Writing Challenge Day 20

Put your music player on shuffle and write the first three songs that play and what your initial thought is.

I put my favorite playlist on shuffle because I wanted songs that I actually listen to and am familiar with. I have Apple Music and I have a few of their curated playlists downloaded on my phone to help me find new music, but I don’t want to run into any songs I don’t actually know yet. I don’t tend to have much in reaction to new music besides, “hmm”, “oh I think I might like this,” and “Dear God make it stopppppppp” and I feel like that doesn’t really work with the challenge in the way I think it’s meant to be used. I hope that makes sense. I’ve got a bit of a headache, so I’m not sure that I am really making sense.

1. Secrets by Mary Lambert: I want this to be my battle song. I’m working on it. I’m getting there. This song is all about being who you are, faults and flaws and all in the face of a world that wants to shame you and it’s just so amazing. I try to be a little more in line with the “I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are” badassery every day.

2. Feel it Still by Portugal: The Man: I originally thought this was sung by a girl, but that’s neither here nor there. I love the feel of this song. It’s catchy and sort of soothing for me in its beat and overall sound pattern. I don’t think too much about it other than to enjoy it. The only things that do come to mind are some photos that a couple of friends sent me when they saw the performer live. They were… weird… I don’t feel comfortable sharing her photos, but one of them looked like the background on stage was a picture of a woman in a black latex suit riding a giant banana. So yeah. That’s most of what happens in my brain.

3. I Feel Alright by Bonzai: This song is just so pleasant and I feel so pleasant when I listen to it. It’s a song I tend to listen to on repeat because it just makes me feel… alright. I like the feel of it and I’m pretty happy with the whole thing.

I find it interesting that a lot of how I think about music seems to be less about what my “thoughts” are and more about what my “feelings” are. I don’t think it’s uncommon for me to be more interested in the sensation a song gives me than the thoughts a song gives me. I’ve never thought too much about how other people experience music, though I’ve always assumed that a lot of people have similar reactions since movie/tv show soundtracks and sound effects are so important to the tone/emotion of a scene. One thing I have often thought about, is how the movies would feel without the sound. I often wonder how people who are deaf might have different experiences when watching some things because the music and sounds are so much part of the tension--especially in horror movies. I mean, I can’t imagine “creepy sounds” or “intense music” being indicated in the closed captioning have the same effect as “Daaah-duum… daah-duum, dah-dum, dahdum” in Jaws. Or the “chi chi chi, hah, hah, hah” of whichever serial killer movie that is (sorry can’t remember at the moment.

Anyway, I just think it’s interesting that music is such a physical and emotional experience for me, rather than an intellectual one.

(no subject)

Today was a relatively productive day for a lazy day. Dad and I got his Sirius/XM radio set up with his subscription so he was able to listen to one of his favorite radio shows this evening, we went by Publix to grab the hamburger buns for dinner, we went to the Aquatic and Fitness Center to sign up for memberships, I went to get the presents for my mom’s birthday, and made the burgers for dinner. I didn’t get up until almost noon, so obviously it wasn’t a harried, rushed kind of day, thankfully. But I still feel accomplished overall. And I put on clothes! Which is always good.

 

I just finished listening to all of the main books by Shelly Laurenston. There are novellas and short stories I didn’t get into, but all the main books in the Pride, Magnus Pack, and Call of Crows books, I listened to. OH!

 

So, I was about to debate whether to listen to her Dragon Series that she wrote under G.A. Aiken next or if I should, you know, read one of the many, many, many other books that I haven’t read yet that I’ve been wanting to read next, but I just remembered that there is one other stand alone but quasi connected book by her that I haven’t read! And it’s included in the romance package from Audible so that’s perfect.

 

Okay, I know. Ridiculous. I know! I have more than 500 audiobooks in my library and I’ve probably only listened to about 40% of them which leaves something like 300 titles I could read that I haven’t listened to yet. Not to mention my ability to listen to an enormous number of various audiobooks from the local libraries via apps like Hoopla and Overdrive which are free to me! Or the fact that I do have this Audible romance package (which has a pretty incredible variety of books, tbh, far more than I expected from a package that’s designated “Romance”) and am able to listen to a host of books that way that I haven’t purchased or previously read or listened to.

 

And here I am, using my personal library and the access that I have to a truly unbelievable amount of content elsewhere to listen to books I’ve already read, some of which I’ve already read more than once.

 

I don’t know I’m beating myself up about this. Maybe it’s because I always say that I’ll never be able to read all the books I want to read and rereading books I’ve already read, in some ways, feels like a waste of the time I have for reading.

 

The thing is, I have immensely been enjoying these rereads. It’s been so fun going back through them the last couple of weeks. Why should I kick myself for doing something I love in my spare time? As I learned from the chapter in The Artist’s Way where the assignment was to not read for a week (I made it through like four and half days and it was a miracle, tbh), I have to make sure that reading doesn’t become more important than my writing and that I don’t let myself not write because I want to read. There is to be no using the excuse that reading is “research” for writing. But I’ve been writing a good bit this month. I was late posting a writing challenge entry one day, but otherwise I’ve been on top of that. I’ve been journaling a good bit. I think I even finished one fiction story.

 

Plus, wasn’t my decision for reading challenges this year to just let myself read at whatever rate I wanted? And if the idea behind this year was to let myself do as much or as little reading as I wanted to for my own personal enjoyment, why shouldn’t that apply to what I’m reading as well?

 

If I want to listen to the same book over and over again for the next year, I’m allowed to do that. I give myself permission to read whatever feels best at any moment.

Writing Challenge Day 21

Your zodiac/horoscope and whether it fits you:

It depends on whether you mean the Western Zodiacs or the Chinese Zodiacs, though I’m of the opinion that most of these are generic enough that you can relate to them in some form or fashion.

I do think I’m a fairly typical Aquarian. They’re described as being big on ideas but not on details, loving new things and adventures, caring about the world, and sometimes coming off flakey or cold because their attention is elsewhere. I don’t think I’ve ever come off as “cold” or (as I’ve seen a lot in descriptions) “aloof” but I am a bit flakey and with a tendency to do better with big picture thinking than small details.

I’m an Ox by Chinese horoscope standards if you go by the Chinese New Year which if you read the description is almost the opposite of an Aquarian: steady, responsible, uninterested in change. I think I’m a little that way too sometimes. I think most people are. It’s one of those things where most of the stuff they talk about is generic enough that you can find yourself in almost anything.

When you look at the Aquarian Ox description though, the first word is “they tend to be shy” and I don’t think that word has ever, in my entire life, been applied to me. Sure, I have social anxiety and I often feel awkward as hell, but never, have I ever, found that I don’t talk to people. I’m all about talking to people and I have to, typically, wall myself off from them in order to stop talking to them. Yeah, not shy. One of the other traits however, is that the combination tempers the dislike of change with the love of variety from the Aquarian into someone who is more balanced. It also, according to the websites I’ve seen, create a lot of patience in a person and patience is something I typically have in droves. My patience is what got me the job I love.

So yeah, like most people, I can find myself in my zodiac descriptions even if they’re not 100% accurate.