Crushed Perfection (Girls Only)

Every girl’s first crush is Robin Hood, whether it be Disney’s Fox or Errol Flynn. It’s as simple as that. If they’ve heard the story, they’ve fallen in love with this “perfect” man. But, over time, our love for Robin grows dormant, tucked away deep in our heart, where it is hid, as we’ve grown up and realized that Robin is, in fact, fictional, and even if he wasn’t, he’d be dead by now, anyway. But deep down, if we were really, really honest, we still love him.

Then Kris comes along.

Most of you probably don’t know who this “Kris” is. Kris takes many forms and bears many names, but his main characteristic is that he is the heartthrob of a third of the single female American population. In popular media, Kris is more commonly known as Orlando Bloom. He’s perfect for everything—graceful as an elf, strong as a warrior, and as honest as Will. In local church youth groups, he takes the form of a more modest Kris-worship leader, cute, funny, honest, and believes that girls think in a manner that can best be illustrated by making spaghetti. However, any girl confessing her love for a Kris is smiled at, the aforementioned boy discussed, and then, just as the conversation is moving on, someone leans over and whispers “he’s out of your league.”

Hearts sink. With a more critical eye, she surveys her new love and realizes that he is, indeed, out of her league. Not to mention ten or fifteen years older than she is. Sigh. So over time she “grows out” of her crush and move on to more fertile ground. He is never mentioned again, and her love is laid to rest beside Robin in her own little love-sick graveyard. But, just like Robin, we still love him, and perhaps every now and then we’ll sneak a wreath in to lay over the unmarked grave.

But wait! There is one more who catches our little lady’s eye…and he’s cuter than Kris. So she meets Dan, who is responsible for the second third of crushes in the U.S.. Dan is better than Kris, and he has a dry sense of humor. While he might not be the youth’s worship leader, he is captain of the basketball team, the school’s star player, and class president. Did I mention that he is not just cute, but handsome? He’s also a prankster…but that only makes him more endearing. Unfortunately, she’s not the only one who has noticed Dan. Half of the school swoons if he happens to glance in their direction. Sure, he’s not dead, which is a plus, and he’s not twice her age, but her chances of getting him are just about as low.

So she sighs again and…stumbles across the We-Hate-Dan club, comprised of the other third of the female population. These girls are bent on destroying Dan, and getting every other girl to realize that he really is not as good as they think he is, a la John Tucker Must Die (which, incidentally, I only recommend if you are wishing to lose brain matter). They’re so focused on making his life miserable that they don’t even take time to look around and find out who else is cute, until they move away to college, and find some decent looking, not really impressive guy who they settle down and spend the rest of their life with. And then, every now and then, they sit down with a cup of tea and dream…of being Maid Marian, and waiting for Robin to come and rescue them.

Study Music, Part 2

Yesterday I had mentioned that there are two types of people: those who can study while listening to music, and those who cannot. As I am not in the latter group, I have lumped them together as a bunch of people who are easily distracted…like I’m not, but that’s beside the point. (Just so you know, right now I’m listening to Martha’s Dance/The Russian Dervish, which is a very frenetic song. In a moment I will be listening to The Battle from Chronicles of Narnia, which is much more relaxing and uplifting. I simply know that is what I will be listening to as the player just switched over to that. I would tell you what I would be hearing next, but that would require my switching windows to look up the title, so I’ll leave you with the clue that it’s a slightly longer piece, and wait until it switches on to tell you what it is. Isn’t iTunes wonderful? You can tell it to play songs by shortest to longest or visa versa.) The former group, that of people who are able to study while listening to music (and, by my previous fallacious reasoning, those who are NOT easily distracted), can be further divided into two more groups: Those who simply ignore the music, and those who actually listen to it. There is a very fine line between the two.

Those who ignore music have been gifted with the ability to focus on only one thing. Kinda like Annie, who could only focus on zoning during class. But I digress. Like (Ah! The track just switched. I am now listening to Reel Around the Sun….) those who cannot listen to music while studying, I do not fall in this group, so I will move on to the group I find more interesting; those who can actually listen to music while studying.

Those parentheses really mess up that sentence.

Ah! I’ve found out what we are. We are multi-taskers. How exactly that differs from being easily distracted, I don’t know, but it does, somehow. Perhaps just by the fact that it makes me feel better.

Actually, Zack, if you want the bare bones truth, I’m just very hyper and sensitive, and nice relaxing Catholic Masses seem to soothe my nerves. And, once my hyper-sensitivity is soothed, I can actually focus on grammar, logic, and intensely complicated problems of any type, be it Algebra or C.S. Lewis’ more complicated and deep writings.

That said, I do not really care to listen to La Musica Notturna Delle Strade Di Madrid Number 6 Opus Whatever-it-happens-to-be (30) by Lugi Boccherini. Although, from about 4:15 to 6:32 is a really neat cut. It also happens to correlate to a really neat scene at the end of Master and Commander: Far Side of the World.

But I digress. More music notes tomorrow.

Study Music

Throughout my life, I have found that there are two types of people: Those who enjoy doing studies while listening to music, and those who cannot study while listening to music.

I fall in the former group. In fact, there are times where I cannot concentrate if I do not have music playing. Most of my study music sounds like what is playing right now, or is a nice, relaxing soundtrack. For me, music is a stimulant for thought and a catalyst for the written word. Just nice and softly in the background. Not blaring. I just turned my tunes down because, at the moment, they were blaring.

Another favorite, besides Catholic Masses (no, I am not Catholic, but I love their music), is Into the West, which is the song that has been played most on this computer's iTunes player.

Isn't music great?

That was a rhetorical question, Zack.

I've found that study hobbits...I mean, habits, vary, depending on the studier. When I went to Ohio, my cousin and I would often find ourselves working on differing projects in the same house, usually my aunt's house. In fact, always my aunt's house. My aunt's house is quite open, so that unless you're sitting on a bed to study (not the best when the definition of study includes a computer), you will be hearing everyone else's work.

I was reduced to listening to music through a single ear bud.

It was hard, I tell you. Especially once another cousin decided to turn on the TV.

Two girls working and one boy watching TV=one boy turning TV off.

Music is an integrated part of my life. The simple fact that I, on average, buy more than one CD per month ought to be witness to that.

:)

~A City

Runnin' Just to Catch Myself

Please grab a piece of paper and a pen. (Yes, for the two of you that think pens do not need to be in existance, grab a pen. That's the round thing that doesn't have an eraser on the other end.)

Okay, this is what I would like you to do. Listen to the song (you can watch the video too, but I'd like you to also listen.), and write down what it makes you think of. This can be a list of words, simple phrases, people that you think are perfectly described, anything.



Please post what you came up with!

(Hint: Your posting will help me in my creation of a post, and I don't mind crediting people in the least.)

~Dresden