

Monster Merchandise is a clothing company run by Gavin Butler (who was a member of my favourite band, The Blackout) which primarily sells t-shirts featuring classic horror characters and pop culture icons from Frankenstein to zombie Elvis. This month the label launched its first jewellery collection featuring traditional 'monster' imagery like skulls and fangs but my favourite piece is the anchor necklace shown above. In related news, the site has put all of their old designs on sale to make way for the new ones, so there are a whole lot of great t-shirts available for £5. I recently bought tees with 2 of my favourite characters on (Kiefer Sutherland as David in The Lost Boys and Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family) and people always ask about them when I wear them, so I would definitely recommend Monster Merchandise to anyone who loves fun t-shirts.

Points Up T-Shirt, £12.50, Fashion Conscious Clothing

(http://fashionconsciousclothing.bigcartel.com/product/points-up)

My friend Josh launched his clothing store, Fashion Conscious, this week with three t-shirt designs. All three are rad but as an eternal teen goth I'm naturally drawn to this black t-shirt with a pentagram design. I've actually held back from placing an order on this until I could get this blog post out, so expect me to have one of these t-shirts in my wardrobe very soon unless they all sell out before I get the chance. 

Transparent Rain Boots, £8.99 (for coloured soles, right), eBay

(http://tinyurl.com/qaqhz4s)

I know it's summer but when you live in the UK there's never a bad time to think about waterproof footwear. I've always been a fan of quirky shoes but loathed wellington boots, which I absolutely will not wear unless there's ankle-deep snow on the ground - this proved to be a terrible mistake when I went to Leeds Festival one year and the mud was so thick that I almost gave up on the walk from the festival gates to the main stage, a traumatic experience that I don't think my Mary Janes ever recovered from. 

When I spotted these shoes on my Tumblr dashboard I realised I'd found the perfect solution, now my problem is deciding which colour I like best because there are so many to choose from. I think I'm leaning towards the black soles (left) which conceivably offer the illusion of having Doc Martens in any colour or pattern imaginable (they look so good with those lilac socks), but unfortunately I'm having trouble finding that exact style online. On the other hand the neon coloured soles are so fun and unlike anything I've ever seen before, but narrowing my choice down to just one of the colours seems like an impossible task so it looks like I'm going to have to do some more research before I make a final decision. Either way, this year I'm determined to be winter - and festival - ready!

Review: Lush Silky Underwear dusting powder

Up until a couple of months ago, I'd never been into a Lush store or bought any of their products. I was familiar with them as a place that sold weird soaps and beauty products, after all the smell that hits your nostrils when you're close to one of their shops is impossible to miss, but I've always been wary of going in. I'm not really the kind of girl who spends a lot of money on beauty, so I didn't want to go in and be disappointed by the prices or be bothered by a shop assistant when I wasn't definitely going to buy something. However, after hearing friends make recommendations and seeing the Lush bath bomb trend take over Tumblr I decided that it was time for me to pay the shop a visit.

I've seen praise for a lot of Lush products, but the one that caught my eye the most was a Tumblr post recommending the Silky Underwear dusting powder. I'm not blessed with the coveted thigh gap so when it gets hot in the summer my thighs get sticky which is really unpleasant and uncomfortable, especially when I'm trying to get to sleep. This blog post that appeared on my Tumblr dashboard one day was written by someone suffering from the same affliction (it now has over 100,000 notes so we're definitely not the only ones!) who had found a cure to the stickiness in the form of this dusting powder, and ever since I read it I've found myself daydreaming about the powder every time I've been lying in bed feeling sticky and gross.

Since I don't live in the city there isn't a Lush store right on my doorstep - although their products are available online - so I had to wait until I had some solo shopping time in Carlisle before I was able to finally make a purchase. My first impressions of Lush were that the smell of the various products is overwhelming as you first walk in but the store looked really pretty, especially with the rainbow of bath bombs on display in little boxes. I considered buying myself one of the bath bombs but there were so many options that I didn't know how I'd be able to choose just one! The Carlisle shop is just little so I was able to find the dusting powders pretty quickly, and a quick read of the label convinced me to give Silky Underwear a try. The girl working in the shop was really lovely and helpful, asking if I'd ever used the product before and telling me how easy it was to use and how nice it smelled.

