Thursday, April 30, 2009

anticlimactic

Build up build up BUILD UP LETDOWN.

I don't have things to say! I am lacking in thoughts.

WAIT. Supernovakgirl says PANTS. So I will blog about PANTS.

Pants are the best. No pants are also fantastic. You've got your parachute pants, hot pants, your jodhpurs. Boot-cut, flared, wide-leg, cigarette, skinny jeans. I am a fan of the more leisurely pants, myself. Pajama pants are great. Flannel. Sport pants, wind pants, whatever they are called. Those are my favorite.

And of course, there is the tale of my childhood and its abundance of #nopants. Can you have an abundance of an absence of something? I DO BELIEVE YOU CAN. As a child, I enjoyed the sandbox. So much so that I thought it necessary to remove my pants in order to be one with the sand. And in my excitement, in my three year old frenzy of sheer and utter joy, I bolted into the front yard, where our kindly old neighbor across the street, Mr. Browning, hollered GO BACK IN YOUR HOUSE AND PUT SOME PANTS ON.

So there's that.

INTERJECTION! BILL JUST PLAYED PARTICLE MAN! <3!

Suchducks is great. She likes They Might Be Giants, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Mountain Goats, the Decemberists, the Colbert Report, the Daily Show, the Deranged Millionaire, Anderson Cooper, Craig Ferguson, and beards. Her awesomeness is undeniable.

That is all.

So today is the last day of #BEDA. I will miss the hashtags, I will miss the 11:30 realizations and consequent fits of panic and chaos. I will miss my amazingly lovely, great BEDA buddies. It's been really awesome reading all your blogs and getting to know you guys, and I hope we will keep in touch, which is fantastically easy online. Hooray for twitter!

So, in conclusion:

:]

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

At the Point

Sorry! I have to go to bed like NOW. So you get this thing I wrote when I was 14. And very much obsessed with Back to the Future. As is evident. See how many references you can spot! Hah.

“Come on, Breckin, I wanna go on the Dragster! It’s so awesome,” Marty whined.

Breckin shook his head. “Sorry, Marty, you probably can’t. There’s always a long line, and besides, nobody else wants to go on it, and we’re not going to wait, like, two hours just so you can. Maybe next time.”

“Breckin, you’re so dumb. You never let me do anything I want to,” Marty complained.

It was a warm, breezy summer day, and Breckin was taking his younger brothers, fourteen year-old Marty, and eleven year-old Michael, and his thirteen year-old sister, Sara, to Cedar Point. They pulled into a parking space and got out.

“Ah, Marty, be quiet. You always whine,” Michael told him.

“I do not, and anyway, you’re just scared to go on it,” Marty said.

“I am not. I just.... don’t feel like it, and Sara doesn’t want to either.”

“Yeah. Nobody else wants to go, so just quit talking about it,” Sara told Marty.

“All right, fine, but you guys are just scared. You’re all big fat chickens. You--”

“Nobody calls me chicken, Marty. Nobody!” Michael yelled. He started hitting and punching him.

“Guys! Quit! Stop,” Breckin yelled. He was getting really annoyed at Marty and Michael.

Marty and Michael stopped. Sara stuck her tongue out at them.

“All right, guys. Come on, cut it out. Everybody got their passes?” Breckin asked.

They each gave their pass to the gate worker, went through the turnstile, and headed to the midway. When they were all together, Breckin stopped them.

“Where should we go first?” he asked.

“Let’s go on the Millennium. Can we? Pleeease?” Marty begged.

“Yeah. I want to, too,” Michael said.

Sara was quiet. She didn’t know if she wanted to go on the Millennium. It was so big and fast, but if her little brother wanted to, she figured, she should, because if she didn’t, they’d never stop making fun of her.

“Sure, since we all want to, but not now. There’s probably a long line, and it looks so cool up there at night. Let’s wait till later, okay?” Breckin said.

“Well, can we go on the Blue Streak, then? There’s not that many people over there,” Sara said. She liked the Blue Streak. It wasn’t as high or as fast the Millennium, and it was fun.

“Yeah, and then we can go on the Calypso and those little racecar things,” Michael said. He moved his arms back and forth like he was steering a car.

“Let’s go. Come on, you guys!” Marty yelled. He took off in the direction of the Blue Streak.

“Hey, Marty, slow down. You don’t have to run!!” Breckin called out after him.

After they went on the Blue Streak, they went on the Calypso, then the racecars, and then the Calypso again.

“Ugh. I don’t feel so good.” Breckin pretended to puke on Michael. Michael screeched and jumped away from him. “Let’s walk around and decide where to go next.”

They headed over to the bumper cars and the Wildcat. Breckin wanted to go on the bumper cars first, so they all got in line.

Marty ran to his favorite car, jumped in, put on his seatbelt, and yelled, “Hi ho, Silver!”

Sara rolled her eyes. Marty was so weird sometimes. She went to the opposite corner. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Marty when he was driving. Breckin sat down in the car next to her. She suspected that he was thinking the same thing.

She tried to stay clear of Marty, but he kept chasing her.

“Marty, go away,” she giggled.

Marty cackled and didn’t pay attention to where he was going. He slammed right into the wall. Sara drove by him and laughed.

“Ha ha. Reeeal funny. Just wait till I get out of here,“ Marty said sarcastically, but he couldn’t figure out how to get his car to go backwards and get away from the wall. Just as he finally got his car turned around, the ride stopped. “Awww, man! Hey, Breckin!” he called, “Can we go on it again?”

Sara shook her head frantically at Breckin. “Nooo. No more bumper cars. How about the Iron Dragon?” he suggested.

After the Iron Dragon, everyone was tired and getting hungry, so the family went to the Red Garter Saloon to get something to eat for dinner. After they ate, Michael saw that there weren’t very many people in line for the Millennium Force.

“Hey, Breckin, look. There’s hardly anybody in line for the Millennium. Can we go now?”

“Uh-oh,” Sara thought, “I don’t want to go on the Millennium. It’s too big, way too big, and fast.” She began to worry.

“Uh, I don’t know. Do you think we should? Right after we ate? You don’t want me to puke on you again, do you?” he asked slyly.

“Huh-uh. No thanks,” Michael laughed.
“So, let’s go on that later, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Marty grumbled.

“Thank goodness,” Sara thought. She did not want to go, ever.

“Can we go on the train? That way we don’t have to walk because my feet are starting to hurt,” Sara suggested. She wanted to get as far away from the Millennium as she could. That way, she figured, they might run out of time going on other rides and not be able to go on it.

“Um, anyone not want to?” Breckin asked.

“I don’t care”

“Sure.”

“Ok, then. Let’s go.”

They all got on the train, everyone except for Marty, that is. He was busy throwing his garbage away and didn’t see that the train had started to pull away.

“Hey! Wait! Stop!” he screamed. He ran along the train and tried to get on, but his foot slipped. Breckin reached for him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him in.

“What were you doing!?” Breckin was mad. “You could’ve gotten hurt. Now you are going to be right next to me for the rest of the day.”

Michael and Sara stared at Marty.

“What are you looking at? All of you are just stupid,” Marty scowled.

“Marty! You are gonna be in big trouble. Mom and Dad are going to be really mad,” Breckin scolded.

“Sorry,” he grumbled.

After the train ride, they went on the Cedar Creek Mine Ride, the swings, and the antique cars.

“It’s getting kind of late. We better get back to the Millennium if we’re going to get on it before we have to leave,” Breckin said.

“Great,” Sara thought, “he remembered. What am I going to do?”

They rode the train back to the Millennium, and the train didn’t leave without anyone this time.

Breckin, Marty, and Michael were all getting in line when Sara said, “I don’t feel too good. Do I have to go? I might get sick.”

“Yeah, right,” Michael said, “You’re just scared. You’re scared of a dumb old roller coaster. Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat! Sara’s a scaredy cat!”

“Yeah, Sara, you’re just scared. You’re not sick. You’re just a chicken. You weren’t sick when we went on all of those other rides. Hah!” Marty chimed in.

“Fine. I’ll go. See? I’m not scared.” Sara got in line with her brothers. Now, she really didn’t feel well. She was scared. She was really scared, but she wasn’t going to admit it.

As she waited in line, she got more and more worried. She looked up at the top of the lift hill 310 feet up. She followed the track with her eyes, then down, then up another huge hill.

Breckin noticed she was looking worried. “Sara, are you all right? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” She gulped. “Everything is great.”

“Are you sure? You can sit next to me if you want to. Marty was going to, but I don’t think he’ll mind. They can sit in front of us.”

“Okay,” Sara said. She didn’t want to sit next to Marty or Michael. They’d make fun of her the whole ride. Breckin knew she was nervous.

They went toward the back of the car. She got in the seat next to her big brother. Marty and Michael sat in front of them. Sara was scared, but there was nothing she could do now. She put her seatbelt on.

“You ready?” Breckin grinned. “Come on, Sara, don’t be so worried. Everything’s going to be fine. You know, it’s not like there’s really anything to be scared of. It’s safe. You’re not going to fall out or anything.”

“Thanks, Breckin,” she thought, even more worried than before, “That made me feel a lot better.”

“Clear!” the workers yelled. The train lurched out of the station and quickly started to go up the lift hill. Sara squeezed her eyes shut. The train neared the top of the hill. Sara could hear Marty and Michael scream, but she wasn’t going to open her eyes.

“Yeah!” Breckin yelled. He threw up his hands. She felt the train start to fall, faster and faster. She opened her eyes for a second, but quickly closed them. They went down the first hill and started going up the next.

Sara opened her eyes. “Hey,” Sara thought, “This is kind of fun.” She looked over at Breckin. He had his hands up and was laughing. “But not that fun.”

As the ride went along, Sara started to feel stupid for being so scared. When the car swung around the last corner and back into the station, Marty got out of his seat and took off running down the exit ramp.

“Marty! Where are you going now?” Breckin yelled.

“I told you Breckin, I’m going to that picture thing!” Marty yelled over his shoulder. “Me and Michael made weird faces at the camera.”

Breckin sighed and got up to follow him. Inside the photo shop, Sara caught up to her brothers. They were all looking at their picture. Sara looked up. She looked like she was having a great time.

“Hey, Breckin.” She pulled at his sleeve. “That was fun. Can we go on it again?”


Seriously, list all the references. There are a LOT.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

bands

I don't have much of anything to say today, so I suppose a big old list of bands I've been meaning to get into would be cool. There are so many!

- John Vanderslice. He's John Darnielle's friend, they just finished a joint tour, the EP he and John collaborated on, Moon Colony Bloodbath, is FANTASTIC, and I love his voice. Just ordered his new album today :D

- The Decemberists. First saw them on the Colbert Report during the greenscreen/Rock & Awe: Countdown to Guitarmageddon epic fiasconess. I got the Crane Wife but never listened to more than a few songs, just recently discovered the absolute brilliance of The Hazards of Love. Colin Meloy is <3. His lyrics are ridiculously literary.

- The Weakerthans. I favorited one of their songs on Pandora ages ago, and one of their lead guys was on Ships and Dip V, this cruise thing, that John Darnielle and Barenaked Ladies were on. I think. I think his name is John too. That is perfect.

- Andrew Jackson Jihad. I think Blaze, suchducks Blaze, mentioned them on teh twittarz, and we went on a crazy yt spree, and they are really great. They're like Neutral Milk Hotel, kinda.



Sorry for the lack of links, I BEDA procrastinated :/

Might add them later :D

Monday, April 27, 2009

lamentations

Waaaaugh D: I have to stop procrastinating. I really really really really have to stop procrastinating. Everything is building up to this one point, and so is the stress, and I am going to go insaaaaaane! I feel like that guy in Infinite Jest with the crack and crap. Last time, no more, no more, tell everybody to not be enablers, say no no matter what, get rid of everything that allows this to happen. Tell yourself you're not going to do it again, it's so harmful, nothing positive about it, you don't know why you do it anyways, it's just a big hole of suck. But then of course you still have the means to do it if you REALLY wanted, but you tell yourself you don't and won't. But you know you are lying, but you aren't. DOUBLETHINK! doulbeplusungood doublethink. I LIKE BOOKS.

So yeah, willpower: I lacks it.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

dr. m*hl

My geography prof is odd. And nerdy. And hilarious. And I love him.

He enjoys talking about specific things. Repeatedly. One day, I kept a list of everything he talked about. Here is that list:

-fish
-espionage
-Roosevelt
-my book
-fish
-the word "fuzzball"
-my book
-wine
-bringing something risque/slightly inappropriate up, then dismissing it, then alluding to it
-my book
-bringing something risque/slightly inappropriate up, then dismissing it, then alluding to it
-manufacturing process of random product
-history as it relates to Ohio
-the word "fuzzball"
-espionage
-history as it relates to Ohio
-architecture
-history as it relates to Ohio
-gambling
-freshness of seafood
-wine
-seafood
-my book

The end.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

a trip to the library

Today, I asked my parents to drop me off at the library on their way to the store. They did. I needed to check out books about Cedar Point because I must do a 15 minute presentation on its history on Tuesday.

