(So the thing I was going to post last night has been moved to next week. Blame the snow.)
The second part of this week's assignment has proved difficult for me to finish. I've looked through all of Cog Dog Roo's list of fifty and I've tried out several of them trying to create a "Web 2.0"* story. I've tried and failed several times. My stories, as I tell them, are incredibly wordy and round about and have a tendency to go off on random tangents. I don't tell straight up stories. My stories need background information and footnotes to be complete. Trying to cram one of my stories into a comic or a slide show or even on a map (which I tried several times) just doesn't work very well. There are some straight forward stories in my repertoire but then I become impatient with the tools at my disposal and even my more straightforward stories tend to be lengthy.** Largely though, I'm just rather impatient and don't really see the point*** of trying to use fancy tools to tell a story when I can just write it and be done with it. So this whole assignment is troublesome to me but because I want to do well in this class and so I want to be able to finish this assignment.
What I would really like to do is create a straight up podcast. I host a weekly radio show and having blogged for nearly ten years**** so I suspect I would be good at podcasting. But I don't know how to with just my computer and Audacity. The tools provided by Cog Dog Roo don't really help either and again, I don't have a proper microphone (which I feel I need for some reason.) So that's what I would have liked to have done for this assignment. And I would have talked about something. I had a number of ideas floating around in my head including last year's spring break, why I can't have blank walls in my room, the origin of my love of the Kaiser Chiefs, etc., etc. I don't want to say I'm giving up on this assignment (largely because I'm sure Prof. Groom wouldn't approve) but I think it's one that I might have to come back to later. When I get a proper microphone or someone tells me why I don't need a proper microphone. Which ever comes first.
*If one of the leaders of Web 2.0 is blogging, why can't a Web 2.0 story just be a blog entry? Hmmm??
**I should clarify: When I say lengthy I mean more than a hundred words. I'm actually a very concise person which has gotten me into a lot of trouble when I write papers. This is why I believe that humans should evolve to be telepathic. It would make my life a lot easier.
***I do see the point. Refer to footnote 1 for clarification on why I "don't" see the point.
****I was going to write about this fact (and my have actually already mentioned it) at length but found a more streamlined way to get my point across. Often what I "write" in my head never sees the light of day because I've forgotten what I "wrote."
26.1.11
My Pride and Joy
(This is going to act as a preface for something that will be posted later tonight, but which I'm actually working on right now because I like entering in the html myself and the thing that will be posted tonight is html intensive. Enjoy.)
I didn't originally want to go to Mary Washington. It took a lot of convincing to get me here*, but once I was convinced (and admitted) I made it my mission to do the following things: Brainwash the campus into loving the Kaiser Chiefs as much as I did and study abroad in London. My first mission would be done by being a member of the newspaper, Giant Productions, and the radio station (WMWC, what what.) Two of those things didn't happen. The radio station did. Still didn't brainwash the campus into falling for the Kaiser Chiefs, but I did get the opportunity to introduce obscure** British artists to the handful of people who listen to WMWC and my show. For an hour or two a week I got to play music I love*** and talk about things I find interesting.****
I've done a lot in my time here at Mdub. I've written an 18 page paper, worked two jobs,***** helped to found the school's sci-fi club, and studied abroad in London. But when all is said and done, I'll be most proud of my contribution to the radio station. I never acted as an officer, but I was there week in and week out no matter who was in charge, just doing my thing and promoting the radio station to the best of my ability. My show and the radio station are my pride and joy****** from the past four years.
*Basically it took meeting someone who knew someone named Trillian. I'm actually really easy.
**Or not so obscure if you're cool like that (or I play Lily Allen/Mika/Keane etc.)
***Or not love, though that's gone by the wayside now that I primarily use my Zune for each show.
****Or mercilessly mock people who I really shouldn't be mocking because they might crush me. It's still fun though.
*****On campus, so nothing taxing or particularly exciting.
******I promise to never do that again. And how did I get to six footnotes? Can't promise that won't happen again.
I didn't originally want to go to Mary Washington. It took a lot of convincing to get me here*, but once I was convinced (and admitted) I made it my mission to do the following things: Brainwash the campus into loving the Kaiser Chiefs as much as I did and study abroad in London. My first mission would be done by being a member of the newspaper, Giant Productions, and the radio station (WMWC, what what.) Two of those things didn't happen. The radio station did. Still didn't brainwash the campus into falling for the Kaiser Chiefs, but I did get the opportunity to introduce obscure** British artists to the handful of people who listen to WMWC and my show. For an hour or two a week I got to play music I love*** and talk about things I find interesting.****
I've done a lot in my time here at Mdub. I've written an 18 page paper, worked two jobs,***** helped to found the school's sci-fi club, and studied abroad in London. But when all is said and done, I'll be most proud of my contribution to the radio station. I never acted as an officer, but I was there week in and week out no matter who was in charge, just doing my thing and promoting the radio station to the best of my ability. My show and the radio station are my pride and joy****** from the past four years.
*Basically it took meeting someone who knew someone named Trillian. I'm actually really easy.
**Or not so obscure if you're cool like that (or I play Lily Allen/Mika/Keane etc.)
***Or not love, though that's gone by the wayside now that I primarily use my Zune for each show.
****Or mercilessly mock people who I really shouldn't be mocking because they might crush me. It's still fun though.
*****On campus, so nothing taxing or particularly exciting.
******I promise to never do that again. And how did I get to six footnotes? Can't promise that won't happen again.
23.1.11
My Web 2.0
I don't have the best memory. I don't remember when I first started using Google or Wikipedia. The only reason I remember why I started watching certain shows is because of my personal blog, where I can retrace the steps that got me to a certain point. When you're 15 you don't blog about using Wikipedia or Google. They just become a part of what you do on a day to day basis. I know that there was a time before Wikipedia and Google, but I don't remember them. They've always been there and they will always be there, at least in my memory.
For me, in my poor memory, the web has always been 2.0. Based on the article by Tim O'Reilly and cursory look at the Web 2.0 article on Wikipedia, this makes sense. My family had a dial-up service fairly early on and I remember logging on to AOL and then Netscape to access the internet. I don't really remember what I did on the internet at that age, though I suspect it probably had something to do with PBS (I've been a history nerd since I was at least 6, so you can see the appeal there.) But the web, as I know it and can remember it didn't really start until I signed up for my first real email account with Yahoo!* I was in my early teens at that point which would have been around 2001. So based on sources already stated, I really started interacting with the web right when web 2.0 was starting. 2001 was the year that Wikipedia started and Google had already been around for about five years. Based on my memory Web 2.0 is the only kind of web that has ever existed.
But what is Web 2.0? Both articles go some way to explaining what it is but to someone who's only really known Web 2.0 their explanations don't really help that much. So here's my definition. Web 2.0 is interactive and collaborative. Web 2.0 allows people to interface with each other and the web in a way that isn't confusing and can be done by someone who didn't major in comp. sci. To me Web 2.0 is blogging, Google, wikis, Twitter, and Facebook all wrapped together in one big happy family. And the reasoning behind my definition is that because I've only known Web 2.0, everything associated with what I know as the internet must be Web 2.0.
