You know, I love RENT, and I don't think that I'll ever stop loving RENT.
BUT I'm proud of myself. Today, I stepped outside of my musical theatre box for the first time in at least a year.
I must admit--I'm not listening to anything super classy. It's some random electronic music, but I really enjoy it. It makes me smile and dance a little bit, and I really like that.
It all started with this band called "Owl City."
Healy was showing me this random music playlist made by youtube's livelavalive and his friend Kyle. The songs were good and everything, but then this one stuck out to me. I looked on the songlist to find it was Owl City. I've never heard of them prior to this, and, frankly, I'm shocked. I love owls, I love music--how'd I miss two of my favourite things squished into one?!
Once again, it's not like they're the best things I've ever heard; Rent still owns anyone as far as talent is concerned. Still, I'm enjoying my new Owl City pandora station, and it's pretty lightweight.
Thus far it's played:
1. "West Coast Friendship" by Owl City
2. "Even Fairy Tale Characters Would Be Jealous" by Playradioplay!
3. "Title and Registration" by Death Cab for a Cutie
4. "Brand New Colony" by Postal Service
and I'm very happy with that.
UPDATE: Owl City is a Christian band. I'm avoiding all of the Jesus songs (not that I have anything against Jesus--he's a nice guy. I just don't like the awkward insertion of Jesus into popular music).
23 April 2009
Tonight in the lot between A and B--party at Life Cafe to follow!
20 April 2009
Lovely Things
1. Attractive and intelligent boys
3. Music with words
4. Music without words
5. Words without music
6. Peace and its various symbols
7. Musicals
8. Operas
9. French
11. Books
12. The smell of rain
13, The silence of snow
14. Kissing
15. Good movies
16. The Gays
17. The Physical Act of Typing
18. The Physical Act of Writing
19. Running (short distances)
20. Understanding
21. Light bulbs
22. Animals
23. Staying Awake Too Long
24. Adventures
25. Noticing Something for the First Time
26. Charlie Brown
27. Puppies
28. Bohemian America
33. Talking to Someone Important
34. Dancing
Grammar Interlude #1
I hate Oxford commas with a fiery passion, and I couldn't begin to tell you why.
Generally, I'm a liberal user of punctuation. I'd usually rather have too many commas than not enough. Still, something about the Oxford comma bothers me. I think it's so ugly, so unnecessary.
Some of you probably haven't the slightest clue as to what I'm talking about. I'll explain. In the following italicized sentence includes a series of three, and, as much as it's going to hurt, I will use an Oxford comma:
I like apples, bananas, and oranges.
The second comma, the one after bananas, is an Oxford comma. I have literally come to blows with someone based on its usage rules.
See, the thing is that the Oxford comma is totally optional. Technically, there's nothing wrong with using it, but there's also nothing wrong with leaving it out.
Let's think about this for a moment.... The word "and," as a conjunction, provides the pause needed in the aforementioned series. Why, then, should we double the pause? It's completely unnecessary to define that understood pause.
Now, let's look at a time when both a conjunction and a comma are used:
I love singing, and I couldn't live without it.
Is it not true that in the absence of the second "I" in that sentence, the comma would be incorrect? When joining an independent clause and a dependent one, a comma isn't needed if you have a conjunction. If you are given two independent clauses, like in the example above, you need more than a comma can provide. You can either add a conjunction or use a semicolon or dash instead.
What does all of this have to do with my hatred of the Oxford comma? Plenty, I've noticed. You see, in the first example above, all of the items in that series are entirely dependent. Without the rest of the sentence, "banana" means nothing. Therefore, since "and" is being used as a conjunction, the Oxford comma is obsolete.
Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.
02 April 2009
Creative Piece #1
I'd like to know when she puts on her nail polish. Every time I see her, she has perfectly chipped nails. Not once have I passed her on campus or in the library and seen her with freshly painted nails. They're never unpolished, either--always that right in the middle, chipped and honest, like the person who has just the right amount of fun.
