Who do I still think I am??

This one's about tongue-twistin'.

MOB-RELATED ACTIVITY:

'Sup folks? Here's where I'm at so far for today: I'm tired and I don't feel like doing anything. I laid in bed and watched the few shows that are actually available on Hulu without springin' for HuluPlus (and Netflix is so much better anyway, but that free-trial ship sailed weeks ago). Twice I snacked on Cheerios like they were a meal minus milk, which is my preferred method of getting them into my body anyway, but I think I ate like a quarter of a box (and their "regular size" box is huge to begin with). I know, it's not great for my digestive system and it's not the GMO-free kind (or the super-awesome Honey Nut ones either), but I don't care...they're still probably the healthiest thing I've got between my fridge and my, ummm, place I keep food that doesn't go in the fridge. I went and got my mail, which included a copy of Wired magazine with Questlove of the legendary Roots crew on the cover. That's it...the bare minimums from your boy over here in Cortland. Don't expect much more out of me the rest of the evening...got a few things to work on before I tackle sleepin' in a little tomorrow morning, and if I wasn't doin' this tonight I'd probably try watchin' the backs of my eyelids a little earlier, but you know how this goes.

With each passing day, I lose a little more hope for our Blog Mob. Not even gonna bother taggin' the bOSS (with the uncapitalized letter) anymore. I'm not quite ready to bury him yet, but he's just about dead to us. <Insert more dramatic bits of drama here, because this story's goin' nowhere.> Lyn's a sly fox is ready to follow me, but am I ready to lead? At least I'mma show up. That's my word.

At least Emily has an excuse for not posting the January winners of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  yet, because we know she's busy with school (which kinda freaks me out a little, wondering if I'll be so busy when/if I start in the fall). That other guy though...not a word here or anywhere else in nearly too long. Hope he's ok and all. Now look what y'all made me think you made me do when it was really me who did it to myself...what if Joel's fallen into a well or something and all this time we've been like "Where's this guy at? What's he doin'? Who does he think he is?? (Ok, that last part is me, but still...)" and dude's unable to communicate with us. Show us a sign, Brother Nature , any sign!

My tummy growled. There's your sign, folks...don't eat more than the side of the box of Cheerios recommends as a "serving". Moving on then...

BCF PROMPT: "Today is 'International Tongue Twister Day'. What tongue twisters do you know? Do you enjoy doing them with your family? Have you ever included them in your writing?"

Honestly, I'd be surprised if I could tell you some of the basic tongue twisters I learned from my days being the dorky kid sittin' in the front of the class. And that's unfortunate in that I've had plenty of time over the last 14+ months here to prepare myself for a prompt like this, and yet I've got nothin'. Not even a one-liner with lots of esses and ess-h's and stuhhhs and sce-'s and sku-'s that with ten minutes of daily practice I'd be able to drop on you in 3.4 seconds flat. I just chuckled to myself when I thought "Maybe I should be a little more concerned about this", but then again I haven't read an article on Grantland in over a week either, so maybe my priorities aren't so out of whack yet.

I would think that unless your house is filled with small kids or a person suffering from some sort of linguistic deficiency, your family doesn't just randomly break out into a routine of tongue-twisting battles in the kitchen over pancakes and sausages. Like pops isn't tryna spit one at ya over the last donut, and all the sudden the neighbors barge in and a "West Side Story"-style knife fight/dance-off breaks out with collar poppin' and menacing stares while your cousins are outdoin' each other flippin' their gums about the she that sells seashells versus Peter Piper and his pickled peppers. There's no Spelling Bee-style competition I know of (please, nobody Google it, and if you do, don't point out how wrong I am) where you're asked to bust tongue twisters 'til your teeth bleed, and the winner gets a blue ribbon or a trophy. This stuff doesn't happen. I don't even know if I have the words to describe a life where that did happen. And I know a lot of words. Just not in a consecutive, flashy, alliterative manner.

You know what I can state, however? Every single time I try typing the word "tongue", I always- without fail- spell it "t-o-u-n-g-e", and when I correct myself it turns into "t-o-u-n-g-u-e" before I do it right on the third try (even though it looks so wrong that it baffles me how that could possibly be a word describing the mechanism that's a major part of manipulating and pushing speech out of your mouth). I just...I don't get it. In the book of life that is "Things I'll Never Understand", the spelling of "tongue" will probably fall somewhere between pages three and ten of 672. Why so many pages? Read page two and find out; it's in there.

So, in conclusion, other than today's entry I don't know that I've ever used a tounge dammit tongue twister (this is one of those times where you should Google a longer, fancier word that I'd rather use because it's somehow easier to spell) while trying to write anything, at least not on purpose. Maybe my thoughts get a little twisted in translation, or your mind hears differently what your eyes see, or Cheerios for a third time, 'cuz why not?

MUSICAL BREAK!!

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Well, this segues nicely into "The Soundtrack of Your Life"  today...I believe Run DMC's "Raising Hell" ({link:http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Hell-Explicit-RUN-DMC/dp/B0013DADJG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393119346&sr=8-2&keywords=run+dmc+raising+hell}) was the very first cassette tape I bought with my own money sometime in the mid-eighties...if not the first it's the first I remember. "Peter Piper" (lyrics: http://rapgenius.com/Run-dmc-peter-piper-lyrics) was the very first track, and I remember being mesmerized by the different sounds coming out of my little Panasonic cassette player (one of those mono desktop ones that sat flat, with the buttons and the door flipped up when you ejected the tape). "Walk This Way" was the big hit, but it was one of my least favorite songs on the whole album.

"Peter Piper" was full of riffs on nursery rhymes and braggadocio turned into tongue twisters that were nearly impossible to decipher, and that probably added a little more mystique at the time to what I was hearing. And to this day, I could care less if there's something more to the song than it being a few guys in a studio goofin' around on some ol' Mother Goose-type ish. It had the grown-up feel of something maybe I wasn't ready to listen to yet...maybe the country wasn't ready to embrace yet, but at the same time it was mine...I went to the store, I picked it out, I paid for it. That's ultimately what mattered the most.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

Ahhh, the golden era of technology:

Only another day or so left in the "Invalid Item" ...so make a little time on your busy Sunday to cast a vote if you haven't already. And I still don't have a date for "The PreQuill Gala (7th Annual Quills)" , so I guess that means you all can come! Whoo hoo!! Wouldn't it be kinda hilarious if we flashed the Blog Mob insignia every few minutes during the Gala? Of course, then people who don't know what it is would wanna know, and then we'd have to tell them we don't really have a leader and it'll only be through the end of the month anyway, and we'll look sad and pathetic and console ourselves with pints of ice cream at the bitter end. No...I wouldn't do that! Jus' sayin' though. Oh, speaking of The Quills, I've signed on to be a presenter...it'll be my first time attending the actual (ok, virtual) ceremony, even though I've been nominated a couple times before. Gotta come up with a 765-character (not word, but character ) speech (which actually shouldn't be too hard...it'll be like a slightly longer Tweet, I figure). Not sure what category exactly I'll be presenting, as I submitted a few I'd like to, and apparently there aren't a lot of others committed yet, but it should be fun, right? These things are always good, no? We'll see.

That's where I'm gonna leave off today, fine readers. It's gettin' close to my "I'm gonna need to try this sleep thing again" routine, and I've gotta make sure I have my Editor's Picks in soon for Wordsmitty ✍️ and The Blogging Bliss (Hey- you! If you're not subscribed, now's your last chance before Monday's super early-AM launch of the February issue...just go to the "Blogging Bliss Newsletter Archives"  to check out past issues and the "Blogging Bliss Newsletter Forum"  if you've got any questions), which I really should finish up before I do anything else this evening. Peace, and like all fairy tales end, GOODNIGHT NOW!!