SamChristie.me

a blog by sam christie. former home of "12 Months of Stuff"

Month: June 2015

MusicMakesYou.com is Live!

It took basically the whole month, but I’m happy to be able to slide this release out into the world just before the end of June. I’m hoping to keep up with this blog and to continue to use it to house my opinions on the dopest tracks, albums, and artists I’m listening to. Here is an excerpt from the first post on Narcolepsy by Third Eye Blind:


Narcolepsy eases you in with the opening dream-sequence space-walk riff.

“I’m on a train / but there’s no one at the helm. And there’s a demon in my brain that starts to overwhelm” The last word echoes as you’d expect at the start of a movie montage, flashback, or otherwise hazy sequence.

At the end of this line, the guitar slides in, beckoning the demon, or signifying its subtle yet distinct entrance.

— http://musicmakesyou.com

Follow the blog on Tumblr at http://musicmakesyou.com for more updates on what I’m rockin’ out to, and be sure to keep an eye out for July’s announcement.

In love & stuff,
Sam

I’m Starting A Music Blog – MusicMakesYou.com

For June’s month of stuff, I’m getting into something I truly enjoy. A few things, really.

1. Writing
2. Music
3….Writing about music

Introducing MusicMakesYou.com, a medium-to-long-form music blog on my favorite tunes, how they make me feel, what I see when I listen to them, etc. The goal for this month is to write up four albums, songs, artists, or situations*, describing in detail what is running through my head as I listen or experience the music. 

In general, there’s too much negative garbage on the internet. This blog will be celebrating how awesome music is, and won’t focus much on controversy, criticism, or anything like that unless it’s framed in a positive way. 

Who knows, maybe some other people will want to jump in and we’ll have some guest posts.

Stay tuned next week for the first posts over on MusicMakesYou.com. All images, styling, etc subject to change. 

In love & stuff,
Sam

*In the case of writing up a scenario, I would paint a picture with delicious words about a particular time when I was listening to a song, vibing to an album front to back on the beach, or I’d be recalling a music-related experience.

I Did Not Build A Website This Month. Here’s Why.

 Photo via http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/99-bugs-in-the-code.jpg featuring Grumpy Cat.

Photo via http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/99-bugs-in-the-code.jpg featuring Grumpy Cat.

Well, that wasn’t a total failure. I set out this month to build a blog in Ruby on Rails. I didn’t end up building the blog, but I did learn some Ruby and do some introductory projects. It was all going well and then it suddenly went off the Rails. Womp womp!

One second I had a test post and test comments, and the next I couldn’t even get a server started to see my progress live on the internet (that’s something you need to do with Rails—start a Rails server.)

In any case, I learned something. That’s going to become my motto I think :).

Halfway through yelling at my tutorials and help sites like Stack Overflow, lamenting the plight of the first-time Ruby developer, I had an epiphany:

This isn’t fun. I am not happy doing this. I am not enjoying this.

I started thinking of some of my other projects, and some of the pieces of them that I just don’t want to do. As you can see, the video updates have become scarce. That’s because I’d rather be doing stuff than editing, uploading, and managing video content. The idea of these update videos weigh me down and get in the way of getting stuff done. Of course in any profession or career or project, there are parts that are less shiny and perfect than others. But this is my own project. I get to make the rules! 🙂

With that in mind, I am issuing a 12 Months of Stuff Official Decree:

All future projects must directly contribute to my happiness.

I started these 12 projects to “get to where I want to be”, but I’m starting to find that destination is a bit nebulous. Sure I want to have my own internet content empire, who doesn’t? But if it makes me miserable, then there’s no point to it. I need to focus on the fun parts, and figure out how to outsource or get around the parts I don’t enjoy if necessary.

Enter the above decree. At least I’m learning things, right? “Inspect and adapt”, as they say. Stay tuned for June’s stuff announcement shortly. It’s going to be a good one.

In love & stuff,
Sam

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén