As I'm trudging through a day of piano, homework, and uncertain weather in the direction of my piano lesson, I checked into Instant Messenger. My friend left me a link to a picture she found. I'd seen it before, but seeing it again made my day.
Then I got thinking: there's another picture that usually makes my day.
It's oddity, literature (in the form of This is Your Brain on Music), music (yes, that is actually my piano), and all that red hair of mine. All rolled into one fairly awesome photograph.
Can it get much better than that?
Probably, but at the moment this will just have to do.
Inspired by a recent post from Ana Cristina, which I changed just a teensy bit... thanks Ana for letting me borrow this! 1. Do you like blue cheese? eh.. not really.
2. Do you own a gun? Nope.
3. What flavor do you add to your drink at Starbucks? I haven't had a flavor added, but I do like chocolate.
4. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? It depends. Sometimes I'm not, but other times I get all "nyaaah" inside.
5. What do you think of hot dogs? Unless it's those little ones in the cresent rolls, fugedaboudit!
6. Favorite Christmas movie? A Charlie Brown Christmas
7. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Milk or OJ
8. Can you do push ups? HAHA! HA! HA! No.
9. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? One of my favorites is a multistrand pearl necklace I received for Confirmation from my oh-so-wonderful neighbors.
10. Favorite hobby? Writing-Reading-Piano
11. Do you have A.D.D? Hm... do I have A.D.... OOH! Shiny object!
12. What's one trait you hate about yourself? If I think about something (i.e. the amount of work I have to do in a certain amount of time) too much I freak out.
13. Middle name? Catherine
14. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: Man, I love this song [playing on my iPod, it's "La Paga" by Juanes) Maybe I should wash my hair soon... Gah, my forehead itches, so does my back...
15. Name 3 things you bought yesterday/today? Book Mex. Hot chocolate (mmmm...) Muffin
16. Name 3 things you drink daily... Milk Water Milk
17. Current worry? Will I be ready for my college audition next year?
18. Current Dislike? "Reality" TV
19. How did you bring in the New Year? Watched Best of Will Ferrel and Monty Python and the Holy Grail with 2 of my friends.
20. Where would you like to go? Spain and/or Ireland again.
21. Name three people who will complete this? Maybe I'll prod OrangeOreos to do this... and, whoever else wants to do it, I guess.
22. Do you own slippers? Probably. They're buried in the black hole/bomb site known as My Closet
23. What shirt are you wearing? An LLBean deep-periwinkle 3/4-sleeve
24. Favorite color? Cerelean blue
25. Could you be a pirate? Arr, I could learn the talk, but I don't think I could last on the actual ship.
26. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever the Mental iPod decides to fire.
27. Favorite food? Blueberries and Chicken bites (not at the same time, mind you)
28. What's in your pocket right now? Left: Signo pen, Mirado Black Warrior pencil, flash-drive, old borrowed cell-phone Right: hair tie (I was looking for that!), lip balm, 3Muskateers wrapper, local library card, tissue, $20.60 (no, I'm not lending you any money). And yes, I absolutely love my pockets. They're there, why not use them???
29. Last thing that made you laugh? Something my friend Z said.
30. Favorite sheets? Blank notebook sheets.
31. Worst injury you have ever had? Falling off a chair when 2yrs of age. I can still feel the scar on the back of my scalp.
32. Do you love where you live? What's not to love about a small, cozy house?
33. How many TVs do you have in your house? Two.
34. Who is your loudest friend? Michelle, probably.
35. How many dogs do you have? Zero.
36. Does someone have a crush on you? Not to my knowledge.
37. What is your favorite book(s) ? If I must pick, it's a tie between Les Mis & Great Expectations.
38. What is your favorite candy? Chocolate, or Skittles
38. Favorite Sports Team? Can a tennis player count? It'd be Rafa.
39. What songs do you want sung at your funeral? Serious: "Amazing Grace," traditional hymn Ironic: "How Lucky You Are," Seussical the Musical
40. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sleeping.
42. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke this morning? Huh. Meh. zzzzz.
43. Favorite place to be? Somewhere with easy access to the outdoors, books, a piano, and plenty of writing utensils. And with a ton of windows. There simply must be windows.
I imagine the imaginary audience is familiar with the game Roshambo... known to us little people as Rock-Paper-Scissors. It's fairly simple to understand: Rock crushes scissors, Scissors cut paper, Paper covers rock. Yeah, that last one never made sense to me, either. However, since I've discovered The Big Bang Theory, I've found a variation of Roshambo: Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. It's the same idea, with two additions.
Didn't quite catch that?
The Rock-Paper-Scissors part is the same. Here's where it's different:
Spock crushes Scissors, and vaporizes Rock.
Paper disproves Spock, and Lizard poisons Spock.
Lizard eats Paper.
Rock crushes Lizard, and Scissors decapitate Lizard.
Y'get it?
And, according to the Rock-Paper-Scissor page on Wikipedia (I know, reliable source, right?), there's an "Ultimate Rock-Paper-Scissors Chart."
I swear, I can remember a multitude of pages of music, but for the life of me I have no clue who would go to the trouble of remembering all of those symbols. I'd prefer to remember the combinations of RPSLS, truth be told.
It's kind of odd, going out of one's comfort range. But sometimes it can be rather rewarding.
Last night, whilst I was out and about, I decided to go see the movie Coraline with a relative. Now, I'm not usually a fan of "weird" movies, but I was curious. I'd heard from several people that this was a good movie, but most prominently from my good friend OrangeOreos. Besides his blog post on Coraline, we'd discussed it a few times. He suggested I look into it.
I must admit, I was extremely impressed. More than a couple parts were "odd," border-lining "creepy," but I think that was the charm of it. But if there were only two things that were good about it (there were more, but for the sake of conversation), it would be the visuals and the music. Music always adds an emotional layer to any performance of any kind, and this movie's soundtrack really enhanced the action. And the visuals, in 3-D I might add, were absolutely astounding. There was charm in the twitchiness of the stop-motion, and the level and amount of 3D used was absolutely perfect. It wasn't overdone, but it wasn't underdone either; just enough and subtle enough to go for a lifelike quality.
Perhaps I should yield to my boundless curiosity more often.
That, and maybe I should go to the library today to check out original book...
Ah, the wonder that is NPR. I know, most people groan at the acronym, mostly associated with repeated news stories, culture segments, and absolute boredom. But in the mind of a geek or nerd such as myself, it's one of the greatest things to happen to the media. One of my personal favorite shows? Garrison Keillor's weekly variety show A Prairie Home Companion, with its musical acts, the highlight that is The News from Lake Wobegon, and the radio drama. You don't hear that much anymore. Likewise, I say this: ah, the wonder that is YouTube. If I were to mention this among the same group of people who shuddered at public radio, I'd probably get a totally different response. This is perhaps a staple of pop culture, a sponge of free time, as millions watch clips or vintage TV shows, or stop-motion Lego adventures, or even sneezing pandas. Some may think, "Man, I wish I could see a radio show." I know that sounds stupid, but I don't blame those who have that thought. I myself have seen Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and A Prairie Home Companion live, and it is quite fascinating, watching the people you couldn't pick out of a crowd by face alone, but upon hearing his or her voice there would be immediate recognition do their radio thing. Now, you may be wondering: how could NPR and YouTube be intertwined? Is this even possible? Oh, it is, my friend, it is! Relatively recently, Prairie has been posting videos of some of their skits and/or acts on YouTube. Now you can actually see a radio show, without leaving the soft glow of your computer screen!
This here's the Guy Noir segment from the 1/30/09 show.
Or, if you're looking for something much shorter:
But don't be afraid to poke around the actual website! http://www.prairiehome.org/ If you're a sworn "enemy" of public radio, but you're dying of curiosity, I won't tell anyone you visited the site.
A little-known fact: NPR actually interviewed Cookie Monster. I kid you not. Need proof?
I'll leave you with that, my friends. Isn't it fun to watch radio?
Alright, due to a hugely immense, insanely ginormous history project, I've pretty much had time for eating, sleeping, homework, two hours of practice (if I'm lucky), and The Project. So I've been living like a monk, essentially.
The Brother of the Piano and the Brother of History have been keeping me on a stringent schedule: waking up around 5 or 5:30 am, working until school, then practicing (if I can manage it, this week's been absolutely brutal to be honest) or working on other homework. And then I must toil away at the mountain of a history project, armed only with my strength, wit, and what feels like an applique needle.
Which isn't all that big, folks.
According to my initial calculations, most of the rock that made up the mountain were comprised of quartz.
Quartz is a pretty tough rock, my friends.
It ain't easy to pick away at that with a sewing needle.
But, now I am finally on the home stretch. I hand in the project tomorrow, once I finish it, of course, and it will finally be out of my hair!
-cue Hallelujah Chorus-
But for now, I must depart, for the monastery bedtime-bell is tolling, and the Book of Foner is gnawing at my ankle. I shall hold my tongue from crying out to the book: "Give Me Liberty!"
Top o' the mornin'! Another reason people probably think I'm out of my mind: Unfortunately, I forgot to do some of an assignment last night (-gasp in horror!-)... so what do I do to correct the problem? Hit the sack early to wake up at five a.m. No, I'm not joking you. I'm a morning person, what more can I say? I salvaged some sleep, and (hopefully) saved part of a project. I plan on knocking out the rest of it as quickly as I can... here's hoping that goes well! But, what research I kinda didn't do last night in history I made up for in research of the pop-culture variety: I TiVoed and watched a couple episodes of "The Big Bang Theory." That's right. I actually recorded and viewed a tv show not on PBS or Discovery Channel. -more gasps!- I'd heard about the show from two friends and my physics teacher, and figured it was worth a shot. I swear, it was absolutely great. A short demonstration can be found here:
