So today is going to be really short. Why? Because I said so. And also because I embark on a journey through time and space today on a quest to find my undergraduate institution and rescue a few select people from the chains of senior thesis and adventurelessness. Among those to be daringly rescued is our own Cynic, and a bunch of other people who don't have pages for me to link their names to. Hopefully this weekend will just be so jam packed with adventuring that there won't even be time for posting, but I'll check in now and again.
In the meantime, there's this. If you've already seen it, we can now bond over it's greatness. If this was not yet on your radar, you're welcome.
which should immediately be followed by this one:
very astute observations by both genders, I think.
Anyway, that's all for now. Stay tuned for some more average nerdiness!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Florence+The Machine
I figured it's high time to start providing some of that "everything" I keep claiming there's a little bit of. So today I want to share the musical wonder of Florence + the Machine.
The chick with the lungs is Florence, and boy has she got a set of lungs. By which I mean power. As in, she belts out her songs that make you want to sing along (whether or not you can...or should). As for the Machine (everything that's not Florence, which is sometimes just a keyboard played by Florence), they always provide infectious songs that make it hard to sit still, which can be somewhat comical on a crowded bus, I assure you. They are a fairly new group to the US (thank you for sharing with us, England!), but did win a VMA for the video to "Dog Days" earlier this year.
Do I understand it? Heck no, but it's still fun to watch. My favorite is the random little girl with the drum and then the glittery explosions. Because nothing can go wrong with a glittery explosion : D Also, If you watch the USA show Covert Affairs, then YES, this song accompanied Annie's skydiving in the first episode. I'm told it was also in Eat, Pray, Love, but I have yet to see it so don't take my word for it.
But seriously, this isn't even the best song. There's also "Cosmic Love," and yes, it was also featured on Covert Affairs, which can only make it more awesome.
Listen to it one more time, and I dare you to not think about it for the rest of the day. Finally, there is "Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)," which I particularly like because it just has some really cool imagery about being a newcomer in the music industry
There is an official music video, which I suggest you watch, but embedding was disabled by request, so whatever.
Basically every song on her album ("Lungs") is amazing, and Florence writes them all herself (except for "Girl With One Eye," that was a cover), and usually while drunk (no, seriously). So anyway, that's Florence, and if you don't love it on some level, you must be missing a few soul chunks. Stay tuned for more average nerdiness!
-Romeo and Juliet
"A glorified cliche" [yeah, just like The Matrix overuses all those Matrix cliches....wait...]
"a very predictable story" [were you expecting some secret twist that the millions of school plays and reproductions left out?]
"This is probably the most cliche novel ever written. It's boring as well and isn't even in English. Fail!" [oh dear lord, I hope that one was a troll]
The chick with the lungs is Florence, and boy has she got a set of lungs. By which I mean power. As in, she belts out her songs that make you want to sing along (whether or not you can...or should). As for the Machine (everything that's not Florence, which is sometimes just a keyboard played by Florence), they always provide infectious songs that make it hard to sit still, which can be somewhat comical on a crowded bus, I assure you. They are a fairly new group to the US (thank you for sharing with us, England!), but did win a VMA for the video to "Dog Days" earlier this year.
Do I understand it? Heck no, but it's still fun to watch. My favorite is the random little girl with the drum and then the glittery explosions. Because nothing can go wrong with a glittery explosion : D Also, If you watch the USA show Covert Affairs, then YES, this song accompanied Annie's skydiving in the first episode. I'm told it was also in Eat, Pray, Love, but I have yet to see it so don't take my word for it.
But seriously, this isn't even the best song. There's also "Cosmic Love," and yes, it was also featured on Covert Affairs, which can only make it more awesome.
Listen to it one more time, and I dare you to not think about it for the rest of the day. Finally, there is "Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)," which I particularly like because it just has some really cool imagery about being a newcomer in the music industry
There is an official music video, which I suggest you watch, but embedding was disabled by request, so whatever.
Basically every song on her album ("Lungs") is amazing, and Florence writes them all herself (except for "Girl With One Eye," that was a cover), and usually while drunk (no, seriously). So anyway, that's Florence, and if you don't love it on some level, you must be missing a few soul chunks. Stay tuned for more average nerdiness!
-Romeo and Juliet
"A glorified cliche" [yeah, just like The Matrix overuses all those Matrix cliches....wait...]
"a very predictable story" [were you expecting some secret twist that the millions of school plays and reproductions left out?]
"This is probably the most cliche novel ever written. It's boring as well and isn't even in English. Fail!" [oh dear lord, I hope that one was a troll]
Monday, October 25, 2010
My Opinion is that Your Opinion is Wrong. And also dumb
You know all those great classic works of literature? Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre, Romeo and Juliet, Twilight....wait, what?
I think they just called it that because they knew it would never sell any copies otherwise." [basically, there are no words for this]
No, Twilight hasn't been canonized (I firmly believe that the day it is, the apocalypse has come), but it's amazing how many people seem to think it should be, or already is (and also Harry Potter....I might not disagree entirely). Don't believe me? Jump on over to amazon.com real quick, it's ok I'll wait. Once you get there, look up some of the one-star reviews on the classics. Crazy, right? I learned about this phenomenon yesterday while studying at a friend's apartment (hence the not posting) when her roommate joined us to share some of her latest finds. Sometimes the bad reviews are for the particular edition of the book or to tell us that they bought one of the used copies and it still hasn't arrived (wrong place for those reviews, by the way), but a lot are, well, really just kind of dumb. But that's ok. You can be entitled to your own opinion as long as I am entitled to laugh at your expense!
-Tom Sawyer
"It's not my type of story so I wasn't really interested. I guess it's because it's an old-fashioned book, I'm more into Harry Potter." [honestly, I really want a dollar for every review that claims "but I'm more into Harry Potter,"]
"IT seemed nice to read a known "classic" but this was NO classic it horrible! It had no story, the charaters were lame, the plot was-yuck! and the way the talk was just difficult to understand." [you would know all about talk being difficult to understand, wouldn't you]
"Who cares whether Mark Twain wrote the book or whether Aohohfe Lkahfhagauy wrote the book?" [Is that a plug for a friend of yours?]
"The Most horrible book ive ever heard." [and no, this was not reviewing an audiobook version]
[This one is the entire review, not just an excerpt like the other ones have been]
"omg, Tom sawyer is the worst book ever! believe me it is a dull, boring classic that wont interest anyone!!!" [well, I'm sold! Good thing I read THIS review in particular!]
-The Divine Comedy
"readers should be careful not to misinterpret this as Catholic doctrine." [......was that an issue?]
[I couldn't just choose one part, this one has to be my favorite review so far]
"I bought this expecting a comedy. It isn't funny at all! The author should be sued for calling his book a "divine" comedy. It couldn't even be called a mediocre comedy. It's just boring old Italian stuff about God and the Bible and other stupid boring old people stuff like that. I mean, i guess the part in hell was kinda funny when the people were frozen and stuff but not really, even. The Oxford English Dictionary is way funnier and it's one of the worst books I've ever read. And I thought maybe it would have something about Dante's peak in it but there was nothing about volcanoes. What a misleading title! Don't buy this if you want to be entertained in any way.
I think they just called it that because they knew it would never sell any copies otherwise." [basically, there are no words for this]
And this is just the beginning! I'll add some one-star reviews to a different book or movie with each post to keep the fun flowing. In the meantime, I have things to grade and programs to write, so stay tuned for some more average nerdiness!
(after a long day of studies and exhaustion)
Jocelyn (whose house I was at): "I keep thinking my bag is the cat. It is not. I should stop trying to pet it..."
Saturday, October 23, 2010
The Hunger Games: Paper AWESOMNESS
I decided to start things off right by talking about one of the BEST BOOKS I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME, The Hunger Games, the first book in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins.
No, I can't tell you about the other two (which are Catching Fire and Mockingjay if you're curious) because I haven't read them yet, but I did finally manage to get a copy of the second one, so guess what I'm doing once this post is live.
Anyway, it's kind of hard to explain too much about the book without giving too much away, and I don't want to ruin it for anybody who plans on reading it. Essentially, the story focuses on a 16 year old girl named Katniss Everdeen. She lives with her mother and little sister in the poorest part of the poorest district of some post-apocalyptic North America. I know, sounds cliche, right? But no, that's pretty much where the cliches end, about two pages into the book. I mean, sure you could find some more if you really wanted to, it's almost impossible not to find some in every created work, but once the story really gets going (which is pretty much immediately), you just don't care if it's cliche. And before you get all gloaty and think you figured it out, no the title is not a metaphor for how the small family deals with their poverty. There is an actual annual event called the Hunger Games. What are the Hunger Games? Pretty horrifying if you ask me, but to get the full effect, the premise and details are best explained and revealed as per Collins' timing, which leads me to this next paragraph.
Collins' flair for the perfect dramatic reveal had made her an instant legend on my list (which admittedly only came into existence so that I had a list to put her on). She hints at something, leaves you wondering what it is for just long enough to come up with some theories of your own, then reveals what it actually is. And let me tell ya, it's usually far more shocking or dramatic than anything YOU were thinking! (well, more than anything I was thinking, at least). However, she manages to make such dramatic reveals with nice subtlety, rather than that melodramatic flair that makes you want to go "dun dun DUUUUNNN!!!!"
Yeah, like that
I think part of it is the way she only gives you EXACTLY the amount of exposition you need to follow what's happening at that moment. Sure, you still have some questions, but you know that you'll get your answers when it's more relevant to the story.
If you're still not sure about it, consider this: the first two chapters made me cry a little. No, I'm serious. I have been known to get misty eyed for some movies, perhaps even shed a tear, but never for a book. Something about hearing a scene described by my own inner monologue takes away some of the power of the moment, I guess. I mean, come on, it's not like I'm Morgan Freeman (I bet life is an intense experience for him, getting to hear everything narrated by Morgan Freeman...) And yet, halfway through the second chapter, I realized I couldn't see straight because my eyes were getting all teary. It was THAT intense, even WITHOUT the Freeman. Well, maybe that's just me, but doggonit, I'll give mad props to any book that can suck me in so deeply I shed a tear.
Finally, after all the good storytelling is over, you realize you were just given a healthy dose of social commentary, too. That's the best kind of book, in my opinion, the kind that can teach you something without you even realizing it. Then you still think you're just getting a brain vacation between busy school or work assignment, and then you realize that you've gained a new perspective on the world. Now, if we can only manage to make textbooks and journal articles work this way too.....
Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that. Stay tuned for more average nerdiness!
No, I can't tell you about the other two (which are Catching Fire and Mockingjay if you're curious) because I haven't read them yet, but I did finally manage to get a copy of the second one, so guess what I'm doing once this post is live.
Anyway, it's kind of hard to explain too much about the book without giving too much away, and I don't want to ruin it for anybody who plans on reading it. Essentially, the story focuses on a 16 year old girl named Katniss Everdeen. She lives with her mother and little sister in the poorest part of the poorest district of some post-apocalyptic North America. I know, sounds cliche, right? But no, that's pretty much where the cliches end, about two pages into the book. I mean, sure you could find some more if you really wanted to, it's almost impossible not to find some in every created work, but once the story really gets going (which is pretty much immediately), you just don't care if it's cliche. And before you get all gloaty and think you figured it out, no the title is not a metaphor for how the small family deals with their poverty. There is an actual annual event called the Hunger Games. What are the Hunger Games? Pretty horrifying if you ask me, but to get the full effect, the premise and details are best explained and revealed as per Collins' timing, which leads me to this next paragraph.
Collins' flair for the perfect dramatic reveal had made her an instant legend on my list (which admittedly only came into existence so that I had a list to put her on). She hints at something, leaves you wondering what it is for just long enough to come up with some theories of your own, then reveals what it actually is. And let me tell ya, it's usually far more shocking or dramatic than anything YOU were thinking! (well, more than anything I was thinking, at least). However, she manages to make such dramatic reveals with nice subtlety, rather than that melodramatic flair that makes you want to go "dun dun DUUUUNNN!!!!"
Yeah, like that
I think part of it is the way she only gives you EXACTLY the amount of exposition you need to follow what's happening at that moment. Sure, you still have some questions, but you know that you'll get your answers when it's more relevant to the story.
If you're still not sure about it, consider this: the first two chapters made me cry a little. No, I'm serious. I have been known to get misty eyed for some movies, perhaps even shed a tear, but never for a book. Something about hearing a scene described by my own inner monologue takes away some of the power of the moment, I guess. I mean, come on, it's not like I'm Morgan Freeman (I bet life is an intense experience for him, getting to hear everything narrated by Morgan Freeman...) And yet, halfway through the second chapter, I realized I couldn't see straight because my eyes were getting all teary. It was THAT intense, even WITHOUT the Freeman. Well, maybe that's just me, but doggonit, I'll give mad props to any book that can suck me in so deeply I shed a tear.
Finally, after all the good storytelling is over, you realize you were just given a healthy dose of social commentary, too. That's the best kind of book, in my opinion, the kind that can teach you something without you even realizing it. Then you still think you're just getting a brain vacation between busy school or work assignment, and then you realize that you've gained a new perspective on the world. Now, if we can only manage to make textbooks and journal articles work this way too.....
Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that. Stay tuned for more average nerdiness!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Hello and Welcome!
What? You want more? I already welcomed you in the title!
Ok, ok. Thank you taking some time out of your oh-so-busy (I'm assuming) internet perusing schedule to read another new blog. Or, thank you for pausing long enough to have read this far while you were cycling through what the "next blog" button had to offer. Really, I do feel kind of honored.
But let's cut to the chase, shall we? You're probably asking yourself "Hmm, what does this blog have to offer that my current list of reading material doesn't?" And my answer is a profound: 0.o what are you asking me for?
But here's what I offer: A little bit of everything. Yeah, vague. That's how I roll. Seriously, though, while I'm known to dabble in most if not all things nerdy in this world (yeah that's right, I'm talking sci-fi, fantasy, comic book, internet, cinema, theater, anime, music, video game, literary, science, math, and general academia nerd-dom), I've learned over the years that I just spread my interests too thin. So while I have a deep appreciation for all the aforementioned things, I can name at least one individual for each category who can easily out-nerd me, no contest.
Then I said to myself, "Self, what if you just told that percentage of the population who cares to listen about the average amounts you know of every category you dabble in, rather than trying to find a way to claim some expertise in just one category?" And then I refrained from talking back to myself, because they say that answering those voices in your head leads to, or is a sign of, insanity.
AND THUS "D) All of the Above" WAS BORN *cue all the proper epic thematic elements*
*ahem* So yeah. And now you're reading it. Presumably. And if you continue reading it, I'll provide for you regular increments of, well, everything. (and by "regular increments," I'm thinking daily for now, just to give those potential readers something to potentially read, and then adjusting as I and my grad student life see fit). Because not everybody knows everything about something, but a lot of people know something about a lot of things. Ok, yeah, that was totally campy, but you get my drift. Basically, there can only be one biggest fan of something, and who can they relate to in the end? Just themselves; it's lonely at the top. I'm here to represent the rest of the fan base, the people who get most of the jokes and have seen or read most of the blahs and spinoff blahs, but are also a little proud of the fact that there's always someone nerdier out there. Or maybe that's just me. Either way, should be fun!
So, that said, I'll just end today's post with a POP QUIZ! (oh geez, relax, this isn't your pre-finals nightmare, just my sad attempt at wit, sheesh). Ready? Here we go!
You can check back regularly for various posts about:
A) Movies/Tv
B) Music
C) Everything else I listed that isn't movies, tv, or music
D) All of the Above
Pencils down, time's up! Let's see how you did; If you guessed A, B, or C...well you're right on a technicality because the right answer does indeed include A, B, and C and yet is still always marked wrong on a scantron. Now how's that for irony...or oxymoron....or something. Anyway, big surprise, the answer's D) All of the Above (badum psshh)
So look for the next post. It'll have actual stuff as opposed to a crazy long introduction. Unless you prefer such intro-related things, in which case I can no longer help. Buh-bye.
Stats professor one day in class: "I've ALWAYS got my nerd on!!!"
Ok, ok. Thank you taking some time out of your oh-so-busy (I'm assuming) internet perusing schedule to read another new blog. Or, thank you for pausing long enough to have read this far while you were cycling through what the "next blog" button had to offer. Really, I do feel kind of honored.
But let's cut to the chase, shall we? You're probably asking yourself "Hmm, what does this blog have to offer that my current list of reading material doesn't?" And my answer is a profound: 0.o what are you asking me for?
But here's what I offer: A little bit of everything. Yeah, vague. That's how I roll. Seriously, though, while I'm known to dabble in most if not all things nerdy in this world (yeah that's right, I'm talking sci-fi, fantasy, comic book, internet, cinema, theater, anime, music, video game, literary, science, math, and general academia nerd-dom), I've learned over the years that I just spread my interests too thin. So while I have a deep appreciation for all the aforementioned things, I can name at least one individual for each category who can easily out-nerd me, no contest.
Then I said to myself, "Self, what if you just told that percentage of the population who cares to listen about the average amounts you know of every category you dabble in, rather than trying to find a way to claim some expertise in just one category?" And then I refrained from talking back to myself, because they say that answering those voices in your head leads to, or is a sign of, insanity.
AND THUS "D) All of the Above" WAS BORN *cue all the proper epic thematic elements*
*ahem* So yeah. And now you're reading it. Presumably. And if you continue reading it, I'll provide for you regular increments of, well, everything. (and by "regular increments," I'm thinking daily for now, just to give those potential readers something to potentially read, and then adjusting as I and my grad student life see fit). Because not everybody knows everything about something, but a lot of people know something about a lot of things. Ok, yeah, that was totally campy, but you get my drift. Basically, there can only be one biggest fan of something, and who can they relate to in the end? Just themselves; it's lonely at the top. I'm here to represent the rest of the fan base, the people who get most of the jokes and have seen or read most of the blahs and spinoff blahs, but are also a little proud of the fact that there's always someone nerdier out there. Or maybe that's just me. Either way, should be fun!
So, that said, I'll just end today's post with a POP QUIZ! (oh geez, relax, this isn't your pre-finals nightmare, just my sad attempt at wit, sheesh). Ready? Here we go!
You can check back regularly for various posts about:
A) Movies/Tv
B) Music
C) Everything else I listed that isn't movies, tv, or music
D) All of the Above
Pencils down, time's up! Let's see how you did; If you guessed A, B, or C...well you're right on a technicality because the right answer does indeed include A, B, and C and yet is still always marked wrong on a scantron. Now how's that for irony...or oxymoron....or something. Anyway, big surprise, the answer's D) All of the Above (badum psshh)
So look for the next post. It'll have actual stuff as opposed to a crazy long introduction. Unless you prefer such intro-related things, in which case I can no longer help. Buh-bye.
Stats professor one day in class: "I've ALWAYS got my nerd on!!!"
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