Friday 13: It's Back!

So once again, I am getting back into Friday 13, my weekly post in which I share 13 things that make me smile, or I am excited about, etc. It's my weekly list that inspires me to stay optimistic, and spread that joy to others.

So here they are, in no particular order:

1) Instagram. I finally downloaded it to my phone and instantly fell in love with it - it's the best and easiest way for me to shoot, edit and upload my photos to Facebook while on the go. I'll be using this for my photo diary now. My username: quoththeraivyn

2) Gala Darling - I rediscovered her website the other day. This girl is gorgeous, fun, and full of inspiration.

3) Jenna Marbles: How Girls Pack A Suitcase - Story of my life.




4) I won some swag from 9th Evolution. :)

5) My new tattoo by Dan at Electric Zombie! (It's not done yet- inside bicep is a rough place to get tattooed.. 1 or 2 more sittings needed on this one.)

6) Steal Away - Murder By Death



7) The new season of Metalocalypse!




8) 10 Reasons You Should Never Get A Job - Steve Pavlina
Yes, it's an old article, but it's a great, inspiring reminder that, despite the fact that society tells me what I'm doing is wrong, I may just be on the right track.

9) SEO Your YouTube Videos in 10 Steps - I learned something.

10) Need I say more?

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11) Hilarious!

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12)

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13) NEXT WEEK IS FRIDAY THE 13TH!

13 Songs That Rocked My Week - Prometheus Burning (free mp3 downloads)

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

This week I've been digging the experimental electronic sounds of Prometheus Burning. As always, here are 13 free downloads from Last.fm to add to your music library:

1) Broken Faith
2) No Known Cure (Scrap.edx remix)
3) Mercury Rising
4) Boilermaker
5) Nausea
6) fever 0nset
7) Porcelain Pillow
8) fuseflux
9) payne uv syl3nce
10) Robitussin Relapse
11) eprom 1394
12) cathode
13) jeneRator


**Want your music featured here?

13 Songs That Rocked My Week - Engelsblut (free mp3 downloads)

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

It's Friday once again, and as usual, here's a list of 13 free songs to download from Last.fm.. this week, by Engelsblut.

1) Abschied
2) Engel
3) Bedauern
4) Illusion
5) Hexe
6) Wind
7) Herbst
8) Funker
9) Honigmond
10) Mantel der Unschuld
11) The Devil's Call
12) Spiel des Lebens
13) Nachtschwärmer


**Want your music featured here?

13 Songs That Rocked My Week - BLODEUWEDD (free mp3 downloads)

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

This week I've been enjoying the eerie sounds of BLODEUWEDD:

1) Psy-N.F.E.A.R
2) You Should Be Afraid
3) Pray
4) BioEra
5) Giron
6) PERSONA I
7) Боль
8) Paranorma
9) Создатель
10) Театр Теней
11) Исчезли
12) Кукла Паранойи
13) Письмо Из Рая

**Want your music featured here?

13 Songs That Rocked My Week - AktiveHate (free mp3 downloads)

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

I've been totally digging AktiveHate this week (harsh electro/EBM/aggrotech). And, as usual, here is a list of free mp3 downloads to add to your music collection:

1) Silent Fire
2) Animality
3) My Own God
4) Knee Deep
5) Decadent Flesh
6) Blood Roses
7) What I Want
8) Aggressive Behaviour
9) Core Damage
10) Devil In You
11) Marching to Hell
12) Ugly Inside

Okay, so that's 12..
Here, have a preview of "Delirium", the title track from my upcoming solo EP.

13) Delirium (instrumental)
**Note: The final track does have lyrics, and I have made a few minor tweaks to it.. but you can get the gist of what's coming. ;)

13 Songs That Rocked My Week (free mp3 downloads)

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

Here we are again- another Friday, another collection of 13 free downloadable tunes that I love. In no particular order..

1) "Hill" - Hungry Lucy (download)

2) "Farewell" - Stillife (download)

3) "In A Modern Time" - Ex-Voto (download)

4) "Grimmest Winternights" - Elffor (download)

5) "These Days" - Lost Balance (download)

6) "Three Black Days" - AMINOS (download)

7) "Salt" - Atomica (download)

8) "Antithesis" - Cyanotic (download)

9) "SludgeErRama" - Divinity Denied (download)

10) "Taub" - mundtot (download)

11) "Roaches" - The Seventh Necronation (download)

12) "Influence" - Sister Machine Gun (download)

13) "Aberrations of Consciousness" - Suspiria (download)


**Want your music featured here?

13 Songs That Rocked My Week- Life's Decay (free mp3 downloads)

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

This week, I'm posting a list of free mp3's by Life's Decay, an industrial/darkwave/experimental project based in Paris, France. The duo is also on the Industrial Underground compilation with us (and by us, I mean T7N). I love their stuff, and was excited to find that we were going to be on the same CD. :)

The first 12 tracks here are available for preview and download on their Last.fm page. The 13th, Rokterdam, is on the compilation and can be found on Amazon.