I found the books I needed. I looked in the YA section to see if they'd gotten a copy of Paper Towns yet, which they had. Hooray. I wrote little notes for PT and a copy of Alaska. No Katherines. I feel bad for that book. It is always left behind.

While I was writing the notes, two boys, teenagerishlike, kept snickering quite loudly at something they were watching on one of the computers. This went on for a good ten minutes. I went back to the YA books to stick the notes in there, and when I passed by the computers, they were still laughing. It was loud. They were being disruptive. The information help desk librarian was not happy. She told them very sternly that she had asked them multiple times to leave that site, and if you don't comply with what I am saying- no, I've asked you repeatedly to stop, now, etc etc. And they just back talked and mumbled and said things under their breath.

NOW. MAN. If ANYONE EVER reprimands me like she did them, I think about it. Constantly. Feel horribly. For the entire day. And then at night. And then intermittently throughout that week. And seriously. I will remember it for the rest of my life. And it will haunt me. And I will feel like crap, and there will be a big knot of regret in my stomach whenever I think about it.

I know all the people I wronged in first grade. I feel terrible about each and every one of them. No amount of apologizing and accepted apologies makes me feel any less worse. And these things aren't even IMPORTANT! They're the most trivial slights. So much so that the people they were against forgot about them within that week. Month maybe. But I remember the time I wrote "Sara Corey has no brain" on that freaking activity card with that freaking grease pencil in first grade. It kills me.

I highly doubt Sara Corey even remembers who I am.

Friday, April 24, 2009

hypothetical nerdbabies

Any time I am in the presence of/charge of/general vicinity of children, my primary goal and focus is to nerd them up as much as possible. Kids wanna watch some tv? HERE COME THE 123s. Read a book? Yeah! Cool! I'll make 'em try to sound out words, I'll ask 'em questions. Do it to it! Kids have got to be brought up in an environment in which learning is fun and good and exciting! I hate how it's looked upon as work and un-fun BECAUSE IT IS NOT. Not unless you connote it with negativity. LEARNING IS FUN. IT IS PROFITABLE AND IMPORTANT AND FUN.

I freaking love when we put Here Come the ABCs on and the kids spazz out to E Eats Everything and hop along to Clap Your Hands. There is nothing more adorable than a nerdbaby. Oh my gosh, if I ever get to be the primary influence in a kid's life, I will have that kid reading by age 3. And hurling Shakespearean insults at 1st grade bullies. And they will know and appreciate THE ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY AND WORK OF THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS. They will know everything about James K. Polk and the sun and the heart and that shooting stars are not stars and SO ON.

They will read Encyclopedia Brown and have epic reasoning skillz. I will train them in the ways of thisisnottom. And I'll be danged if they don't learn the accordion and/or ukulele.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

mountains and things

I have forgotten about this again. Sorry :/

On the way home from school today, I was looking out the window, and the sunset was amazing, and the clouds, they'd formed an awesome kind of wall of darkness, up until a certain height, almost all the way around. It reminded me of the mountains in Tennessee, waking up every morning and going out onto the balcony porch, sitting on the swing, taking in the sunrise. And everywhere in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, anywhere, you were always surrounded by mountains in the distance. Not overbearing, just barely there, an amazing backdrop. And it made you feel tiny. But not insignificant. Made you feel free. You were so small and the world was so huge, you were dwarfed by the hills, hills you were never aware of or acknowledged in your entire life until you were there in the midst of them. But they were always there, have always been, always will be. And also, whenever we go up near Lake Erie, you can see the vastness of the water as a 1/3 sky, a huge unending stripe of water out in front of you, almost as if it is above you, like it should come flowing down the streets, sweeping away everything and you in its path. But no, it just sits there, this monolithic thing.

So I tried to imagine that those clouds were mountains, came so so close to fully believing it. But alas.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

quick bedodododo

Very fast. Tomorrow is going to be heavy. 8 pages of final project to show teacher in graphic design, not totally done, but I think that'll be ok.

Then math test. Not ok. No no no. I can't do it. Cannot memorize all the things that I need to. My mind does not work that way. Too much information to digest and analyze and process. Waaaay too much.

And THEN. Then I have a geography test, which will be fine because he read off the questions and answers on Tuesday, and last time, all I did was read over everything I'd written down once, and all was good. So that will be good. But it's very stressful. Makes me uneasy. Blerughh.

Then this weekend, I need to make a 15 minute powerpoint presentation on the history of Cedar Point, which I must then give on Tuesday. Buh.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

1984 and children and so on

Soooo I saw 1984. 'twas great. I got there a bit early, then went in, sat next to an older couple. Even though we were the first ones to be seated, we were usher'd to like 10 rows back, which was fine, the configuration of the theater was lovely and we could see and etc. But that meant that scores of (I thought) high school peoples would take up all those rows. NO. NOT TRUE. I am bad at guessing ages, but these kids could not have been past 8th grade, they were probably even younger.

Now I am sure they did not read the book in class. It's heavy, violent, and dark. Obviously. Why would a teacher think it a good idea to take 12 year olds to a play which they are pretty universally incapable of fully grasping the themes and implications of?

Maybe I am underestimating middle school brains. But I don't think so. Judging from their (extremely vocal) reactions to scenes, no. They did not. They laughed through almost the entirety of the scenes when Winston was in the Ministry of Love. Because, yeah, watching a man have everything right and true and sane beat and tortured out of him is hi-LARIOUS.

Also, the old man next to me fell asleep and started snoring, which was lolz.

So YES. The play itself was amazingly fantastic. Or it was to me. Though I think I seem to be somewhat blindly enthusiastic about things after I experience them. Something like that. Not exactly. Any time I go to a movie, I like it, think it was great. Valkyrie was amazing, and The Day the Earth Stood Still was pretty good. Then I come home and later see that everyone else (it seems) thought they were crap. *I* liked them. This doesn't happen with movies are undeniably crap, though. Like, I was not disillusioned in the least by Are We There Yet?. That movie suuuuucked.

The performance was great. I shall say that again. I really loved the set and how they changed scenes and the lack of props. Very minimalist. It was pretty ace. The stage was all drenched in black and blue lighting, and the telescreen was in the form of a big ol' ominous sinister white circle in the not-quite-center of an even bigger and more ominous circle. As depicted in this picture. i has hawt photography skillz.


