Still Figurin' Out Who I Think I Am

This one's about camping, relaxation, and beautiful words.

30DBC PROMPT: "Tell us what you are going to pack to take with you for your 3 weeks of Survival Camp. Since you signed up to do this unusual adventure, what are your expectations of completing this ultimate challenge. Convince us you are up to the challenge. In addition to that Noyoki left you a prompt that needs to be answered."

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Welcome campers! Lyn's a sly fox and I are your hosts for the 2014 30DBC Survival Camp! Not only that, but we're your leaders, counselors, and everything else that goes along with your three week summertime adventure. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun and I imagine we'll see a lot of great writing from everyone who participates. I don't have much more to say about it right now...good luck everyone!

Noyoki also gave us a prompt..."Think of a familiar trope that could use some shaking up. How about the Mild, Mild West? The Cesspool of Eden? Prince Obnoxious? Make a list and run with it."

I have a favorite, and I'm not sure where I heard it first- maybe it was a television show, I don't know- but it seems to get laughs whenever I roll it outta my back pocket. It's not the heat, it's the stupidity. This can be used a couple of different ways, I suppose. The first would be as a response to anyone who thinks they're witty/a meteorologist/not annoying when they say "it's not the heat; it's the humidity". I think everyone knows by now that's what makes us uncomfortably gross in the middle of summer. The second way is when you read a quirky news story about someone who's done something so dumb that you have no other response than to blame it on their stupidity...as if it were a take on the old quip "Crazy from the heat".

Try it out at your next barbecue, picnic, or random gathering of people in sticky, stuffy weather situations. Be warned though: people might want to party with you more.

BCF PROMPT: "Have you ever written a poem, short story, or essay while you were listening to a piece of music? If so, how did listening to the music effect the story, poem or essay? If not, what is your favorite relaxation music?"

I think we've talked about this at some point along the way...I can't listen to anything when I write. I need to be focused, with as few distractions as possible. If I've got more than one thing going on, it's like having nothing going on, and my blog entry sounds flat and boring (to me at least). Listening to music, watching TV, or even trying to hold a conversation with someone is a fairly useless proposition...I've definitely gotten the "Did you even hear anything I just said?" barb slung in my direction on more than a few occasions while trying not to forget the train of thought I was ridin'.

I do know I've written a few things both directly and indirectly influenced by music, and I think I've mentioned this before...probably ten or twelve years ago I came up with "Keep Breathing" , which while not being a direct rip-off of Radiohead's "Exit Music (For A Film)"  , can claim at least general similarities. The Radiohead melody was definitely in my head at the time, and when you're paying homage to a song that's paying homage to Shakespeare of course there's gonna be some carryover.

As for favorite relaxation music, I don't know that I've ever had anything that just makes me chill. No, wait...I do, and I'll know once I start looking for the video that I've talked about this before. Yup..."Soft Serve" by Soul Coughing  . Very mellow and relaxing. There are also some ambient techno tracks by Moby I could listen to, but it's hard to know which ones are which and on his older cds there are some heavier songs with guitars and live instrumentation that are aggressive and the very opposite of "relaxation". I guess I don't have a specific playlist to relax by; usually if I'm in the place to take a nap mentally I'll open iTunes on shuffle and adjust the volume so that it's low enough to barely hear, but not so loud that it's distracting. A small amount of din in the area is perfect for me.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

Time again for another song as part of Team Orangutan for the "Barrel of Monkeys" . Today I've got the letter T, following very thankful 's entry "Words in Music To Ardent" . I can't even cheat and look at what might be an interesting song in my iTunes library...at work today someone donated at least 150 cds, and of course having the first crack at stuff that comes in, the other regular and I scurried to loot through this guy's collection. Don't worry...once I rip what I need I'll bring 'em back to the shop for someone else to have.

So yeah...a "T" song. How about "Turn! Turn! Turn!" by The Byrds? I know it's a pretty common song...when I used to work for Eckerd Drugs it would play on the crappy satellite Muzak overhead quite often. I was fortunate enough to work with other music nerds, all of which appreciated stupid humor about most of the garbage we were being force-fed. One day, during random conversation about changing aisles over from one holiday to the next and hearing a sentence end with "...every day.", I couldn't help myself. Instead of singing, I used a facetious, incredulous inflection on my voice and just blurted out "Every day! There's a season, turn...turn...turn. Even some of our old lady cashiers thought that was hilarious...I'm not sure I know how I was able to pull that off with a straight face.

See, here's one thing you should understand about me. I will occasionally interrupt you mid-sentence with a random song lyric whether or not it fits our conversation, or if you're familiar with the song, or mainly for no reason at all other than I think it's funny.

"A time to cast away stones,
A time to gather stones together."
Lyrics.  

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

"List the 5 most beautiful words you have ever heard."

This is just a subjective, opinionated list- it's not meant to be definitive in any way as maybe someday it could change. If you'd like to share your thoughts down below, I'd love to discuss them further with you.

          aura: A beauty that radiates...I like words that present a clear image of their definition.
          Reese's: Because there aren't many inanimate objects as beautiful as something made from chocolate and peanut butter.
          aroma: Another word typically used to describe something beautiful, like flowers or pizza.
          almost anything ending in "-licious": Especially when referring to taste or booty.
          Chlamydia:: I seriously used to work with a not-so-bright girl who once said (out loud, in front of several coworkers), "Chlamydia would be a really pretty name for a girl if it weren't a sexually transmitted disease."

Remember, this is my list, and it's not permanent.

Excellent news! Season Five of Arrested Development is a matter of when, not if.   I hope it's not as weird as Season Four...and maybe they can get more than three primary cast members in an episode this time around.

So yeah, work today...I don't usually go in on Wednesdays, but we (the other regular and I) decided to today because we didn't want to keep falling behind on incoming donations. Was it a mistake? No. But I was thinking we'd be out by noon, 12:30pm tops, and that was where I was wrong. More donations kept coming in, we finally got our mannequin fixtures up and decorated, we moved a few things around, reorganized, made a list of things we'd like to see others keep up on, and of course, right before we were thinkin' about callin' it a day we got the humongous drop-off that included over 150 cds and nearly 50 books, which we had to sort through because if the place is another madhouse tomorrow we weren't gonna wanna fight with anyone to get the books and music we wanted (especially if other volunteers show up). I know, we sound like jerks, but like I said, we'll return the cds anyway, and it's our way of justifying to ourselves the work we put in today that we could've put off until tomorrow (and then been twice as busy).

And with that said, I think I'mma draw this entry to a close. Maybe I'll get a good chunk of the afternoon off tomorrow so I can screw around with the rest of this windfall of oldies, classic rock, and random great stuff. Peace, I swear it's not too late, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!