Several Things (in Sevens)

I was blog-hopping and was inspired by Jessica. Even though I wasn’t tagged, it looked like a fun thing to do. In all honesty, I think it’s because I miss my almost-200 Facebook notes and not being able to do notes anymore and this post reminded me of them so I got a little teary-eyed and felt obligated to do it. Oh, and I also made a few adjustments, of course, so it’s a little different than hers.

(7) Random Facts

1. I hate wearing fingernail polish. I am a nail-biter and a polish picker so it’s pointless because of both of those things. I also just don’t like the look of it. It’s weird because like something inside me cringes when I see girls with fake nails/annoying nail polish. I feel embarrassed for them. And I’m being a hypocrite because I’m wearing nail polish right now, but I already peeled a lot off and you can barely tell because it’s so light.
2. I think it’s funny when people talk in weird voices. For some reason, I find this really amusing and adopt a lot of weird voices when other people do them. It’s kind of embarrassing because I laugh at myself when I do weird voices and no one else does.
3. I get excited about stupid things and vice versa. Today I did a pretty awesome cartwheel/flip thing and none of my friends thought it was intense. I also get really excited when I beat my high scores in games. But if you tell me something really exciting in your life, I probably won’t care at all.
4. I talk a lot but I also observe a lot. With the amount of talking I do, you would think that I never think about anything besides what’s going to come out of my mouth. But I love watching people and looking at them and seeing what they wear and how they talk and walk. I also sketchily make up stories about them in my mind. People inspire me.
5. I wish I was an awesome photographer. But I suck at taking pictures. Period.
6. I don’t wear socks to bed. I hate that feeling of your feet being all suffocated at night. No matter what, I always kick my socks off at night. It feels 423949214529 times better. I actually can’t even explain how awesome it is.
7. I say things weirdly. There’s about five different words that I say “strangely” and my friends make fun of me ALL THE TIME. It’s gotten to the point where I just spell them out (almond, apricot, museum, breakfast) because it’s just really bad. Today I said apricot to someone random and even THEY made fun of me. I blame my parents.

(7) Things That Make Me Happy

1. Frozen raspberries
2. Air-conditioning
3. The perfect playlist
4. Sweet moments that you think about the rest of the day that were only important to you
5. Summer dresses
6. Working really hard and something really good coming out of it
7. Making someone’s day

(7) Favorite Songs At The Moment

1. Sand in Your Shoes This Providence
2. The Only Exception Paramore
3. Wounded Third Eye Blind
4. Point of Extinction Motion City Soundtrack
5. Zzyzx Rd. Stone Sour
6. The Boxer Simon and Garfunkel
7. It Only Hurts When I’m Breathing Shania Twain

If you read all of these narcissistic lists, I love you. :)

All That Hollywood

Sometimes, people just get too worked up about little things. Like getting bad grades (aka a B+) or freaking out if you get a speck of dirt on your shoe and killing whoever is around. But besides that, people get much too worked up about this whole Hollywood phenomenon. By that I mean OBSESSING over actors/actresses/movies/TV shows/music/media stuff. Of course everyone likes movies and music and thinks that actors and actresses are cute or hot or whatever. But there’s definitely a limit.

I never got the whole scream-about-cute-actors thing. I’ve never really had a “favorite” actor or actress. If I see someone in a movie, I’ll just be like, “Oh, they’re cute” or “Oh, they’re a good actor/actress.” But, ~hypothetically speaking~ if I were to see Twilight and I were to think that Edward Cullen was cute (this is VERY hypothetical) I wouldn’t be an obsessed fangirl and start drooling on the TV when Twilight commercials came on or take pictures of Edward and pictures of me and Photoshop them just so or be like EDWARD BITE ME or start ripping up pictures of Bella. That’s just me.

I also could never be a movie junkie. Like people that pull out random facts about obscure movies that no one cares about. Why isn’t it enough to see the latest movies and just be up on the latest pop culture so you don’t sound like a complete dork instead of remembering every nuance about every movie. It’s not like memorizing songs (which, yes, I do because I like music and I have a good memory so why not). A movie in and of itself has plot lines, actors, acting styles, subtle humor or surprising twists. It’s basically a book. It’s basically like reading a thousand books and keeping all the plot lines, characters, and details straight in your mind and being able to pull out any fact of any of them at the drop of the hat. HELLO TOO MUCH BRAIN POWER! OBSESSED! For example, I’ll say a line and some kid will be like, “Oh, like that GREAT 1980′s movie with George Clooney. SO GOOD. That one scene where he was like milking the cow and he squirted in his face but it was totally a set up by his ex that was in with his like mom OMG QUALITY.” Yeah, no one gets it.

And also music. I love music, but I’m not obsessed. I don’t go to concerts 24/7 and I’m not best friends with bands and I’m not a screaming fangirl who faints if the singer’s sweat drips on her in the middle of a concert. I respect people who are knowledgeable about music, like they know things about it and they’re talented in it. But fangirls are just annoying. It’s too much.

It’s like telling Hollywood: “Oh, you are wonderful for putting out crap and infiltrating our brains! I love you so much that I’m going become obsessed with every movie, music, actor, singer thing that comes out of your machine!” But I hate Hollywood, so that makes sense. I just think that all things Hollywood should be done in moderation.

If I Hear These Songs Again, Radio Personalities Will Suffer

I got this blog idea from Darren Barefoot’s 55 More Blog Posts I Hope You Write (not about technology) because I was in the blogging mood with nothing to blog about and I didn’t want to post one of those posts. Plus, I figured that this is a good topic to blog on anyway.

I don’t know what occurs in the mind of radio personalities or whoever decides the music line-up for a certain period of time. I mean, do they think it’s a good idea to put on Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” for the 800th time? Or Justin Beiber’s “Baby”? I mean, I know that thousands of screaming girls are probably like AAAHH JUSTIN BEIBER FOR THE 3548202352TH TIME = LOVE! But when I’m flipping through the radio and I hear his voice bursting through, it bothers me. It bothers me that I can’t even flip through a radio station without hearing Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, Ke$ha or a super trendy, bad hip-hop song with weird, vulgar lyrics.

First of all, I don’t listen to the radio much because 1) it’s basically an iPod except without the songs you actually want to listen to and 2) the commercials piss me off (no, I do not want to enter a contest to record a duet with Miley Cyrus that’s “going to be on her new album”). But if I’m having one of my pop moments (I have those on occasion) or I want to hit up a song that I don’t have on my iPod or I’m in the car with a friend and the radio’s on, I’d like to hear something A LITTLE more substantial than Tik Tok, where the lyrics are literally Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy Grab my glasses, I’m out the door, I’m gonna hit this city Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack ’Cause when I leave for the night, I ain’t coming back. YOU JUST PLAYED THESE LYRICS 82 TIMES IN ONE DAY! THANK YOU FOR ENLIGHTENING US!

It’s not even that bad when they overplay a crappy song. I mean, it can’t get much worse than that. But how about when they bring a good song to the dark side (meaning the landfill of overplayed, burnt out, hear-them-again-and-die songs)? This, to me, is the worst and is another reason I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t want to have one of my favorite songs ruined. Remember a few years ago when OneRepublic’s Apologize is ALL you’d hear on pop radio? Or what about KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I See, Love Song by Sara Bareilles, or any of Taylor Swift’s hit singles like Love Story and You Belong with Me? People liked these songs once upon a time (or at least I did). These are songs that to me, personally, when they first came out, struck me as good, great, or even my favorite songs. But as the radio chipped away at them little by little, they became less and less appealing. I think I got to the point where I’d hear It’s too laaate to ‘pologize! in my dreams. Okay, maybe not. But it was getting there.

Is it really that hard to put together a list of songs that are new and likable without overplaying every single one? Seriously, like 300 albums (or something) come out a day. You don’t need to play the Top 10 songs on repeat every day of the week. We get it. You wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy. We don’t need you to confirm this irrelevant fact 82 times.

Is it just me or do radio stations completely destroy perfectly good, innocent songs on a regular basis?

(Note: Yes, all of the numbers in this post were completely exaggerated.)

The World of Music

I was inspired by Mary to do this post about a topic we all know and love: LA MUSICA!

Music makes the world a better place, and nowadays there are so many kinds of music that there are tons of options for your taste. The thing is, a lot of people disagree, or agree, or have mixed opinions about various artists and bands which make for interesting discussion.

I’m a pretty open person when it comes to music. I listen to all types from close to screamo to the pop-y, fluff-y kind of music with little appeal except for the catchy beat. But I’m different than most when it comes to music’s importance, as in what draws me to a song. For me, it’s lyrics all the way. If I can relate to the lyrics in some way (like not the songs that are like DA DA DA YEAH BOOM SHICKA BOOM MAN MMM WOO), I’m hooked. The vocals are key, too. The artist could be singing about the most relative thing that I identify with 100% but if their voice sounds like they’re constipated or they just ate something bad for lunch and its comin’ back up, yeah, that’s not exactly going to my number one artist. The music is of the least importance. Sure, the music can’t be completely irritable and off beat, but if it’s catchy, or soothing, or dance-y, or whatever the song is supposed to convey, I’m good with it because chances are, I’ll be paying attention to the lyrics and the range of the voice and whatnot.

Also, I’m not that picky with notes and chords and all those technicalities, because frankly, I have no clue what the hell it all means! Like when people are talking in music jibber jabber, I act like I have a clue but I don’t at all. (ZOMG THAT G CHORD WAS IMPOSSIBLE! Yeah, and when you play C and D together it’s like, I don’t even know, it just sounds all screwed up! EW WHAT WAS HE THINKING PLAYING AN F-SHARP RIGHT THERE?! I don’t know it definitely should’ve been a C-sharp) ….these conversations baffle me and since the previous one was totally made up, you music prodigies are probably falling off your chairs laughing at my musical stupidity.

Anyway, I find it weird how people (although the best of friends) can have ridiculously different opinions in music. For example, my FAVORITE solo singer is Taylor Swift (cliche, I know). Her voice isn’t so ridiculously powerful that it’s hard to sing her songs, but she has a soothing quality to her voice. Her lyrics are EXTREMELY relatable and the music is either catchy or melancholy, which completely gets you in the mood of the song. Her genre is pop-country crossover, but my favorite bands consist ofParamore, Eisley, Boys Like Girls, and The Academy Is, all of whom are rock bands.

My best friend (and cousin) has really similar music tastes as me (we both love Taylor), but I also have two best friends whose tastes are just the opposite (with the exception of Coldplay who everyone loves). They like the funky voices and the weird-named bands, whereas me and my cousins like maybe the more popular bands, music types, and lyric patterns.

What kinds of music do you guys like? What’s more important to you–lyrics, vocals, or music?

Issues with Technology

TECHNOLOGY=BEST THING EVER INVENTED, MAN!

….

maybe.

Technology has definitely made our life infinitely easier. Imagine if we didn’t have computers, phones, or TV. No internet, Facebook, Myspace, IM, Twitter, BLOGGING :’( , Word Processing etc. No calling, texting or picture messaging. No TV shows, movies, or news updates (for the nerds that love the news). Everything would be so much slower, harder, and less enjoyable.

But think on the flip side. Technology is something we all take for granted. Now that we have it, we can’t live without it.

Take my brother for instance. He has to do this retarded “reading log” crap EVERY NIGHT (the teachers are REAL creative at his school). He, a perfectly capable middle schooler with two hands, five fingers on each, INSISTS (and I mean he will put up a vicious fight) on TYPING his reading log. Like he will have a heart attack if he has to hand write his reading log. Kids can’t even do a simple writing assignment without the aid of Word Processing. It wasn’t even this bad when I was his age four years ago. I could function without the computer, writing diligently by hand on wide-ruled sheets (ah, I was such a good child). Now, he “can’t” do his reading log by hand; it’s “impossible.”

Then we have cell phones and iPods, which pretty much every kid has nowadays. Bored? Text a friend or listen to some tunes. Trust me, these things TOTES make my life better on long car rides, after school, during boring classes- I MEAN…. but some people are seriously addicted. You know the obnoxious type who texts LEGIT every five seconds to three different people. Yeah, they annoy me. SOCIAL SKILLS PEOPLE.

Or the type that’s constantly listening to music. There’s this girl in my school and I have NEVER seen her without a headphone in her ear. It’s glued into her ear. She showers with it in, that’s how addicted she is. And if the headphone falls out, she scrambles frantically to shove it back in her ear ASAP so she didn’t miss any precious part of her song. Seriously, are you THAT obsessed with music that you can’t survive for five seconds without listening to it? Oh…wait, you aren’t, you just like looking cool having that headphone dangling out of your ear as you skip to class. I totally understand, I do the same thing.

Back to the computer thing, there’s not just a simple email account (which is how it used to be) where you can shoot cute little emails off to individual friends and get cute little responses back :

Hey Sue, What’s up? We haven’t talked in a while, I miss you! Email back soon! xoxoxoxo heartsmileyheart!

Hey Zeenie, I miss you too! Life’s great! love ya! xoxooxoxooxox heartheartsmiley!

Now, if you want to talk to your friends, it’s all over Facebook or Myspace or Twitter (which is probably the dumbest invention ever). And to make it worse, people can comment on it!

Take the previous exchange. All I want to do is send a nice lil message to my bestie Sue. Then I get this:

FB: “Betty has just commented on your wallpost”

Me: ??? *checks thing*

FB: Betty – AW THAT’S SO CUTE YOU GUYS ARE TALKING! I miss you too Zeen!

Me: Gee thanks Betty, but last time I checked, I sent this to SUE…OH WAIT, now that I’m on Facebook THE WHOLE WORLD CAN SEE THIS! AINT THAT SPECIAL!

But I’ll save issues with social networking for a different post.

Technology, even a few years ago, was much simpler. If you had a personal phone, you could call someone. If you wanted to get in touch with someone, you emailed. And TV (thank god) hasn’t gotten all 3D-ified yet so that’s still pretty much the same.

Of course, I love technology as much as the next person, but sometimes it annoys me how accessible it is and how dependent we are on it.