Beforehand, I was wondering how they were going to do everything, as plays are auditory and visual experiences, and the majority of 1984 is all in thoughts and discreet actions. But it worked out fine, I think. They talked openly a few times in front of the telescreen, which wouldn't have worked, but whatever whatever it was great.

I don't know if you can see in the picture, but the only props that were used were chairs and two screen partition things that were repositioned and relocated and rotated and such for each scene. It was nice.

In conclusion, kids do inappropriate things, I like 1984 a whole lot, and old men snore and are consequently elbowed by their wives who are not entirely happy with the attention that the repeated, sustained graaaaarhhhgs draw to her husband and, subsequently, by association and physical proximity, to herself.

meh

Allow me to compensate for that well-thought out blog yesterday with terrible, horrible, late, crap crap today.

I forgot about BEDA. This is late. I blame thisisnottom. And also myself. Mostly myself. I was hoping to get through this without any late days (late = my computer's clock says 12:00 or greater). BUT ALAS.

At least I was doing something awesome, though. I could have been...doing art history homework. THAT would have been lame.

Tomorrow/today I am going to see 1984! At my college! Performed by people! And I am skipping my morning classes for this! And it only cost me 6 dollars! And 3 hours of time to work on my graphic design things! And one math lesson (which I am honestly a little bit terrified of the consequences of).

Just read 1984 a few weeks ago, and I LOVED IT. So I am SUPER PSYCHED to be able to see this HOORAY.

I want to talk about TINT, but I don't want to think or expend the brain power necessary to do so. So. Suffice it to say (suffices to say?) that it is confusing and terrifying and ridiculously interesting and complicated and growing and expanding and hard and fun.

That is all.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future. And the past. It's kind of hard not to, as basically every single thing we do is for the future, to prepare.

I found this presentation on ted a month or so ago; its title grabbed my attention. Nostalgia for a future that never happened. Very similar to that great quote from Alaska, after which this entry is titled (that was a horribly awkward sentence).

Interpretations and depictions of the future have always interested me; ever since I was little, watching Back to the Future II, I was greatly amused at how far off they were, how totally wrong they'd gotten it. Granted, 2015 is not here yet, but I highly doubt that in 6 years we will have flying cars or hoverboards or be wearing ridiculous plastic neon clothing or throw out bundles of laserdiscs in the trash.

It's interesting though, to see what people imagine the future to be like. How much of it stems from their hopes? Extrapolations of current technology and trends, taken further? It tells a lot about a person, a culture, a time period, the way they imagine and construct these things.

In this video, Bruce McCall "paints a future that never happened." He calls it retrofuturism, "looking back to see how yesterday viewed tomorrow, and they're always wrong. Always hilariously, optimistically wrong."

It's 13 minutes long, and I don't blame you for not watching it if you don't, but it's insanely fascinating.



"Somebody once said that nostalgia is the one utterly most useless human emotion."

Useless in the technical, tangible, real sense, but, nevertheless, it holds so much. Maybe it is useless. But I thrive on it. I document everything I can. I love that the timeline of my life can be reconstructed through photographs, papers, journals, my daily online activity. It absolutely floors me. I cannot comprehend when people delete things, throw away documentation of their life. The trail of me I leave behind is such a precious thing.

And ultimately, it does not matter. But it does.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

more websites. and then i woke up!

I only have 20 minutes to do this, so AAAAH. Hello beda buddies :D I've had fun reading your blogs. They are fantastic. And now I feel like crap for the suckiness of this one. But they will get better! If I can stop procrastinating!

Annnd

1) sStuff White People Like - Everything they say is true. So, so true. Ugly sweater parties, funny or ironic tattoos, black music that black people don't listen to any more, hummus, frisbee sports...

2) Pets Who Want To Kill Themselves - Don't put that chihuahua in a skirt! No. Don't! Just, don't.


I know, I know he looks happy. But he's just putting on a brave face. Inside, his soul is slowly dying.

3) Music + Pixels! - Dude (or lady) takes user-suggested song lyrics and graphic-art-izes them. So pretty.



4) todayandtomorrow - Lots of awesome, beautiful, elegant, sharp designs/architecture/photos/whatnot. One of my favorite sites for pretty things.

5) thedieline.com - photos and descriptions of cutting-edge product packaging. I'm a sucker for this stuff.


this is THE most beautiful things I have ever seen. Without a doubt my favorite picture of all time. So gorgeous.

6) lowercase l - blog of pictures of signs, papers, posters, notes, graffiti with the oh-so-weird and peculiarly common lowercase l amidst all capital letters.

AND also! I did this today:


utilizing Famous Alan and Wheezywaiter's Build-A-Blog project resources

Friday, April 17, 2009

bee's wits

Alright alright alright. I should think of things throughout the day to talk about, yes I should. Alas.

I suppose I will share some of my favorite blog-based websites with you. There are so many greatawesomeweird things floating out there 'round the series of tubes, and a lot of it is crap. I will not be showing you any of those sites, because that would be stupid and pointless. And while I am, in general, a big fan of stupid and pointless, you are probably not. So here are some good un-stupid and anti-pointless sites.

1) foundmagazine.com - this site collects and displays found stuff. Notes, drawings, cards, letters, reports, pictures, lists, homework, what-have-you. In addition to the physical magazines they sell, the site is updated each day with two new finds. The brilliance/hilariousness/beauty of discarded or lost objects is astounding. Each contains a whole world, a unique back story; so fun to imagine the circumstances behind every piece. One of my recent favorites:



2) labeltheworld - There is this guy. He labels things. All things. I don't know why, but I often find myself crying from laughter at some of the pictures. Things toying with scale crack me up.

3) MANBABIES! - Gosh, I love this site, though I am surprised it hasn't induced any nightmares. Yet. Photoshopped pictures swapping men and baby heads. FANTASTIC.

4) overheardeverywhere.com - Quite possibly my favorite site ever. Ohhh, the lolz.

Wildly bearded hobo riding rusty bicycle and wearing only one shoe and parachute pants: Why, hello miss. Would you be interested in entering into a mutually beneficial body massage arrangement?
Surprised, redheaded woman: Uhhhhh, not today, thank you.
Hobo: I'll try back later.

Queen West
Toronto
Canadia


5) Cake Wrecks - Crappy, terrifying, disturbing, hilariously bad cake decoration/designs. The commentary is fantastically witty and great as well.

6) 100waystokillapeep - This.

7) lunchbagart - There is this guy. He draws things. On paper lunch bags. They are majestic:





I didn't even make it a third of the way down my feed list. Perhaps I shall talk about more another day. But it is 11:56 now, and I gots to hurry.

Ok ok ok I am done.

That is all.

EDIT: Oh hey! I post all of my most favorite pictures/videos/quotes/pages/etc I stumble across/upon here valerie2776.tumblr.com. You should look!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

books and lists and books

No time again! I must manage my time better. Or take less naps. Or both. I'm watching Dr. Noise Bill on blogtv now, and he is singing a song to Famous Alan.

I will talk about books.

Decided to do the 50 books in 2009 thing, but I have failed miserably so far.

Books I've finished:
-The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Vol 1
-The Great Gatsby
-Looking for Alaska (reread)
-Animal Farm
-1984
-When You Are Engulfed in Flames

6. And the year is is almost a third over. FAIL.

I've got 4 books I've started/am in the midst of...
-More Information Than You Require
-Leaves of Grass (oh so good)
-22 and 50 Poems (ee cummings. also good. and cryptic. and exciting and great.)
-Slaughterhouse-Five (Hoping to finish this one either tonight or tomorrow. It's already made its way into my favorites list, for sure.)

Did any of you take the 50-in-2009 vow? How goes it? Any other commitments/goals/resolutionso? How're they going for you? Good? GOOD. Do tell.

Also, I haz a Goodreads account. It's so hard to find people you know on there, so if you have one, it would be fantastic of you to add me. If you would. I love you.

Books at the top of my to-read list:
-INFINITE JEST (I MUST GET THIS)
-Octavian Nothing Vol 2
-Brave New World
-House of Leaves

Another short unnecessary list designed to take up room and make this appear longer when it is in actuality horribly last minute and very bleh:
-cats
-NASA
-string cheese
-the sandwich maker
-I Don't Feel Like Dancing by The Scissor Sisters
-potholes
-loopholes
-black holes
-the Canadian quarter stuck in that vending machine
-crabs
-rubber cement

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

fast blog about stupid math

Math is not fun. It is not fun at all. I do not enjoy it. I do not like doing it, I do not like thinking about it, I DO NOT LIKE IT. Least applicable to real life. The stuff I am doing anyway. I do not want logarithms. They can go away. I know that they are important for some things, probably for a lot of things, but these are not things that I need to be concerned with. I cannot use inverse functions to better myself. And as nifty as synthetic division is, it is not useful for anyone unless they are a math person who does math things all day. Or unless you are in math class. Which is not cool.

DOWN WITH MATH UNLESS YOU ARE A MATH PERSON. Also, if you are a math person, I appreciate you very much. Thank you for dealing with the mind-numbingly monotony that is mathematics. Gosh!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

another blog in which i say (almost) everything that comes into my brain

I have no time again! Other things are taking up time! Some of the other things are exciting, and some of the other things are necessary, and some of the other things are boring. But they are mostly exciting! And that is great, and that is fun. But the necessary and boring parts are draggin' me down, maaan.

More and more I am deciding that graphic design is not what I want to do. It is not art. Not the kind of art that is the important part of art. To me. It is just creating to an end. There is no meaning behind it. No deep or real or important meaning. Or not one that is interesting. Thus, boring.

I don't know what I want to do. Well, no. I know a lot of things, a near infinite amount of things, that I want to do, but none of them (maybe some of them, if I tried really hard, which I do not like to do most of the time) are really self-sustaining things. I cannot make a living from reading blogs, from looking at pretty things, from thinking about things, from reading books, from twittering (HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT JOB BE?). I guess these could be jobs, but not in the fun, easy, commitment-free way that they are now. And that is what I fail at. Work ethic. For things that matter and are hard and take effort.

I can see myself being absolutely happy (kind of) just packing boxes all day, inspecting parts, reshelving books, things like that. Because they do not involve a lot of mental effort. Or, maybe because there is a set route and way and method of doing these things, and I can learn this method and follow it, and I can know for certain that I am not screwing things up, that I am doing things right, that people are getting exactly what they expect out of me.

One of my greatest fears is being thrown into a situation and having to do something that I do not know 100% how to, or, maybe, having to do any task in which I know I CAN'T know if I am doing everything correctly. So. I am afraid of failure. That is all.

WOW. Kind of depressing. And stuff. But not really. I don't know. My mind has been all slkdajfasd;lkfghah lately. This is fun.

Monday, April 13, 2009

my day, very quickly. and lacking very many personal pronouns

Again, thisisnottom has consumed my evening, and even more so than normal with all these John revelations and aaaah!

Nothing planned to talk about, so I'll just do a rundown of my day. Or something. Hah. When I get going really quickly/hurriedly, I leave out first halves of sentences. Like 'nothing planned to talk about'. I HAVE nothing planned. This is not helping the pace, the explaining. GAH!

Woke up, laid in bed, was confused by the apparent time on my cellphone. Was early. Went back to sleep, sort of. Was too paranoid about missing the alarm to actually fall asleep, ended up checking said phone many, many times, thinking it was about an hour later than it actually was. Finally got up, blah, blah, went to math class.

Had to sit around campus for two hours afterward because my mother is doing some kind of work training thing this week and next, so my dad had to pick me up, which he could not do until after work, which was late. Sat in the medical-y building (they have nice chairs), started Slaughterhouse-Five (WHICH IS SO GOOD). Listened to TMBG's 85 demo tape, went over to another building to get lunch (cinnamon roll and Mountain Dew Code Red [healthy, yes]), went back to science-y building.

Read more Vonnegut. Got an @realjohngreen text on mah phone. Big secret blog show. Distressed, a little. Read more. Father came. Went home. Got on blog. John says, amidst noise of some bleach ad "kigottagobye". CRAP. Got filled in. WHOA. WOW WOW WOW. Brain shut down for a while. Worked through, figured out (most of) everything (that we know of) with the leftover blogtv peoples. Alex cleared more up. Good. Talked more. Maureen show started. Watched.

TINT update. WHOA WHOA WHOA again. Work work work, and that is now done. And then thinking. And then foruming. And skype chatting. And file sending. And also story printing. Because that seems important now.

And that is all.

uh...hair glue?

HUGH LAURIE HUGH LAURIE HUGH LAURIE



MAN I love Hugh Laurie.

The man is a genius. He really is. In every sense, way, and form of the word. He is brilliant. I am not exaggerating AT ALL. I MEAN IT. He is the most amazing, hilarious, beautifully beautiful creature to ever live ever.

"Why is this?" you may ask? ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN.

