Month In Review: March

Holy crap, it’s March 31st!  I spent most of the day trying (and failing) to come up with something to blog about, and here I had a ready-made post topic.  Silly me.  Allons-y.

• Take better care of myself.  This one is tricky.  I carried my momentum from February into March, but then spring break happened and I completely screwed up my sleep patterns (and the damage has yet to be undone).  If I’m comparing myself to last month, then I didn’t take better care of myself, but if I’m comparing myself to last year, then I did take better care of myself.  And I did lose eight pounds this month (yay!).  Okay – partial credit.
• Read every day.  Once again I had no room for improvement.  The important thing was that my performance didn’t suffer and it didn’t.  I read 3.5 books this month, but that’s not really the point.  It feels pretty awesome to say it though 🙂
• Blog every day.  Another resolution where the goal was simply to keep up the good work.  And I did.  Not to say that every post I wrote this month was good, but I wrote 31 of them and that was the idea.
• Work on my house.  Oh, I regressed on this one.  Bummer.  I did almost nothing in my house this month.  But that’s okay, I just have to keep the goal (sell the house) in mind and recommit myself to it.

In other March news, I finally made it to a baseball game this month (yay!).  Probably the only baseball game I’ll make it to this year (boo!).  But at least the weather was great and I got to watch the entire game.

Yikes, though.  April starts tomorrow.  I have a lot of school stuff due in April.  My homework load has been pretty light for most of the semester.  I wonder if all this school work will affect my ability to blog?  I hope not.

Oh, and even though my college roommate is a French teacher, I have to give Doctor Who credit for teaching me allons-y.

Until tomorrow.

Sometimes I Don’t Understand My Brain

Seriously.

Every time I open Spotify I eventually feel compelled to listen to two songs: Alexisonfire – “This Could Be Anywhere in the World” and Glassjaw – “Ape Dos Mil”.  Not that they’re not good songs, but they’re songs I barely heard when they came out (years ago).  And I have no idea why they hold magical Spotify powers over me now.  It’s only been in this past week that it’s started.

The Alexisonfire thing I can kind of understand.  After all, I’ve been listening to City and Colour’s new record, Little Hell, a lot (and City and Colour is the solo side project of Dallas Green from Alexisonfire).  But I’ve been listening to Little Hell all year.  Why the hell has my brain suddenly decided that I need to listen to “This Could Be Anywhere in the World” every day?

The Glassjaw thing is a complete mystery to me.  (Also, I’m not a big fan of the video because I don’t like clowns.)

Again, I like both of these songs, I just don’t know why my brain suddenly wants to hear them every day.  If you didn’t like them, at least check out City and Colour’s “The Girl.”  You’ll like it, I promise.

Until tomorrow.

Good News

I’m still not feeling particularly inspired, but here’s a list of things I learned in the past 24 or so hours that made me happy.

• My beloved Wawa will be close to my parents’ house!  Supposedly.  My mom read a little article in one of those lame local “newspapers” that just show up in your mailbox regardless of whether you want it that listed two West Pasco Wawa locations.  Both are pretty close to my parents’ house, but one would only be a couple of miles away.  I can find no confirmation of this, however.  Friggin’ Wawa’s Website only wants to talk about the stupid Orlando/Kissimmee locations.  I get it, Wawa, you only want to acknowledge the locations where you have broken ground, but I’m still mad that you chose to start in Orlando.  There are way more Delaware Valley transplants in Tampa than Orlando.  And don’t talk to me about Sea World (or the Wawa that will be built across the street from it).  Doesn’t it make more sense to start your campaign to take over Central Florida in a place where you have brand recognition?  Doesn’t it??  Sorry, that got rant-y.  S’anyways, this article talks about Wawa taking over one of the locations my mom mentioned (the one further from their house), but it seems less sure of Wawa’s plans than the article my mom talked about.
• Mike Sweeney is now an analyst at MLB Network!  That’s awesome.  If you’re curious about why a Phillies fan would care so much about a bench guy that we had for a couple of months (or why Enrico mentioned hugs in his post), I present this.  Sweeney and his hugs are the best and I love that guy.  And I have the shirsey to prove it 🙂
• Speaking of the Phillies, Jim Thome still looks pretty good at first base.  (If you’d prefer to watch it without having to listen to T-Mac and Sarge, Crashburn Alley has GIFs.)  The big test, of course, is how he feels tomorrow, but I’m choosing to remain optomistic.

