These are not necessarily songs I dislike. However, the first few moments of wakedness find me in a different frame of mind from any other moments of the day, and in that first half-hour or so of consciousness, my opinions are quite strong. Any of these five songs coming from my clock-radio at 7:00 in the morning is guaranteed to signal a bad day ahead:
Santana and Michelle Branch -- "Game of Love". GGGRRRGGHHH!!!!! Two bars of this is enough to make me want to gnaw my leg off. And why is this a perennial favourite for morning shows?
4 Non Blondes -- "What's Going On?". The quavery, yodelly, register-skipping voice just sets me on edge for the rest of my waking hours.
Ashlee Simpson -- "Pieces of Me". I wish someone would burn all extant copies of the vocal track of this song. As we all know now, she'll never be able to recreate it.
Train -- "Drops of Jupiter". Holy-was-overplayed-like-three-years-ago, plus I simply cannot countenance the thought of soy lattés and fried chicken at that hour.
Avril Lavigne -- "Sk8er Boi". Something about the in-your-facedness makes me want to throw the damn clock clean down the hall.
Counting Crows -- "Accidentally in Love". That wacky, kazoodly bit at the beginning makes all my hair stand on end when it's the first sound I hear all day. It's like waking up and eating an overly-sugared Sour Key: spine-wrenching.
There are only five, but for some reason, they come up A LOT, regardless of what radio station I set my alarm to. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps radio execs feel that they're blandly top-40ish enough not to annoy anyone.
Anyone have any bad morning omens? Songs or otherwise?
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Saturday, October 23, 2004
A is for AFI vs. IMDb
In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) published its list of the 100 greatest movies. They are, in AFI members' collective opinion, the best films that were produced during the first 100 years of American filmmaking, and they span from back in 1912 all the way to 1996 (which, unless I'm mistaken, is only 84 years, but...okay).
Anyway, I just thought I'd compare the top 20 of AFI's list with the 20 top movies as voted by the general public on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)...except that I'm taking out any of the movies on the IMDb list that came after 1996. Here's how they compare...
Of all the movies on either list listed here, I've seen Citizen Kane, The Shawshank Redemption, Gone with the Wind (more or less), Schindler's List, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (mostly), Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Pulp Fiction, and Raiders of the Lost Ark --- 11 out of 31 movies. 35%, which isn't such a nice percentage for someone considered somewhat of a movie buff. Then again, I wasn't even born yet when most of these films were released, so I think that's a relevant excuse. One of these days (yeah, when I have time) I should really watch The Godfather movies and Casablanca, and watch The Shawshank Redemption again because I can't remember it and it's a lot of people's favorite movie. So there you go.
Have any of you seen any of these movies? Which do you like or dislike, and which list do you agree with more closely?
Anyway, I just thought I'd compare the top 20 of AFI's list with the 20 top movies as voted by the general public on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)...except that I'm taking out any of the movies on the IMDb list that came after 1996. Here's how they compare...
| 1. Citizen Kane (1941) | 1. The Godfather (1972) |
| 2. Casablanca (1942) | 2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) |
| 3. The Godfather (1972) | 3. The Godfather, Part II (1974) |
| 4. Gone with the Wind (1939) | 4. Seventh Samurai (1954) |
| 5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) | 5. Schindler's List (1993) |
| 6. The Wizard of Oz (1939) | 6. Casablanca (1942) |
| 7. The Graduate (1967) | 7. Star Wars (1977) |
| 8. On the Waterfront (1954) | 8. Citizen Kane (1941) |
| 9. Schindler's List (1993) | 9. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) |
| 10. Singin' in the Rain (1952) | 10. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) |
| 11. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) | 11. Pulp Fiction (1994) |
| 12. Sunset Boulevard (1950) | 12. Rear Window (1954) |
| 13. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) | 13. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) |
| 14. Some Like it Hot (1959) | 14. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) |
| 15. Star Wars (1977) | 15. The Usual Suspects (1995) |
| 16. All About Eve (1950) | 16. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966) |
| 17. The African Queen (1951) | 17. 12 Angry Men (1957) |
| 18. Psycho (1960) | 18. North by Northwest (1959) |
| 19. Chinatown (1974) | 19. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) |
| 20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) | 20. Psycho (1960) |
Of all the movies on either list listed here, I've seen Citizen Kane, The Shawshank Redemption, Gone with the Wind (more or less), Schindler's List, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (mostly), Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Pulp Fiction, and Raiders of the Lost Ark --- 11 out of 31 movies. 35%, which isn't such a nice percentage for someone considered somewhat of a movie buff. Then again, I wasn't even born yet when most of these films were released, so I think that's a relevant excuse. One of these days (yeah, when I have time) I should really watch The Godfather movies and Casablanca, and watch The Shawshank Redemption again because I can't remember it and it's a lot of people's favorite movie. So there you go.