But** that doesn't really answer the question either. That's the problem with the web. It's constantly evolving so the web doesn't stand still for observation. We can try and categorize it, but what's the point? I say, let the web happen and when something new comes along to take over the web we can try and define it then. The internet, as easily accessible by ordinary people, has only been around for twenty or so years. Give it some time to grow.
*This account was setup in 2003, so while I can remember why I chose "cyd" to be part of it (I was a dancer and adored Cyd Charisse) I can't explain the rest. So please don't ask me to explain that particular address, I can't explain it.
**I hate it when I start two paragraphs the same way. So this is my apology for things like that. And any sentences with missing connective words. I type fast and have a tendency to only check for spelling. You'll get use to it.
For me, in my poor memory, the web has always been 2.0. Based on the article by Tim O'Reilly and cursory look at the Web 2.0 article on Wikipedia, this makes sense. My family had a dial-up service fairly early on and I remember logging on to AOL and then Netscape to access the internet. I don't really remember what I did on the internet at that age, though I suspect it probably had something to do with PBS (I've been a history nerd since I was at least 6, so you can see the appeal there.) But the web, as I know it and can remember it didn't really start until I signed up for my first real email account with Yahoo!* I was in my early teens at that point which would have been around 2001. So based on sources already stated, I really started interacting with the web right when web 2.0 was starting. 2001 was the year that Wikipedia started and Google had already been around for about five years. Based on my memory Web 2.0 is the only kind of web that has ever existed.
But what is Web 2.0? Both articles go some way to explaining what it is but to someone who's only really known Web 2.0 their explanations don't really help that much. So here's my definition. Web 2.0 is interactive and collaborative. Web 2.0 allows people to interface with each other and the web in a way that isn't confusing and can be done by someone who didn't major in comp. sci. To me Web 2.0 is blogging, Google, wikis, Twitter, and Facebook all wrapped together in one big happy family. And the reasoning behind my definition is that because I've only known Web 2.0, everything associated with what I know as the internet must be Web 2.0.
But** that doesn't really answer the question either. That's the problem with the web. It's constantly evolving so the web doesn't stand still for observation. We can try and categorize it, but what's the point? I say, let the web happen and when something new comes along to take over the web we can try and define it then. The internet, as easily accessible by ordinary people, has only been around for twenty or so years. Give it some time to grow.
*This account was setup in 2003, so while I can remember why I chose "cyd" to be part of it (I was a dancer and adored Cyd Charisse) I can't explain the rest. So please don't ask me to explain that particular address, I can't explain it.
**I hate it when I start two paragraphs the same way. So this is my apology for things like that. And any sentences with missing connective words. I type fast and have a tendency to only check for spelling. You'll get use to it.
22.1.11
Adventures in Public Transportation
As a resident of suburbia, I'm used to getting around by car. However for the past three summer that I have been volunteering/interning at WPFW I have to love the Metro. One of the things I miss the most about London is the Underground. And while I have a driver's license I have never owned a car. All this means is that while the majority of my fellow upperclassmen have control over how they get around Fredericksburg I am at the mercy of the FRED bus system for better and worse.
Generally speaking I have a love/hate relationship with public transport systems. I love them when they work and when they're on time and get me where I need to go in a timely fashion. I hate them one when they fail to do any one of the above. This is why my love for the Underground is so odd. Most of the time I was in London it worked like a charm but on the other hand most weekends I was stranded in the semi-suburb where I was staying (though it's more complicated than that.) I also understand that my admiration of the metro is odd because most residents of DC are more likely to moan about it than embrace it. But for me, with only a few exceptions, the Metro has worked.
On the other hand FRED and I seem to have a mutual disdain for each other. We're like ex's who broke up amicably - we put with each other but only to a point. While I have seen parts of Fredericksburg that I wouldn't have seen otherwise I do wish sometimes that I could have just driven from Central Park back to my apartment without having to wait an hour for a bus. While all of the public transport systems I have ridden on have been dysfunctional* in one way or another, Fredericksburg's system is perhaps the most dysfunctional of all of them. But who knows, maybe Boston** will prove even more dysfunctional.
*Really this all breaks down to my love of things what are dysfunctional. I don't know love them all the time, but I do identify with inanimate but dysfunctional systems. It's why I love WMWC so much - it's incredibly dysfunctional but it does the job well enough that no one knows just how dysfunctional it is. The same can be said for all of the above examples. I just have a thing for dysfunction.
**Boston aka the place I'll probably end up going to law school, unless Loyola LA surprises me and actually says yes instead of no or waitlist. But we shall see.
Generally speaking I have a love/hate relationship with public transport systems. I love them when they work and when they're on time and get me where I need to go in a timely fashion. I hate them one when they fail to do any one of the above. This is why my love for the Underground is so odd. Most of the time I was in London it worked like a charm but on the other hand most weekends I was stranded in the semi-suburb where I was staying (though it's more complicated than that.) I also understand that my admiration of the metro is odd because most residents of DC are more likely to moan about it than embrace it. But for me, with only a few exceptions, the Metro has worked.
On the other hand FRED and I seem to have a mutual disdain for each other. We're like ex's who broke up amicably - we put with each other but only to a point. While I have seen parts of Fredericksburg that I wouldn't have seen otherwise I do wish sometimes that I could have just driven from Central Park back to my apartment without having to wait an hour for a bus. While all of the public transport systems I have ridden on have been dysfunctional* in one way or another, Fredericksburg's system is perhaps the most dysfunctional of all of them. But who knows, maybe Boston** will prove even more dysfunctional.
*Really this all breaks down to my love of things what are dysfunctional. I don't know love them all the time, but I do identify with inanimate but dysfunctional systems. It's why I love WMWC so much - it's incredibly dysfunctional but it does the job well enough that no one knows just how dysfunctional it is. The same can be said for all of the above examples. I just have a thing for dysfunction.
**Boston aka the place I'll probably end up going to law school, unless Loyola LA surprises me and actually says yes instead of no or waitlist. But we shall see.
19.1.11
The Infinite Terror of Blogging Pt 3
(I promise I will start using a different title eventually. But trust me, using this title one more time will make sense. Honest.)
I am, by my very nature, a lurker.* I'm the consummate wallflower, a constant observer absorbing everything I can about the world around me. But while I comment in my own head about what I observe, I don't really feel the need to comment out loud. I read articles, I follow blogs, I read Twitter posts, but I don't say anything because a) website comment sections are truly scary and b) why? For much the same reason that Prof. Groom doesn't feel the need to get a cellphone, I don't feel the need to comment. Who am I to say anything about what anyone else says? So I lurk, learning and retaining mountains of largely useless information.**
Which is directly contradicted by the fact that I've been blogging for nearly 10 years. I started on deadjournal.com and slowly made my way to Blogger in February of 2005. I can search within that blog for nearly ever major landmark event in my life and can give an approximate date to when those things happen. I lay bare for anyone who wants to read it, my entire life in that blog. While I'm embarrassed by four or so years of what I wrote about, anyone*** can read about my avid fangirliness for a number of topics during that time simply by googling the right terms. But how does this effect anything outside my personal life? It doesn't. I blog to keep a record of my life so that when I get older I can look back and remember what I was like when I was fifteen, twenty, twenty-five. Alzheimer's runs in my family, so I would like to know that for better or worse there's a record of my doings for people to remember me by. Because as much as I lurk, I still want to be remembered.