IN NUMBER LIST FORM, 'cause that's how the cool kids do it.

1) BRITISH ACCENT. They are hawt.



2) HE SINGS STUFF WHILE 3) PLAYING STUFF (guitar, drums, piano, saxophone, harmonica AND MORE)



4) WIT

Just, in general, he is full of it.


5) BLACKADDER



6) JEEVES AND WOOSTER



7) THIS MONTAGE



I think that that should suffice. If any of you would like more proof as to these ends, please, do not hesitate to ask. I will be more than happy to elaborate.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

urghiughgh

I do not feel well. Not at all. Drugs are nice, but not so much so when they have yet to kick in. Going to lay down and try to sleep, or watch tv with the volume almost on mute, because even the slightest sound is terribly loud and grating. Goodbye :(

Friday, April 10, 2009

i apologize.

Hello there. I have opened up this blank page, and I have no idea what I am going to write about, but I have a lot of thoughts, none of them particularly connected or relevant or important or interesting, so TOO BAD FOR YOU.

I played around a bunch on omegle today; after John's show, lots of us stayed to chat, and we all went on there and started conversations with BEDODODODO to see what people's reactions would be, and to see if we could find other nerdfighters.

Most of them ended up looking like this:



or this:



but then:


Which was pretty great.

I am watching-kind-of-watching Super Size Me on youtube, and I STILL don't see the horribleness in eating a blenderized happy meal. Just doesn't seem bad. Hah! And now Morgan Spurlock just said "big mac smoothies". om nom nom

Back to the Future is a great movie.

I have a Dundie award.

There are six water bottles sitting on the shelf next to my bed. Each one no more than half gone. Huh.

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS EP


MOON COLONY BLOODBATH

Thursday, April 9, 2009

hooray hooray!

la la la I wrote this during geography class a few hours ago la la laaaa I was very excited as you can tell. Still am. Life's awesome :D

I can't stop thinking about David Foster Wallace's speech and everything that John said. Life is GREAT. Possibilities, opportunities, anything, EVERYTHING. It is so huge and open and endless and boundless, and so often we preoccupy ourselves, get caught up in meaningless triviality and miss out on the beauty and majesty and fantasticalness of us. I remember something John said about seeing people as people, imagining them complexly, that we are too busy taking in our own wondrousness to see others. I think sometimes, a lot of times, we don't even recognize our own amazingness, we get bogged down in the ultimately unimportant, the mundanest of the mundane. WHY? Life doesn't HAVE to suck. Perception. Priorities. Preoccupation. Get it right! Realize the beauty! live live live!

I'm in this really awesome, huge mood right now, this insane mindset, this is all spilling out of me, I am thinking of everything all at once, and I am SO EXCITED. I know this is maybe way too naive and optimistic, but IS IT? I feel so excited, like in Song of Myself. I've never felt like this before, I don't think. It's like I'm in some kind of weird funk, but it's NOT. It is the absolute total ANTITHESIS (MAN I LOVE THAT WORD) of a funk. One I hope I never come out of.

I was going to do this project on, my final graphic design project, we have to illustrate an epiphany we've had, I was going to do it about when literature became important, how critical thinking and discussing ALL THAT ENGLISH STUFF, how I started appreciating all of that, which was after reading Catcher in the Rye and John's videos and after discovering the Mountain Goats, but YES, not any more. I am going to use DFW's speech and I am going to use Song of Myself, and I am going to use John's blogTV chats, and I cannot wait.

Life is fantastic.



Wednesday, April 8, 2009

things i have found via mah rss reader



Hah. Via Urban Prankster


The origin of a bunch of practical jokes. Like whoopee cushions. And things. Very interesting.




I love Helvetica. I use it in every project I can. It is the world's font. There is even a documentary about it. It is fantastic. Trailers and clips and such can be seen here.




Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo. I LOVE THIS. It's all real, shot with a lens that makes everything look miniature. So, so, so cool.




HOORAY


Most. Realistic. Game. EVER.

CONGRATURATION

one artist meme (stealed from alan)

Using only song titles from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's harder than you think.

Pick Your Artist: Theeeee MOUNTAIN GOATS

Are you male or female:
Stars Around Her
Describe yourself: Anti Music Song
How do you feel about yourself: Way Down
Describe where you currently live: Going to Cleveland (or thereabouts)
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: See America Right
Your favorite form of transportation: Billy the Kid's Dream of the Magic Shoes
Your best friend is: Million
Your favorite color is: Ice Blue
What's the weather like: Early Spring (BAM!)
Favorite time of day: Stars Fell on Alabama
If your life was a tv show, what would it be called: I Love You. Let's Light Ourselves on Fire
What is life to you: This Magic Moment
What is the best advice you have to give: Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod
If you could change your name, what would it be: Masher
Your favorite food is: Pure Honey
Thought for the Day: Teenage World
How I would like to die: No, I Can't
My soul's present condition: How to Embrace a Swamp Creature
The faults I can bear: Burned My Tongue
My motto: Feed This End

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

for the freedom and equality of all bukkits everywhere

Oh my good gracious. This was, without a doubt, the highlight of my entire life as of yet.

