31 Songs

Yet another wonderful meme from Nenette. Perhaps someday I’ll become brave and/or inspired enough to have an original subject. But for now, I like music, so here’s my list. I think you were supposed to discuss a song a day for a month, but that sounds like commitment. Also, I might have added a couple of categories.

day 01 - A song from the first album you ever brought: Video Killed the Radio Star – the Buggles. Before it was MTV’s first song. WAY before. It was on my “Rock 80” K-Tel album. I would have thought I would have hated it by now, but I still like that song. Event better by Radiohead.

day 02 - Your favourite single: I don’t have a favourite single. I waffle between liking current, classic, bad pop, sappy drippy crap and heavy, hard rock. The one consistency is I won’t listen to country. OK, Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd.

day 03 - Your favourite album track: Secret – Maroon 5. It’s very, um… sensual.

day 04 - A song by the first band/artist you saw live: Lucky Ones – Loverboy. [Sigh] I know. I was 13. Gimme a break.

day 05 - A song from your teens/childhood: Here Comes the Rain Again – Eurythmics. I got up at 3:00 am to watch the “video segment” of the Labour Day telethon put on by the local rock station. They played this video. Then I went back to bed, happy. Didn’t understand a damn thing about it, but it was just so cool to watch a video.

day 06 - A song by your favourite band/artist: 38 Years Old - The Tragically Hip. “See, my sister got raped, so a man got killed”. This could go under the “best lyric” category too.

day 07 - A song that reminds you of a season: Fire & Ice – Pat Benetar. Uh… Winter? Really, just wanted to get a Pat Benetar in here.

day 08 - The song you play the most on your mp3/iTunes/etc.: Technically, it shows up as Gettin’ Over You - David Guetta & Chris Willis, featuring Fergie & LMFAO. But it’s possible that my daughter is tainting my results. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

day 09 - Favourite new release (has to be less than 2 months old): Whatever Doesn’t Kill Me – Finger 11.

day 10 - An awesome driving track: Radar Love – Golden Earring.

day 11 - A song that reminds you of your best mate(s): The Baseball Song - Meatloaf. Some of my besties even know all the words to the play-by-play. Yes, I know it’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

day 12 - A song that makes you laugh/smile: In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel

day 13 - The song that contains your favourite lyrics: Crossfire – Brandon Flowers. “Our dreams will break the boundaries of our fears”. Also: “Lay your body down, lay your body down, lay your body down… next to mine”. OK, that one sounds pretty basic in writing. Sung, it’s really nice.

day 14 - Your favourite acoustic cover/track: Overkill – Colin Hay.

day 15 - A song of an album that has brilliant cover art: Time – Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon). While I still had “student-deco”, that was a staple of my décor.

day 16 - Your favourite TV theme tune: Mad About You. Maybe I just liked the show.

day 17 - A song that reminds you of a holiday: Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel – The Broslofskis with Stan & Eric. South Park. Yuh-huh.

day 18 - A song that makes you think of a family member: White Wedding – Billy Idol. My dad wanted me to play this at my wedding. Yeah, he’s heard it and he knows what it’s about.

day 19 - A song you never get sick of hearing: Crossfire – Brandon Flower.

day 20 - A guilty pleasure song: Take it Off – Ke$ha. This song angered me as it was to the tune of “In the Land of France Where the Ladies Wear No Pants”. And then I started liking it. And then I was ashamed. And then I stopped caring. And then I bought it. And now I’m back to ashamed. Wait! Nope, don’t care.

day 21 - A song you can’t help but sing along to: Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ - Journey. I don’t even really like that song. Oh, who am I kidding? Just about any song that comes on the radio. Yeah, I’m “that guy”. In the car next to you… And who am I kidding? I love that song.

day 22 - A song that reminds you of your bf/gf/partner/etc: Ain’t No Other Man - Christina Aguilera.

day 23 - A song you play when you want to relax: Into the Mystic – Colin James. I heard this once on the radio when I needed to relax and didn’t know it and it was magical, so I bought it.

day 24 - A song you play before a night out: Wild Flower – the Cult.

day 25 - A song from a band/artist you’ve just ‘discovered’: Crossfire – Brandon Flowers. Okay, so he’s the singer for the Killers, but apparently they wanted to take a break & he didn’t & I love this song. This song might be kind of haunting me. I’d also file this under “A song that nobody seems to get but me”, since I keep playing it for people, and they keep responding “meh”. Morons. All of you.

day 26 - A song off of the last album you brought/last track you downloaded: Paranoid Freak – The Trews (SO glad I bought that after T’Pau, so I don’t have to cop to that).

day 27 - A song no one would expect you to love: The Fear – Lily Allen. The explicit version. Of course.

day 28 - A song you would sing at a karaoke night: not opening this up for debate, lest someone actually hold me to it.