Have any of you seen any of these movies? Which do you like or dislike, and which list do you agree with more closely?
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
So if we're picking topics...
...I'm thinking about the sections in a normal magazine, and realizing that I'm not really equipped to do movies, TV guide, sports, food, new in homes, wheels, financial times, or fashion. So I can do books and poetry, but I can't promise that they'll be new books or new poetry, just new to me.
Sound ok?
Sound ok?
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Ignore this
I just needed to make a new post to see if I'm adding this comment coding in properly...
Kostenlose HaloScan!
Further to the below, HaloScan does the same bloody thing. BUGGER. The login name is zerogravity. The password is the same as our e-mail's password. Someone. Please. Fix. http://www.haloscan.com
Kostenlose Shoutbox!
Is 'kostenlose' an expletive? Let's hope so.
This is a boring post of technical nature, since I'm not sure what I can/can't/should/shouldn't post about, but I've managed to (theoretically) set up a Shoutbox for the webpage. The Box ID for login on http://www.myshoutbox.com can be found at our group e-mail account, and it uses the same password as our e-mail account does, to make life easier.
The reason why the bloody Shoutbox isn't exactly appearing on the page is because when I try to add it to the left column, it makes all the fonts on the page absolutely massive. I don't know why, and I'm too lazy to figure out why, and it's midnight, and I'm knackered, and and and...
The point is that we do have one, but I don't have the technical expertise to set it up. So could one of you (Juliet? Pretty please?) copy and paste the code from our Shoutbox configuration to try to set the bloody thing up? *Sigh* (I'm now debating whether I ought to try my hand at setting up Haloscan commenting.) Apologies. End of post.
This is a boring post of technical nature, since I'm not sure what I can/can't/should/shouldn't post about, but I've managed to (theoretically) set up a Shoutbox for the webpage. The Box ID for login on http://www.myshoutbox.com can be found at our group e-mail account, and it uses the same password as our e-mail account does, to make life easier.
The reason why the bloody Shoutbox isn't exactly appearing on the page is because when I try to add it to the left column, it makes all the fonts on the page absolutely massive. I don't know why, and I'm too lazy to figure out why, and it's midnight, and I'm knackered, and and and...
The point is that we do have one, but I don't have the technical expertise to set it up. So could one of you (Juliet? Pretty please?) copy and paste the code from our Shoutbox configuration to try to set the bloody thing up? *Sigh* (I'm now debating whether I ought to try my hand at setting up Haloscan commenting.) Apologies. End of post.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Thoughts on blog format
Just running some things up the flagpole to see who salutes:
-people post when they feel like it about whatever they want.
Pros: easy, low maintenance
Cons: we all already have blogs where we do that
-weekly/biweekly/monthly theme, each of us responds to the question or theme
Pros: learn new things about each other, makes it different from our own blogs, provides structure
Cons: provides structure, might get annoying
-we rotate days/weeks in which we post about what we're up to
Pros: provides structure, interesting to compare our lives
Cons: provides structure, might get boring (NOT that my study-for-a-midterm-eat-crap-food-write-an-essay-get-no-sleep life is BORING, not at all.)
