These are a few of my favorite things - Day One: Music

So, I spent my day off at the farmhouse. I got some more fun shirts from my truly amazing brother and my awesome sister-in-law. Then, ate some good ice cream cake with the family. There's my weekend.

Okay, so I was inspired by my last post - aka literal music video and Mindwalk Blvd - to post more of my favorite things. But, there are too many of them to post all at once so I figured I could span it into a week. Maybe it will help distract me from reality and the significance of the next few days.

I have a lot of favorite things, music, movies, tv, books, hobbies, etc. Tonight I'm gonna focus on music. Music is kind of a big deal to me. It's relaxing, it's fun, it's catchy, sometimes annoying aka "Do the Bookdrop", but still something I can't live without. One of my favorite quotes from college came from this girl I had one class with total.
Best Friend: You know the girl with the headphones who stares at her feet when she walks?
Girl: Oh yeah, she's so sarcastic I love her!
When someone knows who you are just by those descriptions it means something.
Anyway, I thought it was funny, but yes, headphones are constantly in my ears or my pockets because sometimes I just like to jam out, you know? Sometimes it drives people nuts but hey, that's me.

I thought my first segment should be about favorite songs. I have lots of favorite songs but only a few all-time favorite songs. I've lowered it down to five, some of them you've already heard on this blog but some will be new.

Here's my top five:
1. Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason" I'm not much for blues, but this song, it just gets to me with the rhythm and the guitar. I wish I could play like her.


2. Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody"It so sad that we didn't get to see her career go as far as it would have. I love the beat of this one and the awesome dance moves in the video, haha.


3. The Wreckers "Leave the Pieces"Here's the live version, you can find the official video/recording on youtube.
I loved Michelle Branch already, but when she joined with Jessica Harp to form the Wreckers she became a whole different kind of awesome. Her style totally changed and turned a bit more country which I think she pulls off pretty well.


4. Joshua Radin's "Only You" I'm more a fan of the acoustic version available on itunes but this one is good as well. Remake of a classic that he totally does justice.


5. "Out Tonight" from Jonathan Larson's broadway classic "Rent"
But, again, no embed so sending you to youtube with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LroABeeh99E
copy and paste

You know how you can have all time favorites and then new ones that you love but they're so new you don't think you can classify them as all time?
Some of those for me are "Forget You" the Glee cast version because Gwyneth Paltrow is wicked awesome. See this: My Life in Closed Captions: "I'll meet you there, I'm gonna go jam out to Gwyn...
And then "Lover, Lover" by Jerrod Niemann My Life in Closed Captions: What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all ab...


Here's the list of honorable mentions
Reflecing Light - Sam Phillips (want to listen go here, My Life in Closed Captions: Make the lambs stop screaming!
Whiskey Lullaby - Brad Paisley and Alison KrauseGoodnight and Go - Imogen Heap
I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
Won't Go Home Without You - Maroon 5
Bring on the Wonder - Susan Enan
More than Words - Extreme
You Don't Know Me - Jann Arden
Call Me When You're Sober - Evanescence
Band of Gold - Anna Nalick
Head Over Heels - April McLean
Something To Talk About - Bonnie Raitt
Anything by MXPX, Avril Lavigne, Eminem or the Spice Girls (yes I am from that generation)
She & Him - Zooey Deschanel is awesome.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes remake classic songs
Johnny Cash - anything grew up listening to him
Theory of a Deadman - everything they do is epic and awesome. I've already posted one of theirs a while ago in one of my first Music Rec's My Life in Closed Captions: Happy , Happy New Year! everything they do is just epic and awesome.
Saving Abel - another good band you can jam out to
Stop Making Friends - aka Pauley Perrette is freaking awesome. Listen to their song "Fear" and tell me what you think.
Anything by Doris Day - I always listen to her stuff on Xmas, but especially the Calamity Jane soundtrack.

I'm a very soundtracks kind of girl. There's a lot of those on my playlists,
lately it's been a lot of Glee, aside from that there's
Moulin Rouge, Calamity Jane, Oklahoma, Music and Lyrics, Rent, NCIS, Hairspray, Avenue Q, Grease 1&2 Chicago, Mamma Mia (minus pierce brosnan), Rocky Horror, Sister Act, Wedding Singer, Walk the Line even Whip It had a kickass soundtrack, which was Drew's mix tape for the world.

Okay, you're probably aleady overloaded so I'm gonna crash and burn.
More favorites yet to come tomorrow. I'm thinking movies...or maybe television, I do get to watch shows online tomorrow that I missed tomorrow.

Angry Birds, Angry Birds, What You Gonna Do? What You Gonna Do When They Come For You?

Time: 10:21 PM
Location: Couch
Attitude: Loud Music Necessary
Current Work Score: 113 - down from my high 118 when my timesheet mysteriously vanished


Today's Highlights:
-I killed a pig with a bird. It was very exciting and strange at the same time. Superwoman has this awesome app on her Droid called "Angry Birds" apparently it's really popular. You slingshot angry birds at pigs. They're so angry they crush the pigs under buildings and then explode. It's pretty wicked sweet. I'm just curious as to what the pigs did to piss off the birds so much that you fail if you don't kill them all. Yikes.
- I answered an instant message in Spanish. You can instant message the library with questions. This one was in Spanish. My high school Spanish teacher would be so proud. I actually have used it a lot at the library, I should work more on it so I can be better in the future.
- Went grocery shopping and bought a lot of good food that involves spending time in the kitchen. Yikes but good yikes. I will learn. and hopefully not take down my building in the process.
- Ate supper with sister and watched The A-Team. Hilarious. I forgot how much I like Liam Neeson. And Bradley Cooper was probably the best character, apart from the crazy guy anyway. Hilarious. I'd give it a 8/10 on my Scale of Awesome.

Tomorrow is half-day then cleaning apartment, doing homework, working ahead - because I don't during the week - and getting through some of these DVD seasons. I have multiple out and they're all due next week, except the one I got today Burn Notice season 1! Woohoo! Loving Michael Weston.
The weekend means possible girls night, more cleaning, more homework, more work work, and then a sister's night out for supper. Not in that order. But should be fun.


Music Rec of the Day -
A sister specialty, meaning Maroon 5. Or Scissor Sisters. But this time it's Maroon 5. My second sister burned me their "Hands on Me" CD and I'm loving it. Some of the best are "Last Chance" "Get Back in My Life" "How" "Give a Little More" "Misery". Here's a link to their youtube if you're interested. It's definitely worth checking out. http://www.youtube.com/user/maroon5?blend=1&ob=4
This next one is djearworm. He does these remixes where he takes the greatest hits and their music videos from the entire year and blends them into a mashup. They're awesome. He has one from '08, this one in '09 and then the newest just came out for '10. Then there are some other random mashups he's made. I'm posting this one because even though '08 and '10 are pretty great they can't top this one.

Blame it on the Pop 2009
Here's Viva La Pop 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLaZ-8IMtt0
And Don't Stop the Pop 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLA7JMPE_xU
You can copy and paste into your browser. Which one do you like best?

Happy , Happy New Year!

Every time I heard the words 'happy new year' I could hear Captain Raydor's voice in my head and then Tao's follow-up, "I really hate her! Did I say that out loud?" Gotta love the Closer. I'm beginning to really like Mary McDonnell. Excellent addition to the cast, even if it is only a recurring guest spot.

And Wow, 1-1-11, that's new.

Today was our family xmas, so right now I'm exhausted and it's only 9:55. Sad day. Two nights of staying up late will do that to a girl I guess. First, two nights ago, I got to watch us get our butts wooped by Washington. That was just pitiful and sucks because now I gotta put up with my coworker who said we were gonna lose. There was no motivation from us at all. It's like our whole team is depressed or something. Bo needs to turn that around.
Then, last night was filled with playstation - aka SSX Tricky, Simpson's Road Rage and Dance Dance Revolution - drinking lots of sparkling cider even though we're both of age, flipping between Carson and Ryan and their crews (um, did Dick Clark look really at retiring age to anyone else or is that just me? and c'mon MTV step it up! Jersey Shore? Seriously?!) and falling asleep watching Boy Meets World. Same thing every year, but the Boy Meets World is new. We usually watch Pirates or Jason Bourne. Also, we didn't run around the house at midnight, sad day. Usually we bring a bottle of sparkling cider with us, shake it and then pop the cork spraying it everywhere in the process of awesomeness. (I say that word a lot, Awesomeness. I've noticed that my aunt has started saying it as well. It's catchy. Say it with me: Awesomeness.) Anyway, we took this year off of running as it was freaking freezing out there. And we're old. We figured that out while playing DDR and almost dying out after the first round. But it was fun. Same thing every year. Nothing really planned - it was funny. She texted and was like "you have plans for new years" and I was like "yeah with you!" and that was as far as the planning process went. We go with the flow.
And what was up with the countdown acts this year? I really need to listen to the radio more or something because the only people I recognized were MCR and Avril (hooray for a comeback from her btw).
Interesting fact about CK #-whatever-we're-up-to: I don't listen to the radio. I listen to my ipod. Constantly. And have a hookup for my car so it plays through the speakers.
So, because of this interesting fact, I had to text my best friend - "okay, i'm lame. who is that?" But she didn't know either so that was helpful.
Good times.

