Music Monday: "Forever Yours"

     Okay, so this guy, Alex Day, is epic. He just is. His YouTube videos are both heartwarming and hilarious (but can be a bit adult), and his songs are so frickin catchy. Also, I love his clothes. This particular song is bittersweet; the guy's essentially been friend-zoned, but he's kind of okay with it.

Come on, darlin', have some indecency

You know there's nothing you could say that would embarrass me.

I heard a song tell me that talk is cheap,

But it's all you do with me,

And I am finally accepting that.

     That right there is my favorite part. It actually reminds me of a rather recent conversation I had with a certain someone. Of course, that means that I inevitably think of him when I hear this song. And I've heard this song a lot lately, because it's an earworm. This song also sold more songs in the UK than Coldplay over Christmas week. Just a fun little fact.

     So, in this video, Charlie (Alex's friend/roomie) raises Alex from the dead, and...he becomes a superhero? Just don't look at it. Sit back, close your eyes, and listen. After you've absorbed the song, then you can watch the video.

Fix It Friday: Fellow Airline Passengers

     Sure enough, I found something worth fixing during my vacation. On the first day, too! We had to fly down to Florida, so obviously we needed to board a plane at the airport. There are seven of us (mom, stepdad, me, 13-year-old brother, 10-year-old brother, 7-year-old sister, and 4-year-old sister) so going anywhere tends to be...well, a hassle. Because I'm the oldest kid, I've always been called upon to help with the planning and carrying out of trips like this. This means that I get to share in the stress! Aren't my parents nice?

     So imagine us with 8 carry-on bags, herding 4 kids through security and to the gate. It's a rather tiny airport, but that doesn't make things much less insane. I mean, come on, it's my family. We got through the first flight with no major issues, then had to make a mad dash across Charlotte Douglas International. Man, I love that airport. There's a store there that sells chocolate-covered potato chips. How awesome is that? Uh, anyway, we got to our gate on time and even had time to scarf down some food (which, unfortunately, did not include chocolate-covered potato chips).

There was even time for a Flat Stanley picture!

     Thus far, it'd been smooth sailing. Well, flying, because we weren't on the ship yet. You know what I mean. When our boarding zone (zone 2) was called, we gathered up our bags and kids and started the line at the gate. Yes, I'm so competitive that I make sure we're first in our zone to board. That's just how I roll. Before we could give our tickets to the chick at the desk, though, some wannabe socialite popped in with a yappy purse-sized dog and a moronic-looking skater teen guy. (I hope he was her son.)

     "Sorry, we're first class." Yeah, well, your boarding time was quite some time ago, lady. Back of the line. My mom, being as awesome as she is, told the lady that she was really late, and that Mom was sure the 4-year-old wouldn't mind waiting even longer because of the damn dog. I, uh, take after my mother...a lot.

     "Well, yeah, but [the dog] had to go outside." This is when I piped in with the ever-so-clever "So?" I was rewarded with a pretentious glance -- yeah, you're so much better than me because your dog shits. I bet you didn't bag it up, either.

     People like this lady would, in my perfect world, be bumped off the flight altogether. If you don't make it to your boarding time, your seat is given to a standby passenger and you have to pay for another flight. No vouchers, no sympathy. They announce it overhead, and it's your job to make sure your mutt is ready to go.

     Karma did kick in a little bit here. The lady and her son did lose their first-class seats, because they had been given away as upgrades. Unfortunately (for them) this pushed them back to coach, right in front of me. Of course, because I'm mature, I handled the situation with grace. I dug my knees into the guy's seat, and my mom and I openly discussed how rude they had been.

Wow-You're-Hot Wednesday: Sam Worthington

     Again, this week's hot dude post is a shallow one. Again, I only know about this guy because of one movie. Of course, he was living in his car before getting the role, so...yeah. Also, he grew up in Australia, which means he has a super-hot accent (I'm hoping, since I haven't heard him talk outside of the movie).

     Only four pictures this week. Remember, I'm pre-writing this stuff and scheduling it to be posted later. I'm neglecting my packing to write this, so I really have less time than I'm taking in which to do this. Hooray for procrastination!

Music Monday: Life's a Beach

     Isn't that a clever title? ...it isn't? Well, too bad. It's there, and you can't do anything about it. So ha! Since I'm on vacation (at the beach) I'm listening to a lot of beachy music. Here's a small sampling of my playlist. Just close your eyes and pretend you're here with me.

Boat Drinks - Jimmy Buffett

Key Lime Pie - Kenny Chesney

Toes - Zac Brown Band

Fix It Friday: Racism

     Gouge everyone's eyes out, so they can't see what color anyone else is. What, did you really think all of these would be long, drawn out solutions?

     On a completely different note, I'm going on vacation tomorrow. Since I won't be back until Christmas Eve, I figured I'd try out the handy dandy scheduled post feature. If things get really jacked up, I won't know about it, so I won't be able to stress over it! Yaaaaaay!

Wow-You're-Hot Wednesday: Channing Tatum

     I know virtually nothing about this week's hottie, so don't expect anything more than pictures. This is a terribly shallow post. Then again, when are WYHW posts not shallow? So, on with the show.

D'aaawwww!!

     The only reason I know of this guy is because I dragged my boytoy to see Dear John. (Yes, I cried. Savannah's a bitch, except she's not, but she kinda is.) Now, I normally don't fall for the whole "Guys in uniform are soooo hot!!" thing. Uniforms actually make me look the other way. Oh noes! I'm so unpatriotic!!!1!!one!! But look at this:

     Okay, so that's nice. I enjoy looking at that. Y'know what's even better than a uniform on him? An invisible shirt.