So what of academia? In as much as I blog about anything, I blog about my classes. I don't blog about each of my classes to the extent that I suspect Prof. Groom will be wanting us to blog about this class, but I do talk about what I'm doing in school. Of all the things we'll be expected to do, I suspect for me that blogging about every step I take in this class will be the hardest thing to do.
I don't blog as much as I use to for many reasons. The biggest hope I have for this class is that I will start blogging more because I'll be inspired to blog more, instead of because I feel bad or whatever. And now, just to prove a point, here's a bunch of media stuff. Enjoy.
(one of my favourite videos of all time)
[caption id="attachment_28" align="alignnone" width="202" caption="Provided by thefilmstage.com"]
[/caption] (one my favourite movies that I saw last year)
*In classic internet parlance. Other synonyms include leech, which is probably accurate to a certain extent.
**Or useless at this point in time. Perhaps sometime in the future the useless things I know will be handy. I doubt it, but you never know.
***I've actually thought this through, at least in certain aspects and I just hope that no one looking to hire me figures out that the crazy blog they're looking is written my yours truly. Because if they ever did, there's a good chance no one would hire me.
I am, by my very nature, a lurker.* I'm the consummate wallflower, a constant observer absorbing everything I can about the world around me. But while I comment in my own head about what I observe, I don't really feel the need to comment out loud. I read articles, I follow blogs, I read Twitter posts, but I don't say anything because a) website comment sections are truly scary and b) why? For much the same reason that Prof. Groom doesn't feel the need to get a cellphone, I don't feel the need to comment. Who am I to say anything about what anyone else says? So I lurk, learning and retaining mountains of largely useless information.**
Which is directly contradicted by the fact that I've been blogging for nearly 10 years. I started on deadjournal.com and slowly made my way to Blogger in February of 2005. I can search within that blog for nearly ever major landmark event in my life and can give an approximate date to when those things happen. I lay bare for anyone who wants to read it, my entire life in that blog. While I'm embarrassed by four or so years of what I wrote about, anyone*** can read about my avid fangirliness for a number of topics during that time simply by googling the right terms. But how does this effect anything outside my personal life? It doesn't. I blog to keep a record of my life so that when I get older I can look back and remember what I was like when I was fifteen, twenty, twenty-five. Alzheimer's runs in my family, so I would like to know that for better or worse there's a record of my doings for people to remember me by. Because as much as I lurk, I still want to be remembered.
So what of academia? In as much as I blog about anything, I blog about my classes. I don't blog about each of my classes to the extent that I suspect Prof. Groom will be wanting us to blog about this class, but I do talk about what I'm doing in school. Of all the things we'll be expected to do, I suspect for me that blogging about every step I take in this class will be the hardest thing to do.
I don't blog as much as I use to for many reasons. The biggest hope I have for this class is that I will start blogging more because I'll be inspired to blog more, instead of because I feel bad or whatever. And now, just to prove a point, here's a bunch of media stuff. Enjoy.
(one of my favourite videos of all time)
[caption id="attachment_28" align="alignnone" width="202" caption="Provided by thefilmstage.com"]
[/caption] (one my favourite movies that I saw last year)*In classic internet parlance. Other synonyms include leech, which is probably accurate to a certain extent.
**Or useless at this point in time. Perhaps sometime in the future the useless things I know will be handy. I doubt it, but you never know.
***I've actually thought this through, at least in certain aspects and I just hope that no one looking to hire me figures out that the crazy blog they're looking is written my yours truly. Because if they ever did, there's a good chance no one would hire me.
18.1.11
Question Answered
This has next to nothing to do with this class or what I'm suppose to be doing in this blog, but I'm too excited to care. Besides, it's important to how I view the rest of this semester and the rest of my life really. So, yeah. Deal with it ;)
I've spent the past couple of months wondering if I would ever get into law school. Well my friends I have the answer: Yes. I have been accepted at New England Law School in Boston, so I do have it within me to get into law school. And as my mom said, even if I don't get in anywhere else, I'll have gotten into one school and that's all that's needed to go to law school. So to reiterate what my Facebook status says: I got into law school!!!! Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
I've spent the past couple of months wondering if I would ever get into law school. Well my friends I have the answer: Yes. I have been accepted at New England Law School in Boston, so I do have it within me to get into law school. And as my mom said, even if I don't get in anywhere else, I'll have gotten into one school and that's all that's needed to go to law school. So to reiterate what my Facebook status says: I got into law school!!!! Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
A Year Ago (One Last Reminiscence)
It's been a year. Actually it's been a year and two days, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to actually write about this before right now. So it's been a year and two days since I landed in London. A year and two days since I spent five hours freezing my ass off in Paddington station wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. A year and two days since my life began to change quite dramatically.
A year ago and two days I didn't know just how dramatically my life would be changing. I thought London would reaffirm everything I already believed not change it. I thought I would come back from London craving to go back immediately and never leave again. I thought it would make becoming a DJ so much easier. I never thought it would change my career goals or my understanding of how much my family means to me. London changed everything, but not in the way I thought it would. Which is probably for the best.
I do miss London. I miss being able to go to the theatre easily, I miss the Comedy Store, I miss the Tube, and I miss living in a city. No, I don't miss the people I was forced to live with, but as the immediacy of those memories recede, the good things, the things I loved about London remain. But because of London I know myself better than I did a year ago, so I know that while I love London. Living there would be unbearably hard. I couldn't go it alone like I did last year, I would absolutely need to have someone with me.
So it's been a year and two days. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but time doesn't lie (mostly.) I do know this - it's been a hell of a year.
A year ago and two days I didn't know just how dramatically my life would be changing. I thought London would reaffirm everything I already believed not change it. I thought I would come back from London craving to go back immediately and never leave again. I thought it would make becoming a DJ so much easier. I never thought it would change my career goals or my understanding of how much my family means to me. London changed everything, but not in the way I thought it would. Which is probably for the best.
I do miss London. I miss being able to go to the theatre easily, I miss the Comedy Store, I miss the Tube, and I miss living in a city. No, I don't miss the people I was forced to live with, but as the immediacy of those memories recede, the good things, the things I loved about London remain. But because of London I know myself better than I did a year ago, so I know that while I love London. Living there would be unbearably hard. I couldn't go it alone like I did last year, I would absolutely need to have someone with me.
So it's been a year and two days. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but time doesn't lie (mostly.) I do know this - it's been a hell of a year.
