liking old posts on social media

You go onto your facebook and you see a notification. You click on the notif icon and you see someone has liked your picture from two years ago. Weird right?
nOOOooOO

Why do we have this idea that this is something creepy or weird? We live in a time and age where we share, we share on the internet, publicly or more privately, whatever floats your boat. It is a privilege, but it also has its negative aspects. Musicians can for example spread their music more easily, but people can look up whatever you have shared on your social media about you. Mystery is not really a thing anymore.
Whatever you do on your social media is completely up to you, but you have to realise that you post things with the purpose for people to see it (you can say you don't, but if you post things and you don't want people to see it, maybe you shouldn't be on social media at all). So why does it matter if a person sees it within one minute or a few years later?
My instagram and facebook are pretty private; on both I have to accept requests if people want to follow me or be friends, so I'm in total control of who I want on my page. I don't accept people I don't know, or people I don't truly like. I trust these people enough, therefore, I don't mind that they can see all my posts. I am also in total control of what I post and I wouldn't post things that I wouldn't want people to see.
I personally think it can be pretty sweet when someone likes one of your old posts, it means that they were interested enough to scroll through your page, trying, in some way, to get to know you.
Yes, I will acknowledge though that there is definitely a difference between liking an old photo or liking an old text post (on facebook). Pictures are in maps that you can find very easily, but for text posts you have to actually search through someone's page. BUT, there is a thing on facebook that makes you able to see someone's posts in a specific month in a specific year, so you don't even to do much anymore to go back to i.e. 2010. Therefore, NO, this isn't creepy either.
This also applies to mentioning something you've seen on someone's social media to that person when you talk to them individually. I am guilty of still being a bit 'scared' of doing this, because I sometimes check out people's social media without following them or being friends with them (even though their pages are public, so I shouldn't care too much, it's out there for everyone to see), but I feel a bit icky mentioning something I've seen on there to the person in real life. But I am working on not being afraid of it when I am actually friends with the person or knowingly following them.
Because as I already mentioned, they decided to put all that information online so you are fricking allowed to mention any bit of this to them when you are conversing.

Why this obsession of being so private about our (public) social media? I don't know, but let's try and improve this. Let's take the 'social' and apply it to the real life combined with your internet life.

That's all I have to say.

Enjoy your day, and maybe go out and ask someone about a picture they posted a while ago and why they felt like posting it, ask 'em what the picture makes them feel, do it, be interested. And let's not make it weird.

xoxo

Lore

appreciation post #1

Harry Styles, I appreciate you.
a lot

xxxx

about three years later

HULLOOO!

Reading back, I think I started out this blog sounding like a snob lololol.
I read my 'facts about me', and thought it would be a fun idea to update this, yay!
Thus I'll alter the older facts and add some new ones.
Okay that was my introduction, cool cool cool.

1. Yeah, well... my birthday is still the same, but I'm almost 21 this time (ooh noo very adult).

2. Who cares about my hair and eye colour?! I have freckles, that's the only thing that matters... tss... my priorities back then ...

3. Family thing is still relevant.

4. Oooh that's different. I'm not studying at that university anymore noo. I've studied something else for a year afterwards (also linguistics), but now I'm studying something completely different: música!!

5. Still haven't grown and still got the hands and feet of a child.

6. Music is still my life. and now I'm actually studying it... in a SCHOOL... WHOA

7. Hooo this fact sounded very snobbish, forgive me.
Some of my favourite artists slash bands today: The 1975, Dodie (no 'Clark', she hashtag rebranded), Carly Rae Jepsen, Years & Years, Shura, AURORA, twenty one pilots, Mumford & Sons, Troye Sivan, Young the Giant, Ariana Grande, Tom Rosenthal, Keaton Henson, She & Him, OneRepublic ...

8. Kitties, puppies, bunnies and pandas. Yes you can equally love cats and dogs at the same time, stop the feud, end this madness!

9. Dodie and Zooey! (alwaaays!)

10. GAaaaaMEEeeee ooOOOf ThRoooOOoOOneEEs
but also New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, FRIENDS, Orange is the New Black

11. yup yup, but I HAVE read the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings now and I'm planning to read Harry Potter in English soon.

12. still true, and although it often brings me 'bad luck', I'll still choose five

(ohmyGOOodo(Froodo) I wrooote so many useless facts about myself )

13. Autumn is so pretty.

14. I'm bisexual WOO (soz Dodie, for stealing your title)

15. nah

16. yeah

17. yup

18. okay yay, I finished the list, damn I thought this bullshit was going to be neverending

19. my religion is dinosaurs.
okay okay, I don't know much about them but I DO believe in them

20. I have a band-aid on my finger, because sharp knives don't belong in my hands

21. I like food.

Good, 21 facts about an almost-21-year-old, that's good.