Silky Underwear dusting powder is priced at £4.50 for a 60g bottle. I wasn't sure at first whether or not this was going to be good value but I've now applied it every day, sometimes multiple times, for almost two months and I've still only used around 1/7th of the product. The powder is made with jasmine and cocoa butter which smells light and delicate, nothing like the overwhelming aroma emanating out of the Lush shop. Unlike a lot of talcum powders it doesn't use chemicals which can cause harm, which means it's safe to apply to your inner thighs. The label suggests that it should be applied on clean, dry skin so I usually put some on my stickiest areas after a shower to leave my skin feeling silky and smelling nice for the rest of the day. As well as curing thigh rubbing, I also love its ability to control under-boob and even under-arm sweat, and as an added bonus I haven't noticed any dry skin around my chest since I started dusting the area with the powder, presumably due to the moisturising effect of the cocoa butter. 

I couldn't be more impressed with my first Lush purchase, even after a couple of months I'm still excited every time I use it. A little goes a long way, one review said that a bottle can last for a whole year and although I read that in disbelief I'm now pleased to discover that it looks to be true. I've now been browsing the Lush website with excitement trying to decide which products I want to try next, I'm intrigued by the deodorants and shampoo bars and I definitely need to see whether their bath bombs live up to the hype! If anyone has any Lush products that they can't do without, I'd love some recommendations. 

Silky Underwear dusting powder is available to buy online via the Lush website (UK): https://www.lush.co.uk/products/silky-underwear

July 20th, 2015 // July 30th, 2009.

About ten minutes before I began writing this blog, I signed into this Blogger account for what appeared to be the first time in five years. The blogs which lay before me were more depressing than I had anticipated.

 I had created two blogs under this account as a teenager. The first, from 2009, features two actual journal posts written in classic late-00s emo teen style which I followed up with various street team posts for different bands, created to fool record companies into believing that I held power and influence and could get all of my readers to vote in polls and buy CDs and concert tickets. However, I had a grand total of zero readers and thus wielded zero power and influence, and although I never received any rewards for the posts on this particular blog, I was still occasionally showered in merchandise from oblivious record companies who either didn't know or didn't care that I was doing the bare minimum to help them.

 The actual journal entries that I wrote (within the same day, no less; my long term blogging record is pitiful) serve as a tiny snapshot into my life when I was 16. It was the summer before I began my final year of high school and proves either how dull my life was or how poor my storytelling skills are. While it's definitely less embarrassing than the blogs I wrote on Bebo and VampireFreaks in my early teen years, it still isn't the writing of an adult quite yet. In fact with the aid of apps like Timehop I've come to the conclusion that my Internet postings cross the line from cringeworthy to acceptable somewhere in late 2011 or early 2012, depending on which side of the line my Black Veil Brides phase falls under.

 Anyway, my 2009 Blogger update places me and my 2 best friends firmly in the Motley Crue phase of our lives (noting that we spent the day lazing around watching videos of the band) but also in the Audrey Kitching-led scene culture phase, which I both waged war on and followed extensively. My 16-year-old self refers to the aforementioned friends as "the two bestest people I know", however my 22 year old self doesn't know either of them anymore; the three of us all drifted apart from one another as our interests diverged and probably also because we all talked shit about each other when the girl in question wasn't around.

 The second of my journal entries details five future plans that I might have blogged about had I had the audience or the momentum to do so. The first of these was the only one that I didn't follow through on - the plan to go to a festival in a neighbouring town with the other two girls to visit another friend who never actually managed to leave his house to visit us until it was almost time to go back home. I ultimately decided that it wasn't worth getting up early to go to a town where I didn't really know anyone (at least not outside of MSN messenger - interestingly enough I would meet my best friend, who is resident in that town, a month after these blogs) and where almost everyone aged fourteen and up would be drinking alcohol all day long. [Sidenote: in case you happen to be reading this and you don't know me, I feel I should state by way of introduction that I've claimed straight edge since the age of 13, and while it's rare to be told to my face that this decision of mine is a contributing factor in the breakdown of my teen friendships, it definitely resulted in my feeling isolated from my peers for much of my adolescence.]