Okay, technically I didn’t so much learn the Thome thing as watch it, but whatever.  It still made me happy.  As did finding out that the Phillies walked it off in the ninth after I had given up on the game and gone to take a nap.  I know it was just spring training, but I get way too much fun out of rooting against the Rays (and when they can lose to the Phils, it’s even better).  I’m not kidding about the Rays thing, by the way.  I’ve been to one Rays game in the four years I’ve lived here and I spent the game not so much rooting for the White Sox as rooting against the Rays.  Good times.

Until tomorrow.

Inspiration Lacks

Yeah, I got nothin’.  I must have used up all of my words for today on the paper I referenced in yesterday’s post (yep, all 800 of ’em).

I was trying to come up with something to write about, but now Ryan Gosling’s abs in Crazy, Stupid, Love are pretty much all I can think about.  My brain is basically pre-verbal right now.  And I will try to avoid the route taken by every other straight chick on the Internet when it comes to Ryan Gosling (and his abs).  Besides, HelloGiggles already covered it so well.  (Seriously though, go to HelloGiggles and search for “Ryan Gosling.”  He comes up a lot.)

C’est la vie.  Hopefully something will inspire me tomorrow.

Until tomorrow.

Learn My Lesson?

Yeah, I’ve got to research and write a short paper in the next 26 hours.  No time for blogging today.

You’d think I would stop doing this to myself, but no.  Procrastination is way more fun than being proactive.  And I work better under pressure.  (Really, I do.  I’m not just rationalizing.)

Until tomorrow.

Tell All Your Friends

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of Taking Back Sunday’s first record, Tell All Your Friends.  Part of me wishes I could say that makes me feel old, but I can’t.  Not really.  It would be one thing if I had purchased TAYF when it came out, but it feels disingenuous to say that about a record that I bought five years ago (no matter how old the record itself is).

Even though I completely slept on Tell All Your Friends (and Taking Back Sunday), I fell in love with this record once I finally bought it.  It is one of my go-to, comfort food records and has the iTunes play count to prove it 🙂 I was tempted to do nothing but quote songs in this post, but I decided to refrain.

I don’t remember how exactly I found out that TAYF was released on March 26, 2002 (or why, for that matter), but I did.  I have a little reminder in iCal and everything.  Apparently I’m not the only person who knows the date, either.  #TellAllYourFriends was a trending topic on Twitter today.  The best part of that were the couple of tweets I saw from people who used that hashtag in a non-TBS context, most likely because they didn’t know why people had started it in the first place.  It was quite amusing.

I’ve been celebrating the anniversary by listening to Tell All Your Friends pretty much exclusively.  (I have no qualms about listening to my favorite records on repeat.  I’m pretty much positive that I will never get sick of TAYF.)  If I’d been thinking, I would’ve watched some of the videos from that record as well.  Like the “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)” video.  (And not just because “Cute Without the ‘E'” is my favorite Taking Back Sunday song and video.)

Ironically, the version on YouTube is uncensored but the version I bought from iTunes five years ago is censored.  (Heaven forbid I hear the word “gun” in song lyrics.  Blah.)

So, congratulations to Adam, John, Mark, Shaun, and Eddie.  Ten years later and it’s still an amazing album (and, even more importantly, the band is still going strong).

If you’ve never listened to Tell All Your Friends, do yourself a favor and listen to it.  (It’s available on Spotify.)  I’m not promising that it will change your life, but it’s a damn good record and everyone should listen to it at least once.

Until tomorrow.

Personal Cheerleaders

Do you have a personal cheerleader?  That friend who will always root for you.  Who you know will support you in whatever crazy endeavor (large or small) you undertake.  Who will never let anyone talk crap on you.

I do.  And it’s pretty awesome.

My personal cheerleader is my college roommate.  (I am also her personal cheerleader, lest you think I’m some sort of terrible person.)  Over the years she has provided me with many positive affirmations.  She even supported my decision to move to Florida, even though she didn’t want me to.  (She also supports my desire to move back to the land of Wawa and TastyKakes, although there’s less altruism in that.)

We coined the term “personal cheerleader” when we were in college.  It’s not really a thing I think about a lot, but every now and again she’ll do something and I’ll remember how awesome it is to have a personal cheerleader.  Today it was a simple text message.  I have a short paper due tomorrow, but I was having a hard time forcing myself to work on it.  I sent her a text about the minuscule window of motivation I was dealing with for this task and her response included “You can do it!”  And, you know what, she was right.  Turns out I just needed to hear from my personal cheerleader 🙂

So whenever you read this, woommate, thanks for being my personal cheerleader.  It is greatly appreciated.

Until tomorrow.

I Think My iPhone Is Dying

This is terribly upsetting to me.  Not least because I haven’t even had it for two years yet, so I’m pretty sure that I’m not yet eligible to get a new phone.

Plus, there’s that whole iPhones are expensive thing.  I’m not currently willing to renew my AMC Stubs membership for 12 bucks; I’m really not keen on spending 200 bucks to get an iPhone 4S (even if I would get Siri).

But if my phone really does die I won’t have much of a choice.  (Obviously I’d have a choice to get a cheaper phone, but why?  I don’t need to constantly upgrade when Apple trots out the latest version of the iPhone or iPad, but when I decide to replace my current model I’m going to get the latest and greatest.)

I had hoped to keep my current iPhone for at least another year.  After all, my first iPhone worked fine for almost three years (I bypassed every variety of iPhone 3), even after Apple pretty much stopped supporting it (in the sense that iOS updates weren’t applicable to my phone when I finally got rid of it).

It’s funny, the thing that first made me notice the problems with my iPhone was the case.  I got one of Apple’s free bumper cases and it’s starting to fall apart a little bit.  Then I realized that I’d been having issues with the home button for at least a month.  Issues of the non-responsive variety.  I don’t know why a home button that didn’t react when I pushed it didn’t strike me as an issue until after the case started cracking, but it didn’t.  But now every time the home button doesn’t react when I push it I fear that my iPhone is dead.  Especially now that it decided to get rid of all of my alarms this afternoon.  That was fun.

A dead iPhone is just the last thing I need right now, so I shall try to remain optomistic.  (By the by, that’s an intentional misspelling.  Or perhaps it’s a word that I made up in college.  Either works.  You see, it’s against my nature to be optimistic, the best I can do is be optomistic.)

Until tomorrow.

How Did I Not Know About This?

F’reals, how did I not know that they were making a movie of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host?  I love that book!  I read all of the Twilight novels and enjoyed them, but still have no qualms about talking crap on them.  They’re enjoyable stories (if you ignore the fact that nothing ever really happens), but really terrible books.  But The Host is a completely different animal.  I’ve read it three or four times (most recently, two months ago).

But somehow I completely missed the news that there was a film adaptation in the works.  Until I saw this article from Entertainment Weekly today.  How badass is that teaser?  I’m not sure how I feel about any of the casting, though.  But that might be because I don’t think I’ve ever seen the guys who are playing Ian and Jared in anything before (obviously Ian and Jared are the most important characters, especially Ian since I have a huge crush on him – it’s not weird).  I also don’t know how I feel about Saoirse Ronan as Wanda/Mel.  I think she’s a good actress, but right now I can only think of her as young Briony Tallis (a/k/a the one who ruined everything) in Atonement.  I do like Diane Kruger as the Seeker and William Hurt as Uncle Jeb, though.

