An Interesting Year

Happy New Year.
I thought I'd share this video I made a couple of days ago. In it I talk about my 2015, which as the title suggests has been an interesting one to say the least.
I hope your own 2015 has been a little less hectic and eventful, unless that was for all the right reasons of course.


The blog post I mentioned can be found here: http://andymooseman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/another-year-over.html

Another Year Over......

...... And a new one just begun.

I've written about, or at least referenced, New Year resolutions quite enough over the past few days. But there's always room for at least one new angle on a particular topic and this is one I personally think is very relevant to most, if not all, of us.
It concerns a blog post that I became aware of a few months ago and I know it's one that has generated quite a lot of publicity since it was first written back in 2009.
That blog post was written by an Australian ex palliative care nurse, Bronnie Ware, and is called "Regrets Of The Dying".

When I first discovered it I shared it via social media, but at that time I only saw the headline list of those regrets. Those being:
1 - I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2 - I wish I didn't work so hard.
3 - I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4 - I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5 - I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Although that list stayed with me, it wasn't until recently that I actually read the complete post which expands on those five main points and explains more about the reasons for the regrets of those patients in Bronnie Ware's care.
As she writes in that original post "For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives..... When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again." Hence that list above.

If you've not read the full post, I suggest you do.
When you have, I've no doubt that at least some of those five regrets will jump out at you and make you ponder, they certainly did for me.
I consider myself to be very lucky in that I have done quite a lot in my life that I am proud of, and have done things that many others haven't. But that doesn't mean that I don't have much that I still want to achieve, or at least try to do, in the future.
I also know that there is one point on that list that requires attention.....

I think it's probably unrealistic for anyone to do everything they want to do with their life, however hard we try, for a variety of reasons. But if you at least have the courage to try, even if you fail, those ultimate regrets will be fewer in number.

None of us can change our past, as much as we may want to. But we do have an opportunity to change our future, so why not do it and what better time to start than now? It is a new year after all.

Bronnie Ware's post ends with these words, "Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness."

What are you waiting for?

PS: Bronnie Ware has since expanded on that original blog post and written a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.

I'm Still Alive.

So here I am over a year since my last post on this particular site and if you happen to care about these things you're probably wondering where the hell I've been?
As it happens I've been busier than ever, but on other sites and with different projects.

My main focus has been with The Stinger magazine, a free independent local music magazine for the Hastings area. I'm the editor of the magazine and we're now building up to publishing our 6th issue in January. Here's a link to our website: The Stinger

I've also been busy with other projects, including my own local music website Pierless Music. You can find that here: Pierless Music

So, if I'm that busy why come back here? Good question and I'm glad you've asked it.

I guess the answer to that is that I feel inspired to do so. As to what has inspired me to start posting here again.... well that will have to wait for a future post, possibly.

All I will say is that inspiration comes from the most unlikely sources and at the most unexpected times.

I've recently found myself writing more frequent posts for the Pierless Music site and scribbling down ideas for other posts as well. All this has got me back into the habit of writing, something that I've had to do over the past year due to my involvement with The Stinger.
Being the editor of the magazine has naturally meant that I've been writing more anyway.

All that other writing has obviously been very music based and generally covering very local content too. Another aspect of this is that when writing for both The Stinger and Pierless Music, I'm not always writing for myself, more for the particular publication or website. Some of these posts are of a personal nature, but not probably the sort of thing I'd think to post here. And anyway, if you wanted to read those posts, you now have the web links to go and do so.

I've no doubt, in fact I know, that some of the posts I publish on here will be at least partly music based. That comes with the territory with me I'm afraid. But I do also intend these posts to be more personal.
I even started a personal Tumblr account some time ago, with the view to writing far more personal blog posts. That never came to anything, which in hindsight may well have been a good thing.

What I'm also hoping to do is to write in a far more 'stream of consciousnes's fashion. In other words, not to think about what I'm writing too much and just let the fingers do the talking and typing. In my experience, that usually leads to a more personal outcome anyway.
My plan is not to re-read, or edit things, too much. When writing for Pierless Music, or The Stinger, I frequently go back over the posts before pressing 'send'. There's a very good reason for that of course, but those reasons don't apply here.

For those who may know me from YouTube, that's something that I used to do there when making vlogs, but I seem to have got out of the habit of doing that, once again.

I do tend to find that both writing and making vlogs becomes a habit, which also means that it's a habit you can quite easily get out of. That's what has happened with my video making. Because I'm now having to write more, rather than record vlogs, that's the way my 'output' has gone.

My stream of ideas for either vlogs, or blog posts, has never dried up. One thing I'm never short of is ideas and topics to talk about. I forget far more ideas than I ever commit to print, or video.
For instance, I had a great idea for a post this morning, the inspiration for which came from something on my Twitter feed.
I promptly forgot what that idea was and only remembered it while walking around my local supermarket, as you do, which meant fumbling for my phone and making a note of what that original idea was.

So, let's see where this takes me this time. As always it's a case of wait and see. This may take off and develop into the kind of personal blog I've been meaning to commit to for a while now, or it could fall flat on its face, once again.

Ultimately though, it doesn't matter. After all it's a personal blog that answers to nobody but me. I just hope I don't disappoint myself along the way.

Thanks for getting this far.

I hope to 'see' you again shortly.

PS: I apologise in advance for any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

A Social Media Policy

Some months ago I wrote a blog post for the Pierless Music site which I run called ‘A Social Media Policy’. The idea was to give bands and musicians some guidance on the potentials pitfalls of their own use of social media, based on my own experiences.

That post was well received and I was recently asked to update the post for use on the Epik Music Videos website.

They have changed the title to ‘The 10 Commandments of Social Media’, even though there are actually 16 'Commandments'. But the title does have a nice ring to it doesn’t it?

Don't worry if you're not a musician, or in a band as I think you'll find that most, if not all, of the 'Commandments' can be used for an individual too.

Here's the post: A Social Media Policy

Let me know what you think.

A Word In Your Ear

I keep forgetting to share posts here that I've written for Pierless Music, a local music project that I set up with a friend last year.

This is my latest post for that website. It's called 'A Word In Your Ear' and concerns potential hearing loss and damage that can be caused by exposure to loud music, especially at gigs.

You can find it here: A Word In Your Ear

You can find the Pierless Music website here: Pierless Music

Watch, Listen, But Not Read?

Are blogs being overtaken by visual and audio content?

Blog post mentioned: http://www.fastcompany.com/3000794/rise-visual-social-media

YouTube video mentioned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXTcq3Fhiw4

My 'Vinyl Junkie' blog: http://vinyljunkie58.blogspot.co.uk/