Ending One Month, Getting More Music Next Month

It’s the last two days of August. Man! This year has been traveling back so fast. Some months it seems like it’s fading away so slow but like this month is totally the opposite. One of the things that I like to do is think of the upcoming months is a good light, letting all of the good shine first before anything else. The first thing that makes me excited is the fact that after August ends, that means the air becomes cooler and the temperature drops from the high 80’s to a nice mid-70’s. The colors of the leaves start to change from their deep green to a yellow or an light orange. For some people, the fading of summer is bittersweet. To me, it just means that Halloween is getting closer and my birthday!

Besides the temperatures, leaves, and fun holidays coming up. We have to get through the month of September first. Those things take time to get started after a couple of weeks, but once the new month starts so does looking forward to your favorite shows coming back on. New movies being released on Friday nights, speaking on Friday nights. Football is in full swing too! You go to your old high school or college football games and sit in the bleachers and drink hot chocolate to not only warm up your hands but also the rest of your body. As for shows that are coming back for the fall schedule, I’ve got Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Dancing With The Stars. that comes back on next month! Plus, a show that I have been slowly getting into (I’m only on season three!) and that’s Sons Of Anarchy, their final season starts in September too. I’ve been trying my best to keep away from all of the spoilers but I’ve got bigger issues and that’s figuring how the hell I can get the other seasons that I still need to watch before I can even get started on the final season. So should I just start unfollowing actors on my Twitter now?

One that starts as soon as possible is music. New music comes out every Tuesday and I love it! For you Europeans, you guys are lucky and they get new music on Monday. I wish our music came out on Monday’s too, because that would make the week seem less stressful and you’d have something to start your week off on the right track. Or am I wrong? I would LOVE it honestly, but I can live with getting my music on Tuesdays though, because if my Monday sucked that just means I have something to look forward to that next day. This entire year I’ve been introduced to so many artists and bands that it’s probably one of the best years (musically) for me because I’ve been learning a lot about myself as a person who likes a certain genre for so long, I’m always looking for something else. I am a lover of rock/metal but I’ve been getting into celtic and indie music as well. I’ve also learned that majority of everything that I’ve ever said “ew” or “oh god no!” to has come back to bite me in the ass in someway. Bands like Korn, Asking Alexandria, and Bring Me The Horizon have gotten off my shitty list and are now on my iPod and I play them proudly. However, now I’m at a crosswords with another. Slipknot is not one of my favorites, but I’m not going to lie anymore. I am a fan of their songs, “Wait and Bleed” and “Before I Forget.” They just recently released a new song called, “The Devil In I” and I do like it. I don’t love it, but it’s not bad either.

In August, we saw a LOT of things come forth with different artists and music acts. Two things that were big this month was the fact that both The Civil Wars and Danity Kane disbanded. It took me a while to get into The Civil Wars and I do love their first two albums. I still have their songs, “Poison & Wine” and “The One That Got Away” on repeat on my iPod. I also have a new love for “Dust To Dust” and “Tell Mama” off their second album. After announcing the two had broken up, they released a new single called, “Sunshine” and I have yet to listen to it because I feel like I might cry. Late 2013, we got word that Diddy’s former all-girl group Danity Kane was coming back, even though with only four of their original members, they were working on a new album and going on tour. Aundrea had to leave the group as she is pregnant with her first child and then an incident happened and rumors buzzed about someone getting punched in the head. A day later, remaining members Aubrey and Shannon went on their Facebook and said that the group had also disbanded and apologized to their fans. They also had released a new track over the summer before any of this happened called “Lemonade Stand” and there hasn’t been anything new about if their new album will be released at all.

Despite that heartbreaking news, new music will be released from other acts. I’m pretty excited about it, because two groups that I just love to pieces. Train an Flyleaf have their new albums coming out. Train is releasing their album “Bulletproof Picasso” on September 16th. I love hearing their first single “Angel In Blue Jeans” on the radio. It’s definitely a good late summer track to listen to. The Christian rock band Flyleaf is releasing their first album with new vocalist Kristen May, called “Between The Stars,” a lot of different musicians and bands are not doing the traditional way of going to the studio and recording their music by pulling money out of their pockets. They’re having their fans fund them in the process, bands like Thousand Foot Krutch and Fireflight have done it for their new albums, and TFK just released that album this past week. Flyleaf released an EP last year with their new singer, she’s definitely not like their last singer but she’s still VERY good though! They released their first single off the new album, “Set Me On Fire” last month. I love it! It took me two weeks to learn it and now I sing it all the time.

