Thursday Tuneage: 'Spring Break Anthem' by the Lonely Island

This song has been stuck in my head a lot recently. I got to say, that the really simple juxtaposition of college kids at spring break and committing yourself to the love of your life (albeit of the same sex) makes a great case for marriage equality.

Who knew it could be this simple. Stop all the hate guys, love is love and gay marriage is happening slowly but surely.

Love it boys.

GBM

She's getting Married in the Morning

My sister is getting married this weekend! I could not be happier or prouder. I cannot wait to see my family and everything. Due to a slight mess up on my part with flights I have not been home to Ireland for over 8 months. Missed you all and my shire. So basically you probably won't hear from me for a while, but then I guess you are used to that.

Another smaller milestone also reached with this Blog post, this happens to be my 200th Blog post. Well now fancy that, who'd a thunk I'd get this far.

Catch up with you all soon and now why don't you join me in wishing my Sis and her future hubby a big congratulations.

Woop woop

GBM

Life behind a Lens

One thing keeping me busy during my blogging hiatus was playing around with my new DSLR camera. I am by no means an expert yet and would still like to take some more classes but I am slowly beginning to understand what's needed to make a good shot. I thought I would share some of my favourites with you all. Be honest and let me know what you think, I would love some constructive criticism, anything to help me improve.

Ahhh the locals!

Leia vaporised Luke!

Play that Alpine Horn

Random flower lady in Munich

Pictures of people taking pictures

Eh, not sure what this was

Pictures of people taken pictures: Woman amazed by Stroopwaffle

So yeah, photos and ting. Noice

GBM

Hot Ginger of the Week: Josh Homme

This week's Hot Ginger has a difficult appeal to explain. For some Josh is not really that attractive, in fairness I will admit he is a little rough around the edges but Josh's voice and songs ooze sex appeal. Listening to some Queen's of the Stone Age songs such as "Make it with Chu" or "If I had a Tail" and you get it.

This is not a classic good looks recommendation, this is about owning sexiness despite looking like an ex-con. I get something similar when I listen to Mark Lanagan, it's all about that voice and those sex infused lyrics. When you listen you understand he knows exactly what to do to you in the bedroom.

The bad-boy Hot Ginger.

GBM

Ginger Telly Man: Orange is the New Black

A new original show from Netflix, all 13 episodes dropped on July 11th for this female prison set comedy drama. Firstly I would just like to say I really love what Netflix is doing at the moment, I recently bulk-watched all the new episodes of Arrested Development when they became available on Netflix and I think this concept is changing the way we consume television.

Orange is the New Black is based on the true life memoir of Piper Kerman's (Piper Chapman in the show) year in prison, here played stunningly by Taylor Schilling. She is sent to prison for a 10 year old crime of smuggling drug money for her international drug smuggling lesbian lover Alex (played by "That 70's Show" Laura Prepon). Piper now a straight, engaged to married,  successful business woman must learn how to navigate and accept her new life behind bars for the next 15 months.

There is a lot to like about this show, firstly the cast is top notch and it is very refreshing to see such a primarily female cast portray such well written characters. The show packs an emotional punch and some episodes will have you reaching for those tissues however on the filp-side it is one of the funniest shows in years. This dual emotional roller-coaster is why I keep coming back for more (I am currently only 8 episodes in), one minute I am welling up and the next l am laughing so much I almost pee a little. One of the funniest moments for me is when two of the black inmates begin impersonating rich white women in the run up to an inmates union election, their impression is so spot-on and hilarious I was almost crying with laughter. Another great aspect is how LGBT characters are portrayed in this show, for once we are not the sidekicks, trotted out occasionally to provide comic relief, no in fact LGBT characters make up almost 50% of the cast in this show and make for well written and complex characters. In particular the portrayal of the post-op transgendered Sophia by Laverne Cox is one of the best examples I have ever seen of a portrayal of this type of storyline in television or film and ultimately one of the most heartbreaking.

I could go on, but I wouldn't want to spoil it for you all so maybe I'll do a followup post when the second series is about to drop but I will say this, find this show and watch it.

You can thank me afterwards.

GBM

Hello, is anybody out there? Have I been gone too long?

I disappeared. It was a gradual thing, one not planned or expected but something out of my control. This journey I had been on over the last year had all lead to this, the Blog, Social Media immersion, writing for other websites, all so I could shift my career in a different trajectory and it payed off. I got the job I wanted, the dream job, my Social Media job.

Initially I had great intentions, initially I thought I would be able to do it all, work in this online world day-to-day and continue my Blog but slowly the words began to dry up. You've all maybe experienced something similar, a general fatigue, a drought of inspiration but ultimately for me having to work in this online world for a living drained all desire to hang around here in my free time.