17.1.11
The Infinite Terror of Blogging Pt. 2
As hinted at in my last entry, I am very slow to adapt. It took a few months after getting into college to actually get a facebook account and it took my sister wittering on about the funny things being said on Twitter for a few months to actually convince me that Twitter wasn't completely worthless.* In fact the only way in which I'm truly progressive is in what I listen to and what I watch.** As I discovered when I was studying in London, I am actually a forty year old in a twenty-two year old's body (which can be very inconvenient, the forty year old can get quite grumpy about those youngins). Which leads me to my next point...
Last semester I had the opportunity to take a number of upper level history classes. I'm a music major who thought she wanted to be a history major, so getting to take three history classes was a revelation to me. In all three of those classes, at one point or another, each of the professors made the point that while the curriculum and ideas taught by academia can be quite progressive the actual professors are perhaps the least progressive people in the country, especially in their unwillingness to adapt to new things. Which leads me to my next point...
I have mixed feelings about "A Personal Cyberinfrastructure." One part of me, the part that probably convinced me that blogging was and continues to be a good idea and who got me to finally join Twitter, completely agrees with what Gardner Campbell has to say in both the lecture and the article. But the pragmatist, the part of me that knows that there are people in their mid to late 20s who don't know how to work a power point presentation, thinks that his ideas are nice and yes it would be great if we could implement them, but it would never really work. The majority of professors, heck even the majority of middle and high school teachers, would be unwilling to adapt to the new technology. The same professors who rail against Wikipedia as completely untrustworthy and incapable of providing accurate information would be same professors railing against Prof. Campbell's ideas as unnecessary and incompatible with higher education. They're wrong on both points, but they aren't going anywhere and so Prof. Campbell's ideas will, in all likelihood, go unfulfilled until my generation comes into power.*** That is, if people not like me become tenured professors at universities. Because I'm still not sure about this whole website thing. I like my templates.
*Hello! Welcome to my version of footnotes, wherein I make tangential comments that wouldn't make sense in the body of the entry. Tangential comment: This is a true story. I didn't get on the Twitter bandwagon until February of '09 but almost immediately started following Stephen Fry and rash of British comedians no one has heard of. It was a good day.
**Mwhahahahaha. The footnotes are not always mature.
Last semester I had the opportunity to take a number of upper level history classes. I'm a music major who thought she wanted to be a history major, so getting to take three history classes was a revelation to me. In all three of those classes, at one point or another, each of the professors made the point that while the curriculum and ideas taught by academia can be quite progressive the actual professors are perhaps the least progressive people in the country, especially in their unwillingness to adapt to new things. Which leads me to my next point...
I have mixed feelings about "A Personal Cyberinfrastructure." One part of me, the part that probably convinced me that blogging was and continues to be a good idea and who got me to finally join Twitter, completely agrees with what Gardner Campbell has to say in both the lecture and the article. But the pragmatist, the part of me that knows that there are people in their mid to late 20s who don't know how to work a power point presentation, thinks that his ideas are nice and yes it would be great if we could implement them, but it would never really work. The majority of professors, heck even the majority of middle and high school teachers, would be unwilling to adapt to the new technology. The same professors who rail against Wikipedia as completely untrustworthy and incapable of providing accurate information would be same professors railing against Prof. Campbell's ideas as unnecessary and incompatible with higher education. They're wrong on both points, but they aren't going anywhere and so Prof. Campbell's ideas will, in all likelihood, go unfulfilled until my generation comes into power.*** That is, if people not like me become tenured professors at universities. Because I'm still not sure about this whole website thing. I like my templates.
*Hello! Welcome to my version of footnotes, wherein I make tangential comments that wouldn't make sense in the body of the entry. Tangential comment: This is a true story. I didn't get on the Twitter bandwagon until February of '09 but almost immediately started following Stephen Fry and rash of British comedians no one has heard of. It was a good day.
**Mwhahahahaha. The footnotes are not always mature.
13.1.11
The Infinite Terror of Blogging
At some point in my pre-teen/adolescent past I had a website. It was actually a geocity site, but what I remember is that it was complicated. Very complicated. I don't remember how old I was or why I decided to register for a geocity site, but when I did I realized what I had gotten myself into and didn't like it. It required learning a new language and at whatever age I was I didn't want to do that. I also discovered blogging (wherein I learned very, very basic html) which was so much easier, so my geocity site when down the drain. Ever since I've been incredibly intimidated by the idea of owning or maintaining a website. And it turns out I was wrong.
For this class we were asked to buy a domain and rent server space to host said domain. I, admittedly, freaked a bit. Websites, according to my own philosophy, are a) expensive and b) complicated. But I wanted to be in this class, I love the ideas behind this class, so I did it. And man almighty was it easy. Which of course means I messed it up a little bit (imnora.us, not imnore.us), but if you're reading this, you are seeing how easy it is to actually. The weird thing is, is that I'm still ambivalent about owning a website. This is possibly because I fear turning into an all out geek instead of just being a cultural geek (which is what I am now and will admit to freely.) However I guess I will just have to overcome that fear in this class.
Edit: If you ever have an issue with having to delete root files (wp-admin, etc) here's a really simple solution thanks to a fellow blogger: http://nickriebe.com/cant-delete-wordpress-folders-to-re-install/
For this class we were asked to buy a domain and rent server space to host said domain. I, admittedly, freaked a bit. Websites, according to my own philosophy, are a) expensive and b) complicated. But I wanted to be in this class, I love the ideas behind this class, so I did it. And man almighty was it easy. Which of course means I messed it up a little bit (imnora.us, not imnore.us), but if you're reading this, you are seeing how easy it is to actually. The weird thing is, is that I'm still ambivalent about owning a website. This is possibly because I fear turning into an all out geek instead of just being a cultural geek (which is what I am now and will admit to freely.) However I guess I will just have to overcome that fear in this class.
Edit: If you ever have an issue with having to delete root files (wp-admin, etc) here's a really simple solution thanks to a fellow blogger: http://nickriebe.com/cant-delete-wordpress-folders-to-re-install/
11.1.11
Last Semester (Until Law School)
I'm going to start with a story about my day. The reason for this is because it will indicate the kind of mood I'm in which in turn will indicate how the rest of the entry will go. It's like a warning I suppose. So here's the story about my day.
It started with my alarm not going off. As I have mentioned numerous times (depending on where you're reading this) I am taking 20 credits this semester so the amount of time I have for anything (especially work) is limited to say the least.* So my plan for this morning was to wake up at 8:30am do morning stuff and be in the band room to set up by 10am. I woke up at 10:13. I have a class at 11am and then band immediately after, so waking up at 10:13am meant that band setup was out of the question. A real breakfast was also out of the question unfortunately. And lunch. So after music history (which ended at 3:15ish) I said hello to the library vending machine and settled in for a so-so afternoon. And discovered that the soda I had managed to get in between band and music history was leaking in my bag. Nothing important was damaged but my bag was wet and my soda was a lost cause. Thankfully I had a book and my Zune so the day that had gone all wrong ended up not so bad.