Enjoy the rest of your day/life!
Byebye bye byye

Social constructions.

Around one week ago, I was watching a YouTube video of Hannah Witton called "Do I Look Like A Slut?" (you should go and watch it, it's really interesting). She asked people online, on different social media websites, what they define as a slut. The people on Facebook were obviously superficial*curse word (noun)*. Then the people on Twitter were mixed up about it. But then came my peeps, the beautiful moral crusadors of Tumblr. (Yes, I am one of them.) I don't remember the exact responses, but they were kind of saying that 'slut' is just a term created by society to make women feel bad about themselves when they've had multiple bed partners. I agree with this. The word 'slut' is a social construction. There is no such thing as a slut. PLEASE STOP CALLING PEOPLE SLUTS! 

But 'slut' isn't the only social constructions. There are so many others (I'll just name a few). Take 'virgin'. I do believe virginity to be a thing, but people use it way too lightly. It's like when you've had "too much sex", you're a slut. When you're a virgin, you're a prude. Virginity is way more than that. It's not because you are still a virgin, that you are immediately a prude. Maybe you are still waiting for the right person, or you just aren't ready, or for any other reason. But people shouldn't look down on you because you are. That is totally wrong. 

Another one is 'ugly'. I am trying to use this word a lot less, to eventually not anymore. But I then I also believe the opposite to sort of be a social construction; 'pretty', 'beautiful'...; but this doesn't mean I am not going to use this word anymore. I think everything has a certain beauty and that everyone is beautiful in their own way. And if I like something, I want to be able to say it and if I think someone is beautiful, then I want to be able to say it to them. But we need to stop putting beauty into boxes and we should get rid of the beauty standards. You don't have to be skinny to be beautiful. You don't have to have a thigh gap to be attractive. (Or other things that belong to the so called beauty standard). You are beautiful as you are. It makes me so sad to see that so many people (especially teenage girls) are really insecure about themselves. I just want to hold them and tell them they are beautiful. 

Yes, you are beautiful. 

Please, believe it. 

Kina Grannis Elements Tour

Hello everybody!!!

As you might already know; I am crazy about concerts. Last night Kina Grannis was on the agenda. I've known her for a while through YouTube, but for a year or so, I didn't really look at her videos anymore. Around a month ago I clicked on a video of hers, and I fell in love all over. Her voice is so soft and soothing. I saw tour dates on her website and I noticed that she was coming to Antwerp. And just like that, I decided to buy tickets without even properly knowing her songs yet. I had the feeling that I needed to go the concert, it felt like something that I had to do. And in maybe 2 weeks all of her songs were stuck in my head.

Finally, the day came and in the afternoon the person I was going with cancelled because she was ill. Quickly I had to find another person to go with and I did.

This concert was so different from all the concerts I've done so far. There was no waiting outside 4 hours before just because you wanted to stand in the front row. There was no standing up for another 3 hours inside. There was no pushing because everyone want to go in at the same time. There was no not being able to see because large people were standing in front of you. There was no ear damage because of all the screaming girls.... Don't get me wrong. I don't hate any of these things, but it's nice to have something else for a change. There was coming in 15 minutes before because you have assigned seats. There were really comfortable seats to enjoy the music on. There was no pushing, because everybody came in at different times. There was a total view of the stage because there were no large people in front of you. There was only soothing of the ears. There was a really fancy theater hall, which I've never been in. There was a sitting wherever you wanted because the hall wasn't full, and sitting on your assigned seats didn't really matter that much...

Imaginary Future did the opening act. It's so nice for Kina that she's able to tour with the ones she loves, like her sister and her friends and her husband. Jesse (Imaginary Future) did so well! It's lovely to see how such a humble person can still be so humble but so grand just by standing and singing on a stage with only his guitar.

We had to wait an hour until Kina would come on stage, but it was totally worth the wait. I went to the merch stand and bought her cd, and then we sat ourselves down in the front because there were still some open seats left there.
After a little more of waiting, finally the lights went out, the band appeared and then Kina came on stage. Time to get into the zone.

The many interactions with the audience were something that I really liked, because it's not always that common. She told stories behind her songs and she even called four girls on stage to sing with her (I might've done it if I'd known the song better); Jesse kept asking how everyone was doing; And they both told quite a few times how much they loved being in Antwerp for the first time; The rest of the band entertained the audience when Kina was tuning, etc ...

