Friday, January 29, 2010

Yet another post about my deep connection to music

This week's Delightful Deviant is bw-inc. Her works are so pretty and worthy of her popularity.


Commission: Ursula by *bw-inc on deviantART


First for 2009 by *bw-inc on deviantART


The Snow Catcher by *bw-inc on deviantART

~~~
Since about 3:00pm, I've been watching meekakitty's 24-hour blogtv show. There have been a few nostalgic song references. One of them was "Lucky" by Britney Spears. Funny story about that song. . . I owned that cd.
Correction: I still own but cannot find that cd.
"Lucky" was the only song that did not work on it, so I didn't hear it until I saw her in concert. I was 8-years-old and I felt deprived. I got mad at my cd for not working.. That's the only exposure I had to that song until a few years later when my cousin, Shelley, introduced me to the concert video. I am quite glad that I lacked exposure because I have heard that song WAY too many times.
That whole thing reminded me of the songs that bring back my childhood yet few other people my age have even heard of. Pop music played a minor role compared to Enya, John Jarvis, David Lanz, George Winston, and many other such artists. I was not deprived of pop culture's catchy tunes; I simply enjoyed my dad's taste and Disney tunes a bit more. On road trips, my dad would flip on some Enya after my sister and I had belted out "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story enough times to fall asleep (Andrea: Points for you if you can name any other song that we demanded to sing to. I know your memory can manage it.). I'd be in a kind of pleasant dream world for a while. Then, I'd beg for more Disney tunes. I was given a cd player very early on for a reason: I couldn't appreciate that music yet.
So when I say that I have a deep connection to music, I mean it just like everyone else but in my own way. My dad's taste was different and it influenced me. My memories of him have "Paul Wants a Pig" and "The Memory of Trees" playing softly in the background. That totally beats being exposed to the Spice Girls and the Pussycat Dolls, and the countless others who I didn't even know existed until I moved here. I have very special memories that don't come with a song on the radio that a few hundred million other people have heard before. My memories feel that much more special and unique to me. It's nice to have something that special to recall when my identity is a bit fuzzy or whenever else I just need/want to feel good.
Ah. . . nostalgia.
Side story: One day while going to Petrolia (?) Beach, my dad picked up a cd and put it in. He turned to me and told me that he had two cds by the same artist, but he was a girl in one and a guy in the other. I was a bit confused. We talked about weird surgeries and I asked him a million questions about how that was possible. That is how I learned about transsexuals. I may have missed sex ed, but I think my dad educated me with music in that department better than anyone else could have. :P
Until the next post, and as always, take care. 8)
p.s. If you can name the transsexual artist that I failed to name, tell me how you know that. If you name some other artist who also happened to be transsexual, I'll be happy to read about that too.

Friday, January 22, 2010

One person, one weekend, one pleasant memory

We're going to pretend that the earlier post was actually posted last week. This week's Delightful Deviant is cred1t because his landscapes are stunning.


2105 by ~cred1t on deviantART


dream by ~cred1t on deviantART


Pathway by ~cred1t on deviantART

