Grading Awol

I like AWOLNATION. The band has put out 3 albums now, each with 14 tracks on it. There have also been three different songs from various soundtracks, bringing the total number of songs I'm familiar with to 45. (I'm positive that they have other songs in their oeuvre, but, we're sticking with what I know.)
For the next five entries, I'll be picking 9 songs to discuss. I'll be talking about the songs, the lyrics, and, if they have one available, the music video.
Each song will be assigned a number, 1 - 45, and then I'll use the magic of the internet to select 9 randomly chosen numbers to determine which order the songs get talked about. 
The songs (and their numbers) are:

From the album Megalithic Symphony:
1. "Megalithic Symphony"
2. "Some Sort of Creature"
3. "Soul Wars"
4. "People"
5. "Jump on My Shoulders"
6. "Burn It Down"
7. "Guilty Filthy Soul"
8. "Kill Your Heroes"
9. "My Nightmare's Dream"
10. "Sail"
11. "Wake Up"
12. "Not Your Fault"
13.  "All I Need"
14. "Knights of Shame"

From the soundtrack for the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us:
15. "THISKIDSNOTALRIGHT"

From the album Run:
16. "Run"
17. "Fat Face"
18. "Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)"
19. "Jailbreak"
20. "KOOKSEVERYWHERE!!!"
21. "I Am"
22. "Headrest for my Soul"
23. "Dreamers"
24. "Windows"
25. "Holy Roller"
26. "Woman Woman"
27. "Lie Love Live Love"
28. "Like People, Like Plastic"
29. "Drinking Lightning"

From the soundtrack for Iron Man 3:
30. "Some Kind of Joke"

From the album Here Come the Runts:
31. "Here Come the Runts"
32. "Passion"
33. "Sound Witness System"
34. "Miracle Man"
35. "Handyman"
36. "Jealous Buffoon"
37. "Seven Sticks of Dynamite"
38. "A Little Luck... and a Couple of Dogs"
39. "Table for One"
40. "My Molassess"
41. "Cannonball"
42. "Tall, Tall Tale"
43. "The Buffoon"
44. "Stop That Train"

From the soundtrack for Fifty Shades of Grey:
45. "I'm On Fire"

garbage

almost 20 years ago today (it was 19), was the day that Steph and I got to go backstage before the Garbage concert and meet the band, and the photo with me and Shirley Manson was taken.

That's crazy.

I got nothing else to blog about - I was going to start the Awolnation posts, but since I fell asleep during Survivor, (my office pick got voted out, but he was a garbage person anyway, so even though I won't win the jackpot, at least he's not on our screens anymore) I'm obviously not awake enough to create soemthing that requires that much brain power and googling, so... next time it is.

workshop done

The workshop yesterday went pretty well. I had originally planned on recording it with my phone, but didn't - didn't have time to set it up and/or ask if it would be allowed, plus it went on for nearly 20 minutes and I don't think I had that much free space/battery power left on my phone. But, I received quite a bit of interesting feedback, along with an idea on how to tweak a certain element of the story that changes a LOT, but could make it better in a lot of ways. I was going to post it here - I may, still, but I ...might wait until after the semester, because I don't know if posting it online is something that I'm "allowed" to do. I may be over thinking this. heh.

We'll see, I guess. I might post "Stupid Monsters" for my next blog post, or I might go with my planned Awolnation post(s) instead. Or maybe something different altogether.

note to self:

Don't make plans.

no, time

seriously, where does it go?? How can X amount of time simply ...get used up?
And, dude. Google. Enough, kay? I'm not a machine. Give it a rest.

14 tabs opened right now
working on powerpoint presentations
trying to think of
what to blog
what to write
what to read
what to say

it's national poetry day, apparently, even though national poetry MONTH is April. Who decides these things?? Did they not coordinate with one another? Is there a national poetry week, too? I bet that's in August or something. .....aaaah! Okay, if I were more inclined to simply go back and erase what I wrote, I'd look a little less foolish, but whatever.  Mistakes equal learning. (Well, sometimes)
So, it's WORLD poetry day today, and NATIONAL poetry month in April. That makes things clearer.

Anyway, you'd think that with my recent foray into poetry with my class that I'd be all over the idea of creating some poetry to share right now.

You'd think.

...actually, no, I'm not going to poem-it-up right now, but I DO have some lyrics in my head that are hilarious and apt. And, so, I'll end it with those.

so smooth you can hear the beard
so smooth you can hear the beard
three times is poetry
so smooth you can hear the beard

impatient!

Ugh. I turned in my short story to be workshopped in creative writing yesterday, and NEXT Monday is spring break, so I have to wait TWO weeks before I'm able to get feedback!
Meanwhile, my brain has been going over it repeatedly, thinking about the things I liked (a surpsingly large percentage, actually) and the things I didn't/know can be improved upon (...also a surprisingly large percentage.) Okay, not really, there ARE flaws, of course, and I'm curious to see whether anyone else points out what I've got in mind. But I have to wait another 13 days. Agony.

Perhaps once I've gone through the feedback stage, I'll post it here.

goat

Not kidding!

3.14

It's Pi day, Pi day, gotta get down on Pi day...

I'll need to circle by the grocery store on the way home from work to buy a pie.

I have a lot of writing to do this week and no desire (currently) to do any of it. That'll undoubtedly change - most certainly when I'm in the car, away from my notebooks, pens, and keyboards.

Speaking of which, it's practically time to get going... so, this entry was short and meaningless. I really should start planning topics ahead.

end(ish) of the day edit - bought two pies - one cherry, one pumpkin. Then got home, walked thru the door, and promptly dropped the cherry pie all over the floor and Silas's brand new shoes. Sad pie day.
The pumpkin is still fine, and I'm sure the rest of the family will enjoy it (I don't like pumpkin pie), but, man, what an unfortunate event. 

what even

I haven't been following the news lately, but the cold open from SNL and just the general feeling in the air... is the Mueller investigation a bust? Did ...Trump actually get away with his shit? Again? Cuz, dude. Just fuck that noise thirty-nine times.  Hopefully I'm wrong, but I'm too tired to confirm (or deny) it right now, and, honestly, a little too worried to look and find out that, yeah, it's as bad as I fear.

stalling/ procrastinating/ other words that mean that

Ugh. I have a ton of school work to do, and zero desire to do any of it. As is evidenced by a) that I'm blogging and b) that it's all due TODAY, and I've had the last five days when I could have worked on any of it, but didn't. Sigh.

And, at least, I'm telling myself this so I can sleep at night (hahaha), IN THEORY today I was going to be all gung-ho about getting shit done, but then I had a really REALLY bad day at work, and it freaking drained any drive I had to do pretty much anything straight outta me.

I have done SOME school stuff, so it's not a complete waste of a day. And there are still a little over five hours left before the deadline of midnight, so... yeah.

What we need

(this is the villanelle I wrote last week for my creative writing course)

Let me tell you what it is we need.
A few more guns inside our schools.
Freedom, give it up, sacrifice to bleed.

You think you want leaders who know how to lead.
Instead we have actors who break all the rules.
Let me tell you what it is we need.

The engines are running, running on greed
blood, tears, and oil - are there alternate fuels?
Freedom, give it up, sacrifice to bleed.

"The other side is wrong" is everyone's creed.
Divisions deepen. A side, you must choose.
Let me tell you what it is we need.

We're falling apart with sickening speed.
All our old heroes, now just tarnished old fools.
Freedom, give it up, sacrifice to bleed.

Thoughts and prayers while victims plead.
Online echo chambers becoming cesspools.
Let me tell you what it is we need.
Freedom, give it up, sacrifice to bleed.

I knew you were going to be a good time to time.

I've got nothing else to blog about right now, so I'm going to do a few predictive texts, just for fun.

Everything after the bold will be whatever my phone predicts should be said next from these famous movie quotes.

May the force of the day, February 15th, and I have to do the same time.

If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, and I have to do the same time.

The first rule of Fight Club is a good thing, right?

My Mama always said "Life is like a box of chocolates; the same time.

When someone asks, "Are you a god?" you say that I have a vehicle to the ftp site under the filename of resend.

Nobody puts Baby Einstein the same time.

I'm mad as hell, and I have to do the same time.

...okay. Obviously, I need to "do the same time" a LOT.  Maybe I'll try this again at some point, but with something other than movie quotes (or different ones, for whatever reason my brain was blanking on quotable films).

insomnia is fun

no, wait. it's the opposite of that.

time Marches on

how in the world did it get to be March already?

And of twenty-freaking-eighteen?????

Work was exhausting, yet again, because it was Friday, and for the last two hours or so of my shift, technology was not my friend. Made for a very frustrating experience.

But, home now, and I don't have to worry about work for forty-eight-ish hours, so.

For my creative writing class this week we had to write a villanelle.  A villanelle is a style of poem that apparently is obscure enough that blogger's word processor has it underlined in red. But, basically it's a 19 line poem that uses two rhymes throughout, and alternately repeats lines 1 and 3. So, it's A B A, A B repeat line 1,  A B repeat line 3, A B repeat line 1, A B repeat line 3, A B repeat line 1 repeat line 3.

Not easy to do, but the one I wrote is... decent. After I get feedback on it, I may end up posting it here. If I had more free time (and, let's be honest, more ambition) I think it might be sort of fun to try and compose some more of them. 

Next week is the end of poetry, and then it's on to fiction. Woot woot! Although that means the class is already half way finished. Boo. I've enjoyed the poetry section a good deal more than I anticipated I would, though. It ain't all bad.

weekend update

heh. No SNL news, just an update on things that have gone on this weekend.

Watched Jigsaw (ehhh, it was better than 7, but that's a pretty low bar to clear), played Enchanted Forest, (Stephanie won), read a horrible short story for class ("Paul's Case" by Willa Cather), washing machine finally kicked the bucket, put the super-old tricycle out to the curb (so sad!), and now I've blogged. Not all that exciting a day, but there ya have it.

nothing new under the sun

...did you try checking behind it?

Just having one of those afternoons where I can't seem to find the motivation to type up anything. On the bright side, I've finished (or will have, once I publish this) my blog post for today, so that's one thing down. still have a short history response, an english 102 discussion post to make, and some poetry to write. One thing at a time, I guess.

Relating back to the topic, for a second, what made me think of that was how part of what's holding me back (of getting started to write) is the feeling that, to quote the Barenaked Ladies, "it's all been done". (woo hoo hoo!)

And, yeah, it probably has, but, so what? Originality ain't all that, is it? I just read The Yellow Wallpaper for the first time ever, and it's been mimicked hundreds of times, but it was still a great short story.

Eh. I just went down the tvtropes rabbit hole for a while, and lost my train of thought, and my desire to even continue with it. Besides, I still have all that school work to do...

muse hunting

As I've mentioned before, I'm enjoying my Creative Writing course.
However.

I have to write two (!!) poems sometime before Monday. (Heh, I'm pretty tired right now, and originally started to type "Wednesday". Time is meaningless!) I'm being 'workshopped' on Monday, which means that the two poems I bring in will be critiqued by the whole class. (Assuming the whole class shows up. This past Monday there were five people absent, out of a class of 16. Although it WAS the Monday after the Superbowl, and (apparently!?) that's the biggest sick day of the year. Maybe that counts for classes, too.)

So, yeah. Gots to get my creative on, and pretty soon, too.
I've already got one of the poems written, and I'm fairly proud of it (we'll see if my opinion changes after having it picked apart). But I still need to get one more written that I feel comfortable bringing in to the vultures. And then I have to write one for my weekly writing assignment. (There is nothing that says that that can't be the same poem, so, I mean, *technically* I could save myself some time and effort by only writing ONE new poem. But, I rarely do things the efficient way. Plus, I would rather actually create two. I WANT to make more art. I'm just feeling. tired. uninspired. wishing I was wired. ... okay, i'll stop, because rhyming is ...ergh. something. Have I mentioned how tired I am? I feel like I have.

Right now, i'm at the library, using one of their computers, hoping that inspiration strikes. Oh! I was going to write down some phrases that I wanted to just keep in my toolbox.
"Broken ocean" was one of them.
And I hada  few others while I was driving in, but, of course, that was when I was nowhwere near a computer or a piece of paper.
"weasel fucking" (or, rather,  "weasels fucking" - I guess there really IS a difference between those two...)
oh, I rmember now - "as confusing as a four-way stop" (or as "hesitant", not sure which is better; guess it depends on the piece it's being used in)
"as neglected as a Christmas tree in March"
"revised our relationship like a Wikipedia entry"

I've been trying to pick up more metaphors and similes during my day-to-day life. You can see and judge the results above.

For now, though, I need to get ready for my Com 101 class, so I'll publish this and be done with it.

27 years from now

The date can be written as 2/3/45, so that's something kind of cool to look forward to.

Our bean is a teen

To celebrate we went to Gravady, had Sonic for lunch, took her to Clare's for her to get new fake nails, and later there will be pizza, popcorn and Potter (we're working our way thru the series by book & movie, Azkaban the book was finished last night, so the movie will be watched in a few hours).
All in all, a pretty great day. (Although I still can't believe she's a teenager now!!)

Happy Birthday, Irina-bean!!