1) Emerance (download)

2) Sulvisyan (download)

3) Etesse (download)

4) Descence (download)

5) Inksterna (download)

6) Retroscape (download)

7) Gloria (download)

8) Valensky (download)

9) Else (download)

10) Sensitive (download)

11) Systersia (download)

12) Eveen (download)

13) Rokterdam (download from Amazon.com)

13 Free T7N Mp3 Downloads

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

If you've been following me and T7N for a while now, you probably already know that we now have demo masters of MOST of our tunes available online for free download, and we are now on Last.fm. If not, CHECK IT OUT.

Before I go any further, I'd like to thank those who've tagged and loved our music so far. Appreciate it. ;)

While I'm not sure how long these will be available for free download (we're figuring it out as we go along), these songs are yours. Happy holidays from us to you.

1) Imperium (download)

2) Karmashun (download)

3) The Game (download)

4) The Hollow (download)
**Will be on upcoming Industrial Underground compilation.

5) Presto Digitus (download)

6) I Am A Soldier (download)

7) Poet's Dance (download)

8) One Little Lie (download)

9) Otherworld (download)

10) En Masse (download)

11) No Saviour (download)

12) With This Life (download)

13) 13th Floor (download)

13 Songs That Rocked My Week (free mp3 downloads)

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

Since joining Last.fm, I've discovered so many great artists who give their shit away for free. From harsh, horror themes to electro-industrial to synth pop to downtempo electronic beats, I found several fantastic tunes to add to my collection. Here they are, in no particular order:

Note: You can preview all of them before downloading.

1) "Fucking Failure" - [Cynical_Mass] (download)
**This is my favorite find this week- [Cynical_Mass] EP (4 tracks). Love it!

2) "Astoria" - Psycho Shop (download)

3) "Irreverse" - Koordinate of Wonders (download)

4) "Kain" - Theatres des Vampires (download)

5) "Grind (Thomas Christ - Ground Bone Remix)" - Angelspit (download)

6) "Anxiety" - Experimental Blue (download)

7) "Control" - Control Alt Deus (download)

8) "Instinto" - Disfuncion Organica (download)

9) "When Darkness Falls" - Detroit Diesel (download)

10) "Dad's Home" - Depressive Minds (download)

11) "Stand In Time '08" - Logic Division (download)

12) "Shadows" - Analog Angel (download)

13) "13th Floor" - The Seventh Necronation (download)
*Of course I have to support T7N.. This is one of Chris's tunes, and definitely one of my favorites. ;)

So what have you been listening to this week?

13 Songs That Rocked My Week

This is my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

Here we are again, another post in which I'm sharing my favorite tunes for the week. Lately I've been feeling more for harsh electro, aggrotech, and the like, with some (relatively) 'softer' industrial/darkwave/ebm tunes thrown into the mix as well. So here they are, in no particular order:

1) "Soilbleed" - Grendel

2) "Keimzeit" - Das Ich

3) "Churist Churist" - :wumpscut:

4) "Monochrome" - Covenant

5) "Tanzflaechenmann" - Accessory

6) "Beslan" - Tactical Sekt

7) "Mortal Thoughts" - Leaether Strip

8) "Insolence" - Front Line Assembly

9) "EnDai" - ohGr

10) "Silence" - The Retrosic

11) "Process" - Skinny Puppy

12) "Morphine" - Dioxyde

13) "Hypoxia" - Velvet Acid Christ

What have you been listening to this week?

13 Songs That Rocked My Week

This is part of my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

Today I'm sharing my favorite tunes for this week- the songs that got me shaking my booty while cleaning house, and chilling out to while reading or blogging. So here they are, in no particular order:

1) "Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag" - Marilyn Manson

2) "Ready to Blow" - KMFDM

3) "Only" - Nine Inch Nails

4) "Skinny Little Bitch" - Angelspit

5) "Pretty Toy" - Velvet Acid Christ

6) "A Quiet Anthem" - Aesthetic Perfection

7) "Wreath of Barbs" - Wumpscut

8) "Black Winter Day" - Amorphis

9) "Reverie/Harlequin Forest" - Opeth

10) "The Path to Decay" - Sirenia

11) "The Poet and the Pendulum" - Nightwish

12) "Amor Volat" - Qntal

13) "The Obsessive Devotion" - Epica

So.. what have you been listening to this week?

