Sex, Love and Relationships

I mentioned last week that I would be guest posting for eQ's blog on the titled subject, and now that it is up you can go ahead and read it over here.

Now, if only I consistently put as much effort as that into my own posts I might sound considerably more interesting than I do a lot of the time. I guess I should start writing down topic ideas in my notebook, rather than once in a while staring at a blank screen with itchy keyboard fingers.

Self Portrait - November 2009

If you look through my self portraits up to now, you may get the impression that I am quite a serious person. Now this is definitely not the case. Generally my face can be a pretty animated thing (it can often give away how I'm feeling when I would rather it didn't), so I pulled a few faces this time around. The one below is what came out best (at least in my opinion).

The good thing about taking these photos is that I have felt a lot less concerned about what I look like as time has gone on. Not that I have ever been afraid to look silly before, at least without a camera shoved in my face.

A Hip Hop Injection

I posted recently about the first of what will be a series of ten mix CDs I am creating for friends of mine (as part of my 101 list, naturally). The second CD was compiled for my pen pal eQ and has a hip hop theme.

Track Listing:

1. From Here To Fame - AIM
2. The Magic Number - De La Soul
3. December 4th - DJ Dangermouse
4. Just To Get A Rep - Gang Starr
5. Family Rap - Breakestra
6. Rapper's Delight (edit) - Grandmaster Flash and The Sugar Hill Gang
7. What's Golden - Jurassic 5
8. Wall Crawling Giant Insect Breaks - Herbaliser
9. Roller Disco - Goldie Lookin' Chain
10. Live From The Plantation - Mr. Lif
11. Vibrate - Mr. Scruff
12. Meatshake - Ugly Duckling
13. Fix Up, Look Sharp - Dizzee Rascal
14. Witness (1 Hope) - Roots Manuva
15. Work It Out (ft. Dave Matthews Band) - Jurassic 5
16. Sand Steppin - Martin Brew
17. Release Pt.1, 2 & 3 - Blackalicious

Once again, if you have access to Spotify then you can listen to the playlist of the above tracks here (again, some are missing due to availability).

Thanks to eQ for taking a picture of the cover art for me. Also for the bonus of pictures of the CD with her dog, Baxter.

I wonder if he enjoys the music?

Things I Like About Winter: Thermal Underwear

The winters here in the UK have a tendency to be mild and wet, and though it is getting towards the end of November we haven't had any particularly cold weather yet where I live (not even a ground frost!). When it does get cold, I actually quite enjoy the various winter clothes you can then wear. Hats, coats and scarves are all rather comforting and can also be stylish. One of the things I look forward to which may seem slightly more strange is thermal underwear.

Something tightly fitting and warm is weirdly satisfying. There is something quite sexy about it (ooh la la). Is this the same way that women feel about leggings, or am I just a bit of a nutjob?

Of course the main reason for wearing it is being able to wonder out into the freezing cold while feeling warm and cosy underneath all your layers. Mmmmm, toasty!

Going For A Walk

I haven't been keeping up with running lately (how I'm going to cope with marathon training I don't know), part due to laziness and partly due to the weather. It's so much harder to motivate yourself to get out when it's cold, wet, windy and dark by about five. I have been trying to make up for it in some way by doing more walking, which means I can wrap up warm and also take my camera with me.

So, photos.

I'll be trying not to be lazy and will write some proper posts soon, rather than taking the easy way out and using photos. I'll be writing a guest post for eQ's blog sometime this week, on the topic of sex, love and relationships (could be interesting), so watch out for that.

Dancing In Your Underpants!

One of list goals involves making mix CDs for friends (No. 27 - Make compilation CDs for 10 friends). I am currently up to two from ten, with plans to make a few more in the near future. Now if you are a enthusiastic proponent of the mix tape (and CD), then you will know that these things can't be rushed. It is important that track listings be carefully considered and that the music selected be something that you think the person will enjoy, rather than just something you think is awesome. Slipping in a few tunes in an attempt to broaden musical horizons is acceptable of course.

So that brings me to the first CD of the ten, compiled for my good friend Sarah. I decided to go for two discs to kick things off, because I'm greedy and also because I had a suitable case to hand. You can see a picture of it below (creating a suitable cover is also an important part of the process).

With a track listing as follows:

CD1

1. Fire - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
2. Living Loving Maid - Led Zeppelin
3. The Salmon Dance - The Chemical Brothers
4. Around The World - Daft Punk
5. Can You Get to That - Funkadelic
6. Over & Over - Hot Chip
7. Room Full of Mirrors - Jimi Hendrix
8. Funky Jam - Primal Scream
9. Much Against Everyone's Advice - Soulwax
10. Spandex Man - Mr. Scruff
11. Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) - Us3
12. Workin' Day and Night - Michael Jackson
13. Do Your Thing - Basement Jaxx

CD2

1. Straighten Up and Fly Right - Nat King Cole
2. Alligator Crawl - Peter Muir
3. In The Jailhouse Now - The Soggy Bottom Boys
4. Mini-Skirt Minnie - Wilson Pickett
5. Hang On In There - The Stovall Sisters
6. Buzzard Luck - Billy 'The Kid' Emerson
7. Ida Red - Hot Club of Cowtown
8. Get Up, Get Down, Get Funky, Get Loose - Teddy Pendergrass
9. Alright - Supergrass
10. Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder
11. Motherless Children - Eric Clapton
12. You Bring Out The Boogie In Me - Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
13. Coffee in the Pot - Supergrass
14. Attraction - Paris Combo
15. Union Maid - Old Crow Medicine Show
16. I Gotta Get Drunk - The Little Willies
17. You Never Can Tell - Chuck Berry
18. Going Up The Country - Canned Heat
19. The Carnival of the Animals: The Swan - Saint-Saens

If you happen to be somewhere with access to Spotify (still not in the U.S. but hopefully sometime soon) then here is a link to a playlist with the above tracks. As not all were available, there are a couple missing or replaced with slightly different versions.

The next post in this series will cover a hip hop flavoured CD that I created for my penpal eQ, though I will need to get her to take a picture of the cover for me, as I forgot to before posting it (much like this one. Thanks for the picture Sarah).

Wet and Windy

The weather over the weekend here in England has been miserable. Lots of lovely rain and high winds, beautiful (the wind is particularly annoying). On the way back from an evening out in town on Friday I managed to get soaked, though only on the bottom half as I had taken the precaution of a rain coat. Walking back down along my road there were streams of water running down either side, occasionally finding their way up onto the pavements. As we live on a hill there weren't any problems with flooding, but as I had gotten so wet, it did mean having to strip off a lot of my clothes as soon as I got in the door (to avoid leaving a dripping trail all around the house).

Getting soaked also meant my trainers were still wet for a little family get together (minus dad) at my sister's place in London on Saturday. Fortunately, that situation was remedied with the help of a borrowed hair drier and a little bit of time. Again, the rain meant that we were stuck inside quite a bit, so no gallivanting around the capital getting a few more snaps. I did get a few pictures up by the Natural History Museum later in the day.

There are a few more pictures in my photostream should you want to check them out.

I'm A Bromantic

Yep, over a month on from the flattering post he wrote about me I have finally repaid the compliment (I hope).

So my post today is over on Jack's blog - For Everything, A Reason

Nothing else I particularly want to say today, though the title will make sense if you read that through.