To Do? Or not To Do?
How do you to do? I mean, you have stuff to do, right? How do you remember to do it? Do you have the brain/memory capacity to remember everything you need to do each day? Or do you forgot lots of things? Maybe you have the ultimate to do list system? And do you worry about forgetting to do things? Or maybe you just don’t worry about not doing, to do’s?
I’ve been asking myself all of these question of late. There have been a couple of blog posts that got me thinking about this, one of which is here (check out my rambling comment!).
The one conclusion that I have come to is that I have relied on technology to remind me to do things for so long now, I’m incapable of doing it myself – my brain can’t handle it, most likely because it’s out of practice (it hasn’t been used in this way, so it’s forgotten), and possibly because it hasn’t been allowed to adapt to a world where there are literally hundreds of bits of ‘mini information’ being thrown at it from all directions at the same time, courtesy of the aforementioned technology.
I always have lots of things ‘to do’ but I suck at doing them. I make to do lists; most are in my email, some are in an online ‘to do list manager’ (which is embedded in my email), many are saved as reminders in my mobile phone, and very occasionally there’ll be one or two in my head. But as my to do list manager (software called Remember The Milk) so often reminds me, my ‘overdue’ list is always longer than my ‘to do’ list.
So, how do I fix this? Do I need to adopt a super-strict routine when it comes to ‘to do’s’, or perhaps I need to stop worry about it, and in the words of Nike ‘just do it’? Either way I’m not sure, and I’m swimming in a sea of ‘to do’s’.
How do you make sure you remember to get everything done?
Where did all the good music go?
This depresses me:
Today Syco Music (Simon Cowell’s label which is part of Sony BMG) are celebrating holding the No.1 spot in three of the UK sales charts. They have the top 3 albums in the artist album chart with Leona Lewis, Shayne Ward and Westlife. They are also numbers 1 and 3 in in the DVD charts with the X Factor DVD and Shayne Ward longform DVD, and they have Leona Lewis now with a six week reign at No.1 in the singles chart in the UK.
Leona Lewis’ record breaking Spirit album sold a further 164,433 copies last week. Shayne Ward made a fantastic debut at no.2 with sales of 95,801 for the Breathless album, and Westlife had another massive sales week with 83,692 copies sold of Home.
In the singles chart Leona Lewis achieved a sixth week at No.1 with Bleeding Love, which has now sold 662,225 copies, continually extending its lead as the year’s biggest single. Further to this, SonyBMG had four of the top ten singles last week and in total 17 of the top 40.
“This is an historic achievement for Syco and my congratulations go out to Leona, Shayne, Westlife and of course, Simon Cowell, Sonny Takhar and the whole Syco team,” says Ged Doherty, Chairman and CEO, SonyBMG Music Entertainment UK & Ireland. “Their drive and ambition have once again delivered a great result for the entire company at the busiest time of the year.”
I have nothing against these people personally, but what does it say about the state of the music industry and public at large when this is what’s dominating the charts? Simon Cowell should not be single handedly bending over the UK music industry and having his way with it like he is. Where did all the good music go? Surely there’s got to be something better than this out there? And if so, why are those artists not ruling the roost in such a way?
Maybe the internet has finally created a sub-culture where all the real music will be consumed in a free digital format, whilst the throwaway tosh of ‘Pop Rivals The Academy Factor’ will continue to be bought in the form of annoying ringtones that are played loudly on the bus?
Maybe the Roddy Woomble quote I posted back in October hit the nail on the head:
…it’s not true that people have stopped buying albums, it’s just that they’re still buying the shit ones. People that tend to be into good music tend also to be into downloading it, and therein lies the problem.
Where did all the good music go? My next post will try and answer this question – it’s time for the annual ‘Albums Of The Year’ post!
Yesterday’s Protest March!
Yesterday’s protest march against the proposed closure of Danesmore Park Primary School in Wolverhampton.
Visit www.danesmorepark.co.uk/sos for more information.
[tags]Danesmore Park, Ashmore Park, Wolverhampton, School, Education, Politics, Save Our School, Labour, School Closures, March, Protest[/tags]
UK Smoking Ban: 1st July 2007!
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Now playing: Sheryl Crow – If It Makes You Happy
via FoxyTunes 
So the government have finally set a date for the UK smoking ban; July 1st 2007! This means no more pubs/gigs full of people smoking. No more choking, and no more stinging eyes. No more going home with clothes and hair stinking of other people’s smoke. Hooray!
Once it’s operational, I shall be adding the ’shop a smoker’ hotline number to my phone so I can report smokers / venues breaking the new law. “Respect mah authority!”
[tags]Smoking Ban, UK Smoking Ban, Smoking, Smokers, Smoke, No Smoking, UK Law, Politics, Passive Smoking[/tags]
Worldwide Suicide
I’m not going to rant about how much I love Pearl Jam, and how they’re one of my favourite bands of al time, or how every musician in a band should be aspiring to have a career that mirrors theirs, because I’m sure I’ve done it before.
What I will say though, is if you only know the early Pearl Jam and thought they disappeared when all the Grunge hype did, make sure you DOWNLOAD THEIR NEW SINGLE FOR FREE HERE and listen to it.
They are an amazing band, who have stood the test of time (as well as the ’scene’ they were associated with dying and a number of other catastrophic events) and they’re about to release their 8th studio album. Ask yourself how many other bands do you like who’re still going after that many albums? So put your 90’s prejudices aside for a minute and check out ‘Worldwide Suicide’!