~~~
Ah. . . The first week of school is over. I'll keep what I have to say about it short. It was fine. I thought I got a few scary teachers, but they're actually nice. I think I can get through this semester in one piece. I'll be crossing my fingers for that one.
As you might know, I like to organize things. This does not make me a neat freak or a super organized person. I have piles of random junk everywhere. It just means that I like to categorize and move things around sometimes. It's also a kind of fidgeting. I arrange flashcards alphabetically even when I know that I'll have to mix them up in order to really get the words on them memorized. I also move and reorganize files on my computer which makes my computer very angry sometimes (I do a lot of things that make my computer angry, but I'm not even aware of some of them). Another thing is I organize piles even though I cannot possibly get them any neater because they are piles of stuff. Stuff is hard to organize. It's not specific enough to really look neat. Well, it might look neat as in cool but not neat as in tidy. Stuff prefers to look like clutter.
That leads me to the odd things I find. My mix of organization and clutter gives me a mix of things I know I have and bizarre trinkets from Neverland. This works both on my computer and in every place I put stuff. It's not uncommon for me to ask someone,"What is this and how did I get it?". Usually I find the name, origin, and purpose deep in a tiny, dusty box in my brain. Equally often, that person is Andrea who just lets me mumble to myself until she realizes that I'm mumbling to her. You might know what I'm going to say next.
Today, I went through one of my notebooks. Within its wide-ruled, ink-filled pages I found some gems. Not the kind of gems that Andrea finds. I mean the kinds of angsty teenager gems that make you cringe mixed in with a few others that are gems because you realize that you actually wrote down something that was special. Also, I found stickers and Post-Its. Cello stickers, FTW! :D
There were a few other objects, but there was a single name that said more than anything on its page. I had forgotten the name but not the person. I couldn't forget him. He was truly an unforgettable person. I'll explain the best way I can.
I was pretty much alone at the Junior/Senior Retreat my Junior/Senior year. I was in charter school, so I had to go with the church. That meant that I was really going with previous classmates who I had had little contact with. As a result, I didn't feel connected enough with them to really hang out. The only person I had really kept in touch with was my boyfriend at the time, but he was a Sophomore, so he couldn't be there. I did know a couple people at the retreat, but they had their own friends. I just felt alone. It seemed like a mistake to go to a retreat where I had no connections. With limited social skills, I didn't expect to enjoy the social benefits that I had enjoyed at previous events. Still, I tried to have fun with everyone. I got sat on in an empty row, and then I sat with a row of jackets. Nifty if I was cold, yes. Esteem-boosting, no. I started to feel worse.
Then, the weekend got a lot better because of the person I mentioned. I don't remember exactly when, but I ended up bumping into a guy. He was very nice and extremely easy to talk with. We talked for quite a while and it felt good. I didn't feel inadequate or like I was expected to do anything. Words came more easily than I usually felt. I realized that I had forgotten what it was like to make a friend rather than just end up with a person who I called a friend. We didn't keep in touch, but it meant a lot to me at the time that I had made a friend. I needed a friend that weekend. That experience comes back to me every so often. It just reminds me that a friend isn't someone to stick out loneliness with; it's someone to spend time with. When I see his name written on that page, the rest of the words disappear and I just remember the feeling of being a mopey teenager disappearing. Nothing feels better than feeling the inner esteem-less high school girl being replaced with the person I hope to be in the future.
Andrea's flashback was more entertaining than mine, but I hope anyone reading mine finds it entertaining in some way.
Until the next post, and as always, take care. 8)
p.s. Today, I learned why the McFlurry spoon is so weird. (Btw, Shelbi, I think I told you wrong. Whoops. :S Just read that Yahoo answer.)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Apparently I made a promise really late last night. . .

This week's Delightful Deviant is PeterPan-Syndrome. She makes crazy, cool stuff. :D