Most of the songs on Elements were performed, but she also did some old songs, even a cover and a duet with Jesse, which was totally the cutest thing ever. My Own was beautifully performed by Kina and her sister, Emi, Little Worrier was introduced by a (cute) story which gives a nice view as to what the lyrics are about, Forever Blue was really emotional which made the performance beautifully powerful and made me tear up a bit, Winter has a beautiful set-up and should last forever, My Dear was the supposed "last song" (followed by 2 other songs, after they said goodbye and after Kina came back on stage) and it got a standing ovation, which made Kina tear up.. "Way to make me cry, guys."..

I could go on forever about the songs, but you might get bored.

Overall, it was a calm, relaxing and satisfying night which I will never forget.

Best Day - The 1975 ♥

Hello everybody!

Yesterday was one of the best days/nights I've ever had so far. I saw 'The 1975' in concert and I also met them! I still can't believe it actually happened, it feels quite unreal.

Normally, we had class from 15.00 to 17.00, but we were hoping the teacher would be absent since he was ill the previous the day. Guess what, he was absent the next day too. We felt so lucky, because it meant that we could go to the venue earlier. The doors opened at 19.30 and if we had the class, we might've been there a little bit late, and then we wouldn't have been able to stand in the front row.

We (me and my three friends: Sophie, Kaat & Michelle) arrived at the venue at around 15.30. There were only a few other people, so it was still pretty calm. There were two buses standing right in front of the building. At first I wasn't sure if they were their tour buses, because they didn't really look like tour buses to me, but soon enough I figured out that they were indeed. Let me explain. At one point we decided to wait inside so we were sitting right in front of the entrance (where we made some new friends). Suddenly I heard someone say that Matty and George were entering one of the buses, and I could only see them for a second. I was kind of bummed that I didn't see them properly, but suddenly someone said that they were coming out of the bus. I started freaking out just a little bit, because I saw they were coming our way. They entered the building and just said "hey, how are you?" and George did a peace sign. I didn't really know what to say and I didn't hear the "how are you?", so I only said "hey" back. It was a short moment and I just couldn't believe what happened. It all felt so unreal; my idol walking my way and saying "hey", as if we were friends and not fans. After this, we still had to wait for a long time and my legs and knees hurt.
Half an hour too early, we all stood up, because there was a woman coming our way with a key and everybody thought that she was going to open the doors, but that wasn't the case. So we just stood there for half an hour. The only positive thing is that it felt good to stand up.
I got a bit claustrophobic, because everybody was pushing us towards the door we had to go through. Eventually, two men came to open the door. People were rushing in, but the men tried to hold people back, which is quite impossible since we're talking about crazy fangirls. Luckily, I could easily slip through. I think I have never run up stairs so quickly. They scanned my ticket, gave me a stamp on my hand and I ran as fast as I could to the front row and saved spots for my friends.

We had to wait for 45 more minutes until the support act started, which were The Mojo Filters. They're a band from Belgium and I really liked their music. When their performance was over, people cleaned up the stage. 25 minutes later, it was time. Their "signature square" on stage lit up. Then the boys  walked up, like nothing special, just casually walking on stage. I was in the front row, so I was really close to Matty. I even could've touched him if he was just a bit closer. I shed a few tears because I couldn't believe they were really standing in front of me.

Michelle and I both bought a shirt at the merch, she a white one and I a black one with the cover of "Music for Cars" on it. It's a little on the big side, but I love it anyway! Then we went for some drinks. After that we went outside and started waiting for them to come out. We sat in the cold for about an hour and a half, but it was worth it.
Suddenly they were there. They went in the bus for a few minutes and Matty was just casually standing in the door smoking, like it was no big deal that there were a dozen of fans out there. Then they went out of the bus to get started. We had to make a row and Michelle & I didn't realise we were actually standing at the beginning of the row (we lost Sophie & Kaat on the way, they were a little bit behind). So it was our turn rather quickly.

I don't remember everything that well, because I was just overwhelmed by all these emotions, so some things are a little vague, but I am going to tell it the way I think it happened.

First, it was my turn. I just kind of walked up to Matty with probably a "shocked/excited face". I didn't say a lot, because I was speechless. But he was so kind and sweet. Okay, so I walked up to him and I think I stretched out my arms to hug him. He gave me a tight hug and it felt amazing. I also heard that he sometimes gives kisses on the cheeks so I wanted to give him one, but I felt like his face was going to the back of my head, so I didn't. But then he gave me a kiss on the back of my cheek and I think my heart skipped a beat. He smelled really nice, and his hug was really warm and welcoming. He held onto my back, and so did I with him, as it was time for the picture. But first he asked me what my name was, I said "Lore", and then he said that my shirt was nice. Then Michelle took the picture and he looked me right in the eyes and said "nice to meet you". I stumbled "you too" and then we said goodbye, but I had to stay to take a picture of Michelle, so I said goodbye twice.

