Arnold

This is ridiculous. Some of these things may not apply to everyone. I'm not Arnold (obviously!) haha. We don't all have the same mind as Arnold Schwarzenegger but there is a HUGE amount of inspiration and admiration to be taken from some of the things he says here. I have never looked into Arnie's life all that much, but discovered this a few days ago. I am mind blown and have done my best to break down what his rules mean to me! I am more writing this to figure it out than trying to teach anyone a lesson pretending to be a wise man of the world who knows everything ;). I'll leave that to Arnie and just throw in my 2cents.

Trust Yourself / Something I think millions, even billions struggle with. To go into something with 100% faith in yourself is in itself an achievement I'd say!
Break Some Rules / I think really he means break the conventions, get outside the box and bring something new to the table. Push the limits of the norm. This makes people stand out. I suppose he could literally mean break rules, after all he did pump himself with steroids haha.
Don't Be Afraid to Fail / I have heard many great and successful men and women talk about how they have failed hundreds of times. What makes them great is the ability to view that failure as a lesson learned and point themselves in the right direction after. This is an incredible quality. Too often a simple slip in progress in anything can cause giving up completely!!
Ignore The Naysayers / Really ties in with number 1 I think. If you have blind faith in what you do, and know in your heart and mind what you are doing will take you where you want to go, ignore what others say!!
"Work Your Butt Off" / Explains itself. Want something? Go get it.
Give Something Back / Probably my personal favourite! The fact he wants to do all those things above to better himself and become number one AND do good for others really shows off what he is as a person. Lad.





G'night

Lump in my throat

All day today I have had a lump in my throat. All the ibuprofen and soothers in the world haven't been able to make it go away.

My plan was to do a video blog today, something I haven't done before. Typical that today would be the day I start to lose my voice!! Not cool. Especially since I was properly ill when I first started this blog back on 1/2/3 January. Is this a sickness blog?


Today is the start of lent. I haven't decided if or what to give up. The problem is I do a lot of "giving up" type challenges. In fact I challenge myself a lot. There are various positives in setting challenges but I'm not sure if there's another one I want to do right now! Especially as I'm not a religious man and have just done Dryathlon.

Maybe I should give up being ill...

Maybe I should try do something new for the next 40 days?? That could be a ridiculous but amazing challenge. 40 new things in 40 days.

Have you got any ideas? I'd bloody love to hear them. Either giving up or trying new!! Drop me a line on the email listed on this sites "get involved" page?

I'm gonna go to sleep now. Early. Love.

(Here's a picture of a pancake I made yesterday... From scratch of course)

It's back!!

Lunch

Today I decided to do something a little different and share a video. I have just under 4 weeks left in my temp job and decided to be a little bit creative on my lunch break!

Although it's nothing special I enjoyed making it and bits of it make me laugh. Hopefully this will be shared with you!! Let me know if you enjoy it! 

I shot this on my iPhone 5, however it's a little wobbly as it was shot with one hand! 

Hope you all had a good start to your week and found something that pleased you in today!

Yesterday

I drove a total of 380 miles. It took over 9 hours due to snow and rain. I got home and passed out. I didn't blog. I failed. But the cogs do not stop turning. One day shall not stop me... BRB

Wedding Day!

Today is my first ever friend wedding. My friend Tom who I have known all my life is getting married today. I just drove from Salisbury to Bolton in a nice hire car in the snow.

I am going to be an usher at the church too! Not much time to post, gotta get ready and get sexy:

There's Nothing

Quite like catching up with 10 old friends all at once. Tonight was perfect.

Chill Brains

I'm an honest guy.

Honestly, tonight my mind is f***ed.

I think I have become a victim of myself. It's great setting goals, having aims and plans. It's not great beating yourself up about setbacks or doubts. I have had a sudden change of pace in my life with this 5 week temporary job. My focus has been drawn away from certain goals, thoughts, etc. and onto new things. This is not a problem, and I'm really enjoying the job. But I have to accept the change of pace. Stop trying to achieve 10 things at once.

I am lucky. I have the chance to enjoy a job for 5 weeks, and then move back onto other focuses. Some people have jobs they hate, day in day out, forever. So far that has never happened to me. I am extremely lucky I even get the time to set my own personal goals and work towards them. In 4 weeks music and band can once again take center stage. Other things in that lifestyle will return. I can get back on target with other goals.

I have forgotten how I normally live...

Chill out, Brains. Give me a break. All will be back to normal soon. Just enjoy it.

Scrooby Dooby Doo

Have any of you ever heard of Scroobius Pip?

I just took a 15 minute walk home. The streets were practically dead and the sky almost pitch black. On a high after watching England beat Brazil my mind was buzzing and open. Popped in my headphones and pressed shuffle. This song came on:

Back in 2008 I discovered this duo with my pal Ed. I can't remember how we stumbled onto the two of them but we both purchased their debut album the very same day. We drove a 100 mile journey and listened to it from start to finish. I only ever had such an immediate passion for an artist a couple times before and this was not a phase. This track along with a huge chunk of their other stuff has been on my top played ever since.

The thing I love about Scroobius Pip specifically is his lyrical content. Every song is an incredible story, a journey, a message. There is not one song I listen to and think "you've just pieced together some vague rhymes" or anything to that effect. I have huge respect for his talents and the epic journeys he takes me on with his words. The song above is no different.

And so I return to my walk earlier. This song, although a completely opposite mood to the one I was feeling after the football, took me on a journey. I felt the stresses and strains of a relationship. I thought of memories past and hopes for the future. I remembered things I miss alongside people I never want to deal with again. All in the space of three and a half minutes.

That's a talent that I respect and admire.

A talent I long for!

Check out Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's two albums. I have been lucky enough to share the stage with these guys and watch them a few times. Their solo stuff is epic too.

Thanks for reading if you're sticking with me :)

Love x

Fly Like An Eagle

...A Bald Eagle...

There can only really be one thing that I mention today, and that is the Red Nose Day plan I have come up with!

Sometime in the week leading up to Red Nose Day I plan to:

-Wax my legs
-Shave and/or wax my arms
-Shave and/or wax body hair
-Shave my armpits
-Clean shave my face
and...
-Completely clean shave my head. Bald. Like this guy:

I have enlisted the help of a few of my good friends to wax and shave and film this event.

The more money I raise the more pain I will inflict upon myself in waxing body parts over shaving body parts. Simples. Therefore the more money I raise the funnier the video will be. The more money WE raise together I should say. As I will be helped and you will be donating!

I understand a lot of you donated to my Dryathlon which is fantastic and thank you each and every one of you. However this is a new month, a new charity, a new plan and new peoples lives to change with the money we raise. So if you can, dig deep, ask parents and friends, whatever. Let's do this!

The link to my page is:

http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/benjamineverest share it and get involved!

Lots of Love!

A Challenge Changer

I have written here before about my temporary stay back in my hometown of Salisbury. What I haven't mentioned is how boringly sensible (in a way) I've been and got myself a temporary job for the time I'm here! And today I started that job! As we can keep any important band stuff to weekends during the time we are all apart I thought I'd save myself a sweet chunk of extra dough. I'm gonna be slightly wealthier upon my return to London!

I have a job working in an outpatients department back at the hospital I worked at from 2008-2011 before moving into the old Dive Bella Dive house. This is a good thing, and I'm grateful to them for giving me a job on such short notice on a temporary basis. My Mum also works there which helped my case slightly!

So the daily routine swings massively. I will be regularly waking at 7am. Something I haven't had to do on a regular basis for over 18 months! I will be spending 9/10 hours away from my house and therefore have a new challenge with this blog. My new challenge is to bring and keep creativity, creative thought processes and ideas flowing throughout my new daily life - without compromising my work obviously! I may find that through my job, the countless different people I meet and the new situations I deal with bring all sorts of new vibes into my life. I may find the opposite, and find myself struggling for ideas on a daily basis. Only time will tell. But this blog will show either way! I hope for the best and hope to share many things over the next 5 weeks.

For today, all you need to know is I wore these shoes all day, and they made me feel very important. They sound important. An important click each step I take. They also make me slightly taller. Win? I think so. Sweet trousers too.

Cramming It All In

I love twitter and the internet in general for bringing up gems like this article. I like that I can stumble onto fantastic, weird, wonderful, happy, terrifying, disgusting articles or photos daily without even having to look hard.

This particular story is an inspiring story of a young guy who has terminal cancer, the way he deals with it and what he plans to do with his remaining time. It may look like a big chunk of text but believe me it's worth a read. It really puts things into perspective. Basically it's bangin' and you should read it :)

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/lifestyle/health/inspiring-burntwood-teenager-draws-up-1288871

WIKKID x

Tilt Shift

Watching TV today I spotted a brief piece of tilt-shift photography. Tilt shift uses real photography but creates the impression of a miniature version of whatever you are capturing. A lot of people refer to the images as "toy" versions of real life.

When I first discovered this stuff I spent a long time clicking from one to another finding as many as I could, but that was years ago! Today I have had another day of discovery! There are tons and tons of cool videos if you hit up vimeo or youtube and simply search tilt shift. Here are a few specific ones I've discovered today. I went down the route of looking for places I'd been to!

There are some scenes of London in this which are just rad! But the absolute best of the ones I found today has to be this next one of New York. The photography is so good that nothing looks real, it looks like a miniature village version of NY. Love it!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Have a bangin' Saturday and thanks for reading as always xo

Did Anyone Notice

That I missed yesterday's post? I sat in a tattoo parlour pretty much from open until close and then met my family for dinner. The day was gone before I was even aware of it and tattoo aftercare overtook all my other priorities!

To be honest if I had posted yesterday it probably would have basically that short paragraph above. Maybe with a picture of some blood running down my arm or something. I will make it up to myself and any of you who noticed with another post later on today.

So let's just pretend it's still Friday? Ta.

Gonna have my breakfast now. And think of something EPIC to write later. Hopefully.