The other four plans were more successful:
 
1. "On Monday morning I have to go to school and get my photo taken for the newspaper because my panels are up outside the school."
I still remember this morning, and I still have the resulting newspaper cutout with my picture in it although I can't say exactly where I've stored it. I had to put on my school uniform in the middle of the summer holidays and stand on the grass outside the school with three younger pupils and a couple of members of staff for the photo-op. The panels in question are artworks cast in iron that are affixed to the railings out in front of the high school (and also affixed to railings on a bridge in the town centre at the other end of the street). It was an honour to be chosen as one of the four designers of these panels but honestly I often forget that there is a piece of my artwork, several copies even, displayed permanently in town.

A little back story: the original railings which lined the grass in front of my high school were cut down to stubs during the War, when all the iron was plundered by the Government to help the troops overseas. I just happened to be sitting Higher Art at the time when a plan was drawn up to reinstate the railings, to stop kids from jumping the wall and running out in front of cars I suppose, and the graphic design brief that my class was working on involved creating posters for a textile museum which had just opened in the town. The railing project coincided with a local festival celebrating different aspects of the town's history (2011: year of culture; 2012: year of sport; 2013: year of industry; 2014: year of heritage) and as I was spending my art classes drawing factory chimneys and knitwear, I was chosen to convey the 2013 theme in cast iron.

2. "And on Wednesday I'm supposed to get my exam results, uh oh."
Luckily I opened the envelope to find that I attained an A and 4 Bs in my Higher exams, safely awarding me a place at University the following year.
 
3. "Green Day on the 19th of October"
I became very much obsessed with Green Day in 2004 when American Idiot was released, so it was a long five years of patient waiting before I was finally able to see them play live in 2009. Luckily they absolutely lived up to my expectations, playing all their hits while Billie Joe cracked jokes and got fans up on stage and mooned the crowd and played with water pistols and t-shirt guns. My absolute highlight was when they played Going To Pasalacqua, which wasn't a favourite song of mine until that moment.
 
4. "Hollywood Undead/Escape The Fate on the 1st of December"
Remember what I said about how I was into scene culture? I went to this show with a few friends, having had an all-too-brief love affair with Escape The Fate earlier that year and also regrettably learning to love Hollywood Undead when I street teamed at their show and was obligated to meet them afterwards. (That show was very important for another reason - the headliner was a Welsh band called The Blackout - but I can guarantee I'll mention them in another blog post should I ever write one.) I would consider this concert to be a factor in the break-up of one of the two main friendships that seemed so strong when I was blogging in the summer. This friend was my company at both Hollywood Undead shows and while she loved street teaming with me the first time, she outright refused to have anything to do with it the second time, even making sure that we arrived at the venue after the doors opened so that I couldn't work the queue and hang posters inside like I was supposed to. That meant I was waylaid inside with badges and bandanas which should have been in the hands of the fans, an abundance of promo materials that I couldn't take down the front with me - and I definitely wasn't going to watch Escape The Fate from the back. I left the free stuff lying out beside the band's merch desk, only to return after the show to find their merch guy selling the bandanas. My friend who was having nothing to do with my work approached him about it and he gave her a free t-shirt to keep quiet, but of course I reported him and took back my materials which my other friends and I handed out to fans on their way out. I haven't seen either Hollywood Undead or Escape The Fate, or street teamed at a show, since.

 If this trip down embarrassing teen memory lane has somehow possessed you to want to read my summer 2009 blog, it's still online at the ridiculously titled "http://rachiiisawinner.blogspot.co.uk/" in all its lurid purple-and-neon-green glory until a time comes when I don't want it to be there anymore.

In case you were wondering about the second blog that previously existed on this account, it contained a total of one post which comprised a MySpace bulletin style survey that I had filled in as a fictional character. I deleted that blog.