How Bad Do You Want It?

I spent yesterday with my brother. We watched Crystal Palace vs Bolton and then went back to his house in Kingston. We had a pretty sweet day but that's not what I want to write about... 

We both have similar goals this year with regards to health and fitness, and motivating yourself to hit the gym every day can be quite tiring. Even though there's nothing quite like the feeling of a really good work out, getting out of bed early or going to the gym on a Friday night can be off putting. 

On Josh's wall, above his desk, he has a whiteboard. On that whiteboard he has the message "HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?" with reminders such as "Gym" and "Exams" underneath. The self motivation is up on the wall so you see it all the time, the message is always there! It's never something I've thought to do but I think it's genius. Subconsciously the message will always be bouncing around up in his head.

I'm sure many many people have their motivation tools up on the walls but I have never done it. However it's something I'm going to try now for sure. Just have to decide what phrase to use, or whether to just steal Josh's phrase straight up!

It's definitely working for him too, the boy has been training hard and working a lot. So hopefully I can use this tool for myself and not lag behind. Wish me luck wooooooo!



I'll let you know if it works.

Say hi to @joshuaeverest

A New Outlook

Last night I spent the night at my friend Ed Hobson's flat. The flat I will be moving into in March. Ed is a video/film editor, writer, director and I have worked with him many times on many projects small and large. We spoke through the evening about things we have created or plan on creating and we discussed this blog. The point of this blog, for me, is simple in a way - to force myself into daily creativity. To get into the habit of writing, photographing, videoing daily and make it 2nd nature. To be honest, so far so good, I am enjoying it! 

Last night Ed made a point, looking from a slightly different angle that I hadn't thought of. As he is a very creative person himself he knows that some days you just can't force anything out of your brain on to paper or screen, no matter how hard you try! He suggested that on a day where that may happen to me, I don't try and sugar coat it and force words into the blog. Instead I just post how frustrated I am, or bored, or blank and demonstrate the boredom or frustration through image. This is genius because it solves the problem immediately. The writing or depicting of the struggle to be creative, in itself is creative! Take a look at this video for example.

This kind of honesty in posting is surely better than trying to force something out on a topic that is not fully researched or thought about, or simply not got 100% of your heart in it. I'm sure this 5 minute conversation about the blog with Ed will change many of my future posts, as posting daily is sure to throw up the challenge of "What the hell can I possibly write today?" more than once!

So thanks for that, Ed. 

If you guys wanna check out some of Ed's work click the image below. There are many music videos, animations and short films. You'll also spot my face in a few of the music videos. It's his birthday on monday so you should probably check it out. His twitter is @edhobo1.

Happy weekend everyone!

Thanks & Chicken Nugget Challenge Update

A few days ago I wrote about Sam and Lewis' attempt at their version of a McDonald's Chicken Nugget Challenge... Last night I discovered that the video was complete!

I think we can all agree that the camera work on this video is off the chain good, and whoever shot it is a fantastic camera man.

Highlights of the video include Barnaby's pre-game interviews, Lewis' facial expressions, Sam's milkshake antics and... well, watch it to the end!

In other news it's snowing, and I'm gathering quite a collection of photos to put up here over the next few days. To anyone who is still reading this blog, thanks! I will endeavour to make it more and more interesting!! Leave a comment or facebook/tweet me if you have anything to say. Unless it's mean I don't want mean stuff. I'll cry.

Love.

Emirates Stadium Panorama

Had the pleasure of visiting the Emirates yesterday to watch Arsenal v Swansea with my buddy Tom. It was a rather stressful evening as far as football goes, seemed to take forever for the goal in the 86th minute to finally fall Arsenal's way, but when the goal was scored it sure felt good!! A cheeky 1-0 victory.

I did a panoramic photo just before kick off to show just how high we were and how epic the view was. Enjoy!

The Holstee Manifesto #1

I'll be honest I haven't yet done any research on this company. I have no idea what they do other than having written this manifesto. I will do some more research and find out at a later date. But for now here's something to ponder:

There are many fantastic parts of this that I plan to analyze over a few posts. Hence this is called #1! But for now I'm just reading and enjoying it. 

All credits are at the bottom of the image.

Commuters In Silence

Oxford Circus. 6pm. Hundreds of people on each corner waiting for trains and not one person saying a word to the other. A surreal moment!

If you've ever been on a tube platform between 6-7:30am it's disturbing. If you ever find yourself there take your headphones out and listen. Nothing. You will be rammed in with 500 other commuters who can't move except to turn the pages of their morning paper or skip track on their iPod, and no one says a word.

I'm not trying to make any point here, I'm just saying try it out. It's freaky.

Feet in the Sand

I had a dream last night that I was in a completely new place. Somewhere I had never heard of & never seen anything about. It was completely alien to me, but it was beautiful. The people were welcoming and the weather gorgeous. I looked down to see my feet half buried in beautiful sand. The whole experience was blissful. I could even feel the wind in my hair. It felt so real that I didn't want to believe it when I heard my alarm - I'm sure many people have had this moment.

I can only imagine that my dream stems from a longing to travel. I do love travelling. In our industry of music and entertainment, my favourite thing is the journey. The journey from one town I've only visited once in my life to another that I have never seen. Even places that become more and more familiar like Leeds, Liverpool and Brighton still aren't my home town and there's always something new to see there. My bands have taken me to many many major cities throughout the UK and Ireland, as well as many smaller towns and cities. Last year I visited completely new places, and the year before even more. I can only hope that this year brings new experiences, new towns, new roads and rivers, new festivals, new sights, smells, sounds and new people. For me, this is where life gets it's excitement and variety. Though home is a constant that you can come back to, it's nice to feel the adventure far away from your home. There are mini adventures in every day life, but to travel around the country, continent or world is a real adventure! Whether with work or on holiday!

My dream may have been mainly based on a beach but I do not long for a simple beach holiday... I found this article on the web today of 100 great photos from 2012, it felt like a continuation of my dream. There are some incredible landscapes and places photographed here which made my ambition of adventure stronger still!

Gasadalur Village in the Faroe Islands

Bern, Switzerland

Taipei

Just a few of the epic photos from the blog post I found. Check it out at http://twistedsifter.com/2012/10/top-75-pictures-of-the-day-for-2012/ - it's a mixture of incredible photos not just landscapes.

I hope 2013 brings a new, exciting adventure to everyone!





**Photos not taken by me, all credits are on the page above**