Since Sophie & Kaat were behind, I had a plan to go with them to take their picture, which I did, but also to get another picture with Matty, but this time a polaroid. It was our turn and first I took a picture of Sophie and Kaat had a polaroid taken by Michelle. Then I walked up to Matty, looked him right in the eyes and, I think, nearly poked his belly, don't ask me why I did that. I asked if I could have a polaroid with him (he said "Of course, babe"), with which I meant only with him, but George, Ross and Adam were already posing and it would kind of rude to say I wanted a picture with only Matty. But now I  don't mind that they are on it too, because it is a pretty picture. After that Matty said "bye, darling". I know he probably says it to everyone, but it did make me feel really good and it still makes me feel good every time I think about it. I just loved how nice he was to me, such a sweetie. I wanted to get my polaroid signed by Matty and Michelle wanted to let the boys sign the drum stick she caught when George threw them in the crowd (which actually landed right onto her face).
But it was time for them to "go to bed". We wanted to ask though, but they were in the bus before we even could. It's a shame, but at least I got a chance to meet them and get a picture. And I am really grateful for that.

Then it was time to go. It was freezing outside, I couldn't feel my fingers and the boys were inside the bus already. I didn't sleep at all that night. Not even for the 5 hours of sleep we could get because we had to go to school at 8.00.

It was the best experience I have ever had, and I definitely would like to see them again some time. But for now I will have to comfort myself with looking at the polaroid, the other pictures I took, the shirt I bought and with listening to their music, which never fails to cheer me up.
This is something I will never ever forget.
I love 'The 1975'!

Thank you for reading!
Have a nice day!

xoxo
Lore

February Favourites

Hello everybody!

Again I apologize for not posting anything this month and for it now being two “favourites” in a row. I didn’t really know what to post, but I have a few ideas in my head now.

Okay, wow, I can’t believe it’s March already. Time just flies! February is already over and I have been loving a lot of things in this very short month. Let’s get started!

- Favourite beauty product:

·         “Daisy” by Marc Jacobs. I am not a really easy person to please when it comes to perfume, because a lot of perfumes just don’t smell good to me. But this perfume smells amazing! When I tried it first, at the beginning, it just smelled like any other perfume to me. But when has “soaked in”, it smells just like a flower shop and I absolutely love it!

·         “L’eau” by Nina Ricci is a nice perfume too.

·         Labello Fruity Shine – watermelon. My lips are dry a lot, and this lip balm really moisturizes it and it also smells and tastes good!

·         Red lipstick: I am not naming a specific red lipstick by a specific brand, because I have a few and I use them all. Red lipstick is, I think, something that can never be wrong, though I only really wear it when I go out.

- Favourite food article:

I don’t really have a favourite food article this month, except for Nutella, which is my biggest vice, but I have been getting more and more into coffee. I used to dislike it when I was younger, but now I am starting to like it very much. When I am at Starbucks I will either take a Caramel Macchiato, a vanilla latte or a caramel frappuccino, but I am open to try new things.

- Favourite book:

For school I have to read “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Clouse”. I have watched the movie once and I really liked it, so I was excited to read the book. I think it is a really well-written, pretty book, but sometimes I need a break, because the book can be confusing at times.

The other one is still The Fault in Our Stars. I have read the book in Dutch, but now I started reading it in English, and I think it is so much better in its original language.

I am in love with this book!!

- Favourite Youtuber(s): Zoella, Bethany Mota, Cameron Dallas & Nash Grier.

- Favourite songs: this month I have a lot of songs again. I just keep discovering great new music which makes me always have something to listen to.

·         Riptide by Vance Joy

·         Love Alone is Worth The Fight by Switchfoot

·         Rather Be by Clean Bandit

·         Trumpets by Jason Derulo

·         Monster by Imagine Dragons

·         Rude by Magic!

·         Borrow my Heart by Taylor Henderson

·         Twin Forks: I just can’t describe how much I love their music, the songs can’t do anything but make me happy. My favourites are Cross My Mind, Kiss Me Darling, Scraping Up The Pieces & Back To You.

·         Twenty One Pilots: my favourites this month are Kitchen Sink, Ode To Sleep, Fake You Out & Forest.

·         That’s What’s Up & Man On Fire by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

·         Arctic Monkeys: I never thought I would be into rock music, but now I absolutely rock out to it. My favourites are Do I Wanna Know & R U Mine?

·         Two Door Cinema Club: this month I started listening to them more again and my favourites are Crystal, Golden Veins, Settle & Something Good Can Work.

- Favourite quote: "I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once." - The Fault In Our Stars

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!!

xoxo