So I spontaneously decided to spend the next week overhauling my bedroom, which means choosing paint colors.
You would think that this would be the easy part, since I have pretty much everything else I want to put in chosen, and some of it already purchased.
However, I've come an unexpected hurdle in what should be an easy process: the fact that they name paint colors.
You see, I'll find a color which I love called say "Gumball Red", which is an okay name I suppose. But then I'll see another color that's less close to the color I actually want, that is called something like "Hot Chili Pepper". From there my train of thought goes something like the following:
hot chilli pepper --> red hot chilli peppers ---> good music ---> oh my gosh I WANT THIS ONE
The worst part is, I am completely aware of the process, I'm just powerless to stop it. Deep down, I know that this is the reason why a color called "Purpoise" (because dolphins are pretty) beats out "Silver Charm" (meh) for me even though the two are almost identical. And yet, I can't help falling in love with "Purpoise" and "Edgy Red" instead of "Poppy" and "Mountain Fog" even as a part of me knows that if I cut the names off of all my paint chips, I'd probably do a better job of choosing the colors I actually want.
What's more, I'm pretty sure the paint companies know that this works. That would certainly explain why last week's newspaper included an ad from the paint company about a contest to rename a shade of beige known as "Cuddle" to something more man-friendly (the prize was an entertainment center, btw).
It's just weird. I would have thought that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but apparently not...speaking of which, what do you think of "Velvet Rose"? because I bet it would sell...
Friday, August 26, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
A Collection of MAGICAL Words
Some words just ring with sheer awesomeness from every syllable. Words like:
Vertigo
Vertigo
Nevermore
Matrix
Panini
ubiquitous
zigzag
philharmonic
Sunshine
harmony
exquisite
Let me know if I've missed any! :)
Friday, August 19, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
A Slow Leak
Last year, I was super busy.
At least, that's what I thought.
Until the thought occurred to me that my present practice schedule and the way I lived my day to day life while in university last year are pretty incompatible.
Well, I sure as heck don't want to give up my practice time, now that I see how much it helps. And I want to flunk out of university even less. So, I decided to do a "time audit".
Basically, this meant taking an honest look at my typical university schedule from last year, and trying to figure out what exactly made me feel so busy all the time.
By my estimation, I spent, on average, 3.5 hours a day in class, 1.5 hours a day hanging out with friends, 1.5 hours commuting, 7 hours sleeping,, 3 hours doing other essentials (eating, hygeine, etc) and 2.5 hours a day on reading and doing homework.
Those keeping track will already know that that's 19 hours. If I could figure out where the extra 5 hours of my day was dissapearing to, I might just be able to carve out some time to practice. I decided that I'd have to get a bit more into detail in order to acheive this, so I converted that 5 hours a day to 25 a work week.
First, I listed all the TV shows I would watch in a week. It came to 9 hours. Clearly, I was going to have to cut back on this. I narrowed the list down to my 3 favorite programs, which, together, would take a total of two hours a week to watch. The rest, I decided, could be watched on the internet at my leisure, if at all.
I'd lose another hour or so each week on my guitar lesson, but of course that was not going to be cut. That's ten hours. So where were the other 15?
The only thing that remained was the internet. I couldn't believe at first that I spend that much time online. Then I gave it a bit of thought. I spent a fair amount of time following other people's blogs, and quite a bit more maintaining my own. Then I'd read comedy articles fairly frequently.
And on top of all that was facebook. At the time, I was fairly addicted to a couple of the stupid games that were on there, which I've since quit playing. Then there were always people to read about, quizzes to take, and who knows what else...there was no way around it, I'd have to cut back on internet time as well. I decided that an hour a day would suffice from now on.
Satisfied, I did the math. 25 hours a week, minus the 7 of TV and internet that I planned to keep left me with 18 hours a week of unclaimed time. Since I practiced so rarely last year that it was negligable to include in my initial assessment of where my time is spent, I would have to carve my practice time entirely out of those 18 hours. I practice over an hour a day now, and I hope to get up to two by Christmas, so I set aside 10 hours. That left 8 hours for incidentals (traffic, working on big assignments, studying for midterms, etc).
Which brings me to the bad news. While I don't intend to delete or abandon my blog just yet, since I still enjoy having somewhere to write about stuff, there's no way I'm going to be able keep up with my usual 2-3 posts a week pace from now on. I'll try for weekly, but there's no guarentee...anyway, just a heads up.
At least, that's what I thought.
Until the thought occurred to me that my present practice schedule and the way I lived my day to day life while in university last year are pretty incompatible.
Well, I sure as heck don't want to give up my practice time, now that I see how much it helps. And I want to flunk out of university even less. So, I decided to do a "time audit".
Basically, this meant taking an honest look at my typical university schedule from last year, and trying to figure out what exactly made me feel so busy all the time.
By my estimation, I spent, on average, 3.5 hours a day in class, 1.5 hours a day hanging out with friends, 1.5 hours commuting, 7 hours sleeping,, 3 hours doing other essentials (eating, hygeine, etc) and 2.5 hours a day on reading and doing homework.
Those keeping track will already know that that's 19 hours. If I could figure out where the extra 5 hours of my day was dissapearing to, I might just be able to carve out some time to practice. I decided that I'd have to get a bit more into detail in order to acheive this, so I converted that 5 hours a day to 25 a work week.
First, I listed all the TV shows I would watch in a week. It came to 9 hours. Clearly, I was going to have to cut back on this. I narrowed the list down to my 3 favorite programs, which, together, would take a total of two hours a week to watch. The rest, I decided, could be watched on the internet at my leisure, if at all.
I'd lose another hour or so each week on my guitar lesson, but of course that was not going to be cut. That's ten hours. So where were the other 15?
The only thing that remained was the internet. I couldn't believe at first that I spend that much time online. Then I gave it a bit of thought. I spent a fair amount of time following other people's blogs, and quite a bit more maintaining my own. Then I'd read comedy articles fairly frequently.
And on top of all that was facebook. At the time, I was fairly addicted to a couple of the stupid games that were on there, which I've since quit playing. Then there were always people to read about, quizzes to take, and who knows what else...there was no way around it, I'd have to cut back on internet time as well. I decided that an hour a day would suffice from now on.
Satisfied, I did the math. 25 hours a week, minus the 7 of TV and internet that I planned to keep left me with 18 hours a week of unclaimed time. Since I practiced so rarely last year that it was negligable to include in my initial assessment of where my time is spent, I would have to carve my practice time entirely out of those 18 hours. I practice over an hour a day now, and I hope to get up to two by Christmas, so I set aside 10 hours. That left 8 hours for incidentals (traffic, working on big assignments, studying for midterms, etc).
Which brings me to the bad news. While I don't intend to delete or abandon my blog just yet, since I still enjoy having somewhere to write about stuff, there's no way I'm going to be able keep up with my usual 2-3 posts a week pace from now on. I'll try for weekly, but there's no guarentee...anyway, just a heads up.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Waging War
This morning, I did battle with the bane of my existance: tailgaters.
There I was, driving down the road, listening to a lovely new CD, doing the speed limit, and generally having a wonderful time. Then BAM!
I looked in the rearview mirror to see a white minivan all up in my business. What was worse, it had "AIRPORT TAXI" painted in mocking letters on the windsheild. To most people, that would probably indicate simply that it was an airport taxi, but not to me. What it meant to me was that the stupid thing would be following me. All the way to work.
At first, I was an unshakable rock of calm collectedness. If he wants to speed, fine, I thought, But he'll have to pass me to do it.
Before to long, though, impatience began to set in."Pass me, you idiot!" I muttered, perfectly aware that the driver couldn't hear me. It felt pretty good to pretend to tell him off, though. I looked up. He was still there. I'd like to say that this didn't make me think curse words, but I'd be lying.
My poor CD had by this point lost most of my attention. This was particularly sad because like I said it was brand new (well, to me, anyhow) and I had never heard any of the songs on it. I sighed. It was a casualty of war, I suppose.
Finally, after about ten minutes, he passed. To say I was pleased would be an understatement. Finally, I thought as I shifted my attention back to the CD, which was currently featuring, a cool, stormy sounding guitar solo. This is gonna be good. My elation didn't last long though, as the next glimpse of the rearview mirror revealed that another driver had launched a full-scale invasion of my personal bubble.
I checked my speedometer just to be absolutely certain that I wasn't the problem, but no, I was at the speed limit almost exactly. Don't people here know how to drive?!?! I wondered to myself.
Apparently not, I discovered, as I was passed by the second tailgator, closely followed by a guy who signalled left to merge right into the correct lane. I was then tailgated for another few moments by a pickup truck who passed me on a solid line (on a single lane road). Good job, buddy.
When I finally got to work, I breathed a sigh of releif as I turned over my CD to check the damage. Song number 5. Well, that's not so bad, I thought. I still have the whole rest of the CD to enjoy on the way home this afternoon.
If they don't strike again, that is.
There I was, driving down the road, listening to a lovely new CD, doing the speed limit, and generally having a wonderful time. Then BAM!
I looked in the rearview mirror to see a white minivan all up in my business. What was worse, it had "AIRPORT TAXI" painted in mocking letters on the windsheild. To most people, that would probably indicate simply that it was an airport taxi, but not to me. What it meant to me was that the stupid thing would be following me. All the way to work.
At first, I was an unshakable rock of calm collectedness. If he wants to speed, fine, I thought, But he'll have to pass me to do it.
Before to long, though, impatience began to set in."Pass me, you idiot!" I muttered, perfectly aware that the driver couldn't hear me. It felt pretty good to pretend to tell him off, though. I looked up. He was still there. I'd like to say that this didn't make me think curse words, but I'd be lying.
My poor CD had by this point lost most of my attention. This was particularly sad because like I said it was brand new (well, to me, anyhow) and I had never heard any of the songs on it. I sighed. It was a casualty of war, I suppose.
Finally, after about ten minutes, he passed. To say I was pleased would be an understatement. Finally, I thought as I shifted my attention back to the CD, which was currently featuring, a cool, stormy sounding guitar solo. This is gonna be good. My elation didn't last long though, as the next glimpse of the rearview mirror revealed that another driver had launched a full-scale invasion of my personal bubble.
I checked my speedometer just to be absolutely certain that I wasn't the problem, but no, I was at the speed limit almost exactly. Don't people here know how to drive?!?! I wondered to myself.
Apparently not, I discovered, as I was passed by the second tailgator, closely followed by a guy who signalled left to merge right into the correct lane. I was then tailgated for another few moments by a pickup truck who passed me on a solid line (on a single lane road). Good job, buddy.
When I finally got to work, I breathed a sigh of releif as I turned over my CD to check the damage. Song number 5. Well, that's not so bad, I thought. I still have the whole rest of the CD to enjoy on the way home this afternoon.
If they don't strike again, that is.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Every Time He's There
There is a God and He is faithful.
I'm reminded of this every time I wake up healthy enough to live another day.
Every time I pick up my guitar and notice that I'm playing a teensy bit better than I did the last time.
Every time I look in the fridge and see that there's enough food to provide for myself and my family.
Every time I pray for my safety while I'm scared and come through it unscathed.
Every time I walk into the church and see 50 or so friends who I never would have met otherwise.
Every time I open my mouth to sing and an improvised praise song comes out without my having thought about it.
Every time I think about something stupid I've done and it occurs to me that I'm loved anyway.
God is there when I'm bitter about my challenges and He loves me just as much then as when I'm spontaneously singing His praises in my bedroom. He loves me when I'm an idiot and when I'm... not such an idiot (although, to Him, I guess I'm an idiot even then). He loves me for my strengths and for my flaws.
And that's pretty mind-blowing.
I'm reminded of this every time I wake up healthy enough to live another day.
Every time I pick up my guitar and notice that I'm playing a teensy bit better than I did the last time.
Every time I look in the fridge and see that there's enough food to provide for myself and my family.
Every time I pray for my safety while I'm scared and come through it unscathed.
Every time I walk into the church and see 50 or so friends who I never would have met otherwise.
Every time I open my mouth to sing and an improvised praise song comes out without my having thought about it.
Every time I think about something stupid I've done and it occurs to me that I'm loved anyway.
God is there when I'm bitter about my challenges and He loves me just as much then as when I'm spontaneously singing His praises in my bedroom. He loves me when I'm an idiot and when I'm... not such an idiot (although, to Him, I guess I'm an idiot even then). He loves me for my strengths and for my flaws.
And that's pretty mind-blowing.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Blogging my Nervous Breakdown
Ok...so I'm going to go sing and play a couple songs in front of a hall full of people who've never heard me sing before. Using an unfamiliar guitar.
But it's okay, because they're all your family. If you screw up, they probably won't care too much...
I already know I'm not the most skillful person here...my cousin's way better.
It doesn't matter, you're not the worst person here either, and she's been doing this for way longer than you have. People will appreciate the effort.
I'm singing out of key. HOLY CRAP. I'm. SINGING. OUT OF KEY. And this is only the sound check. How am I EVER going to get through this?!?! Abort mission! Abort, I say!
If you want to ever be able to live your dream of doing this for a huge audience of strangers, You're going to have to get over all this and play for your family today.
Maybe I should rethink this dream of mine...
No, no. You're going to sing and you're going to rock it. Okay, time for a pep talk:
Try not to screw up too much, but if you do, it's okay. Your family will still love you. Maybe.
Oh, goodness. I'm not very good at this, am I?! Thanks for trying, little voice in my head.
But it's okay, because they're all your family. If you screw up, they probably won't care too much...
I already know I'm not the most skillful person here...my cousin's way better.
It doesn't matter, you're not the worst person here either, and she's been doing this for way longer than you have. People will appreciate the effort.
I'm singing out of key. HOLY CRAP. I'm. SINGING. OUT OF KEY. And this is only the sound check. How am I EVER going to get through this?!?! Abort mission! Abort, I say!
If you want to ever be able to live your dream of doing this for a huge audience of strangers, You're going to have to get over all this and play for your family today.
Maybe I should rethink this dream of mine...
No, no. You're going to sing and you're going to rock it. Okay, time for a pep talk:
Try not to screw up too much, but if you do, it's okay. Your family will still love you. Maybe.
Oh, goodness. I'm not very good at this, am I?! Thanks for trying, little voice in my head.
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Best Thing About Facebook...
...is that it's always changing.
No, seriously, hear me out.
When has facebook ever made a change that most people actually preferred to whatever was in place originally? Never, that I can remember. No matter how trivial the change, it always seems like there are countless pages complaining about it, as well as everyone's facebook statuses.
The good news is that things don't stay the same for long. You never have to endure a crappy idea for too long because soon something even dumber always ends up replacing it. And if it all sucks, who really cares?
You know, it's funny. I think about quitting facebook on a pretty regular basis, but it's when I try to convince myself that facebook has actually had a good idea that I want to delete my account the most...
No, seriously, hear me out.
When has facebook ever made a change that most people actually preferred to whatever was in place originally? Never, that I can remember. No matter how trivial the change, it always seems like there are countless pages complaining about it, as well as everyone's facebook statuses.
The good news is that things don't stay the same for long. You never have to endure a crappy idea for too long because soon something even dumber always ends up replacing it. And if it all sucks, who really cares?
You know, it's funny. I think about quitting facebook on a pretty regular basis, but it's when I try to convince myself that facebook has actually had a good idea that I want to delete my account the most...
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