13 Spooky Blogs By Fellow Darklings

This is part of my Friday 13 weekly feature/meme. If you're interested in participating, read this.

Ever notice how some blog niches are so packed, you loathe seeing yet another blog on that topic, while others are so small you have no idea where to look? Goths (and those with an obvious love for spooky things) seem to be few and far between, which, I find to be very surprising.. or perhaps I just don't know where to look, other than LiveJournal, which I've grown to hate with a passion. (Someone care to enlighten me?)

But here is what I've found in my quest for others similar to myself (in no particular order)..

1) Gothic Charm School
I stumbled upon this blog by accident a few short years ago, and have been addicted to it since then. I've found it to be rather helpful in coming up with style ideas, and moreso, advice on dealing with people who don't understand my somewhat strange appearance and why I choose to look the way I do.

2) Sir William Welles' Nocturnal Diary
A rather interesting guy, I must say. And every man should read his "Romancing the Goth" series- 1, 2, and 3. And take notes. I'm not kidding. Not to be insulting, but so many men are completely clueless when it comes to dating.

3) Good Mourning, Glory!
Diane's personal blog, which I discovered through Dark Side of the Net. She's always got something new posted, and I make a point to stop by every day to catch up.

4) Wouldn't You Like To See Something Strange?
Diane's other blog, on which she shares things that are, as the title describes, strange. And often, quite morbid.

5) sad old goth...
I find myself to be rather amused with Gregor's quirks, like his nighttime landscaping tendencies. A funny man indeed, but totally cool on my list. ;)
(And I was Saturday's Goth Girl last week, in case you missed it.)

6) Goths In Hot Weather
Because I need a good chuckle every now and then.

7) Darkside Creations
I just discovered this blog yesterday, and it brought me back to childhood memories of struggling to create a papier mache pinata.. but Jonty's works are nothing like my pitiful attempts. I'm quite impressed, and fascinated with the skulls.

8) Adeles Spooky Art
Another recent find, lots of creepy-interesting things to see here.

9) Black Nail Polish And Lip Gloss
Lots of dark and sparkly things for the cosmetic junkies here. I often find myself going out in search of nail polish after seeing a specific color on this blog.. and I'll be damned if I don't find it.

* * * MUSIC * * *

10) Velvet Acid Christ
I'm a VAC addict and am a loyal follower of this blog, to keep up with all the latest updates. I can't help myself.

11) Collide
Collide is yet another hopeless addiction of mine, and I have to stay up to date with all the latest details. KaRIN and Statik are very busy, you know..

12) Emilie Autumn on Twitter
I know, it's not quite a blog.. But this girl is so strangely cool, I can't help but keep up with her in real-time. So her Twitter page is totally worth listing.

* * * IF I MISSED YOU.. * * *

13) *** YOUR BLOG HERE ***
Do you have a spooky blog worth mentioning here? Link it up in the comments- I'm always on the lookout for fellow darklings. "Come out, come out, wherever you are.."

13 Free Dark/Gothic Fonts I Love

So here it is, week 3 of my Friday 13 meme- and this time, it just so happens to be the 13th. If you're interested in playing, read this.

I'm a Photoshop fanatic, and love finding free fonts to use. So here is a list of 13 of my favorite dark/gothic fonts, in no particular order:


1) Ardenwood


2) Burtinomatic


3) Cardinal Alternate


4) Tfu Tfu


5) Morpheus


6) Pillbox Opaque


7) Ming Gothic


8) Mael


9) Ogilvie


10) Bad Acid


11) Singothic


12) Ball Tongue


13) deadpostman


Happy Friday the 13th!

13 Albums That Rocked My Week

This is the second week of my Friday 13 meme (technically the first, last week I intended for it to be just a weekly feature). If you're interested in playing, read this.

I spend every hour of the day listening to music. I have tunes playing when I blog, sleep, shower, and do anything around the house. When I go out, I have my mp3 player with me. I literally cannot function without it.

