11 May 2017

Today was the last day of our creative writing course and it was honestly a great time going through our discussions and reading literary submissions from all of our classmates. I feel as though the book and being able to go through the pieces of writing in it really did help in getting a better idea of the amount of detail that goes into crafting poetry or short stories. I've been writing poetry for years, so I don't feel as though I had much trouble with that portion of the course; however, as I have never gone through with writing a short story, I definitely struggled when it came time to do that. I do have to admit though, I didn't give it the most honest effort that I could have. I don't think the problem is in lacking ideas for stories, rather it is feeling confident in the execution of the plot that has mitigated completing a story at all for this class. Regardless though, to whether a story was completed or not, The analyzations that we had to do for a select number of short stories in the book, along with touching on the elements, helped in understanding them better and having more appreciation for the art. I also do appreciate what this course has to offer to its students, and would gladly recommend it to any one who is considering enrolling into it.

9 May 2017

The past couple of weeks has been full of concerts, just a small portion of the amount that I've been going to this year so far. It just so happens that one specific concert was two consecutive days in April, and that was a first for me. The two days were for a band called The 1975, and this is a band that I had known about for a very long time, I just had never truly gotten around to giving them an honest listen. However, ever since my girlfriend showed them to me in more depth, I've come to actually love this band. It's curious to love a band like them when compared to the vast amount of bands I listen to specifically in the hardcore and metal genres, but this band just has something about them that makes them special. I was hesitant to want to go to both dates of the concert, which was in Los Angeles. My girlfriend had already bought tickets for both dates so it felt right to take advantage of actually possessing these tickets. To sum up the show is a task in itself, and it simply comes down to one of those "you had to be there" moments because of the sheer scale of the concert and the manner in which their stage production is done. It leaves a fan dumbfounded knowing that people can form a band, be in it for more than a decade before being recognized in some way, and then suddenly selling out arenas in metropolitan cities throughout the United States and the world. What makes it more curious is that a band so popular is hardly known by anyone you ask, but perhaps that's just because many people only hear what gets put on the radio from them and don't bother to actually expand further into their catalog. Regardless though, these two concerts bring me up to having had seen this band three times now, and of course I've seen a few bands more times than that, but those don't compare to the level that The 1975 is at, and it's experiences like these that inspire and spark something in your head to want to bring that inspiration into whatever it is you do best.