Work and Music

Here is a quick post to show everyone what I have been up to during this weekend. As you well may know from my constant complaints, I am swamped with work and blogging duties. Not only am I backlogged on guest posts (sorry Amber!) but I also need to film the karaoke vid, recognize some other awards given to me, and watch a bad sports movie to write up a review. Though of course all the homework, exams, and design projects assigned for next week have absolute control of my priorities, it is still nice to remind myself that there is other stuff I need to do besides dive into the books. 


So yea, bitchin' time over, now for the fun stuff. First of all...check this out, its my work station:

I could build a book castle if I wanted to

You can't really see it, but I assure you I also have a HUGE folder with all the journal articles I have to read for my memory devices class...it is underneath the black book, right there in the center stack. 


As a parting note, since I am going to go back to my world of laplace transforms, quantum mechanics, and vanadium stainless steel implants, I want to leave you with this - a nice little cover. Jex Mix from Jes Getting Started and I both love this song, Please Don't Go from Mike Posner, so I decided to be quick and record a first draft cover. Hope you enjoy it.

Let's Put Some Kiwi (Karaoke) In You - KBROD March

This February, month of couples and singletons alike, we at the Karaoke Blog Ring of Death have brought you a special treat. Not only have we gained tons of new members for you to check out and fantasize over, but we had a double theme. In recognition of St. Valentine's day and all that love/romance mess, this month's theme was Love versus Anti-love Songs. Got you all excited down in the pants doesn't it?

To make things even better, because indeed it can get even better, I get to host Neal/Lost from You Know What Really Grinds My Gears...! Of course, of course, I realize the obvious. Yes, he is a Kiwi (from New Zealand), yes he has that accent and I know all you girls are secretly touching yourself when he sings. Or openly, whatever floats your boat and feeds your goat. I must admit that I am a tad bit jealous but he is my bro, so therefore I will be a supportive wingman. I will tell you that  he is sex-ay, has god-like powers in the sack, and there is definitely enough of him to go around for every blogging female. 

Here is his video, singing If You are Into It by The Flight of the Conchords. A great artist choice and a fun rendition, that's what this karaoke ring is all about. You should savor this moment, because it's his last month for a while. Give a good farewell folks, and comment down below! 



Care to see my videos? Really? Well then, you can go over to Lana's (Nuggles's) blog at That Ain't Kosher. Let me know what you thought of my attempts at stardom haha :P 

People Like My Blog?!? (Yeah, It's a Surprise to Me Too)

This is the conversation I just had on 20sb with my pal Lily:

Lily - "I just gave you an award"

Me - "say whaaaaatttttt"

Lily - "on my blog"

And sure enough, this little baby was right there with my name and blog link below it:

My first award - keep 'em coming people!

To be perfectly honest, I am both shocked and slightly confused. Me? This blog? Really? I guess its not the time to be humble and modest though. So, yea, my blog rocks. It rocks so much that your mother, sister, and girlfriend all want to do it. Multiple times. On your bed. All at once. 


I have to give a huge shout-out to my girl, Lily. She is the blogger over at Is it too early for a martini? and she is not only a cool individual but a talented writer as well. Hence why she was chosen as 20sb Featured Blogger of the Month for February. 


When I started this blog, I just wanted to be able to post regularly. Fast forward a few months, and I have some kickass blogs that keep me entertained, some readers that were nice enough to follow, and have met several awesome individuals through 20-Something Bloggers. It's freaking incredible how far this has gone. And now I feel like I am giving a speech at the Oscars, and taking up too much time. "I would like to thank my family, and my fans, and....and...." Play me out guys.


Anyways I have to tell you five things and you readers get to guess which one of the five are true. I personally think this is a little bit, how do you say it, stupid. But since I have been awarded this sticker from someone that was following these rules, I'll play along this one time.


Here are the five:

1. I am a fan of country music
2. I have brown hair
3. I broke my arm once, trying to hang from a fan
4. I can pop and lock pretty well
5. I have done it in a helicopter

After this guessing game is done,  I then have to award this baby to five other bloggers and hopefully they will carry on the process. Here are my five for this blogger award:

Falen at Colorful Rants of a Fed Up Sista

Neal (Lost) at You Know What Really Grinds My Gears...

Jess (JRoll) at Musings of an Underestimated Youth

Dan at From the Head of the Danaconda

Jessica at Hello, My Name is Jessica

These folks up there deserve every award that comes their way. I probably spend too much of my day reading through all of their posts. Keep up the good stuff guys, I will be reading.

Let's See Your Real Goods

I think auto-tune and electronica has left no area of music untouched. Seriously, there has to be a hundred wanna-be T-Pains within a 10-mile radius of me. Unfortunately, you have to realize that those sound filters and your digital instruments won't assure you producing a hit, and not even that you will be a good musician. Besides, you will be facing up against all the producers that know their shit and can create amazing rhythms, synthesizer or no synthesizer.

There's nothing wrong with the digital though, just so we are clear. I get annoyed when people keep complaining about all these new music technologies in their music. If you don't like your voices auto-tuned, then go the acoustic route, but even that is dicey. But just so you know, your much loved pop music is as guilty as the cheating hobag of an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. The rap industry can't even begin to put a claim on temporary insanity, they are the ones that launched this program to the mainstream.

The real reason behind this post is not auto-tune or even electronic music. I like it, enjoy it, and dance to it, but sometimes I want to leave it all behind. Get back to the roots of music, and listen to just the chorus of human voices. Of course, I am talking about a cappella music. This genre of music has recently gained some attention due to the "The Sing-off" and I am all for more seasons of this competition. If you ever want to hear amazing, jaw-dropping, you-just-jizzed-your-pants-its-so-good, then head over to the a capella genre. 


This shit is hard. There is no other way I can state that. The melodies, the harmonies, the rhythms, the beat-boxing, the tuning, the choreography, the list goes on and on. Sincerely, when you realize that every.single.one.of.this.group. hits the right note at the right time, it just makes your brain hurt. Not to mention that the musicality is obvious, their music skills are right there in your face. An a cappella arrangement can make the difference between a tolerable song and an eardrum-blowing orgy in your head. 


I remember the first time I was introduced to a cappella. Of course I had sung songs without accompaniment in middle school and high school chorus, but I had never heard the levels of complexity that vocals could reach. Then I was on a college visit my senior year, and an a cappella group came on stage to sing for the visiting students. They sang American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, then Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-lot. My world was rocked. Who gave these guys the right to sing both rock and rap, I pondered. They looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage, belting about big booties and I asked myself: How did the hell did they make those sounds? Where did those awesome drum noises come from? Why are the freaking hairs on my neck standing up? I was hooked, no, addicted. 


So I will share with you readers some a cappella suggestions. Honestly, I have freaking too many favorite songs, so I just created a short list for you. If you wish for some more recommendations just let me know.

Breaking my Eyes, but Not Any Hearts - The February Movie Review Blog Swap

I signed up to do this whole "blog swap" thing again and this time it was to do movie reviews. This month's is bad romantic comedies, so I was like "why the fuck not?". One important thing to note: this is my first swap partner that actually got me their stuff! I had enlisted in two other so-called swaps, but I missed out on my partner the previous times. This is why I am pleased to introduce my new favorite person of the day...Christina.


She is a truly bad-ass chick so check out her blog, stick it to your Reader, and pay attention to what she has to say because it might save your eyes people! Without further ado, I present to you, Christina's Wonderland:


Hi. I may and/or may not be Christina Harper (from Christina In Wonderland's) ID, EGO, or SUPEREGO. Either way, does it really matter? I'm here from my wonderfully awkward and insane blog, that I've been neglecting recently. Well, not neglecting. I'm taking time off to pursue other endeavors, which is code word for "college is sucking my mental juice" and by "mental juice" I mean, well, you know what I mean. Or something. Where was I going with this introduction? Oh yeah, if you want to sift through random nonsense, please, go take a look at my blog. It isn't much at the moment, negligence and all, but I swear, within the next week or so I'm going to renovate it and get my creative mojo back. MUAHAHAHA! That being said, on to my review.

-----------------

p.s i (fucking) love you

So, I kind of cheated when I did this. I Googled "shitty romantic comedies" and looked at a lot of lists. Mostly because I really don't WATCH romantic comedies, or romantic movies at all. The last romantic movie I watched was, well, if you want to count Fight Club as aromantic movie, then go for it.


Anyway, the way in which I cheated was that I saw this movie on someone's list and freaked the fuck out. Like, I literally flipped a biscuit... off the desk... where I was eating. And I'm Southern so we take our biscuits VERY seriously. *ahem* Whatever. That was a mild rant. P.S. I Love You is by no means an AMAZING movie, but worst romantic movie of all time, or one of them? Dear person on the internet you must not understand that Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler make any movie tolerable at least, and the fact that they are BOTH in this movie, well, your argument is just invalid.


I watched this movie. I really, really liked this movie. Albeit, there were certain things about it that bugged me. I guess I'll start with those. First of all, there was Harry Connick, Jr. who just has only ever impressed me in ONE movie throughout his entire career, and that wasHope Floats. And I didn't even like him in that movie, so maybe I just hate him and he makes every movie he has ever been in worse just because there he is... so, yes, he and his shitty acting were an undeniable flaw in the casting.


Maybe he was the only thing I really didn't like about the movie. Because most everything else was pretty par for the course. Well, and Kathy Bates... how I do worship that woman, but something about her character threw me off. I mean, no mother is that unsupportive of her daughter. But even then I still kind of get it at the end. Ugh. I'm so wishy-washy and indecisive in this review. Is that bad?


Moving on, to the reasons why I think this movie isn't nearly as shitty as everyone and their cracked out Grammymaw seem to make it. First of all, Hilary Swank always gives a good performance, I don't even care what you say. The fact that she was playing a woman who's husband dies, and she's getting these tiny pieces of her husband from beyond the grave, and she's trying to move on and learn to deal, well, Swank pulls that off. If she's "bland" it's because the character is probably personally numb from all that's happened, and because her friends are all kind of bitches.


And I literally cried near the ending, okay? I swear to whatever God there may or may not be that I bawled my baby back bitch eyes out and I KID YOU NOT THAT WAS A REALLY, REALLY GOOD MOVIE! It's one of  those movies that the ending doesn't even matter, it's the destination that's the real deal. So, even if you aren't pleased with the ending or whatever, enjoy the ride, man... or (wo)man. Don't want to leave people out. Lack of androgynous pronouns leaves the world a sad place, you know?


Okay... am I done here? Have I given you enough of a shitty post that I can go crawl back into my Earth Cave and die a slow, Tumblr-related death?


Seriously folks, I have nothing else to say. We're at the end credits now and you're refusing to leave the theater. What is WRONG wichu? Drop the popcorn in the trash receptacles and go have sex. Or if you're underage, go have frozen yogurt. Frozen yogurt is good...


And this has been a public service announcement from Christina In Wonderland. Thank you for tuning in.

Was that good or what? Very informative and hilariously accurate on the bashing, I *like* this review. If you want to read my honest opinion on the The Ugly Truth starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl, then move on over to McGriddle Pant's (awesome name right?) blog Serenity Now! Insanity Later. Tune in next month for more couch movie criticisms.