-we make the blog about something (art/music/websites/recipes/origami/junk food/small dogs) and people post when they discover something new or something related
Pros: good information/interest resource, preferrably it would be about something we're all interested in
Cons: no information about ourselves, have to pick a topic that we ARE all actually interested in which might be more difficult than it seems
Or we could just ask Julie what she had in mind in the first place. *passes mike-slash-soapbox along to Juliet*
-people post when they feel like it about whatever they want.
Pros: easy, low maintenance
Cons: we all already have blogs where we do that
-weekly/biweekly/monthly theme, each of us responds to the question or theme
Pros: learn new things about each other, makes it different from our own blogs, provides structure
Cons: provides structure, might get annoying
-we rotate days/weeks in which we post about what we're up to
Pros: provides structure, interesting to compare our lives
Cons: provides structure, might get boring (NOT that my study-for-a-midterm-eat-crap-food-write-an-essay-get-no-sleep life is BORING, not at all.)
-we make the blog about something (art/music/websites/recipes/origami/junk food/small dogs) and people post when they discover something new or something related
Pros: good information/interest resource, preferrably it would be about something we're all interested in
Cons: no information about ourselves, have to pick a topic that we ARE all actually interested in which might be more difficult than it seems
Or we could just ask Julie what she had in mind in the first place. *passes mike-slash-soapbox along to Juliet*
This feels a bit odd. I'm still trying to work out the concept of a 'group blog', and although it is a lovely idea, I haven't a clue what to post about. Are there rules? Are posts meant to have a particular theme? Is there anything I'm not allowed to post? Who is the audience? etc. and so forth.
The oddest thing, however, is not having access to the Settings or Template tabs. *Sigh* Was this done on purpose? I know I shouldn't be removing Roswell adverts when I feel like removing them, but being something of an aesthetic control freak, not having the ability to alter the Settings or Template is complete hell.
Other than that, I have little else to post about at this moment in time, although I must say that two minutes ago, I looked outside, and it was blindingly sunny. Two minutes later, the sun has unfortunately been replaced by a thick cloud cover and sheets of pouring rain. Wellies would be appropriate right now, but not adorable new silver ballet slippers...
The oddest thing, however, is not having access to the Settings or Template tabs. *Sigh* Was this done on purpose? I know I shouldn't be removing Roswell adverts when I feel like removing them, but being something of an aesthetic control freak, not having the ability to alter the Settings or Template is complete hell.
Other than that, I have little else to post about at this moment in time, although I must say that two minutes ago, I looked outside, and it was blindingly sunny. Two minutes later, the sun has unfortunately been replaced by a thick cloud cover and sheets of pouring rain. Wellies would be appropriate right now, but not adorable new silver ballet slippers...
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Today I
bought a poster version of The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey.
I did several other things today, but this might have been the highlight.
It's a great poster, but it was also a very boring day.
...it's cool if I actually post in this thing, right guys? Are there...rules? Like "don't post things like that in a nice blog like this"?
P.S. My favourite Gashlycrumb Tiny is Neville, despite my namesake's presence.
I did several other things today, but this might have been the highlight.
It's a great poster, but it was also a very boring day.
...it's cool if I actually post in this thing, right guys? Are there...rules? Like "don't post things like that in a nice blog like this"?
P.S. My favourite Gashlycrumb Tiny is Neville, despite my namesake's presence.
Monday, October 04, 2004
1 down, 2 to go
Harumph.
What is the point of a comment system that tells you what time the comment was posted, but not what day it was posted on? Silly Blogger.
Anyway, got one of my friends to join (thanks, Flames!) and now I'm just waiting on the others. Hmm, I probably should have asked them to let me know either way whether they're going to join or not, so then I'd know how long to wait... but then, that would have made sense wouldn't it? Sigh. Anyhoo, one friend joining is better than no friends joining, I say. :)
What is the point of a comment system that tells you what time the comment was posted, but not what day it was posted on? Silly Blogger.
Anyway, got one of my friends to join (thanks, Flames!) and now I'm just waiting on the others. Hmm, I probably should have asked them to let me know either way whether they're going to join or not, so then I'd know how long to wait... but then, that would have made sense wouldn't it? Sigh. Anyhoo, one friend joining is better than no friends joining, I say. :)
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