Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Seven Things (not samurai, sadly)

1. For the first time ever, I actually utilized Dropbox the way it's supposed to be used.
     a. (subpoint to 1) I also finally remembered there's a Starbucks in my campus bookstore that's much closer to the parking deck than the library. Next time, I'll bring a coat. #marketingploy

2. Um, the point of 1 was to say that I wrote between lab and class today (at Starbucks) and managed to get almost the full 1,667 in. It was super nifty to be able to pick it up out of Dropbox instead of trying to remember the gist of where I left off.

3. I'm listening to so much Maynard this NaNo that I'm even dreaming with "Judith" as a backdrop.

4. A NYT bestseller whom I've been fangirling since I was 14 and follow on Twitter listens to Christmas music when she's having the worst writing days. I decided to apply that principle to my LIFE, so I started listening to a holiday station on Pandora over the weekend. Not only was I super productive (like, wrote 2 papers AND painted my kitchen and bathroom), but it put me in a good mood. Yeah, I'm one of those people who loves seeing Christmas decorations go up early and only takes my tree down when it's absolutely dead as can be (and then we burn it in the firepit and it's fun and games.)

5. I've been randomly asking people all week what their favorite Christmas song is. Consider this me asking you. For me, the holidays are a mixture of happiness, joy, and some sense of aching sorrow. Therefore, my favorite Christmas songs are, to me, both beautiful and sad. "The Christmas Song," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas."

6. I have to study a sheep's brain for my lab practical next week...

7. I hope you, person reading this right this moment, are happy. If not, you should probably listen to some Christmas music.

14 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Pandora has Christmas music? That's good to know. And glad you're getting a lot done on your NaNo project!

Unknown said...

I'm loading the Christmas station on my Pandora today. Wish you'd posted this yesterday, when I struggled to settle down and never did write more than 500 words. Ugh. And I made a horrific vlog post, which I actually posted today, and I'll try any ploy to ensure that doesn't happen again. haha

Sheep's brain? Really??

Anonymous said...

I'm not a fan of Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I don't mind the music, though I don't listen to it until later. But The Wife does.

True story: a week before Halloween, there was a house in my neighborhood with their Christmas lights and decorations up already. In October.

Favorite Christmas song? I'm partial to the classic songs rather than more modern ones. Bing Crosby's version of "White Christmas" tops the list, with the added bonus of being in that perfect vocal range to calm a child down before bed. The version of it that The Drifters did was also fantastic. And "O Holy Night" comes in second.

Old Kitty said...

Awww glad to see you are full of the Christmas spirit! Yay!!

I love Oh Holy Night!

Take care
x

Teri Anne Stanley said...

Somewhere in the depths of my dusty CD collection resides an album called "for the children" or something like that...it's a bunch of rockers singing Christmas Carols to benefit kids with AIDS...I think it's like 20 some years old. I need to dig that out, it's my favorite. No specific songs, though.

Happy Sheep Brains...if you ever want a mouse brain, let me know...

leegomez said...

I love Christmas music! My favorite song of all time is O Holy Night--it's such a powerful song, especially when sung by someone with some pipes.

As far as the sheep brain--yay. The trigeminal (or maybe the trochlear...I can't remember which) nerve is a bear to find. But, if you're in good spirits from the Xmas music, I imagine you'll be able to find it without a problem :).

Meredith said...

Yay for Christmas music! It always makes everything better. :)

Sara {Rhapsody and Chaos} said...

Um, can you teach ME how to use dropbox???

My fave Christmas song to sing is "All I Want for Christmas is You." Seriously, I belt that one out in the shower almost all year round anyway, lol.

And I LOVE Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) because it's set to the melody of Pachelbel's Canon--and I got married in December and walked down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon. So it has special significance for me! Plus the children's voices in Christmas Canon are just so... idk. They can make me cry :)

Justin said...

It's funny how having a daughter has made me love Christmas music. I actually look forward to it now!

Great blog BTW!:)

M Pax said...

Great to hear you're doing well with NaNo. Christmas music makes me happy, too. I used to play it in the car all the time ... before someone broke in & stole my cds. :-(

DL Hammons said...

"Christmas Jam" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. CRANKED!!!!!!! :)

Lola Sharp said...

Man, I love Christmas and all that goes with it. I love the twinkle lights and glitter and the music and giving gifts (getting them is nice too), and the food and the movies...I love it all.

In response to Joshua above, it's very possible that those people are on a Christmas house tour or having an early Dec. Christmas party, or someone in the military who's been away is coming home early and they want to celebrate early.
I can think of so many reasons...because we often entertain in a big way for Christmas, and it takes me WEEKS of hard work to get it all done (and husband helps with the outside and the garlands and such).
Now that I do Nano every year, and since we do Thanksgiving at my in-laws, I tend to start right after Halloween. (Really, it takes me a couple weeks to get all of Halloween down, especially with Nano)

When we finally take down all of the Christmas decorations in mid-January, I actually get melancholy for a few weeks. The house looks so naked and un-sparkly and sad.

(I get over that by going on a cleaning and organizing binge)

I can't pick a favorite song because I love them all. :)

Yay you for kicking some word count arse, love! :)

Sarah Ahiers said...

How were you using dropbox before? Just curious. I use mine all the time
And i think my fav christmas song is O Holy Night, which i probably mentioned on FB

aakash said...

I definitely want to visit US and Europe on Christmas season, sometime. My fav. song would be 'I only want you for Christmas' by Alan Jackson, but then I just listen to country so have limited list to choose from :)

aJ