First of the year

So once again it’s been a while since my last post – but no matter! I thought I would get a few things written up but seeing as it’s me, it’s going to be musically orientated ftw!

Track of the year: Dive by Tycho – still the best piece of electronic music I have ever heard! With only Push’s Strange World it’s only competition in the best track ever stakes! The rivals for top track for 2012 would be Skrillex & the Doors with ‘Breakin a Sweat’ – melodic tuneful dubstep – whatever next , Mean Spirits by Silversun Pickups – my favourite band making some serious noise & Deadmau5 mixing it up with the legendary Cypress Hill to create the manic Failbait!

Album of the year: also by Tycho the Dive album – I have listened to this more than anything else this year & it still rocks my socks! The closest rivals are Silversun Pickups with their new album Neck of the Woods, Foo’s latest & arguably best work in recent times with Wasting Light, & not forgetting the mighty mau5 – Deadmau5 with his huge sounds with > album title goes here < which was epic. Finally the Mumford & Sons latest album is also worth a mention with its registered enticing harmonies.

Artist of the year: this is always going to be a tricky one but it has to be Tycho – that album is pretty much perfect for me & I could (& do!) listen to it on repeat all day & having the opportunity to see him live at the beginning of 2012 didn't hurt either – you could say I'm obsessed & you won't be far off the mark!

Hidden gem album: Soon it will be Cold Enough by Emancipator – through the app/site Last FM, it was suggested as an artist similar to Tycho & it's very good as a whole album & a worthy gem indeed – it's older but excellent.

Hidden gem track: Silent Screaming by Freeland – so I normally skipped this track on the Cope album as there are some other tracks, but this I heard by chance & it was so inspiring, it lead me to create a playlist sequence of so-called retrospective tracks – ones from a great album, which you might have initially missed or dismissed but listening down the line gets you back into either that artist or album – epic! Another close gem has to be Midnight City by M83 a really strange melody by really addictive.

So that’s a brief tour of the musical notes from 2012, let’s see if we can keep this going this year shall we!

links: http://www.tychomusic.com http://www.foofighters.com

Hey man, what’s happening?! Part 1

So we got married just over a year ago now (time files when you’re having fun! MH) & in our first year of marriage we’re managed to settle down quite a bit!

So firstly we’ve managed to purchase our first property – a lovely ground-floor flat in North Abingdon (South Oxfordshire), which seems to have this undefinable character which I would normally associate with stepping into a Hodgkins house (well that side of my family) – it feels like stepping into a family home, but it’s also very much our space. It’s not massive & it’s not too pokey, it’s just right for us – 2 bedrooms, lounge, kitchen & bathroom – nice & simple with a shared garden (so I don’t have to mow the lawn! :{D SH)

However, we would not have been able to do so without some help & advice from family, as I’m sure most people know, it’s not exactly cheap to buy a house in Oxford(shire)! However, as my baby brother is an estate agent (over at Allen & Harris in Witney), this proved very useful as he found us a proper bargain, which meant we have made arguagbly a very firm investement.
More posts incoming!

PS to last post

The idea I had for moving away from Blogger towards the WordPress model is that there is a general motion in my department to using WordPress for intranet sites, so having a better knowledge seems highly appropriate!

My first post (yeah right)

So I’ve been blogging for a few years (November 2006 according to my first blog) now. Since those days long past I have progressed from the original Brainshare where I had written a few articles about my youthwork degree & ministry (& which I stopped being able to access, so I had to create a new one) to include much more varied topic in the newly created Brainshare 2.0. As I imported my old blog, I can tell you that as of today I have written a total of 297 posts which vary in length, subject matter & general quality!

Now that I’m getting married to Miss Maddie King (soon to be Mrs Hodgkins ha ha ha!) who also wrote her own blog Madd Thoughts I thought we should amalgamate to create one blog which we can both contribute to…yes, I know – very couply, but hey what can you do – we are getting married!!

What will follow will be a series of ramblings that we choose to share, but will include our first days, weeks & years of our married lives.

Now doubtless it will include ramblings, music, gaming & (brain)sharing/(madd)thoughts, but that is to be expected.

And so our story begins…