My self imposed Social Media Ban for Lent is
nearing it’s end. This time next week I’ll be back online and back at it …
maybe. I have to admit I’ve enjoyed this break. This unplugging experiment has
done me so much good, that’s not to say I haven’t been busy. I have found some
new music, watched my nephew get inducted into the Junior National Honor
Society, got to help with an Easter Egg hunt, got to help my office with a City
Park clean up event, and of course went to Auburn for a weekend. That’s not to
say that it hasn’t been easy not sharing some of those things, not to mention
my older nephew going to the Jr/Sr Prom with his super awesome girlfriend. I
mean they looked great together and not seeing the pictures he, my
sister-in-law, and brother posted in real time was tough. I had to remind them
to e-mail them to me so I could see them, which meant I saw them 2 or 3 days
after the fact. ☹ boooo hisss! 😊
I also didn’t get to participate in the season premiere of Blackdog Salvage on
DIY something that I’ve really missed. I love chatting with those guys via
Twitter as I watch the show. I’m very much looking forward to tweeting with
them next week. I wonder if they have wondered where I am?! Join us! 😃
However, the main thing I have missed is
Golden. Between our work schedules being exact opposites, her new furbaby Mighty taking
over the house, and her cell phone coverage being shit I have missed conversing
with her through twitter. We’ve texted a little bit but I understand Mighty isn’t
a fan of Golden’s cell phone. Don’t worry Auntie Marcy will have a chat with
Mighty first chance I get about how cell phones are friends not food. Because
of all those things I’ve missed Golden and I think she has missed me too.
There have also been several times I’ve
thought man I haven’t heard from so and so in a while and realized just how
much we have come to rely on Social Media to stay in touch with our everyday
people. Sure I’ve emailed more than I usually do but often those people don’t
check their mail or like I used to would see the message pop up, read it and
think I’ll reply later then never did. I’ve also missed talking to my twitter
friends from a far and have wondered how they are doing but with lack of e-mail
addresses for them I haven’t been able to get in touch with them. I wonder if
they have even missed me ?
So while this “break” has been far easier than
I’d have thought it would be I do miss the connectivity that social media gives
me in my every day world as well as with the people who I’ve connected with
that without Social Media I wouldn’t know at all. I often say that we have forgotten
that this social media is supposed to be about being Social and I’m realizing
just how much social goes into my media. I plan to keep that mantra in my mind
as I re-log into all my accounts and keep the social going cause without it
what’s the point. So join me won’t you as I get social again ….. let’s use this
medium the way it was intended.
Have a fantastic week and if you celebrate it …
HAPPY EASTER!!!!
So…. In my self imposed Social Media Ban I
have talked about my part in spreading negativity on the internet and my part
in spreading positivity on the internet but in this one I’m going back to my
roots a little bit. I am jumping on the bandwagon of an artist many have known
about for years, looking at you Melissa, but whom I recently found thanks to a gift from a friend (looking at you Katie) so I'm waving the banner of this artist for people like me who thought they knew about him from the radio and had it just so badly wrong.
So a few weeks ago I helped a friend, Katie, with
something and in return she gave me an Itunes gift card. I’m kind of sick of
everything I’ve been listening to lately so I decided to use this as an
opportunity to find something new. I decided that the first thing I saw I was going to buy without even checking it out. The week that I was given the card was
the same week that Ed Sheeran released ÷ (AKA Divide), something that wouldn't have normally hit my radar. When I 1st opened
my Itunes store the first thing I saw was Ed Sheeran’s ÷ in the banner and I
clicked on it to buy it before listening to a single track as was the deal I made with myself. This deal ended up costing me way more money than the Itunes card was for.