Here are the 13 albums that rocked my week, in no particular order:

1) Eurotrash - Zeromancer (2005)

2) Jagged - Gary Numan (2006)

3) Pretty Hate Machine - Nine Inch Nails (1989)

4) The Divine Conspiracy - Epica (2007)

5) Ghost Reveries - Opeth (2005)

6) Hatefiles - Fear Factory (2003)

7) Dark Passion Play - Nightwish (2007)

8) Opheliac - Emilie Autumn (2006)

9) Evoke - Wumpscut (2005)

10) Tales from the Thousand Lakes - Amorphis (1994)

11) Evanescence - Scorn (1994)

12) Cult - Apocalyptica (2001)

13) Lust For Blood - Velvet Acid Christ (2006)

So what did you listen to this week?

Friday 13 - Meme

Last Friday I came up with an idea for this blog, Friday 13- every Friday I post 13 things that happened during the week, or things I liked, etc. The catch is, the majority of the list has to have a "dark" feel to it. Anything goth/horror related is perfect, as well as dark genres of music, art, fashion, etc.

Then an even better idea hit me- Why not make it a meme?

If you're interested in joining:

1) Post your 13 things each Friday. You choose your topic. (Or, if you're lacking ideas, you may use mine.)
2) Leave a comment here (on the current Friday 13 post) with a link to your weekly post.
3) Tell your friends about this meme.

That's it.
**Regular players will get a link in my sidebar.

13 Things That Made Me Smile This Week

Okay, so here's the deal-

Every Friday, I'm posting 13 ..things.. well, whatever it is I choose to write about. (Granted that I don't forget it's Friday.) I chose the number 13 simply because it's been deemed unlucky, and evil, and whatever else you superstitious people like to say about it. (It really is a good number despite that. It's odd, and a prime number, and just all around abstract.) And Friday, because it fits perfectly into the equation. And it's the end of my week.. I don't care if you consider Saturday to be the end of the week like most everyone else on the planet, this is MY blog and I'm proclaiming Friday to be the end of MY week. Saturday is the highlight of MY week and deserves its place at the start.

Enough of my mindless rambling. 13 things that made me smile this week, in no particular order:

1) Trick-or-treaters. If you saw the expressions on their faces when I answered the door, you'd have been amused too. Imagine this- a quiet neighborhood full of senior citizens.. then some goth chick with obscenely long hair answers the door of a seemingly ordinary house. Most of them didn't know what to think. I remember one kid asking, "What are you supposed to be?" and I said, "Uhh.. I look like this all the time." Because I do. Then I gave out candy, and Twittered and LOL'ed my ass off until it lost its effect. Then I ate dinner.

2) I have been dubbed "the vampire lady." And since then, the kids down the street have left me alone. Of course, it helped when I cracked a joke about how everyone around here is dying. Morbid humor. Go ahead, tell me I'm going to hell. I'm not a kid person.

3) A day trip to Alto Music in Middletown, NY with friends. As tired and hungover as I was from the night before, I still enjoyed it. I fell madly in love with a keyboard I can't afford, decided exactly which electric violin I'm going to purchase in the near future, and to top it off, cured the hangover with dinner at Denny's. Breakfast food. For dinner. Hell yeah.

4) A text messaging marathon with @J_Boner. All week. I haven't slept much.

5) The Rocky Horror Picture Show! I hadn't seen it in ages, so a guy I used to work with, who knows how much I love it, picked up a copy for me. It totally made my day.

6) This goes along with #5.. Singing "Sweet Transvestite", and dancing, in public. Not only does it make friends smile, it attracts odd looks from random strangers. And those who do find the humor in it are wildly entertained.. one woman actually sang along with me briefly.

7) Running into old friends whom I haven't seen in a while. I've come across so many people lately, it's really starting to freak me out. But it a good way. They're cool people.

8) Rediscovering my nail polish collection. I'd forgotten how many cool colors I have, and most of them are as good as new!

9) The people at BlogEngage. Because you guys rock.

10) Taking random photos with my phone and sending them to friends- a good way to waste 30 seconds of someone's life. And it shows I'm thinking about them.

11) Leftover Halloween candy with my coffee in the morning. I absolutely love coffee and chocolate.. especially together. It's one of my most favorite things in the entire world.

12) Reading Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice. I just started it on Wednesday and I'm already halfway through it. Good so far, this is the most I've read (as far as books go) in years.

13) The people I chose for today's #FollowFriday on Twitter- @bbrian017 @dubiousMa @CarrieArmitage @CharlyHeath @ginakay @J_Boner

So how about you? What are 13 things that made you smile this week?