Phlebotinum

This weekend at my boyfriend's house, I was made aware of a little wiki called TV Tropes. And by "little" I mean HUGE. A "trope" is basically a story or plot convention (but not a cliche) that the site's contributors have identified in various pieces of literature, films, video games, and other creative story genres. The tropes they discuss definitely appeal to my bizarro-meter. "What Kind of Lame Power is Heart Anyway," anybody?

My boyfriend says he can spend hours and hours on this site, and given the vast array of cool-sounding links that greet you in the body of every entry (think Wikipedia, only kind of more interesting), I don't blame him.

One of my new favorite words: phlebotinum. This refers to any device, substance, or power that the author relies on to make things work and to avoid a logical explanation as to how that just happened. I feel like there must be some sort of stimulus or Obama joke in there, but I'll let you come up with the specifics.

Being "offbeat"

The other day, my chiropractor noticed my shoes and commented that she liked them, asking if I had bought them at Anthropologie. (My favorite clothing store, though I have yet to have the money to purchase something there.) Anyhoo, I informed her that no, I had bought the shoes at T.J. Max, but that I loved Anthropologie. She responded, "Oh, I know you do girl; I've got your style down to a T!"

That made me smile inside. And outside too, I suppose.

The shoes have a "quirky," "whimsical" look to them, two words that I think may fairly be applied to my aesthetic sensibilities. My only problem with those words (words that I happen to like a lot) is that they are somewhat overused and cliche.

I mean, what instantly comes to mind when someone says "quirky" or "whimsical"? Let's see:


Frame glasses (usually worn by indie musicians, thrift-shopping fashionistas, and other "artist" types)

Retro-looking furniture, usually of the ugly-chic variety

Slightly coy, waif-like looking girls in flirty, airy, poofy dresses, often with layers.

Kitschy things

Victorian-esque things (after all, what's not to love about quirky dames such as this?)

Artsy movies with a bizarre visual look (and starring pale, dark-haired actresses like Christina Ricci). Oh, and by the way - the shoes in this poster look kind of like mine, except mine are gray. Oh, and I would give...well, a lot of money for her coat. OH, and here's more Victorian in shoe form!

Cartoony intros to "independent films" (a la Juno, Napoleon Dynamite, etc.)


Don't get me wrong: I actually happen to LOVE pretty much all of these things. I'm just amused by how much "quirky" has become mainstream...and expected. Oh well! I'll keep liking it anyway. Because I'm just an independent thinker like that.

Cuz i-i-i-i....

Today I couldn't get Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am" out of my head. Not that I had any reason to try; it's a nice song.

Lately I've been loving adorable songs. Happy songs. Ones that infuse my increasingly "cute" persona with a great soundtrack. Another lovely song is Ingrid's "Far Away." And just like the other video, this has awesome cartoon illustrations to accompany it. Oh boy! (Squeals)

Pretty colors

I desperately want some colorful pictures on this page. And since I'm paranoid about copyright laws and such, I feel obligated to put up some of my own. But no matter! Let me indulge my need for tints and hues and share it with the cyber world. Okay, with the one or two other people who read this thing.

My pale self in a bright blue Napoleon Dynamite ("Tina, you fat lard...") t-shirt, in front of my final project for one of my textiles classes

Fuller view of project, with my "canopy", little stained-glass hanging, and string-o-dragonflies joining in

My luscious, ridiculously flavorful bowl of blueberry, pomegranate raspberry, and mango frozen yogurt with fruit toppings. I ate this on my trip to L.A.

My luscious, ridiculously flavorful vegetarian pizza, that actually had a baby carrot as one of the veggies. Also eaten in L.A.

Finally, the L.A. sunset, from Griffith's Observatory, on the Fourth of July. Lovely.

Reading WAY too much into musical enjoyment

Probably revealing my neurotic, obsessively-over-thinking-things side here...but how do you know that you are doing something the "right" way? After all, people choose to do the same things in such unique, varied ways - and they ALWAYS have some sort of justification for the way that they do it. The problem, at least for me, comes when there are two perfectly reasonable, even noble justifications for the doing the same deed, two ways that contradict each other. What then?

Take listening to music, for example. Okay, so here I am, playing some sweet tunes on my iPod in my car. Since this is not a cassette, I can easily switch to any song - or any part of any song - with a few flicks of my fingers. Do I have to complete each song before I move onto the next?

Yes, maybe to anyone else, this question warrants no further thought. But the issue stumps me. What is the most efficient, meaningful, even - dare I say - ethical way to approach my iPod usage?

The artists who created those songs made each one in its entirety. Not only that, but they even made the albums in their entirety (although today's iPod culture is ruining the need to purchase an entire album). I am not fully appreciating the work of art (or artfully arranged garbage) when I don't experience it as completely as I can, which one could argue means listening to the entire thing at least once. If I can't stand to listen to the whole thing, then maybe I shouldn't be listening to it at all. By skipping to a new song once I get bored, furthermore, I am exhibiting an instant-gratification habit, where I want what I want THIS INSTANT, and I want it now. Not a particularly admirable approach.

On the other hand, my time is precious. (And all our time.) Why should I spend my few allotted hours listening to something that I'm not enjoying as much as I possibly can? I'm not legally obligated to listen to these musicians' work, and much of it is of poor quality. Isn't music meant to entertain, to speak to our hearts and minds, to waken something in us? If a song is not serving its function, then maybe I should switch to something that is.

This is what I spend my time thinking about. I know, I know, I'm probably over-doing it a little, yes? But both sides seem a little right. Like in so many areas in life.

Sigh.

Back to normal life, and free audio books on iTunes

Time to resume my "regular" life again. I mean, as much as I can considering that the US of A is still in a pretty dang awful economic situation, I don't have a job, my college loan payments will be kicking in a few months from now...and I've just completed a summer crash course in wedding-attending and bridesmaid-being. (Talk about exhausting. Though on the plus side, there are three happy married couples resulting from this summer's madness. Score.)

But you know, this state of uncertainty has become the new normal in my life. So, to rephrase my first statement, its time to resume my Regular Life - RECESSION STYLE - again.

On a happier topic...free audio books! On iTunes, too, and not just in computer-only format! (Although those things can still be useful, too. There's a time and place for everything.)

To indulge in all your free audio book fantasies, go to the Lit2Go website after opening iTunes. Mosey on down to #4 on the Lit2Go website and click on "Launch iTunes." There are oodles of books, presented by the University of South Florida, that correspond to someone's notion of what students in certain grades should be reading.

(Little Women is listed under Seventh Grade. I read it between Second and Third. But they also throw tons of Shakepeare at Eleventh Graders, and while Eleventh Graders are certainly able to read Shakespeare, I know that I couldn't have handled all that in one year. So who knows where these standards come from.)

I guess getting free audio-books is "eco-friendly" (although, truly, I am firmly in favor of books made out of paper, as out-of-vogue as they may be in this green world we now live in). And, need I say, FREE. So does this qualify as sufficiently anti-materialistic to be part of my let's-try-to-learn-not-to-be-so-materialistic shtick, enough so that I might label this post as such?

Of course, I derive great satisfaction from owning these free audio books, so that I may listen to them whenever I want to and have a personal library, of sorts. That's kind of materialistic.

But this post needs to be described somehow. I don't feel like inventing another label tonight. Therefore, TAG!