Today was awesome but exhausting as well. Big dinner with the family, excellent food as always, then opening presents which always turns into some kind of a disaster area with all the wrapping paper everywhere. Our family splurges. After the disaster area was cleared we played - you guessed it - some Apples to Apples which is fastly becoming a family favorite. This time, Sarah and Mark got hosed, ha! And Cindy and Teina dominated. We didn't play it for four hours, but it was around 2. Times flies. And again with the good one-liners: "Okay, who put 'labor unions' as irresistable?" "Steakspeare" "Toasters? Someone got tired of looking at that one in their hand. I got discarded." "Hmmm, amputations or Sunday drivers for horrifying?"
After that was pitch - 2 tables so the losers walked a whole 2 feet to the other one. No real walk of shame like at my aunt's when you had to go all the way downstairs. Cindy and I partnered up and did pretty well. I shot the moon with a AKQJ2 and drew the 3. Awesome.
Then more good food, meanwhile kids running all over the place. But they're between the ages of 1 and 6, what else are they supposed to be doing? While Mandy and Joe hung with the adults. Some crazy grandma gave two 4-year-old-boys fake shotguns that make noise when you pull the trigger. I'm sure their parents are loving that right about now. Don't look at me. I didn't pick them out. Geez mom. And my oldest sister got them fake chainsaws. It's hilarious. One year, like years ago, my second sister Sarah gave our only nephew at the time a drum set. He loved it, his parents didn't. Ever since, it's like they've been trying to one up each other for loudness just for payback. It's become kind of a running joke.

So, I guess it's time for the official list. The dreaded one. Which I've cut down to hopefully things that might actually last for longer than this week.
1. Write more, read more, eat less.
The first two are healthy and entertaining and will keep me out of trouble. The third is basically just going to become no food after 10PM. And more eating healthy during the day instead of being lazy and picking up Arby's just because it's on my way home. The drivethru guy knows me. It's funny and pathetic all in one. We always end with , "see you around."
Which leads me to number
2. Learn how to cook. At some point this year. Doesn't have to be right away. Just more than mac-and-cheese and microwave meals. I'm putting it off because I like my apartment and don't want to watch as it goes up in flames. Read Sketch and Edit Make Grilled Cheese if you get a chance. Based on a true story.

3. I'm not putting exercise more. Because I know it won't happen. I'm on my feet all day, and I'm not going to wake up early or have any energy by the end of the day to go to the rec center. What I am putting is keeping my mind open to taking self-defense classes this summer with my favorite patron.
4. Is to work on time management. Grad school starts on the 15th. I already have homework for it I haven't started. That all starts Monday. Ordering the textbook, visiting all the websites, finding out what I need to have done by the first class. My aunt is awesome because she teaches on that campus so she's going to show me where I'm going and where to park. Gotta love family connections.

Those are all I'm ready to fully put in writing. I'm sure more will develop throughout the month.

In other news, Congrats go out to the TCU Hornfrogs! Woohoo! I routed for them in baseball in Omaha so I felt I should again today. We got to watch parts of the games between family stuff.
Also, I'm thinking Oregon as the champion over Auburn. I've always liked them. Maybe that's because we never play them but still...

Music Rec: Two musical groups I'm commending just for the heck of it are Ashlyne Huff - check out her single "Heart of Gold" and Theory of a Dead Man's "Since You've Been Gone". Both very good emotional-from-the-heart songs, one more upbeat than the other.

It's a decent video since there is actual music and dancing, that's new for MTV nowadays, sadly.


Now that's depressing.

Neither video is spectacular but you get the point. The music is good, and underrated. So I'm recommending it. Spread the word.

Hope your New Years was merry and bright. Or wait, was that Christmas? Whatever. Hope you all had fun and made it home safely.


"Since you've been gone, I need to hear youuuuuuuu SAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY......"