day 29 - A song that makes you sad: Save a Prayer – Duran Duran. But it’s a “good” sad.

day 30 - Best angry song: Harder to Breathe – Maroon 5. “Not fit to fuckin’ tread the ground that I am walking on”. You can’t help but feel better growling that. Of course, depends at whom you are angry, because in the next verse “clutching your pillow and writhing in a naked sweat; hoping somebody, someday will do you like I did” doesn’t apply for me. Usually.

day 31 - Your least favourite song: Pretty much anything by the Guess Who, Or Burton Cummings; Michelle – the Beatles. I know! I’ve never really liked that song. (I prefer My Michelle, by Guns ‘n’ Roses)

day 32 - Best use of bagpipes in a song: It’s a Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll - AC/DC. Duh.

day 33 - Your favourite song of all time: Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel.

Crazy! Search! Terms!

Some blogging people end up with fantastic posts about all the *whacky* search terms used to find their blogs. Things seemingly unrelated, but probably connected somehow by the spaghetti of connections - both hard wired and programmed - that hold this bizarre internet together. We need to explain things, to figure out *what* in my series of characters strung together caused this connection? WHAT? HOW DID YOU GET HERE?

Not me. I'm just glad I wrote this post a while back, or I'd get no hits at all.

I'd like to think that, though I've temporarily derailed their quest(s) for - uh - higher learning through teh internetz, they've gained something. And if one - just one - pauses to think about what they're doing to -- ahahahahahaha!!! oh mercy.... good one Harmzie.

In reality, I get a great thrill out of yelling "HA! SUCKER!" every time I see a hit with that source.

I'm shallow.

I'm good with that.

Well Red (not a typo)

So apparently this blog thing, like a pet (or so I would suspect) requires attention and feeding. Kids too, so all the books tell you. Or so other parents tell me the books say. Because, you know, the reading.

So I've been receiving nasty, passive-aggressive reminders from Blogging and Family Services [BFS - haw!] that it's time to attend to this dying pet before it gets taken away from me. And then I grow old alone -on the Internet - with no one to love me - on the Internet - and I have to rely on humans for contact. As an engineer, you can see the problem I'd have, so I'll be good!

So the outreach program outreached to me via my blogging mama Nenette. When Nenette tells me to jump, I say "how hi?" And she says "don't you mean 'how high?'" And I say "yes mistress" And so on. I think I might be digressing a little. Mostly, she knows I am a sucker for a meme.

This one has something to do with taking pictures of red shit. Well, not red shit, but shit that is red [hey, that's not better]. It would be helpful now if someone would shake me and say "you know you can edit this, right?", but I'm in kind of a stream of consciousness kind of mood. I'm so sorry. You can go if you want.

So here's all my red crap. I saw this meme and thought "Yeah!!! I LOVE red" and then looked around and saw that most of my home and wardrobe is black, white & brown (and variations)(well, of brown, since black and white are pretty well defined)

BUT it's those splashes of red that make me love that colour. [YES THAT'S A WORD!! Shut up Blogger, you let me have a google.ca home page, but you don't really mean it.]

So I gathered several of my favourite [THAT is a word too!!!] red things and assembled them on my bed. Please don't read anything in to that. It's just the tidiest surface in my home for taking pictures of stuff. I think it was supposed to be 7 red things. Turns out I'm either not good with counting, or not good with rules. Or lazy. Whatever.

Of course, every single one of these items has a story...

(1) Red bed sheet. When we moved into our house in 2001, I decided that Norah's room should have a simple theme of Primary Colours [I swear, Google spell check I'm going to fucking snap on you]. Well, just try and find primary coloured bedsheets. I did. This looks pristine, because it's never actually been used. I've only ever used the fitted sheet and a duvet with a cover, since that results in a bed actually being made every so often (I mean, by me).

(2) This is one of my very (very) few pieces of jewelery. I bought it from a former boss's daughter who brought back a bunch of jewelery from New Zealand (or Australia? I forget because I probably wasn't listening, I was drooling and groaning: "oooooo... preeeeeetty")

(3) M.A.C Viva Glam VI. At least I think it's VI. The two digits (they're roman numerals, so YES they're digits!) wear off, and I can not ever remember whether it's IV or VI. BUT as scary as those ladies at the M.A.C counter look, they know their shit! I walk in and say "I need a Viva Glam IV" and they kind of stare at my face and say (this has happened more than once) "are you sure it wasn't Viva Glam VI?" Like they know IV just wouldn't work for me. I DON'T EVEN KNOW THAT!!! So, yeah. you had me at Viva Glam whatever. It's the only colour I wear. If I'm going bolder, I do it with the lip pencil.

(4) This is possibly THE best -- game -- ever. I picked up Apples to Apples Junior because a friend/coworker recommended it, and was she ever right. With this game, a group of ALL AGES can have a seriously great time. The only real requirement is reading.