For full disclosure I HATED Photograph by Ed
Sheeran not because it was a bad song, not because it was a good song but
because it was ALWAYS on the radio. Like literally every single time I’d flip
around the dial (yes I’m that old to remember when there was a dial) this song was playing on at least 3 or 5 stations. I hate that. I
always feel like when they do that they are trying too hard to get me to like
someone and I rebel so hard it’s not even funny. I still don’t like the song,
but now I can at least say I’ve given it a fair shake it’s just not my cup of
tea. That being said after listening to ÷ I have jumped both feet in to the Ed
Sheeran band wagon. The guy is brilliant. The way he puts a song together very
much makes me think of my good buddy Eric Erdman, an artist who deserves so
much more love than he gets. Their brains just see the world differently and my
ears love every second of it. However Eric has to wait for another post this
one is all about my falling into the Ed Sheeran rabbit hole.
To those new to this blog when I get a new
album I have a rule; I push play then don’t touch anything until the last song
plays. I want to hear the album as the artist/producers intended before I start
jumping around to the tracks I really like. I have to admit that with ÷ I didn’t
love every song right out of the gate, some I still don't. Actually on the first listen I was on
track three thinking about track one and why it was called Eraser. It was quite
challenging to move past actually and I still don’t fully understand it, but
have decided to not overthink it and just ride with it since it’s a good song.
My favorite songs on ÷ include Happier, New
Man, What Do I Know, Supermarket Flowers, and Nancy Mulligan. Tho I admit that
Supermarket Flowers makes me cry … every.damn.time. It’s an ugly cry too … the
picture he paints of his mom walking around her mother’s room essentially saying
goodbye burrows into my head and a little mini movie plays that gives me all
the feels creating tears at the same time as the goosebumps. I LOVE IT when that happens!!!!! Tho I'm sad for the circumstances that led to the song, I LOVE when a song does this to me.
There are some tracks I blow past now when
they come on, but mostly because I can’t wait to get to other tracks. Like Galway
Girl, I love the flow of the track but often find myself not really in the mood
for it so I skip it. The first time I listened to New Man I thought dude who
are you kidding, then realized I know nothing about this man so who was I
kidding. Now it’s one of my favorites. Dive is the same way for me, sometimes I’m
not in the mood for the slow soulful feel of the song but I like it and it’s
the perfect song for work when I’m editing a document and need to focus. That’s
not the case with Shape of You, or Perfect, if I never hear those again I’d be
ok. Tho I did go on a trip with a friend and put Perfect on repeat during the
night and slept like a baby which was nice, until the next day when it was like
an ear worm that wouldn’t die.
As a self-professed Music Skitzo I love the
mixture of rap/story/pop whatever you want to label it that Ed Sheeran brings to
the table. He’s not really trying to fit into anyone’s mold but in doing that he’s
creating his own mold but taking all his musical influences and creating his
own genre for people to model future music by and that’s a testament to the
influence he brings to the table. To this point, he posted every single song on
his youtube channel with full lyrics in the information section so people could
really dive into each song the way hetruly intended.
Check out the entire album here ….
After diving into ÷ I then dove head first into
his entire library of music on Itunes. It was quite pathetic actually how hard I
fell for this man. Like I can’t get enough of his voice, I can’t get enough of
how he puts lyrics together and I really feel like he’s put everything he can into
a song before giving it to the world. He’s definitely an artist who seems to
care about what he’s putting out and isn’t at all putting things out simply cause
he has a deal and he can. If that’s not the case I don’t want to know. Some of
his earlier tracks that have made my ear holes incredibly happy are U.N.I.,
Wake Me Up, Homeless, Even My Dad Does Sometimes, Where We Land, and the list goes on and on.
I even bought his “live” albums and that is
saying something cause I’m not a live album person. Often it takes away from the
experience for me when I actually see them live, but in his case I feel that
you really get a taste of who this artist is in front of an audience and he sounds
like he’s having so much fun on stage you can’t help but fall in love with him
if you haven’t already. I apologize for
being late to this party but damn I’m glad I finally got an invite …thank you
Ed Sheeran my earholes haven’t been this happy in years!
Once I get back on Social Media, two more weeks, I have a list of things to do and first is follow Golden's new furbaby, Mighty, second is following Ed Sheeran so I can tell him personally how amazing he is, like he'd care what I think. If you are interested here's his information:
