Stay Blogitive!

Hello again everyone, and welcome to my first post as a 22-year-old. As promised, today’s post is going to be about my goals to reach before my next birthday a year from now. Get my Facebook page to 250 likes Considering that my Facebook page DIDN’T EVEN EXIST this time last year, it has already gone past 100 likes. I am amazed by this, and am aiming to keep on growing it in the future. If I can get 100 in the first year, then I can definitely more than double it in the next twelve months. 500 followers on Twitter This number has already more than doubled since 12 months ago (50 a year ago to almost 200 now) so it is realistic to aim to at least double this again within the next year. Reach 15,000 pageviews on this page For those who saw my 2016 is here post from January, you will know that I am aiming at 10,000 pageviews by the end of the year. Alongside this, I am also now targeting 15,000 by the time I turn 23 at the end of July 2017. It is certainly a ...

Hello again everyone. Welcome to the last Trent’s Tracks of the month, and the last one now until September. Today I am choosing a song from one of my favourite annual events – the Eurovision song contest. It is often known for being a carnival of camp, dominated by cheesy music and politically-motivated voting. However, people forget that it has produced some great songs, and launched the careers of many artists over the years. The song I have chosen won the contest for Sweden back in 2012, and is one of my all-time favourite Eurovision songs. Get ready to sing along to Euphoria by Loreen, a truly classic Eurovision winner. Enjoy! (As a bonus, I have put the link to the video of her performance at the final in Baku 2012.) Loreen Euphoria Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/1xN7BpTAWnZkuSLOtRP6Qc Official Video Link: https://youtu.be/bcnWysA9gxo Eurovision Performance link: https://youtu.be/Pfo-8z86x80 As usual, let ...

Hello again everyone, and welcome to today’s post! On my birthday last year, I set myself some goals as to what I wanted to achieve by the time I reached my birthday this year. With my birthday just days away, I feel that now is the right time to review these goals and see whether or not I managed to achieve them in the last 12 months. Get to 1000 pageviews In a previous post, I said that it meant a lot to me to hit 200 pageviews and now I’m looking ahead and hoping that this blog will become more popular over the next twelve months and I think it is realistic to aim to reach 1000 pageviews in that time. If you’ve been following me over the last year, you will know that this goal has been well and truly smashed. To date, the total number of pageviews is 5,200, which is more than five times what I set out to get just a year ago, when I was still on around 250! Every day, when I look at the stats, I am blown away by the amount of support this page receives, and the amoun...

Hello again everyone, and welcome to another Trent’s Tracks. This week, I am adding one of the biggest and most catchy songs of 2015 to the list. I am sure that many of you found yourself singing along to this for months on end last year, because I certainly did. I don’t even really need to say much more about how brilliant this song is, because its popularity speaks for itself. The song I am adding to the list is Marvin Gaye by Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor, and what a blockbuster track it is. Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor Marvin Gaye Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1zxFtsKWwuVpz3nSqNYshe Video: https://youtu.be/igNVdlXhKcI I would love to hear your thoughts on this track, or on any others from the overall list. You can leave them in the comments or follow me on all of my social media links (in the table below) if you’d like to. My next post will be out on Monday, so look out for that and until then, keep active, ke...

Hello again all! Today’s post is going to be an updates post because I haven’t done one in a while, and I just wanted to keep you guys in the loop as to what to expect from me and from this page in the near future. MY BIRTHDAY In just under two weeks, I will turn 22! This means that there will be some birthday-themed posts, including a review of the goals I set a year ago on my 21 st birthday. (You can check out that list of goals HERE ) END OF AN ERA You have probably already read the first post in this new series I am going to be doing over the course of the next twelve months (Link to that post right HERE ). The next post in this series will be out sometime before the end of this month, and you can expect a new one around about once a month for the next year, until I graduate university in July 2017 (less than a year away!). DOCTOR WHO Last year, I reviewed each episode of Doctor Who series 9, and you guys seemed to love it as much as I enjoyed writ...

Hello all. It’s Friday again, which means it’s time for another Trent’s Tracks, which this week will be a DOUBLE recommendation, with two songs instead of the usual one. So, without further ado, let’s go. Track #1 For the first song I am recommending this week, I am going back further than I have ever gone. Originally released way back in 1961, this song was rereleased and topped the UK charts in 1986 to coincide with the film of the same name. Not only is that one of my favourite films of all time, but this is one of my favourite ever songs. Since its release, it has gone on to be one of the most covered songs of all time, with a reported 400+ recorded versions. This just goes to show how much of a legend this song has become, and what an impact this artist has had on the world of music. Here it is then, Stand By Me. Sadly, we lost Ben E King in April last year, but this song is his legacy, and what a legacy to leave behind. Ben E King Stand By...

Hello again everyone! Today I’m going to finally post my review of Jodi Picoult’s novel Handle With Care, which I originally intended to upload back in March. THIS BOOK HAS ALL OF THE HALLMARKS OF JODI PICOULT, in the sense that it is a very thought-provoking read, with a strong moral question at its heart. I have read several of her works now, and every single time, I find my judgement and moral integrity being questioned. My views on the subject matter are one way when reading the first page, and are in some way altered, if not totally changed, by the time I finish the book. This is one of those characteristics of Picoult that I have come to love, and is why I continue to be drawn in by her novels, and why I can’t stop reading them! IT RAISES SEVERAL KEY QUESTIONS surrounding the topic of disability, particularly in relation to the other contentious subject of abortion. In Handle with Care, Sean and Charlotte O’Keefe’s daughter Willow has osteogenesis imperfecta (OI),...

Hello again everyone! Somehow, it is already July. Where did the first six months of this year go? Anyway, I’m going to kick off this new month with a brand new series for you. This morning, it hit me that I am about to embark on my final year of university. In under a year’s time, this long and difficult journey will be over, and next July, I will be graduating. It has been such an incredible experience, in spite of all of the stress, and I am finally in the home stretch. Because of this, I have decided to start a series of posts which will record my feelings at different stages throughout the year ahead, with a few stories and photos thrown in. In a way, I guess this will be a sort of countdown to the end of my time at uni, and potentially the end of my time in education, so I have given it the title “End of an Era.” There will be no real scheduling to these posts, but I will try and post at least once a month if I can. That’s it for today. You guys can follow ...