Stranger: i am back!
with offerinngs
You: om nom nom
Stranger: yes nom nom
Stranger: it is in the form of a bucket!
You: I HAS A BUKKIT?!
Stranger: NUUU THEY BE TAKINN MI BUKKIT
You: WATS DAT U SAY? THEY STOLE TEH BUKKIT?!
Stranger: THEY STOLE DA SPESHIL BUKKIT
GO FORTHH AND RETRIEVE IT
You: I HAZ A MAGICAL BUKKIT RETRIEVING SAXAPHONE
You: *PLAZE SMOOTH JAZZ RIFF*
Stranger: PLAY THAT SWEET MELODY
You: SHAZAM!
Stranger: I TINK ITSA WORKINN
You: *DOES A JIG WHILST PLAYING HAWTNESS*
Stranger: TIS TEH WRONG BUKKIT
You: THEY CANNOT RESIST MY ENCHANTING POWARS
You: CRAP
You: OH NOEZ. HERE COME ALL TEH BUKKITS
Stranger: TAKE COVERRRR
You: I AM LIKE TEH PIED PIPER OF BUKKITDOM
You: I SHALL LEAD THEM TO FREEDOMZ
You: HUZZAH AND HOORAY
You: *MARCH MARCH MARCH* *SAXOPHONE PLAY* *BUKKIT GET*
Stranger: FREE TEH BUKKITS FRUM TEH RULE OF KING SASSOFRASS
Stranger: BE FREE BUKKITS B FREEEEE
You: *PRANCE PRANCE* HURRAH! TEH BUKKITS B FREEEEE
Stranger: look at them flying away
they grow up so fast
You: job well done, team. job well done.
You: *sniff*
You: they are so beautiful. off they go
Stranger: its okay soldier
there will be many more
Stranger: look at that beautiful brown one over there
so majestic and free
You: frolicking in the meadow. he's so happy.
You: THIS TYRRANY HAS GONE ON TOO LONG
Stranger: he is
and look he found a mate
You: THE BUKKITS. they deserve more.
Stranger: have you gone mad?!?!?!?!
Stranger: what more can we give to them that we already have not?
You: centuries of oppression and injustice. NO MORE, I say!
You: No more!
Stranger: NO MORE! NO MORE!
let this be heard in the streets of rome
You: We have done good with these bukkits. but we must reach out to ALL bukkits everywhere.
Stranger: alright
lets begin our descent
Stranger: we shall free all the bukkits of the world
big and small
You: ALL BUKKITS. equal opportunity.
You: life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.
You: all bukkits are created equal.
Stranger: no. no happiness
bukkits do not feel they only wish
You: *sigh* one day. one day.
Stranger: in good time
You: their wishes, their dreams, they will be fully realized.
Stranger: they will
we must write a book and then people will listen
You: we must show them the error of their ways. they are blind to the truth.
You: years and years of bukkit prejudice, we must break this down. it will take time.
Stranger: and deaf to injustice
Stranger: it will
but we shall gather a force of 300! and reign terror on them
You: violence is not the answer!
You: violence, war, is for the barbaric.
You: peace is our mantra.
Stranger: okay we will march our 300! and have a picnic on the lawn of injustice
You: we will dine in the fields of oppression. feast in the meadows of malfeasance
Stranger: and sip tea in the trees of racism
You: o glorious day!
Stranger: it will. there will be ballads and odes sung about this day!
You: t'will be immortalized in song and dance! for ALL generations, lest they forget the valiant struggles their forefathers endured
You: endured so that THEY may be free
Stranger: those bukkits will be grateful
lest i shall have to reign down on them and enslave them myself. what i have given them can be taken away
with! the flick of a wrist
You: they dare not offend us!
Stranger: they dare not!
in seven quick flicks i can end any said bukkits life
You: well, alas! I must away to morrow next
Stranger: well be true to your bukkit lore and you will be rewarded
Stranger: farewell my friend
until we meet again
You: as shall you, dear friend, as shall you
You: adieu!
You have disconnected.

omegle.com

Monday, April 6, 2009

tint is smooth

CRAP CRAP CRAP. I have no time to write this.

TINT (thisisnottom) was fun tonight. I was the first to figure it out. Am currently laughing with the few others who have. Everyone else is so clueless, and the answer is right in front of them, and they have basically said it multiple times. It is cracking me up.

I don't have anything else to say, or time to say anything. Which I guess works out nicely. So, yeah. Check out thisisnottom.com, if you haven't. Which I assume you have. It really is fantastic. Ok. Must shower and sleep. Goodnight.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

reseeding points lives

Dear BEDA-ers, do not not not ever EVER watch an entire season of America's Next Top Model. Not even for the lulz. My brain. It does not feel well.

That one girl, C-something, WHAT AN IDIOT. Me me me me they just don't understand my style everyone is ganging up on my because they're intimidated by my strength and beauty and drive and skills NO. NO. YOU ARE RIDICULOUSLY ARROGANT AND DISILLUSIONED.

And then the girl with lupus. That must be horrible. But her attitude! She's got the most amazing outlook and such a strong, positive spirit. Her face radiates joy. Pretty freaking awesome.

Also April, she's very calculating, precise, almost mechanical. She studies, analyzes, thinks, and does exactly what is needed. More like she's acting as a model than BEING a model. If that makes sense. I get that. I'm that way. But less determined. I have less drive. I am too lazy. Hah.

Plus Shandy who was never loved or accepted by her family, really. Only person she can confide in is her boyfriend. But OOPS. She cheated on him with one of the Vespa dudes. GREAT JOB. Her boyfriend is still great and supportive though. Though he was kind of insanely mad at first which YEAH. Stupid, stupid girl. She was lonely and needed someone to care about her, and apparently she thought Italian boy did. Good judgement, oh YEAH.

And then there's the rooster-haired one who looks like Anne Hathaway. The actress. Not the wife of Shakespeare.

Good golly, everything is hypocritical. Tyra's got all this stuff she does with young girls and self-esteem and being happy with who they are and what they look like, then she does this song and music video that's all sexualized and sex sex sex almost animalistic image image image immodesty yeah yeah yeah. Gahhhhh!

Depressing television.

Maaaan, I have no idea why I've been sitting here all day watching this. Must combat with Whitman or something.

I think the Oxygen network is the antithesis of everything I am or have ever cared about ever.

That is all.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

retail true

o hai there internets. I really do not feel like writing or thinking or forming words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into blogs. Not at this moment, nope. But it is BEDA, and BEDA means DOING IT, so I SHALL PERSEVERE. Expect many random bursts of capslock, because that is how I am feeling.

Today was pretty fun and full and expensive. I went into Oberlin with my mother, went to a few bookstores. The first was awesome, Ben Franklin's Five and Dime, I think it was called. Lots of old books. It smelled fantastic. I was looking for a used copy of Catcher in the Rye or Slaughterhouse-Five or Leaves of Grass or Brave New World, but alas. I did get a book of e.e. cummings poetry though and read some of it in the car later. Crazy stuff. Probably a third of them, I don't even know AT ALL what he's getting at, but the ones that I do get make me feel brilliant, though I am, in fact, NOT. First thing I ever read by him was "anyone lived in a pretty how town" in 11th grade or something, and it was the first poem that I LIKE liked. The crazy punctuation and spacing and spelling and combining words things he does are fantastic. It seems like a lot of literature is missing out on those fronts, they could be so much more powerful, I mean the way the text is presented has a lot to do with the intensity/mood of it. GET ON IT, PUBLISHING INDUSTRY. More creative text presentation. Heck yes.

Went to another store, I found Slaughterhouse-Five and a copy of Leaves of Grass, which I am very excited about reading. I found ONE COPY OF PAPER TOWNS (one?! really? that's it?!?) and stuck a nerdfighter note in there. And then we walked over to this really nifty art place, the Ginko Gallery; it's a sweet space, full of local artists' work, all kinds of different media. Lots of beautiful glass blowings, wire mobiles, soap (cinnamon and oatmeal OM NOM NOM), jewelery, carvings, paintings, it was excellent.