Okay, I just checked Stephenie Meyer’s Website for the first time in years to get her take on Saoirse Ronan as Wanda/Mel (she’s thrilled, thrilled, thrilled).  But I also got distracted by the news (to me) that she’s involved in the movie adaptation of Austenland.  I loved that book as well!  And it stares Keri Russell and JJ Feild (love, love, LOVE him as Henry Tilney in the recent adaptation of Northanger Abbey)!  Okay, Austenland has officially jumped to the top of my to be read pile as soon as I finish the biography of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that I’m currently reading.  Or maybe I’ll get impatient and start reading them concurrently.  Yeah, there’s a very good chance of that.

Thank God for the Internet and all of this lovely movie news it gave me today.  Without it this post might have been me whinging about Amazon using LaserShip instead of UPS to send me The Hunger Games box set I just ordered.  The UPS guy always delivered stuff by noon, but LaserShip didn’t get the package to me until 7 PM.  (I know it’s a first world problem.  But I was annoyed.)  Or I might’ve gone over the emotional roller coaster that was tonight’s episode of Supernatural.  Yay, it’s Cas 🙂  But he doesn’t know he’s Cas 😦  And now he knows he’s Cas, but he won’t get to help Sam and Dean fight the Leviathans 😦 😦  I miss Cas.

Until tomorrow.

Music And Language

One of the things I love about language is its fluid nature.  We’ve all heard someone refer to Latin as a “dead language.”  When languages don’t adapt and evolve, they die.  This is also true of one’s personal language.  Especially in this age of new technologies and the new words that accompany them (blog, tweet, google, etc.).

I know that my vocabulary changes all of the time.  Sometimes it’s to accommodate the latest social media craze.  But sometimes I pick up a word or phrase that I hear someone else using.  For example, I started using “as well” instead of “also” when I was in South Africa (and I still use it to this day) and at the height of my Firefly fandom I was using “shiny,” “rutting,” and “gorram” (and I should really start using them again because they are awesome words).

But the single biggest thing that had a conscious impact on my vocabulary was the very first issue of Rolling Stone I ever bought.  True story.  On Ash Wednesday I wrote about my annual tradition of giving up swearing for Lent.  I feel like it’s a worthwhile thing to give up because I swear a lot.  To say that I cuss like a sailor is an insult to the fine men and women of the United States Navy (such as my paternal grandfather, the Navy pilot, who never swore according to my dad).  But that wasn’t always the case.  No, for the first half of my life I was a complete goody-two-shoes and I didn’t swear.  I even looked down on the kids who did swear.  But then Rolling Stone put Gavin Rossdale on the cover (you know which cover I’m talking about) and 15-year-old me was inspired to buy Rolling Stone for the first time ever.

I think I kept that issue for over a decade (even when I stopped caring about Bush, I couldn’t get rid of it), but sadly I don’t have it anymore.  But here’s the thing I remember most about it: the swearing.  There were so many four-letter words not just in the Bush article, but in all the articles.  The first time I read the article it was almost too much for my poor, little, sheltered brain to take.  To that point I had had minimal exposure to vulgar language, and here it was all over a respected national publication.  The more often I read the article (and I read it a lot), the less distracting I found the language.  And eventually it hit me: swearing’s not really that bad.  After all, if it can be printed in all of its uncensored glory in a major magazine like Rolling Stone, how can it really be that terrible?  It’s not like the clerk carded me when I bought it at the store (good thing, too, since I didn’t have a license or a passport).  There was no parental advisory label on the cover.  Where’s the harm?

I decided that there was no harm (at least as long as my parents weren’t around) and thus began my slippery descent into the world of cussing like it’s my job.

The funny thing is, I was reminded of the Rolling Stone cover and the swearing and all of it when I heard Bush’s “Little Things” on the radio yesterday.  (I love that song but I hadn’t watched that video in years.  I forgot how freaking weird it was.)  It’s strange that something can have such a huge impact on your life (and I know that sounds weird, but deciding that swearing is okay was kind of a big deal for me) and then you just forget all about it until the most random thing reminds you.

Until tomorrow.