'Sup?

This is from Dear John.

I like to imagine that this was a
candid, secretly-captured shot.

 
     Since I know nothing about this dude, we're going to end the words here and finish off with more pics. Enjoy!

Suits are nice.

   

Music Monday: Bad Lip Reading

     There's a YouTube user who reimagines music videos through the eyes of someone who's terrible at lip reading. That's probably the strangest explanation I've ever typed out. Anywho, these videos are great. Here's his version of Friday by Rebecca Black:

     Wasn't that amazing? If this completely changed your life, I'm not surprised. If you loved the video so much that you jacked off, no one will judge you for it. That's how amazing it is. Now, this guy also has a (way too short) playlist of soundbites, where he gives the same treatment to politicians. I really can't choose a definite favorite, but this one is pretty high on the list:

     Okay, so the soundbites aren't music, but so what? They're still great. Besides, if you refuse to watch them, I'll haunt your prostate.

Fix It Friday: Periods

     Let me start by saying I'm not pissy right now. My uterus is just shedding its internal wall and blood is coursing out of my body. It's just a bit of excruciating pain. What's there to be pissy about? I will murder all of your unborn children if you so much as look at me funny.

     I usually try to reduce the agony by forcing myself to think. It doesn't matter what I think about, as long as it takes a great deal of brain power. Today, I decided that life would be easier if periods only happened once a year. Scientists, start taking notes.

     Instead of a one-month cycle, the menstrual process will be lengthened to a 12-month cycle, using fancy science. C'mon, if they can make pigs glow, they can do this. It just takes a bit of genetic manipulation. Maybe introduce some cat genes? They have fewer "periods" than humans. It's a start.

     Anyway, if this is done, women everywhere will be elated. Of course, it would make it harder to detect pregnancy early on, but so? Less periods. It's a great thing.

Wow-You're-Hot Wednesday: Matthew Morrison

     When Glee started, I watched pretty religiously. After the first two seasons, though, I no longer had the time or the interest to watch every episode. The only thing preventing me from watching an episode here and there is that, without watching everything leading up to it, I feel that I don't have the full backstory. Sure, there's a high-speed "Here's what happened." but it's not enough for me. As such, I haven't seen an episode of Glee in a long time, and I have no idea what's going on in that world.

     Oh well. Mr. Schue is still hot. See, this plays really well into my...uh, "thing" for teachers. Not only are teachers automatically older, they've also got authority, and they can be quite intelligent. Also, while I watched Glee, this character went through some emotional crap. His wife was a controlling psycho who ended up faking a pregnancy to stay with him. That made his face look like this:

Sadface :(

     Morrison was also featured in Details magazine last December. They got him shirtless (not like that seems to be a difficult task). Yummy!

     Of course, when he gets shirtless on his own (that is, without magazine people) things can get odd...

I don't even...

     Here are some more pictures. Also, a word to the wise: don't ever look up TV tropes. You'll get pulled into the site and will never be able to leave. I'm not linking to it. It's for your own good.

Music Monday: Tinariwen

     Thank Colbert for this one. Every now and then, he has musical guests on the Report. Last Tuesday, he had a band of Malian nomads called Tinariwen. Okay, I listen to strange music. "World" music is actually a favorite of mine. Especially when there's heart-pounding drums and chanting.

     What I find particularly amazing about this band is that it's not a set group of individuals. Because they're nomads, they're constantly on the move, and sometimes the players are separated. The entire group has rarely been together at once. Instead, they fill in for each other. It's a bit like free love, but with desert music. And even with the difficulties they've faced, they've managed to get recognized AND go on tour.

     So, here's the song that aired on the Report. Obviously this video isn't from the show, but it's the same song.

     Isn't that awesome? I'm not even from the place they're singing about, and I felt it. You just...you feel it, y'know? This is a rather short post, but I really don't think any more needs to be said. If you felt it, go look them up. The rest of their music is just as great.

Fix It Friday: A Touchy Topic?

     Let's face it, the US has an issue with illegal immigration. Despite the fact that these immigrants do the jobs that we lazy Americans refuse to do, most people still dislike them. So let's hash out a ridiculously simple way to stop the illicit flow.

1. Dig a 20-foot ditch along the US's border with Mexico.
2. Embed electrified barbed wire along ditch walls.
3. Conceal ditch.
4. Build 20-foot walls on either side of ditch.
5. Embed electrified barbed wire along walls, and extend to 5 feet above top of walls.
6. Pull troops out of the Middle East. They aren't needed there anyway, and we can use them for this.
7. Post troops as sentries on southern wall, armed with tear gas and rifles.
8. Now that the land route is closed off, turn attention to all likely water routes (sea borders).
9. Use more troops as sentries.
10. If illegal immigrants continue to push further north before coming ashore, post more troops further north.
11. Set up "troop trading" so that the same people aren't watching the same area all the time.

My Opinions Are Invalid

     I had to take an exit survey for my online ethics class. (Does anyone else see the irony in an online ethics class? Anyone?) I assumed that my answers would be used to help improve the class. There were 5 questions, one of them an open-ended "Would you recommend this class?" thing. That one must be graded by the teacher, hence the "Needs Grading." The other four were statements about the class, which you can see in the picture, and then four options:

• True
• False
• Don't know
• No answer

     I thought honest answers were good! I even gave two positive answers about the teacher. There was an option to review answers after submission, which I did to make sure the assignment went through. (It's gone wonky on me before.) When I did, this is what I saw.

Well, shit.