The first day of classes went much smoother. I woke up on time and I got to eat lunch. My swim class** is going to be way relaxed which is exactly what I was looking for. Oceanography is going to be a bit more intense than I was expecting, but Tibert seems pumped which will hopefully get me pumped. Intro to Theatre*** is going to be amazing and instead of writing about the Kinks I'll be writing about copyright, because that's just how I roll (and Fickett actually kind of approved that topic.) Monday/Wednesday/Fridays aren't going to be so bad I think, though I'm currently really biased against Tuesday/Thursdays.
Final topic I want to talk about (and kinda sorta have to): Digital Storytelling. I will admit after today's experiences I'm kind of ambivalent**** about this class. It seems a lot more intense (which is a word I need to stop using now) than I was expecting, but then again what we're going to be doing in this class is what I'm passionate about (from a law perspective in any event) and so part of me really doesn't want to leave this class. And of course there's the fact that anything I can get into is either going to be a) something I really don't want to take or b) equally time consuming. So the real question is whether to take the class pass/fail which has its own set of questions. In any event here's the big news: I have a domain name. It was really easy and really quick. Now I just need to get a webserver/host/thing and set up the blog aspect and I'll have myself a for real website. Which, as I sarcastically said to Mr. Groom tonight, is another thing I get to manage online. Yay.
*I require a certain amount of downtime/sleep time during my day, so while I could probably fit in more if I woke up at say 7am, I'm just not that kind of person, so why kid myself.
**I noticed that swimming met at the same time as weight training so I switched to the method of exercise I prefer. Sorry weight lifters.
***The only art history class I could fit in my schedule closed so I decided to not try and get into a closed class and take an equally interesting class that was open. I get to see "An Ideal Husband" so it all works out really.
****And my ex is in the class which makes me even more ambivalent, which if you've been reading this long enough, you will understand.
It started with my alarm not going off. As I have mentioned numerous times (depending on where you're reading this) I am taking 20 credits this semester so the amount of time I have for anything (especially work) is limited to say the least.* So my plan for this morning was to wake up at 8:30am do morning stuff and be in the band room to set up by 10am. I woke up at 10:13. I have a class at 11am and then band immediately after, so waking up at 10:13am meant that band setup was out of the question. A real breakfast was also out of the question unfortunately. And lunch. So after music history (which ended at 3:15ish) I said hello to the library vending machine and settled in for a so-so afternoon. And discovered that the soda I had managed to get in between band and music history was leaking in my bag. Nothing important was damaged but my bag was wet and my soda was a lost cause. Thankfully I had a book and my Zune so the day that had gone all wrong ended up not so bad.
The first day of classes went much smoother. I woke up on time and I got to eat lunch. My swim class** is going to be way relaxed which is exactly what I was looking for. Oceanography is going to be a bit more intense than I was expecting, but Tibert seems pumped which will hopefully get me pumped. Intro to Theatre*** is going to be amazing and instead of writing about the Kinks I'll be writing about copyright, because that's just how I roll (and Fickett actually kind of approved that topic.) Monday/Wednesday/Fridays aren't going to be so bad I think, though I'm currently really biased against Tuesday/Thursdays.
Final topic I want to talk about (and kinda sorta have to): Digital Storytelling. I will admit after today's experiences I'm kind of ambivalent**** about this class. It seems a lot more intense (which is a word I need to stop using now) than I was expecting, but then again what we're going to be doing in this class is what I'm passionate about (from a law perspective in any event) and so part of me really doesn't want to leave this class. And of course there's the fact that anything I can get into is either going to be a) something I really don't want to take or b) equally time consuming. So the real question is whether to take the class pass/fail which has its own set of questions. In any event here's the big news: I have a domain name. It was really easy and really quick. Now I just need to get a webserver/host/thing and set up the blog aspect and I'll have myself a for real website. Which, as I sarcastically said to Mr. Groom tonight, is another thing I get to manage online. Yay.
*I require a certain amount of downtime/sleep time during my day, so while I could probably fit in more if I woke up at say 7am, I'm just not that kind of person, so why kid myself.
**I noticed that swimming met at the same time as weight training so I switched to the method of exercise I prefer. Sorry weight lifters.
***The only art history class I could fit in my schedule closed so I decided to not try and get into a closed class and take an equally interesting class that was open. I get to see "An Ideal Husband" so it all works out really.
****And my ex is in the class which makes me even more ambivalent, which if you've been reading this long enough, you will understand.
31.12.10
The Round Up
I was going to go to a club to ring in the new year. But I'm not really the club kind of person, so now I have a stomach bug. No need to dwell on that though, let's sum up the year in a pithy fashion. As one does you know.
- Favourite Album: Mark Ronson, Record Collection. Possibly one of the best albums I've heard in a long time, Mr. Ronson proves with Record Collection that he can in fact write and produce original music without it sounding crap. Save for a couple of tracks I'm not particularly fond of Record Collection really is a brilliant album.
- What I Actually Listened to For Most of the Year: Glee. The thing about Glee is that they pick songs that are basically comfort food for ears. They aren't terribly adventurous and for the most part very well known. So when you want something simply to listen to Glee is an excellent option because the artists are talented and songs are comfortable. So that's mostly what I've actually been listening to.
- Favourite Film: Tie between The Social Network and Inception. The odd thing about this years is that I've seen a lot of great movies. It started in London when going to see a movie was a cheaper way to spend a couple of hours in central London than say, seeing a play or something of that sort. And while I could go to a museum might seem even cheaper, a movie is far more entertaining. In any event I became accustomed to going to a movie by myself, so I decided to do that. Multiple times. So I got to see a number of really great movies. But of all the movies I saw, my favourites were definitely Inception and The Social Network. Both were brilliantly devised, directed, and acted. However I can't really pick just one, so I suggest you go see both. Or you know, rent them when they come out on DVD.
- Best Book I Read This Year (That Really Wasn't Published This Year): Amongst the Thugs. Not only did it cover a topic I'm interested in (football hooligans) it also held within its covers the most disgusting scene I've ever read (which I won't commit to electronic paper for my more sensitive readers.) Thugs is an elegantly written book about a very inelegant topic that gives the reader an insiders prospective on a culture that is very hard to get involved in. Do yourself a favor and read it. And look out for descriptions of eyes.
- Thing I Hope Will Happen in 2011: That I get into law school. I may not be sure that I actually want to practice law, but I do know that I want to at least get into law school. Everything else is just frosting on the cake. Though I would like one of the following bands to start working on an album: Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, or Arctic Monkeys. That would be very nice.
4.12.10
The Bi-Monthly Update
All bullet points. Such is life.
- I miss London. I suspect that I will say that from now until I get back there, when I will immediately stop missing London and start missing DC. Right now though I miss London and I miss it with every fibre of my being.
- The situation with my roommates is just below civil. There haven't been any out right confrontations, largely because I hate confrontations but also because it's a week until we all go home. My hope remains to be that when we get back things will settle into a civil living arrangement that I'll be able to stand and that the ill-will which currently exists will have dissipated. A month away from each other should help, or at least I hope it will help. And if not then I'll do what I did second semester freshmen year which is stay away from the apartment as much as humanely possible. Which will be made easier by the fact that...
- I'm going to be doing a credit overload next semester. My adviser (and the school really) have failed me again and so I will be taking 20 credits next semester. One of these credits (quite literally 1) will be weight lifting. And here I thought I had finished with PE junior year of high school. Still I'm only taking 3 upper level classes and none of them are history. So it shouldn't be too bad right? Right. Optimism, always optimism.
17.11.10
True Facts
I don't like flutes. Or, more specifically, I don't like flutes outside of the orchestra or orchestral pieces. I find their sound far to airy to be taken seriously and it's incredibly easy to play a flute out of tune which is equally troubling. The people who play flutes tend to annoy me as well as they're either far too perky or far too self absorbed for their own good. Generally speaking there is nothing I like about the flute or the people who play flutes that I like. And yet I room with a flutist. Ironic, no?
I want to be acknowledged for the things I do. I don't do spectacular things, in fact most of the time I do my best to stay below the radar. But that doesn't mean I don't do things. I do important things, behind the scene things that if they weren't done people would suddenly notice. For those things I wish to be acknowledged, those things that I do behind the scenes. It's an utterly selfish motive, but I'm tired of people who don't deserve to acknowledged (at least in my opinion) being acknowledged before me. I'm tired of standing in the shadows waiting for a round of applause that will never come. I'm not asking to applauded every time I do band set-up or make it through the day without screaming at the top of my lungs, but just once I would like my efforts to be appreciated. Just once.
I want a job. I'm tired of school, I want a job. I don't care if it's menial, I don't care if I have to work as a temp, I just want a job. I want to make money, my own money just for me. That's all, I just want a job. I want to live on my own, in a city and work. Unfortunately I probably have another three years of putting off the inevitable before I can do that. Hopefully having those three years will mean that when I do face the inevitable I'll be able to make more money. Because what I really want is a job.
I want to be acknowledged for the things I do. I don't do spectacular things, in fact most of the time I do my best to stay below the radar. But that doesn't mean I don't do things. I do important things, behind the scene things that if they weren't done people would suddenly notice. For those things I wish to be acknowledged, those things that I do behind the scenes. It's an utterly selfish motive, but I'm tired of people who don't deserve to acknowledged (at least in my opinion) being acknowledged before me. I'm tired of standing in the shadows waiting for a round of applause that will never come. I'm not asking to applauded every time I do band set-up or make it through the day without screaming at the top of my lungs, but just once I would like my efforts to be appreciated. Just once.
I want a job. I'm tired of school, I want a job. I don't care if it's menial, I don't care if I have to work as a temp, I just want a job. I want to make money, my own money just for me. That's all, I just want a job. I want to live on my own, in a city and work. Unfortunately I probably have another three years of putting off the inevitable before I can do that. Hopefully having those three years will mean that when I do face the inevitable I'll be able to make more money. Because what I really want is a job.
11.11.10
Piecemeal
11/12/10: So I'm writing this paper. I've been dreading it since the beginning of the semester because I pulled the prospectus out of my ass and I was sure that there was no way I could write anywhere close to 15 pages on anything. I finished page nine tonight and by the end of business on Saturday I'll probably have another nine written.
11/13/10: Or not. More like 2 and half. But I'll have it done by Monday which is the point right? Anyway, I'm currently having flashbacks to London. And not the warm fuzzy kind I get when I think about tea and the tube. The unfuzzy kind when I think about my flatmates and having to move apartments. At least I'm two floors up and therefore can't tell what song it is they're playing down in the basement, but my instinct to knock loudly on their doors and call security is screaming quite loudly at the moment. However it's Saturday night so as much as I would like to go to sleep right now (so I can wake up early so I can't work on this damn paper), I probably won't get to. Of course I could always open my window and let the sound of traffic lull me to sleep. But then there are the drunken revelers returning home at odd times, so opening my window isn't really an option. Where are my earplugs when I need them?
11/15/10: The paper turned into a nearly 6,000 word opus on a topic that has been flitting around my head for ages. What annoys me more than anything though is that I still have ideas about that paper flitting around my head. Ideas about songs or bands or artists that I could have looked at. I thought that by writing this paper I would finally be done with this topic and would be able to move on with my life. But no, now I'm thinking about former British colonials and the music they brought with them when they immigrated to Britain. Taking a more in depth look at the punk/post-punk movements in the 80's in relation to the politics. And on and on. I need a new obsession because this one is getting annoying.
11/13/10: Or not. More like 2 and half. But I'll have it done by Monday which is the point right? Anyway, I'm currently having flashbacks to London. And not the warm fuzzy kind I get when I think about tea and the tube. The unfuzzy kind when I think about my flatmates and having to move apartments. At least I'm two floors up and therefore can't tell what song it is they're playing down in the basement, but my instinct to knock loudly on their doors and call security is screaming quite loudly at the moment. However it's Saturday night so as much as I would like to go to sleep right now (so I can wake up early so I can't work on this damn paper), I probably won't get to. Of course I could always open my window and let the sound of traffic lull me to sleep. But then there are the drunken revelers returning home at odd times, so opening my window isn't really an option. Where are my earplugs when I need them?
11/15/10: The paper turned into a nearly 6,000 word opus on a topic that has been flitting around my head for ages. What annoys me more than anything though is that I still have ideas about that paper flitting around my head. Ideas about songs or bands or artists that I could have looked at. I thought that by writing this paper I would finally be done with this topic and would be able to move on with my life. But no, now I'm thinking about former British colonials and the music they brought with them when they immigrated to Britain. Taking a more in depth look at the punk/post-punk movements in the 80's in relation to the politics. And on and on. I need a new obsession because this one is getting annoying.
8.11.10
Quickie
I got my LSAT score by and I've applied to all the schools I'm planning applying to. Pace is being a buttface (I know, mature) and not realizing that I have 12 transfer credits and won't process my application until I have at least 90 credits. 12 plus 79 from fall last year equals 91. Hence my frustration. However, I'm supposedly going to be hearing from DePaul in about two weeks, which is terrifying. Otherwise I probably won't hear anything until the end of the semester. Which is one of the many reasons I can't wait for this semester to be over.
My other reason for wanting this semester to be over is that I won't have to write any papers for a month. Right now I'm working on my British history term paper which, while fascinating, is 15 to 20 pages long. As I've mentioned before I've never written that much in my life and I'm not a history major. I should never have to write that much in a non-major class. Still, I will slog through it this week and will hopefully come out the other side with most of my sanity still in place. But we shall see.
That's it really. I just wanted to prove I'm alive and haven't gone off the deep end entirely.
My other reason for wanting this semester to be over is that I won't have to write any papers for a month. Right now I'm working on my British history term paper which, while fascinating, is 15 to 20 pages long. As I've mentioned before I've never written that much in my life and I'm not a history major. I should never have to write that much in a non-major class. Still, I will slog through it this week and will hopefully come out the other side with most of my sanity still in place. But we shall see.
That's it really. I just wanted to prove I'm alive and haven't gone off the deep end entirely.
26.10.10
The Question of Living With People
I can say in all I honesty, I don't know whether I'm a good roommate or not. Given the myriad living situations I've had over the last four years, it's difficult to gauge. I'd like to think that overall I'm okay to live with. Sure, I'm not very socially, but on the flip side I make a huge effort not to bother the people I live with. I keep my things fairly clean and I make an effort to keep my room organized and not looking like a disaster zone (though that can be difficult at times let me tell you.) I'm conscientious about cleaning my dishes and I take out the garbage and the recycling a fair deal. I pretty much believe that as long as you can't see it, why bother, which can bother people who are a bit more anal, but the method works well for me. From that view point I'd say the first three years (even including the disastrous second semester of junior year*) have been a success. This year though, I'm starting to wonder.
They leave their dishes in the sink for days on end. Even if I don't clean my dishes the night I use them, I always take care of them before the end of business the next day**. As I said, I take out the garbage in the kitchen and I do the recycling nine times out of ten. No, I don't vacuum the living room, but on the other hand I don't spend any time in the living. I make sure my room looks mostly presentable most of the time and I close the door when it's not. I don't clean the bathroom that often, but when it needs to be cleaned, I will (if only to avoid doing homework). I keep myself to myself and while that may mean I come off as a bit of hermit, well...I am. Does this make me a bad roommate? Does wishing my fellow flatmates take care of their dishes in a timely manner make me a bad flatmate? Does not putting away their dishes for them when I empty the dishwasher (which I run nine times out of ten) make me a bad roommate? I don't know to be honest. But it's really starting to bug me.
Beyond that, things are going as they always do. I registered for classes yesterday and I got all of the classes I wanted/needed for next semester. I find out on Monday what my LSAT score is and if it's really good, I'll tell you lot. If it's not, you'll find out whenever I decide to next update.
*Disastrous when it came to the people I was living with. Overall the semester wasn't that bad at all.
**11pm for those of you wondering. Yes, I am an old woman.
They leave their dishes in the sink for days on end. Even if I don't clean my dishes the night I use them, I always take care of them before the end of business the next day**. As I said, I take out the garbage in the kitchen and I do the recycling nine times out of ten. No, I don't vacuum the living room, but on the other hand I don't spend any time in the living. I make sure my room looks mostly presentable most of the time and I close the door when it's not. I don't clean the bathroom that often, but when it needs to be cleaned, I will (if only to avoid doing homework). I keep myself to myself and while that may mean I come off as a bit of hermit, well...I am. Does this make me a bad roommate? Does wishing my fellow flatmates take care of their dishes in a timely manner make me a bad flatmate? Does not putting away their dishes for them when I empty the dishwasher (which I run nine times out of ten) make me a bad roommate? I don't know to be honest. But it's really starting to bug me.
Beyond that, things are going as they always do. I registered for classes yesterday and I got all of the classes I wanted/needed for next semester. I find out on Monday what my LSAT score is and if it's really good, I'll tell you lot. If it's not, you'll find out whenever I decide to next update.
*Disastrous when it came to the people I was living with. Overall the semester wasn't that bad at all.
**11pm for those of you wondering. Yes, I am an old woman.
20.10.10
It's Been A Long Time Hasn't It
I've been blogging for nine years across four different platforms (though two of those overlap starting seven/eight years ago). The first two years I updated fairly consistently and then lagged around the time I switched from private to public school. I started up again once I had settled in to my groove again and for the next five years I blogged fairly consistently. In an odd way my blogging patterns mimic my mood. The more I update the better I'm feeling and the less I blog the more depressed (or overwhelmed) I am. I started blogging less and less after the ex* broke up with me and never really got my momentum back. There was a brief period where I was updating more, when I first got to London, but then the roommates from hell came to life thus ending what little momentum I had. I never got that back. Now I'm dealing with more work than I've ever dealt with before (in my entire life) and am just feeling incredibly overwhelmed. One of the books I'm reading has chapters than can reach 100 pages. I have a 200 page book to read by Monday. Then of course there are the Ancient Greeks who've never heard of brevity. And of course the only way I know how to handle all of this is by watching more TV than I can afford and cramming in as much reading as I can. I'm just glad that I've mostly curbed by other "Good God I don't know what I'm doing anymore" tendencies for the most part. Anyway.
I haven't given up on blogging. I get ideas about things that I want to write about, but by the time I get to my computer I've forgotten the idea or have lost enthusiasm for writing about it. I don't really like doing the whole bullet point thing, but given how much has been missed, it seems like the only choice. Writing out complete paragraphs covering the last two weeks seems far too time consuming and to be perfectly honest not that much happened and what did happened wasn't memorable to stick in my poor over taxed brain. So I'm left with doing bullet points and feeling like I've cheated a non-existent audience out of a proper update. However I don't really see things changing. I haven't given up on blogging, at least not yet, but I'm not going to apologize for not updating often anymore. Eventually I will give up, but for now, whoever reads this just be pleased that I haven't. I figure I've been writing in this thing for seven years, might as well make it to ten right? By then I'll be most of the way through law school and if I'm still doing this then...well then I don't know. I'll be even more insane than I am now? Anyway.
*Yes, I've gone back to calling him the ex. I blame his current happiness. I'm a very bitter person and hate it when he's happy. I'm only happy when he's miserable. This is why I'm going to become a cat lady in my later life.
I haven't given up on blogging. I get ideas about things that I want to write about, but by the time I get to my computer I've forgotten the idea or have lost enthusiasm for writing about it. I don't really like doing the whole bullet point thing, but given how much has been missed, it seems like the only choice. Writing out complete paragraphs covering the last two weeks seems far too time consuming and to be perfectly honest not that much happened and what did happened wasn't memorable to stick in my poor over taxed brain. So I'm left with doing bullet points and feeling like I've cheated a non-existent audience out of a proper update. However I don't really see things changing. I haven't given up on blogging, at least not yet, but I'm not going to apologize for not updating often anymore. Eventually I will give up, but for now, whoever reads this just be pleased that I haven't. I figure I've been writing in this thing for seven years, might as well make it to ten right? By then I'll be most of the way through law school and if I'm still doing this then...well then I don't know. I'll be even more insane than I am now? Anyway.
- Glee. That's all
- The LSAT went surprisingly well. In two weeks I will find out if those good feelings translate into a good score. I hope to god they do or I'll be going to Tulsa University.
- I saw The Social Network. I don't care if its accurate, all I know is that you should see it and all your friends should see it. It's just that awesome.
- Oh God won't the reading ever stop? Why???
- Wegmann's is a god among grocery stores. I still wish we had a Trader Joe's though. A girl can dream right?
- I did my first study abroad panel and the best memory I could come up with on the spot was seeing The 39 Steps. Next time it will be the Comedy Store and seeing Phill Jupitus in the flesh.
- At that same panel I described my living experience as "a unique British experience." Hopefully the audience didn't get the wrong idea.
- Terry Pratchett and Psych are extremely addicting. Avoid when you have many assignments due.
- Mark Ronson's new album is incredibly ace. I actually kind of wrote a review of it.