Somehow, we manage to see each other all the time without a persistent time or place. I'll pass her one Tuesday on the way to class at 11, but never again. I'll see her studying in the quad at 3:30 on a Thursday, but never again. It's almost like she has no schedule; this is the time and place and person she chooses to be, and the world can bend to fit her.
Though I try to understand, I can never quite put my finger on why she's so intriguing.
I think it's those nails.
I wrote this piece in BKG's class yesterday during a "free write." I like it enough--I always like my characters, though. The problem is that I can't ever think of something for them to DO. I can't ever think of a plot or a storyline to save my life. That's why I've always been a poetry person. I don't really like poetry in the traditional sense, but I can't seem to stop writing the damn stuff.
Why? Because I can describe ANYTHING for any length of time. I hate Hawthorne and Hemingway for their overly-descriptive pieces of crap, but I write in the same way.
Any constructive criticism and/or advice is welcome.
28 March 2009
New direction?
I haven't posted in a long time because I haven't really had much to post--I created this blog with the intention of reviewing and discussing novels, plays, short stories, etc, but I don't really have time to read right now. When I read anything, I read with a pencil, and all of my books are abused beyond recognition. I wouldn't enjoy reading any other way, but it is very time consuming. I've got nine classes this semester, I'll be taking another two online over the summer and then eight again in the fall, so my plate is pretty full.
Still, I miss this. What little I've written on here, I have enjoyed, but I have no desire to create an online journal (see my cyberbulling entry for a little more of my opinion on things of that nature). I want to write, and I want to write NOT about my life....
...so I'm thinking of taking this blog in a new direction. In lieu of reviews and critiques, I think I'll start posting creative pieces. It seems to be that it would be a great way to think through things, and posting online means that I don't have to see any actual initial reactions to my pieces. People can comment if they'd like, but they most certainly don't have to.
I haven't written creatively in a long time, but I recently had to have a piece for my Secondary Writing Instruction class. I ended up being happier with it than I anticipated; like most others, I am very critical of my own work. Even better, the professor was happy with it--I didn't get full points on the piece, but she suggested on the front page that I consider publishing it one day.
That blew me away. It intrigued me as well. The problem, however, is that I could barely show that piece to my friends and peer editing review group, let alone attempt to publish it in a magazine or journal or (gulp) book. That sort of judgment on something so personal absolutely terrifies me. My piece is my piece, and I don't want anyone telling me it's not good enough.
Then I had an idea--this could be a nice starting point for me. I'm not delusional enough to think that people actually keep up with my blog (especially after I abandoned it for so long), but I think just posting pieces will help me get used to letting them go out into the dangerous world.
I'm still scared--I'm not going to lie--because so often I write things that I am afraid to say. In my creative piece for the class I mentioned above, I confronted my parents about every viewpoint we don't share. Once that's on the internet, there's no taking it back. Anyone can see it, steal it....man that's scary.
20 February 2009
What a surprise...
16 February 2009
Cyberbullying
I've actually heard of the Megan Meier case before, but I didn't know it occurred so close to St Louis. That story is absolutely devastating--to think that an adult, a parent, would take advantage of a child like that, especially when she knew the girl had issues with depression.
I feel like people have stopped thinking before they speak (or type, in this particular instance). People, myself included, don't think about what kind of impact words can have on others. The internet definitely makes it easier to forget that other people are affected by what you say. Take blogs, for instance--writing here, in MY room on MY computer on MY blog feels so much more personal than it really is. That feeling of intimacy inspires some people to write things that shouldn't be written--opinions on other people, too much about yourself, etc.
I know that some blogging sites, like LiveJournal, allow you to vary the privacy of posts. You can have public posts, friends-only posts and private posts, all in the same blog. Still, the user may not always make the right choice. When you're angry and you're ranting and raving, you don't consider the feelings of others (generally). You want the world to know you hate so-and-so and what a horrible person so-and-so is.
It's hard to keep your feelings to yourself, and bottling things up never helps. If I just have to tell SOMEONE, I find that ranting (aloud) to a close friend who knows you are just letting off steam is very helpful. If I just have to write it down or type it out, I do that--into a journal or word document. I password protect those word documents, and usually end up deleting them when I'm cleaning out my computer files.