Don't get me wrong, I truly did love what I was doing for a living but it's like that scene from Friends, where Rachel is flirting with Carol's OBGYN and he explains why he does not want to have kids. It was exactly like that, I would get home and if I had to see one more Blog post or write one more Facebook post, well I could not bring myself to.

Now a change, I shift again career wise. I move into an area less online focused and I also have one month off with pay. It's is not a half-bad deal and so I come crawling back to this wee Blog of mine. I'm not going to bullshit you, make claims that I am back for good because I really won't know until I start my new job and see if I can strike the correct balance this time around. For now I seem to have found my voice again, found my words and it's a truly wonderful feeling. I think I have a good deal to say and I want to catch up with all my dear Blog friends again. I do apologise for my desertion but it was something that had to be done.

As for GBM I am still unsure what direction to take, to evolve, to stay the same, to delete and start a new, only time will tell but what I do know is right now I am not quite ready yet to say goodbye to this little Blog of mine.

Hello again Blogosphere.

I have missed you.

GBM

How I Actually Use Facebook

It has become apparent to me that I don’t actually use Facebook the way other people do, the way it was originally intended to be used.  When my friends discuss how it has taken over their lives and discuss the traps and pratfalls that they succumb to on the platform, I usually just stare at them blankly. In my head I’m thinking “that’s not how you are supposed to use Facebook” only to bite my tongue knowing that actually this is how majority of the public use it. Let me explain...

Facebook as an RSS Feed:

I’m not sure when it began to happen, it was definitely a gradual thing, time based, but my Facebook newsfeed is now more where I go to find out what is going on in the world rather than what’s happening in my friends lives. My number of Likes (700 or so) have well surpassed the number of friends I have (almost a respectable 400). I tried actual RSSing before but I found it information heavy and usually just didn’t read them all in the end, I like how the FB posts know not to be too spammy. So my newsfeed is where I go to find out whats going on in the news, when my favourite bands are touring, spoilers for my beloved television shows and which celebrity currently owns the Internet (I think it currently still belongs to Jennifer Lawrence but there was that one day it belonged to Jon Hamm’s penis, the Internet was probably bored that day). Then secondary occasional status updates from my friends are like a nice personal touch to my news digest but (sorry guys) not my ultimate focus. 

My Facebook Feed (friend light)

Facebook as a place to put all my things:

Anyone who is my Facebook friend must think I am pretty active on the platform, always sharing articles I like with them, posting music videos for everyone to see and funny pictures etc. etc. add nausea. Well, while it might appear to the untrained eye, that I am sharing all these things for likes, comments etc. in reality my Facebook wall is just where I put things I see on the Internet so that I remember where they are and can find them again quickly. They are not for you they are for me. See a 'Top 15 Cat gifs' post on Buzzfeed, post it to my wall to laugh at it again later. Someone shows me a awesome new band and I post their video to my wall to remind myself to download their album when I get home. I have a process to the whole thing and everything. If my wall is getting too full I occasionally put things on Husband’s wall because lets face it, he barely uses it. One time I posted a video of this band I was really getting into as a reminder and this friend of mine trolled me and started ranting about how shit the song was etc. Irrationally I began to respond with something like. “Hey bitchface, you have the face of a bitch, who asked you? I didn’t post this on my wall for you, I posted it for me. Keep your opinions to yourself!”, only to stop myself before hitting the post button and realise that I will come off as the mad one in this instance. That is how most people use Facebook GBM. They don’t think of it in the way you do. Again I also tried social bookmarking, Pinterest etc. but Facebook is what I know, so…

Facebook has photos of other people now?

Well there is no way what I am about to write is not going to come off as self-centred or narcissistic, but I figure whatever, full disclosure.  A lot of my friends (mainly women) go on about how they get stuck on this Book of Face for hours staring at pictures of the friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, basically stalking strangers. I always get asked the question does this not happen to you? Well honestly no, it doesn’t. I mean why would I want to look at photos where I know I am not in them? There I said it. I’m sorry that’s just how my brain works. Egocentric yes and I am cringing now at my forthrightness but it’s just who I am. So yeah if you happen to post a group of photos from your recent night out, holiday, insert-event-here that I haven’t been apart of, know that I probably haven’t looked at them unless they were incredibly unusual or contained partial nudity or something. Sorry, please don’t be offended but conversely know that I couldn’t careless if you don’t look at my photos either. Again remember this forum is just where I keep all my things.

There, now you all know my secrets. I still love all my friends to bits and everything, Facebookwise they are just my second priority.

:-P 

GBM