- Registration starts next week and I have one class left to decide on. Digital Storytelling or Art History II? That is the question that will be answered next week.
*Yes, I've gone back to calling him the ex. I blame his current happiness. I'm a very bitter person and hate it when he's happy. I'm only happy when he's miserable. This is why I'm going to become a cat lady in my later life.
4.10.10
A New Beatles/Kinks Theory
I've become kind of sort of obsessed with the AV Club over the past six months or so. And when I say kind of sort of obsessed what I mean is that I use as way to put off doing the shit ton of reading I need to do. One of the features of the AV Club is a section called "Coming Distractions" which is a bunch of trailers for TV shows and upcoming films. I only ever watch the trailers for films which is why I know the Smurfs movie is real and not just a gigantic ploy by the internet to make me sad. Today, while I was suppose to be working the media lab, I watched the trailer for a movie about John Lennon (before the Beatles) called Nowhere Boy. While I have many nitpicky problems with the trailer (which I will get into in the footnotes*) after not noticing anything about Cynthia Lennon, John's put upon first wife, and mentions of Hamburg, I went to the film's page and discovered that there was no entry for Cynthia. This irks me to a considerable degree and is probably the biggest problem I could have with the film. It also made me think about why the Beatles are so damn popular** while the Kinks are left to rot in obscurity (in the US.)*** And, after putting a selection of each band's music on shuffle I came up with a hypothesis (which is heavily influenced by the works of others, but whom I can't credit because I can't really point to who exactly was the influence. This however is probably not wholly original.) The songs the Beatles produced were a) highly generalizable (anyone in the Western world can relate to these songs) and fairly sexualized (which is always appealing no matter where you live.) The Kinks on the other hand are culture specific (most of their songs are only relatable if you are of working/middle class background [or have an affinity for that class] and have lived in England) and largely asexual (with a few minor exceptions including "Lola" for obvious reasons.) Add that to the mythos that surrounds the Beatles and the outgoingness of the lead singer/songwriters of the Beatles (especially compared to Ray Davies) and you have a pretty good explanation for why the Beatles will still be mostly popular fifty years from now and why only anglophiles will even know of the Kinks fifty years from now.****
In another piece of news I didn't mention yesterday, I saw a live performance of the famous Beethoven's famous ninth symphony. It was sufficiently awesome.
And now, back to not updating. I've got a book of Thucydides to read.
*The actor portraying John Lennon is way too good looking to be John Lennon. The accents aren't accurate (and I'm an American who shouldn't be able to tell that). The actor portraying Paul McCartney doesn't have enough fat on his face and his face is the wrong shape. Also his accent is an incredibly bland version of the Liverpudlian accent (which makes sense since he's from London, but still.) However it seems to have been filmed on location which makes me happy. Also, welcome back to footnotes!
**Not that I begrudge them their popularity (too much.) I'm a huge fan of the Beatles, I just think the Kinks need to be properly acknowledged by the world at large.
***The Kinks are only slightly less obscure in the UK where they are at least kind of acknowledged for their importance in British rock. The Who seem to get more credit for creating a distinctly British rock which is bullshit, but I won't go there.
****This is an exaggeration. But it's my blog so suck it.
In another piece of news I didn't mention yesterday, I saw a live performance of the famous Beethoven's famous ninth symphony. It was sufficiently awesome.
And now, back to not updating. I've got a book of Thucydides to read.
*The actor portraying John Lennon is way too good looking to be John Lennon. The accents aren't accurate (and I'm an American who shouldn't be able to tell that). The actor portraying Paul McCartney doesn't have enough fat on his face and his face is the wrong shape. Also his accent is an incredibly bland version of the Liverpudlian accent (which makes sense since he's from London, but still.) However it seems to have been filmed on location which makes me happy. Also, welcome back to footnotes!
**Not that I begrudge them their popularity (too much.) I'm a huge fan of the Beatles, I just think the Kinks need to be properly acknowledged by the world at large.
***The Kinks are only slightly less obscure in the UK where they are at least kind of acknowledged for their importance in British rock. The Who seem to get more credit for creating a distinctly British rock which is bullshit, but I won't go there.
****This is an exaggeration. But it's my blog so suck it.
3.10.10
Lyrics to Fill the Gap
Okay, so it's been a long time since I've updated. I'm not going to even pretend to catch up with what's been going on because that would be insane. For the most part I've been swamped with reading and other things, so this blog has dropped to fiftieth in my list of priorities (right after shaving and keeping my room tidy). However, thanks to repeated watchings of Glee I've found a new anthem for when I have to deal with my ex. It's not in any way accurate, but it makes me feel shiny so I don't give a damn. I will continue to not update, though I will try to inform this blog as to how my LSAT went (six days >_<) and other things that might come up. Just imagine me being a hermit reading and watching Law and Order: SVU. That really is my life at the moment. So here are the lyrics to tide you over.
I wake up every evening
With a big smile on my face
And it never feels out of place
And you're still probably working
At a nine to five pace
I wonder how bad that tastes
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
Now where's your picket fence love
And where's that shiny car
And did it ever get you far
You never seemed so tense love
I've never seen you fall so hard
Do you know where you are
And truth be told I miss you
And truth be told I'm lying
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
If you find a man that's worth a damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool you're just as well
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
Tomorrow you'll be thinking to yourself
Where'd it all go wrong?
But the list goes on and on
And truth be told I miss you
And truth be told I'm lying
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you find a man that's worth a damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool, you're just as well
Hope it gives you hell
Now you'll never see
What you've done to me
You can take back your memories
They're no good to me
And here's all your lies
You can't look me in the eyes
With the sad, sad look
That you wear so well
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you find a man that's worth a damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool you're just as well
Hope it gives you hell
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you hear this song and you sing along but you never tell
Then you're the fool, I'm just as well
Hope it gives you hell
When you hear this song
I hope that it will give you hell
You can sing along
I hope that it puts you through hell
I wake up every evening
With a big smile on my face
And it never feels out of place
And you're still probably working
At a nine to five pace
I wonder how bad that tastes
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
Now where's your picket fence love
And where's that shiny car
And did it ever get you far
You never seemed so tense love
I've never seen you fall so hard
Do you know where you are
And truth be told I miss you
And truth be told I'm lying
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
If you find a man that's worth a damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool you're just as well
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
Tomorrow you'll be thinking to yourself
Where'd it all go wrong?
But the list goes on and on
And truth be told I miss you
And truth be told I'm lying
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you find a man that's worth a damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool, you're just as well
Hope it gives you hell
Now you'll never see
What you've done to me
You can take back your memories
They're no good to me
And here's all your lies
You can't look me in the eyes
With the sad, sad look
That you wear so well
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you find a man that's worth a damn and treats you well
Then he's a fool you're just as well
Hope it gives you hell
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you hear this song and you sing along but you never tell
Then you're the fool, I'm just as well
Hope it gives you hell
When you hear this song
I hope that it will give you hell
You can sing along
I hope that it puts you through hell
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