We then went over to my cousins' house. One of whom, Abby, had just gotten a baby goat a few days ago. It was adorable. It already knew its name. It was very dog-like. It licked everything. It was great.

Typing typing typing, I do not see the scroll bar yet, and that is the sign of a good blog, or a long enough blog, or an adequate blog according to Blaze. :P Ahhh come on come on I have no more thoughts ohh I want to stop blah blah blah OH THERE WE ARE GOODBYE

Friday, April 3, 2009

thirsts

Today's thing that makes me happy: T-SHIRTS

Oh how I love them. In this big ol' harsh world we live in, people tend to judge quickly and unfairly. Especially by appearances. SO, combat the suckiness of that with FREAKING AWESOME BEAUTIFUL CLEVER HILARIOUS t-shirts!

Thanks to the intertubes, creating/finding great shirts is totally easy. One of my favorite sites for doing this is threadless.com. All their shirts are user-submitted; anyone can upload a design. Then, the lovely community votes on said designs, and the Threadless staff chooses 10 or so of the higher-rated designs each week and MAKES THEM. It's a super-collaborative, active, constructive environment, there's even a section of the site where people can upload their rough designs and get feedback and critiques and ideas from everyone else.

The process goes quickly too; I've seen shirts go from initial voting to printing in less than a month, and it's always exciting when one of the shirts you've voted highly and marked "I'd buy!" gets printed. So, so fun and nifty and cool.

The site has great sales and contests and promotions all the time; just last week they had a huge $5 sale.

And now I shall show you a few of my favorite shirts, some of which I own, some I WANT TO OWN VERY BADLY:

So much accordion goodness!



I have this one, and it is gorgeous. ( :( I failed at spelling gorgeous 3 times)



Clever AND adorable!



HARD. CORE. MAN. So rad.



Yahahah!



This one needs to be reprinted. It is fantastic.



Also, not too long ago, I won a gift certificate to customizedgirl.com via Twitter (one of the many, many excellent reasons why Twitter is awesome). I've been designing some stuff on there, and just ordered these four tonight:

here here

I cannot WAIT to get them :D

What are some of you people's favorite tshirt sites/designs/whatnots?

Thursday, April 2, 2009

ashes eat all

BEDA has gone splendidly so far. I've had a lot of fun reading through other people's blogs. Lots of cool stuff.

So I shall be continuing my 'things that make me happy' thing. I doubt I'll make it all the way through April doing this, but YEAH, it's FUN.

TODAY: Tallahassee

Tallahassee is an album by the lovely, lovely Mountain Goats (who are so jokes). The album chronicles the Alpha Couple, spouses who have fallen out of love, their relationship a crumbling, bitter, race to the bottom, full of alcohol and violence. The couple features prominently in many of John Darnielle's songs, and Tallahassee delves deeper into their destructive, horrible story.

At the start of the album, the Alpha Couple have just moved into a nasty, decaying house in Florida, thinking, or at least hoping, that this will somehow make them better, not screwed up, not hating each other, though they both really know that it'll never happen. I really love the metaphor of the dumpy house/their marriage. So great.

And then stuff happens, la la la, drinking, hatred, despair, hope, death wishes, it's fantastic. In the last song in the album Alpha Rats Nest, the Alpha Couple begin to resign themselves to their fate: Ah the fitful sleep and the fire engines/ That I dream of when I dream/ Some day we'll both wake up for good/ I will try hard not to scream. The song itself is upbeat, happy, nearly gleeful, and that makes it all the more amazing.

So yes, what I mainly wanted to talk about was a particular video on the album's companion-y site thing (lets you explore the Alpha Couple's house, so many fantastic metaphors and GAHHH-SO-GOOD-SO-TRUE-THIS-IS-SO-BRILLIANT things). In the living room, if you click on the television, this pops up, and it is most hilarious and hard-hitting, painfully true dialogue back and forth banter salesman game show showcase ridiculous.

BUT FIRST. First you must listen to Game Shows Touch Our Lives, part of which is quoted in Paper Towns, so you KNOW it's awesome.

Now:


I freaking love that video.
That is all.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

the big steamy thing

First BEDA post! Yes!

I've been sitting here for a long while, trying to decide what to talk about, and, after watching Hank's video (in which he was NOT >:( dressed as Carrie Bradshaw), I've been thinking about things that make me happy, and why they do. So. Each day, I'll blog about one thing that makes me happy. This will be fun :D

TODAY: They Might Be Giants


Man. I love those guys.

Mssrs. John Sydney Linnell and John Conant Flansburgh met during high school in Lincoln, Massachusetts in, like, the 70s. THEY'RE OLD. And they worked on the school newspaper together, and it was when Linnell drew a comic about Nazi teachers that Flansburgh knew they would be lifelong friends. Hah. And so, they started doing musical stuff together, but eventually went off to different colleges, and then later they ended up in the same apartment in NYC, and they wrote more songs and such, and played their first show in 1982 at a Sandinista Rally. The crowd hardly knew any English, and they billed themselves as El Grupo de Rock and Roll, which is fantastic.

At their first real show, under the name They Might Be Giants, supposedly, 23 people came, they played 23 songs, made 23 dollars, while John Linnell was 23 years old. Very nice. THEN Linnell broke his hand in a bicycle accident (which I am sure at least partly inspired this song), and thus he could not play the accordion. Sad times. SO they started their infamous, and, at the time, state of the art, cutting edge-technologied Dial-a-Song service. By calling (718) 387-6962 (the phone in Flans' apartment), one would hear a new song that, for a while, changed every day. The restraints of using their Record-a-Call 682 actually heavily influenced the sound of their first album: anything with long, sustained notes made the machine rewind, so their songs were kept short and staccato. Dial-a-Song, "always busy, often broken" lived on for over 20 years, until it was essentially replaced by actual real technology. Stupid podcasts. Stupid internet. Ruins everything.

And so TMBG recorded their first album, and with cool guy Adam Bernstein, made music videos (with basically no budget) for Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head and Don't Let's Start, the latter of which made it into the regular rotation on MTV, the first ever video by an indie band to do so. Fun times.

And then they made 12 more albums and a bajillion more songs and grew more and more fantastic and amazing and are working on their fourth kids album right now and also a normal record HOORAY ok THE END.

The best part of this is that I did not look ANY of that up. Yet I cannot remember my own social security number :/