As the title says, this is a bit of a hello post. A sort of test, if you will. I’ve had various ideas about what the “writing” tab of this website is (or can or will be). This is not really a first post, because I’ve already posted an edited version of a paper I wrote for school, but I guess this is more of a first post of whatever this new thing I’m trying to do here is.
So, the plan is as follows; I want to write a monthly recap / newsletter type thing at the end of each month, which could include things such as albums I liked, movies I watched, books I read, cool things I saw/found. I might also post singular longer pieces about whatever I’ve been thinking about.
After great success over on my Instagram story last year, I really want to do reviews of my advent calendar again in December. It’s still really far away so I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, but I’ll come up with something a bit more elaborate this year. We’ll see, but I’m really excited!
Personal website(s)
I’ve been thinking about going a bit more personal on my personal website for a long while now. I’ve also thought about putting my thoughts somewhere other than my diary (that’s for personal musings only!) or my instagram story (that’s too short-form!). I’ve also had this idea of just not posting on my Instagram story anymore (haha, as if) and just make my website a hub for everything I want to share online. My one, and only, space to occupy on the internet. Obviously, there are some issues with that, mainly convenience-wise. I think I’m still a far way away from that, and I’m not sure how viable it is, but it is an idea. Maybe more on that at some other point. I recently read this essay by Daniël van der Winden, which talks about personal websites and was a great read, so I would recommend it to anyone interested!
The album I replayed over and over
Eliza McLamb released her debut album Going Through It on January 19th and I couldn’t stop listening to it! It was all I played for about two weeks straight because I just like it that much! It’s a wonderful singer-songwriter collection of both acoustic and uptempo songs about girlhood and womanhood and being a teenager and being in your early 20s so there’s not really much wonder around why I like it. Beautiful songwriting and storytelling and performance by Eliza herself, and excellent production by Sarah Tudzin (who also recently produced the record by boygenius). I’m sure I’ll write more about this album towards the end of the year since it will no doubt make it into my end-of-year list. In the meantime, you can check it out here (or on streaming)!
Other things I enjoyed in January
I started reading Normal People by Sally Rooney! I watched the miniseries just over a year ago and have been meaning to read the book as well and I finally got around to it. I’ll report back once I finish it but I’ve been really enjoying it so far. The whole no quotation marks thing was definitely something to get used to, but it didn’t take too long.
I also stumbled across the Olympic brand guidelines, which might be one of my favourite brand guideline documents I’ve seen (so far. There are many brand decks I haven’t seen yet). I spent more time than I’d like to admit marvelling at how thorough this document is, and how tight the grid is. Truly a thing of beauty! If you have some spare time, or want a blueprint for a 150+ page brand guideline, you can find them here. I’ll end this paragraph by quoting my own text message I sent to a friend after reaching the last page: “it’s a perfect guideline. scratching a very specific system-loving/rule-following part of my brain.”
That’s all for now
Since I’m writing this fairly late (mid-February), I’m already looking forward to February’s recap! And I’m just about to finish writing another post (about how I can’t stop listening to the same six songs) which you can read here (once it’s published).
I’m learning that writing about music (and other things I like) is much harder than I thought it would be, especially when trying to describe a feeling beyond just saying “wow I really like this”. But I’m giving it a go and let’s hope my little reviews get better as I write more of them.
I do not want to make a promise I can’t keep but I’ll try my best to get at least a monthly recap out somewhat regularly.
Thank you for reading!
Until next time,
Mia