I’m looking forward to the debut album of the R&B beauty, Banks. She’s been growing one heck of a fan base with taking a dark sound to R&B and making a whole new genre. I found her on Spotify in one of the many indie play lists I follow. I’ve talked about her a lot in the last couple of months. So I’m pumped about finally getting her first album, “Goddess” and hearing the other tracks that haven’t been released yet. I heard a former competitor on the show The X-Factor, Ella Henderson. She came in ninth place but she still releasing her first album called, “Chapter One” and she just released her first single co-written by Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. This dude is a genius. The song is called, “Ghost” and I literally heard it for the first time this week on The Pulse. It was really good! Does anybody remember in 2010 I think it was, when boy bands New Kids On The Block and Backstreet Boys went on tour together and released an album together? Well, if you were or are a fan of both Nick Carter and Jordan Knight, they’re in a mini group together and their debut album comes out next month and it’s called, of course “Nick & Knight.”

Maybe you miss Tony Bennett or Lenny Kravitz? Both are releasing albums in September. Although, Tony Bennett isn’t by himself in this album. I’ve heard so much about how he was working with Lady Gaga. Lots of people, including myself thought that was a weird combination, but now that I’ve had time to think about it, it sounds pretty cool! Tony Bennett is such a big singer and to have a big singer in this generation like Gaga sounds like a very interesting mix. Lenny Kravitz is coming out with a new album! Praise the lord! I’ve got to say as much as I’ve loved seeing him on my TV screen in the The Hunger Games and Lee Daniel’s The Butler I am ready for some new music by him. The new singles are just…yummy. How about some new Bryan Adams music too? Yeah, I’ve only heard a few songs of his and I am obsessed with the movie Spirit soundtrack because he did all of the songs on there. I don’t hide from the love I have for that soundtrack honestly. It doesn’t matter how old I get, I always will! Lastly, Boyz II Men, hello? Everybody needs some new Boyz II Men music, it’s just good stuff!

There are a lot of great music out there. Lots can come out in one week, I always try to go through everything that comes out on Tuesday’s on my Spotify. It’s becoming a ritual now and I love it, because I find new good stuff that way. Never turn down music whether it’s old or new, because then when you do discover it, you’ll look like a total ass around everybody else. Or worse, they’ll call you out on it and that’s never fun either! I know in life, we might have a lot going on but it’s always a good thing to take a music break and dance around like nobody’s watching and sing out as loud as you want! So I hope this new month treats you right and I hope you let yourself have some fun too!

Have A Look At Me Now

Last night was just weird on every level.

I was contacted by a guy two days ago. It was innocent and fun. I had remembered him from school. He added me on Facebook and after I added him, like two seconds later he was on chat talking to me. At this time, I knew his name, it sounded familiar and when I finally looked at his pictures I started to remember more and more about him. We had probably talked about 15 times throughout Elementary to middle school. After that, I hardly ever saw him and I didn’t understand why because I remember a LOT of people now. Anyways, we started talking and it was nice, but it was a bit weird for me because I haven’t talked to a guy like I was with him in basically forever. I still felt like I was in high school, just on the subjects we were talking about and then I kept getting more and more uncomfortable that I ended up just saying things like, “let’s change the subject” and then whenever that didn’t work and he would test me out some more, I just let loose and told him off. He seemed to understand and after I left, we were fine.

Well, I went on Facebook yesterday evening and I still had my chat box turned off. He sent me a message that just kind of blew my mind in a way that I wasn’t expecting by any means. I’m still trying to figure out how he could have seen it. I “bought” a free book last night and I guess the promotion I saw the box on and “liked” went on his and everybody else’s timeline. So when he sent me a message on chat, basically calling me out on the book because it had a very sexy cover on it. I was very embarrassed, which hasn’t happened in years. I was furious on how I was feeling, because nobody has EVER called me out on what I read. So while I was fuming with mixed emotions and I told him on a message to not make a big deal out of it and he apologized but that’s all he wanted to talk about again. So then I got fed up and I think he was starting to figure out that wasn’t the smartest thing to do and the conversation ended. Thankfully, I spent the rest of my night listening to Nickelback, Hinder, and talking to my friend Georgina. She’s becoming like my Twitter bestie and we’re like twins from two different continents. It was nice to have a good girl chat with a friend and I tried to help her out with her boy problems as well, but I don’t think I really helped. I usually feel that way as I have never been around guys enough to really “study” them. I hope things get a little bit easier for her though.

Afterwards, my mom came in to spend the last part of her night with me and I told her everything and she agreed with me about how I shouldn’t feel embarrassed about what I liked. It is what I’m interested in and nobody has the right to make me feel guilty about it, mostly guys. I told Georgina that I definitely wasn’t going to be sending him my blog link because that’s the last thing that I needed to do honestly. The only thing that REALLY irritated me was the thought of do people who I went to school with at any point of time still think of me as a little girl? I mean, certain members of my family still think that way and I’ve gotten to the point were I just don’t care anymore. As far as old friends though, how do they see as? I know it shouldn’t matter to me what they think, but I think there’s a lot of things about me that has changed. I think I’m far more independent than I used to be. I’m not as shy anymore. I’m even to the point were I’m very bold with my statements and I really don’t take anybody’s shit. I’m not looking for guys as a boyfriend like I used to in high school, I’m looking for a real and deep connection. I think about marriage and kids. I am very aware of my own skin now, I think of myself as a beautiful creature and even have accepted my wheelchair too. That’s a big thing for me as when I was in school, I didn’t think that would actually happen. I’m not a little girl anymore. So why can’t people start treating me like one?

25 Book Facts About Me!

I have found something kind of cool! I am a vivid bookworm, even though this year hasn’t been like the last couple of years were I’ve been reading and getting different books every other month. Sometimes I read very quick and then there are days were it literally takes me FOREVER to get through just one book. We’ve all been like this at some point in our lives with something. A fellow blogger Hello January! posted this “tag” on her blog today and I just loved the idea of expressing facts about me that are also about books too. So let’s start, shall we? 

1. I love my Kindle!
2. I love reading a physical book though!
3. In 2011, I went looking around for cheap books to read, I found Slash’s autobiography and read it, got into both Guns N Roses and Motley Crue. I ended up going back and forth between both bands in a sense as I read Slash’s, Nikki Sixx fist book (The Heroin Diaries), Duff McKagan’s book (It’s So Easy and Other Lies), Nikki Sixx second book (This Is Gonna Hurt), and then finished with Steven Adler’s book (My Appetite For Destruction). 
4. I read A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck twice in high school, once as a freshman but never finished it. The second was while I was in summer school and I was actually happy that we read it because I was surprised that we never completed it two years prior.
5. While I was a freshman in high school, we had our first final-like project at the end of the year. Our teacher had us pick out one book and we basically had to devote ourselves to that book and he gave us this hefty list of things we could do that went with the book. Our limit was 5 things and one of the things on the list was make up a soundtrack for the book. I used this software called Jam Trax over the summer and was obsessed with it that I talked about it all year-long in that class, so I found a way to make a soundtrack by making different tracks that I thought would represent the book. The book was Alias: Sister Spy by Laura Peyton Roberts.
6. We had to give ourselves a grade for the project, I was honest with myself in that class, I didn’t think ANY of my stuff deserved an “A” that I did, including the soundtrack (that ended up being played in class – yes, I was embarrassed!) so I gave myself a “B+” and I remember getting that grade sheet back at the end of the day and it said “B+” and then at the bottom said, “you deserved a higher grade and awesome soundtrack.”
7. When I was in Elementary, the library room had this corner, that I can now call a “nook” where it was a big space with two-step and everybody could sit and lay down to read instead of sitting at the tables. We used to sit down there while we were read to in class, that’s when I discovered the classics, The Boxcar Children books.
8. Our first day of high school in our English class, my teacher was going to the rules and he told us that if we didn’t read a book in his class and/or fell asleep that he’d make us read a book that he had on his shelf. That scared the living shit out of me at that time, so I got started reading from there and the series Dear America and The Royal Diaries became my obsession for the next two years. I basically read all of the ones I thought I’d enjoy and I’m sure I went over 20+ books.
9.  I’m a biography/memoirs, YA, erotica, historical fiction reader.
10. I actually have a favorite author, I never thought I’d ever get to that point where I could say that, and it is Olivia Cunning!
11. I don’t normally reread books, but I have reread the book Finding Home by Lauren Baker & Bonnie Dee.
12. The first book I remember that I wanted to get after I graduated from high school was True Confessions Of A Heartless Girl by Martha Brooks. It took me three years to find!
13. I have read three of Stefan’s Diaries books by the creators of the TV show  The Vampire Diaries, I read the second book, Bloodlust while in Wal-Mart one day when my mom and sister were getting their nails done. I read 45 pages in that small aisle and remembered my place when I got from the library a month later.
14. I am obsessed with these rock n roll romances, thanks to Olivia Cunning! I am almost finished with the Sinners On Tour series. If I can finish it then it will be my first series completed ever.
15. I read Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James and hated it, but I want to see the movie.
16. The first book I read on my Kindle was Dancing Lessons by Cheryl Burke and it was also my first book review on here too!
17. I took a Novels class during my Junior year, it was basically like a book club but it was everyday.
18. We read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Night by Elie Wiesel, Silas Manor by George Eliot, and Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry. These were the only books I could remember.
19. I don’t use GoodReads, but I do use Shelfari and it works very well for me.
20. I find more books on Pinterest and then I look them up on Shelfari and add them to my TBR list.
21. Almost every year we go to Barnes & Noble for my birthday and I get a few books to keep me busy for the next few months. This has become a tradition for my family and I and I look forward to it too.
22. I have 93 books on my TBR list as of right now.
23. The last book I read was called The Seduction by Roxy Sloane.
24. I have been followed by Michelle A. Valentine and Cherrie Lynn on Twitter, also been replied back by Michelle, Olivia, Roxy, Sophie Monroe, and Katie Ashley.
25. I’ve only cried to two books, Battlescars by Sophie Monroe and The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

Blogs That I Love #10

I’ve decided to break back my second series of my little blog. I’ve been getting a lot of new blogger friends on Twitter and I’m returning the favor by looking at their blogs and that if this sticks with me this upcoming month, I definitely won’t be running out of different bloggers to choose from that’s for sure! My new post of “Blogs That I Love” was June 27th, so you know I’ve discovered some great blogs over the past two months or so. Now I have to remind everybody of the reason why I do these posts. I don’t promote blogs to get something in return. I just want them to know that I love their blogs and want to brighten their day a bit. Everybody likes it when somebody does that, even if they’re already having a good day! If you’re not already following or reading these blog, I highly suggest that you do. Okay, let’s begin!

1. The Weekender Trender – Georgina is one of my bestest Twitter friends. She’s a fashion, beauty, and lifestyle blogger. I love her to pieces, but I haven’t exactly “seen” her on my Twitter in the past few days. I don’t know if she’s gone on holiday or I’ve been following WAY too many people lately and all of my favorites are getting lost within my timeline, who knows? Anyway, I love her blog. It’s very simple and she over the summer she uploaded her first ever YouTube video of a haul. I’ve got to say for her first one ever, I thought it was impressive! I’m even watching it play out in my head as we speak!
2. Elesaurus – Eleanor Rose is the owner of this cute little blog. I met her during the last bit of one of the many blogs we join during the week. We bonded talking about each other’s names and what our mother’s were thinking about before giving us our real names. We both agree that our names before were really bad! She’s a beauty, fashion, and lifestyle blogger as well! She does a lot of beauty product reviews, she’s also started posting videos on YouTube too.
3. Hayley-Eszti – Hayley is another “new” blogger to me. I’ve just recently found her while doing a blog chat on Twitter too. Something that I love about both Twitter and blogging is that finding other disabled lifestyle bloggers, or any kind of disabled bloggers in general are so rare. I’ve only followed probably seven of them. Hayley has ME. She found blogging during the rougher part of her diagnosis and she blogs about her life and the illness. She also talks about positivity, advice, and tips. She even does some beauty posts here and there too. If you want to know more about her disease: click here!
4. Life With Rossye – One thing I gotta say before going any further, people who RT and follow different blogs constantly are the sweetest people ever. Rossye is one of them. She is a fairly new blogger to the game and got started by reading another blogs. She promotes on her blog lifestyle changes and a new way of thinking of everyday life. She talks a lot of healthy eating, travel, and even devoted a whole month to speaking in Spanish. Thank god for Google translate! The first day I discovered her blog, I think I was there for like two seconds and found my notifications just kind of blew up because she was liking a lot of my posts. Freaked me out because that hasn’t happened in a few months but it was still good that she liked my stuff.

Tune Tuesday: New Zealand

It’s another Tuesday full of heavy metal, this time we head to New Zealand. Honestly, I had two other acts for our trip to NZ but I’ve been recently introduced to this new band I found on Twitter a couple of months ago. If you talk about music on your Twitter account, you might get a lot of different bands and singers following you back randomly and/or asking you to check out their music on YouTube. Majority of the time you ignore or sometimes you actually do listen to it on the first time they say something to you. There hasn’t been very many bands that I’ve actually been interested in at the first time they’ve sent me a tweet or anything. I have been followed by random bands before, both famous and unsigned bands. It can get pretty interesting at times. When I get into a band, I want to good quality stuff, meaning I want to be able to hear everything that goes on. I mostly listen to any new music on my Spotify account. In other words, if you don’t have a Spotify file then it’s very unlikely I’ll be listening back to your stuff. Sorry!

Back to our travels though, the band that I’ve selected is called Saving Grace and they are definitely a heavy metal band. As I’ve said they come from New Zealand and they are pretty awesome! Their newest album “The Urgency” came out in January of this year. The band consists of Nicholas Tautuhi on vocals, Vasely Sapunov is on guitars, Ross McDougall is also on guitars, George White is on bass, and Shaun Anderson plays the drums. Not only are they a good band to listen to – the guys are incredibly sweet to their fans! Which is always a good thing to know when you get into a new band that you’ve never heard of before. Maybe one day I’ll get to see these guys live and meet them face to face. If you have NOT listened to Saving Grace I leave you these videos as my gift to you all. Enjoy! See you next week!

Ablaze by Saving Grace

Unbreakable by Saving Grace