2013 in Review: My favorite albums of the year

2013 was a pretty good year for music in my opinion. I feel like I have a very diverse taste in music and I’ll listen to pretty much anything. Also, as a disclaimer, having absolutely no musical talent other than ability to listen and critique my opinion means pretty much nothing other than the I just really enjoyed listening to these albums repeatedly in their entirety. So the following, in descending order, are the 6 albums that pretty much dominated iPod during 2013.

6. Long.Live.A$AP. A$AP Rocky

I saw A$AP Rocky in concert 3 times this year. YES THREE TIMES. Once pre-L.L.A$AP, and twice post album release. I’ve got to saw he and the mob put on a good show. Despite almost getting suffocated at each show I have no regrets seeing him three times.

When I know I’m going to a show I try to listen to the artist non-stop before the show. It’s no fun seeing someone live and not shouting all the words to their songs. That being said, I listened to this album for about a month straight non-stop.

Favorite song: Probably a tie between “Long Live A$AP” and “1Train“.

5. ARTPOP Lady Gaga

This woman could probably release a blank CD and I would be all over it. I’m not sure what it is. Her eclectic style, or the fact that she is probably one of the most genuine performers of my generation, but I am always instantly drawn to anything Lady Gaga does. Her passion for her music and her performances is so obvious and she has the talent to back it up. I like ARTPOP because it reminds me a lot of her first album “The Fame”, which I still listen to like it just came out.

Favorite Song: “Do What U Want” feat. R Kelly.

 

4. Yeezus, Kanye West

You can hate Kanye for being an ass but theres no denying the man knows music. I feel like when ever Kanye releases new music, you can appreciate it if you go into it with any sort of expectations. Each album is so different than the one before it. People might say that he’s lost his touch but I think Yeezus is one of the best. It’s so dark and different and I love it.

Favorite Song: “I’m in it”

3. Yours Truly, Ariana Grande

It really blows my mind that Victoria Justice got a record deal before Ariana. I think people are always hesitant about young Nickelodeon/Disney stars going from acting into singing. Take away her cheesy acting and TV shows and I feel like Ariana is the real deal. People compare her to Mariah Carey which is no doubt a lot of pressure but I was truly shocked by how good her album is. Her voice is really unlike anyone else her age and in her genre. I hope she keeps going with music and does great things as she gets older.

Favorite Song: Tattooed Heart. 

If you haven’t seen it, watch her preform this song live at the American Music Awards. She even gets a standing O from Lady Gaga at the end 🙂

2. 20/20 experience, Justin Timberlake

Both parts are good but Part 1 was really hard to top. I literally still listen to the whole album at least once a week. The only weird thing is imaging him writing all of these songs about Jessica Biel.

Favorite Song: Pusher Love Girl 

1. Nothing Was The Same, Drake 

Anyone that knows me knows that I pathetically worship the ground that

Drake walks on so it’s no surprise that NWTS is my favorite album of the year. There’s just something about the way the album flows, you just have to listen to the whole thing all the way through. I’m obviously a bit biased, but you can really tell that Drake puts so much of himself in to his music and doesn’t just write songs to make hits. I mean, he raps, he sings, sometimes it sounds like he’s just talking to you. OK I’ll stop because I could probably write an entire post about how much I love this album.

Favorite Song: “Own it”, and also the way it is kind of a continuation of “Wu-Tang forever”. I always have to listen to the two back to back.

Just because the previous 6 are my top favorites doesn’t mean I didn’t listen to other things. Here a few honorable mentions, of other albums that I really enjoyed

• Bangerz (Don’t lie, you low-key liked it too), Miley Cyrus
• Midnight Memories, One Direction
• My Name is My Name, Pusha T
• MMLP2, Eminem
• Born Sinner, J Cole
• Because the Internet, Childish Gambino
• Sail Out EP, Jhene Aiko 
• Beyonce: The Visual Album, Beyonce (Special Sidenote: I do love Beyonce and her new album but I am still somewhat recovering from the fact that she just dropped it with no heads up so that’s why it didn’t make the top list. I don’t doubt it will be on my 2014 playlist for months to come.)

From a man’s perspective

Men and women belong to different species and communications between them is still in its infancy.
– Bill Cosby 

I stumbled upon this YouTube channel called “Guy Moments“. Even though it is aimed towards men and the annoying things women do, I was laughing the whole time. This video in particular, “Just Come Over” was super relateable and really shows the difference between men and women.

 

A couple things to learn from this video:

• Women over analyze everything. Men over simplify everything. 
• Women are stubborn. Men don’t realize that they’re just as stubborn as we are. 
• Women just want men to say what they want to hear. Even if men don’t really mean it, it’s still comforting. 

This video is hilarious and I can definitely see where the guy is coming from. ALTHOUGH in her defense if a guy said “I ain’t trippin” I would have reacted in the same way. A simple “yeah come through” or a “nah I’m good” would have sufficed. 

Also, the word “female” is oddly degrading. Just say “bitch” if that’s what you really mean. 

Regardless, this is relateable for both men and women. Let’s just face it, we’re both always going to think that we’re right. Women will always be stubborn and men will never quite understand how to deal with it. 

“…but then you print some sh*t that makes me wanna scream”

I recently distanced myself from social media. Mostly Twitter. I’ve come to hate most social media sites in the past year or so, with the exception of a few niche sites like Pinterest and LinkedIn.

I decided to get off of Twitter because I realized that I really don’t care about what any of my followers have to say. That mostly speaks to the quality of the people that I follow. Everyone on social media has an opinion, which duh, that’s what social media is for. Giving people the opportunity to express themselves and yes, everyone is entitled to say and think whatever they want.

Lately, every time I log on to Twitter it’s all the same stuff. Complaining when you’re bored, complaining when you’re busy, men slut shaming, women slut shaming, everyone calling everyone out for the way they live their lives all while boasting these meaningless quotes and prophecies about what you need to do to be successful or how to be a better person. No one really lets anyone live their life without having some conflicting opinion about what’s cool and what’s not.

I live by the philosophy that if someone is doing something that makes them happy, and they’re not hurting themselves or anyone else, then just let them do the damn thing. Who cares? People care so much about how other people live their lives and spend so much time telling others how to live via social media. Twitter and Facebook especially have made people think that just because they have an opinion on a subject then that makes them an expert, and they can pass off their knowledge as some kind of supreme law.

I know that me telling people to shut up on Twitter is hypocritical and doing exactly what I said I hate, which is telling people what to do, so that’s why I just logged off. The only downside is that now I feel so out of the loop. I mean I didn’t even know about Beyonce’s new album until like 12 hours later (a long time in the world of social media).

I think in the near future I will be doing a cleanse of my followers and only keeping the ones who’s posts I enjoy reading. For now it’s actually been nice not knowing what people are saying or doing. It’s also been nice not being glued to my phone which is a habit that I hated myself for acquiring.

Sorry this is a bit of a rant but I just had to get it off  my chest.

Dress code: There is none.

I’ve never had a job that required a strict dress code. I’ve worked at in an IT department and in a gym, and while both were professional environments, it was a pretty casual setting. Starting my first full-time job, we have the same kind of dress code I was used to. “Business casual”..but….not really.

A lot of people would be stoked to not have to dress up for work everyday, but I’m somewhat indifferent. Being the youngest person in the office it becomes a struggle between dressing for the culture of the job versus dressing to be taken seriously. It would be impractical for me to go into work wearing a power suit, yet I don’t want to be the girl who wears hoodies everyday.

Anyways, I’ve come up with some creative ways to keep it super casual, yet professional, that seem to work for my work environment. I don’t consider myself a fashionista by ANY MEANS, but here are a few of my go-to outfits for a typical day at work.

Side note: I practically live in leggings and the majority of my wardrobe is black, but I’m trying to mix it up!

 

Revitalization Project: Little Bits of Inspiration

I’m starting a sort of “revitalization project”. It started off with just my apartment but I am putting it into effect for other aspects of my life. I want to be a positive person which starts by surrounding myself with positive things and getting rid of the negative. I don’t spend a lot of time at home. I’m usually at work, the gym or the library, but when I am home I want it to be a place that makes me happy. I’ve been slowly decorating different areas of my apartment and am pretty pleased with how it’s turned out. It’s funny because 90% of my clothes are black but everything in my apartment is a different color. It’s all about balance I guess. Here are a few bits of inspiration I’ve placed here and there to keep me sane and positive.

“The List”: Part 1

I have about 2 and half years of experience being in my twenties and there some things that I have noticed certain trends about being this age. I must say that I really hate reading lists about “Things every twenty-something should know” or “what ever twenty-something should be doing” because all they do is stress you out and make you think you’re living your life wrong. Which we already all think we are anyways.

But this is part 1 of my “list” of things that I have noticed during this short time of being in my twenties.

It really is all about “who you know” not “what you know”

It is unfair but it is what it is. I am all for networking except for when it leads to companies hiring under-qualified twenty-somethings, and then later complaining about how incompetent millennials are. I won’t complain too much because I got my current job solely through networking and being at the right place at the right time, but the emphasis on networking often gives young professionals false hope that they can get an amazing job from who they know, but come time to deliver quality skills, they are coming up short.

“Social Media is not a career”

Duh. I can’t even count the number of times I was told this while networking. Social media is a day to day activity and it is like breathing for a lot of people. There is no need for fourty-somethings telling me that I’m not going to make a living doing social media. Young people have been marketing themselves on social media since before professionals even realized it could be used as a valid marketing tool.

Generation Y invented social media and Generation X took it upon themselves to write articles about it and teach courses on it and call themselves “social media experts”. There is something wrong with a job posting requiring 7+ years of professional social media experience when Twitter itself was only created about 6 years ago.

Don’t expect to be taken seriously 

I worked in my last office for almost 5 years, and was always the youngest person working there. The department was failing and no one was open to suggestions. The point is, it doesn’t matter how many degrees you have, if you’re under a certain age, you still won’t be taken seriously as a professional. They won’t hire you, but they sure will ask you to teach tenured, 60-something PhDs how to right-click a mouse and compose an email.

Just be grateful, no matter what

This first year out of college has been an interesting time. I’m technically not even out of college since I made the ridiculous decision to go to grad school, but grad school is so different, it doesn’t even count. The point is, that everyone’s journey is different. I was lucky enough to find a full time job and find myself envious of my unemployed friends who get to do crafts and watch Netflix all day. Meanwhile, they’re willing to do anything to secure that 9-5 position. This time is so trivial when you look at the big picture that as long you’re doing something that makes you happy you should just be grateful to be where you are.