My family sets up nights to come over and play Apples to Apples with the kids (and we're allowed too). This game was so popular that one Birth/mas I picked the adult version for my sister. And no, it's not p0rn. It's just more mature themes. I want to just keep going about this, but maybe I should do a separate post. If anyone wants to provide ME with the grown-up version of the game, I could do a review? hmm? hmm? Wait. I already said it was awesome. I suck at this whole Internet marketing crap.

(5) This is one of my favourite shirts (blouses?) Way back when Jacob was only in Toronto & Vancouver, my then high-school-aged sisters were all "Waaaw! Jacob is AAALL that AND a bag of chips" and I was all "what the hell is Jacob?" (with it, I have always not really been).

So every trip that anyone ever took to TO, Vancouver or Montreal, was required to stop for souvenirs. So my dad did one time and dropped off mine & my sister's when she was living with me. It was this and a kind of plainish t-shirt (still very nice). He dropped off separate bags with instructions on which was which. When we opened them, we both (I'm sure) silently thought they had been mixed up because mine was WAY cooler and hipper than hers. But I just shrugged and quickly said "awesome!! I LOVE it!" And then she proceeded to borrow it any time she could! (Which was a fine trade). It's still in great shape and I even wore it last Saturday on my date with Max (whole other story: kids were pissed that we waste time on such frivolities)

So anyways, fast forward to Jacob opening locally and now it's pretty much the only place I can get clothes that fit me (they sell suits as separates, and go down to size OH LOOK SOMETHING SHINY!!)

(6) These are my notebooks.

The spiral one is where I write crap down that I have to get out of my head and I can't get on to our computers (yes, plural. I suspect it will get worse before it gets better). Also scratch lists, sketches of other posts that don't have form yet. Also, the beginnings of Rougie's requested nerd graph. It hasn't been forgotten. That's just how I roll. I'm not proud of it.

The *nice* notebook is the one that we are using to organize our lives. We started with family meetings (idea courtesy of Nicole, the Planning Queen) and putting our notes in a formal book. We've been lax with that for a while (though we have to revisit it, because it was a great thing to do), but we have been having regular planning meetings to map out projects or tasks that would otherwise just get done "later". We list a small number of accomplishable tasks like sorting through that pile of crap on the table behind me that's NOT staring me in the back of the head saying "What the fuck? A blog post? Are you serious?" I figure when piles of crap are talking to you, the best thing to do is pretend they aren't. Or start swinging at them with an ax. But I don't happen to have an ax (note to self: get ax).

(7) This is the suitcase; that carries the clothes; that Harmzie will bring; when she goes to Chicago; and meet up with her bloggie friends; and try an Irish Car Bomb for the first time (it's a drink, people... I think.)

If we decide that we have to bring the ball-gowns, the Victoria's Secret wings or the oversized inflatable Grey Goose bottle, I also have the next size up in the same colour.

(7a) (Late entry) Was inspired by Rougie's similar photo essay. Also by the fact that I'm pretty sure it's the same colour and brand. I KNOW!! It's like we were separated at birth. And 7 years.

This is my fave toe colour. Every time Margo & I go for a pedi, I think "I'm doing something different, and then I go with OPI's "Edinburgundy". Or "Vodka & Caviar". (Margo, incidentally, usually goes with "I'm Not Really a Waitress". I could totally be a waitress. Except for all the personabilty things. And the servitude. And the requirement to not say things like "get your own fucking water!")

There it is. Now the instructions tell me to tag a bazillion (yes, some duplication. But I really want to see your red pics)

AndreAnna @ Diary of a Modern Matriarch

McMama @ McMama's Musings

Nicole the Planning Queen

Marymac @ Pajamas & Coffee

Juli @ Wellington Road

Cass. Just Curious

Samantha @ Back to Me

Go, minions...

[sorry about the formatting. It did one thing with one batch of pictures and another with the other. The codes are like a mile long and I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ANY OF THEM DO. So yeah. Totally zonked. Zonked means tired]

First Day

It's the first day of school and my kid has no shoes.

Shouldn't someone have sent me a memo or something?

They sent you three. One for each kid. Each one said: "they need a special, separate pair of shoes for the classroom". Each one said: "first day of school is on the 9th. Of September".

Shut up. That doesn't count. They need to send them with an electric shock attached to them. In your face. Rebut that one.

Flipping... a coin

Hmm... write an intelligent, mind-blowing, articulate, insightful, life-changing, world changing [back it up, Harmzie] piece about, well, anything...

Or...

Finish Flipping Out? [Go. Get it. Chapters has it. I checked on line. Then I went INTO the store and saw them ON the shelf. Polo Park location,at least. No I don't have a problem. Shut up, I don't.]

Has THIS post changed your life?

Ya. I guess you've got your answer.