My 2013 - what did it all mean?

My 2013 was possibly one of the most extreme years i remember ever facing and in so many ways. It literally was one of them years that would either make you, or break you, but it feels as if neither happend.

My year was bad in that i came face to face with the aftermath of domestic violence. I wasn't there to see it happen, but i saw how it can turns worlds upside down and change people. It was a bad year in that i was at times pushed into a sevear feeling of depression and loss after meeting someone for a short amount of time. It was bad that it would push my emotions futher than i think they've ever been pushed before and in complete oposite directions.

My year was amazingly good in that i no longer live alone, I have Trey. It was a year that saw me manage through some awful financial times and still manage to stay afloat. It saw me gain a bigger voice in speaking out for what i want to happen in my corner of the world.

2013 is a year that many are going to look back on and call a bad year, try to write it off. For me, i cannot do this, it hold's too many lessons and while yes, some of them are bad, i cannot afford to forget the good times, because i use them to fight off the next round of bad times.

In term's of meaning, 2013 mean's that my life changed, for the better or worse? THAT part, remains to be seen.

Happy new year to you all!

An interesting bit i found online....

*Le sigh* the good old music debate... i stand on both sides too... maybe not so much with this one though....

This blog post is in relation to....

The musician Whitey responds to a TV company asking to use his music for free. - Imgur

Now there is 2 very clear side's to this debate... let me explain both from a personal point of view.

Side A)

- The music should be free.

Some people will say that the music should be available for free, for use online or in a bar at an event. This would help whichever artist to be heard by more people and of course, would help them sell more copies of said song.

Side B)

- The music should be paid for to be used.

Other people will agree with the artist in saying, he should be paid for his work if its going to be used. It isn't uncommon for companies or dj's to have to pay a little extra, to play certain song's and this money helps to keep artists making money, after all, it is their income.

Now, where do i stand?

Kind of in the middle with this one. On one hand, yes the artist would recieve some promotion for his work and hopefully it would have given him a new level to promote his music. However, as he has said himself, this is what he does to make a living, this is his income. We really can't do it both ways.

Me personally, if it was going to promote my music, i would have agree'd that they could have used it, even though granted, this company can easily afford to pay him, they don't want to. I'm also unaware of how many times this company has tried to use his music, but to me, it does seem abit harsh to send such a reply, to someone who's only doing their job, i'm sure a simple "no" would have been enough.

But where do you stand on this?

100 posts, what am i like?

I've made it.

100 posts on my blogger and no sign's of slowing down either.... not that i have a schedule on here or anything, but still...

When i first started blogging, like, in full, i always remember having this urge of wanting to put my opinion out there and seeing what people had to say. Knowing that while my opinion might well be rare, i wasn't the only one to be thinking what i was thinking.

It kind of built on from that, i became used to speaking to the camera and kind of enjoyed it. Then of course, i decided that while i enjoyed looking back at video's, i wanted to look back at stuff i was doing too... and that's where life with bev came along. It was first recorded up at a car park near to where i live, i didn't even tell my friend what i was doing, i just stuck the camera on and... off we went.

Since that time, life with bev has had over 100 video's posted, however, for various reasons, some of them have been taken down.

I think the life with bev series is coverd quite well in the latest set of titles for the blog.

I was loving doing life with bev and the series took me over many journey's in my life, through high times and the low, but i was doing something that was annoying me.

See, i started using the video's as a way to vent my feelings and frustration's at thing's. The whole point of life with bev was for me to be able to look back at thing's that have happend in my life, not so much my opinion's on things. I then ended up setting up the BevRants youtube channel.

Around the same time, i started this blog off, thinking, maybe typing might be another way for me to vent how i feel, or be able to post stuff about my life... or letter's that i've had, that i couldn't show on screen... etc.

Today, this reaches 100 posts and you know... i couldn't be more happy. I mean, it's not the most viewd blog ever, infact, most days, these 100 posts will get no views, but then something will come along and will attracts hundreds of viewings.

Most importantly, i still enjoy posting on here, and for as long as that happens, well, here's to another 100 postings... *clicks glass*

Keep what's on youtube, on youtube.

This might sound like an odd thing to say, and depending on where this is posted, it probably is an odd and random thing to say.

However, over the past few years, facebook has seen a surge in content (video's) being posted on pages, which have clearly been downloaded from youtube and then uploaded to facebook. While many people might be happy with this because it makes sharing more easy and the people who post the content on their facebook pages happy, because their stats look great, theres several thing's to remember here....

1) Youtube content is made by people, for people. It's not made to be downloaded and uploaded elsewhere without the content poster's permission in writing (that latter bit is from a legal point of view).

2) Adsense adverts appear on most youtube video's these days, and while not many people know how or why, it does prove to be an income for some people to even live off. Taking their content and placing it elsewhere, where adsense is not active, might well be great for a facebook page, but it does take a large amount of income away from the person.

On the adsense point there, don't think facebook won't start showing adverts on their video's... they're looking into it.

3) Posters on facebook need to look at other pages and see what they're posting. Often, people will like more than one page in a certain catagory, take "Vine's" for example. When you search vine on facebook, you will find ALOT of pages there, where people post their fave video's. That's fine... only, it's the same content on each page... so why not shake it up a little, people do get bored of watching the same old stuff.