Ghibli Fanart. by ~PeterPan-Syndrome on deviantART

Super Mario - Life is a Game. by ~PeterPan-Syndrome on deviantART

Bubble Bobble - Life is a Game by ~PeterPan-Syndrome on deviantART

~~~
I make stupid promises late at night. *sigh* So, I never actually had a story to tell which is why I'm only posting now. In spite of whatever date blogger gives this, I am writing on Tuesday the 19th of January. I have no story. I'm such a liar for saying that I'd post. I'm sorry. I'll think of some story-a-thon thing eventually. As for now, I'm pooped. I had a full day of classes. With those classes came all of the joy and pain that is the first day of class. D: It was super exciting because I had friends to look forward to seeing and new classes to see. The new classes were just as frightening as they were exciting. I'm too tired to mention exactly what happened. I have to put my remaining energy into Trig. I'm taking Spanish, Chemistry, and Trigonometry, fyi.
In other news, the knitting book that I've been waiting MONTHS for finally arrived. Unfortunately, I'm working on how to manage my time with this new schedule, so I can't get to it immediately. I will be looking at it longingly until I can though. That's a promise that I will be keeping. There's another stack of books, but I don't know what to do with them. T_T I think I'm going to finish the book that I'm currently reading, do some deep breathing, and attempt to get through a book every month. That's my new goal. Once I finish the one I'm reading, I'll say so and the day after I finish it will start a new 30-day period in which I'll try to read another book. Can I do this? I hope so. New classes make me realize how much I don't know and they point out everything that I can't do, so I pretty much just want to crawl into a hole and read familiar books. I'll get over this feeling once I realize that I have homework to do.
Oh, here it comes. Time to sleep. -_-
Good luck to everyone with their studies! Until the next post, and as always, take care. 8)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Just a quickie

I'll post a Delightful Deviant tomorrow along with an adequate post, most likely. I'm just posting now to say that I updated my journal on deviantART. It's proof that I my blogging belongs here and not where I'm more likely to say odd and boring things. I'll have to fix that one later. . . Still, if you're interested it's here: http://anjollie131415.deviantart.com/journal/
New goal: Post my 100th post this year. This one counts, of course. I'll even post a nice picture of Bo.


I'm too tired to tell a story, but I did promise one for the regular post, didn't I? Okay, I'll do that later. I promise I will tell a story of some sort in the next post.

Until the next post, take care! 8)

Saturday, January 9, 2010

In which I mention John quite a bit

The first Delightful Deviant of the year is saligia.

luck by `saligia on deviantART

Sherlock's daughter II by `saligia on deviantART

blue electro by `saligia on deviantART
~~~
During 2009, I posted 45 times. Let's see if I can get to 50 this year and if I can include actual words in some of them. (I can't promise they'll all include words. You know that talking I never used to do? Well, I'm getting caught up on it. Yes, John, that's because of you.)
Okay, so. . . words. *takes a break to find some* Oh, I know! I'll list the things that have happened in the past month.
List (in no particular order)
1. My second semester of college ended. I have all A's except for one B in--do I even have to say it?--U.S. history. >.<
2. I started to date this guy named John and both of us have been smiling ever since.
3. I saw Avatar, Sherlock Holmes (with the boyfriend), and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in theatres.
4. I saw Shelbi 3 times.
5. Shelbi, Andrea, and I celebrated our birthdays. Yeah, that makes me a major. [insert Modern Major General song here because it's stuck in my head again]
6. I got a cello. My dreams of becoming a decent musician just came a bit closer.
7. I went over my minutes for the first time. . . ever. Crazy, huh? Sure, it got me a strange pat on the back from my uncle, but realizing that I talked a lot for once in my life made me laugh.
8. I finally finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist!
9. Did I mention I talked a lot more than usual? I plan to do so until it becomes usual for me. Well, to one person at least.
10. Poop cupcakes
11. I started playing the piano again. Requests to learn certain songs are to be directed to the family to decide if they can handle hearing them over and over and over and over and over and over. . .
12. I was in a live nativity. I was an angel for part of it, but I fainted. Next shift, I was Mary instead, so that Shelbi could take my place as the angel. So. . . I was a fallen angel. This thought amuses me. 
~~~
Eh. . . That's it. I'm done. Before I sign off, I'll just mention the weird dream I had last night. I dreamt that I kept going between Pleasant Hill and my house and I was looking for fish to put in my aquarium (which happened to be the pool in my backyard). They were mostly goldfish. Also, I kept breaking something and Scott got mad. The dream makes no sense. My only fish are virtual, Scott laughs when I break things (most of the time), and I don't think Pleasant Hill has more exciting fish than here. Maybe Monterey Bay. Still, I found the dream amusing. I woke up and thought, "Fish, really? Why did I dream about fish?"
The rest of this entry will consist of pictures. Enjoy.



In this picture, Shelbi probably wants to kill me for dragging her along. Also, she's holding babies that she ended up not needing. This was all pre-faint.

Due to the snow, the patio cover collapsed.


 Until the next post, and as always, take care. 8D