Most important to notice here is facebook's agreement with the big music companies and content creator's, the more content that is taken off other website's and posted on facebook, the more they get involved... trust me, they can ruin website's if they fully enforce their ways on it.

A gig of an ego boost?

So here i am, monday morning, 1:45am, starting this, feeling on top of the world.

What a weekend i've had!

Saturday was always going to be a long day, i knew that, so friday night, i logged off everything and went to sleep by about 10/11pm, but could i sleep? no. Infact, i didn't get off to sleep until about half 3 in the morning. I woke up at half 7, grabbed a quick bath... and started on my timeline of the day....

8:30am - Took Trey out for a walk, stunning sunrise today, little bit on the chilly side, but leaving this field soon to go and meet the mother, time for Trey to be pamperd...

9:40am - Trey dropped off at the dog groomers for a haircut and wash. Me and mum off to take a little look around the shops and will probably end up buying some random stuff we don't need... oooh, lets look in pet's at home...

11:30am - Been and picked Trey up, he looks so much better after his haircut and i saw so many animals in pets at home that i wanted...

 

3pm - Got to mothers and after one job leading to another, the christmas tree is up now and we think we're dealing with mice in the attick, what a joy! Time to get home and get down to the club... gig tonight!!!

5:30pm - Just arrived at the club, now, i'd seen the owner in the week and he'd said about it getting fixed up in the function room and... i'm impressed, but no time for waiting around, it's time to get set up!

6pm - tech guy's have turned up, setting up a huge screen on the stage, it's an awards show tonight, looking really good! People should get here about 7, then they'll start the awards show at about half 7, buffet at 9 and then i'll be djing about 10 ish. Sorted!

They've also been working with me to use this mic on the stand thing, awful, they placed it right under the speaker, on the weird side, i've never used phantom on the sound desk before, so thats something new. Kinda looking forward to seeing how this goes.

9pm - omg, just got out of the awards part, sheesh! Went brilliantly, happy faces, video's and images on the big screen all worked well, so yey to that. Other tech guys are taking the screen down as we speak, so i'll get in, finish off setting the light's up and then we're good to go!

1:17am - Well, the 2nd part went brilliantly, crowed were literally in the palm of my hand... time to pack up now and then wait for the people to leave...

3am - people just left, me and dan (the bar manager) are just clearing off the last few glasses and going home!

3:30am - BED!

So it was a busy day, loads of compliments after the gig, people saying how much they enjoyed it, so im chuffed to bits with it all, i really am! It's rare that i can say after a gig that it went perfect, but it did...

Anyways, that was my saturday... sunday, i've spent in bed, recovering, as you'd expect.

Now though, onto monday.... well, sleep first....

The death penalty, where i stand.

Odd, that in the run up to christmas i should post about such a topic. Yet, everywhere i go, people are in a hurry to get somewhere, pushing each other out of the way because over the 1 day that the shops are closed, you may run out of toilet roll, so quick, buy 50 of them before anyone else does.

That alone, warrent's me thinking about the death penalty.

It has been on my mind recently though. About a week ago, me and a friend we're up until the wee hour's watching the film "the mathew sheperd story". One of the main theme's that run's through the film is that they can have the death penalty, if they want it. As we see with mathews mother in the film, she doesn't want it. I don't think i would either?

But why? i hear you asking....

In my mind, the death of one person cannot be equaled by the death of another. I am not god, i do not have a right to say who is entitled to life and who isn't. I also have to bring into question as to how sure you have to be that you have the right person before you sentence them to death, because what if in 5 years after the death, new evidence is found and it turns out, you killed the wrong person.

To me, there's much worse that can be done to a person while they're still alive. Have a listen to this....

"A life in memory", to me, is a much tougher thing to deal with than death. It bring's around eventually a better sense of justice, because that person has to go through every day, thinking about what they did and why, with death, they don't.

Now, my friend and i, have never been in the position where we could have someone handed a death sentence luckily and touch wood, would never have to be in such a position. I can only imagine though that being in that position, would make a person think differently about thing's like this.

But what say you?

Are you for a death sentence as a way of justice?

James Arthur, the beginning of the end.

So, i've been reading the news over the past few days, and actually... i couldn't be more happy.

See, last year, or, the year before... a guy won the british x-factor show called James Arthur. From his audition on the show, i never took to him. He looked awful, sounded awful and i could almost smell him through the tv and wanted to wash him. So anyway, he went on to win and blah blah blah.

His first single has come out and wasn't actually doing too bad in the charts. That was, until, he used the term "fucking queer" in a rap song. The news was picked upon by the newspapers and people online and of course... began what we have today.

What seems to have happend is James has made a track for a rap artist, and included some of his own lyrics on it, which include the term "fucking queer". Some might excuse this, but i, can't. There's no need for such terms in music these days, at all. It IS homophobic. If you don't think it is, let's swap the word queer for nigger, so in the song he calls someone a "fucking nigger", is that racist? Yes? But fucking queer isn't homophobic?

Morals people.

Anyway, the short version of it is, he's made a series of apologies on twitter and, well, not got the responce he wanted. He's since left twitter and his account is now handled by his management team, which let's face it, must be now working overtime, trying to recover him from what is basically, a PR disaster.

He's brought this on himself, nobody else to blame and he's lost alot of fans. His album sales are down and i'm waiting for news as we speak to hear about how his song is selling at the moment.

His career is on it's way out, he'll be forgotten about soon, but let's hope this lesson, isn't.