Three Songs I Have Been Known to Stick on Repeat

It has been a while since I have had time for a good ole plinky post... I am consequently several days out of the loop. The good thing about that is you get be picky about which one you answer without having to go searching through the older ones... Though searching through the really old ones can actually be a lot of fun I admit.



Today I'm doing. Three Songs You Never Get Sick Of.



As a topic this one is pretty hard for me. I am a music kind of person, as many people are. I don't have hugely strong preferences. Well I do, I like country, contemporary christian, showtunes and a smattering of anything (and everything ) else.



Beyond that - as with anybody I guess I have those songs I like more than others... But generally there is more than 1... and I get tired of most songs after a certain time period - no matter how good they are...



So looking for some long term favourites I struggled a little... too many which were too similiar for me to decide between... Nevertheless I did - a little by representing different categories of the songs I listen to again and again... and a little but picking the songs which I've known myself to repeat constantly...

Barry Manilow by Can't Smile Without You

I don't know what it is about this song. Perhaps a little bit the lovey-dovey romantic within the lyrics... A lot more the fact that I can sing along to it with easy... In fact all of the sings I've picked out are songs I can sing along to... But this one specifically... This is my shower song - nothing I like better than singing Can't Smile Without You while I wash my hair.

Casting Crowns by If We Are The Body

I love my contemporary Christian. In particular I love this song because it is about reaching out. Reaching out to fellow christians, reaching out to non-christians, showing your faith, showing Jeus, by loving the people around you. Which makes it a really good anti-loneliness song... Many many days of playing it on repeat last year when I was getting through a particularly lonely time.

Wrong Girl by Dianna Corcoran

Okay... This one was harder to pick. Rather it being specifically this song I have a short list of 10 or so girl-centric country songs which I use to raise my spirits. A couple of the others include Summer by the Sunny Cowgirls, Not Your Cinderella by Catherine Britt and Good Girl by Amber Lawrence. The thing they all have in common is they are guy free and very upbeat... and of course I can sing along to any of them when I choose. I'd recommend that as a fun time playlist for any country loving single girl.

Brains Beat Beauty

Ah finally a plinky post that I can get a bit of mental traction on. Uni work is reaching that crunch time it always gets to just before a break. As such I have a 3000 word essay that needs completing this weekend. Therefore of course I have some time to be wasting my brain on intellectual plinky debates.



Would you rather be super intelligent or extremely good looking?



Gee Plinky you're going to make it difficult to not be stereotypical or clique today. In an all of one and none of the other context I'm happy enough to side with super intelligent.



However this answer I am going to say is the dominant response as acceptable to our society. Humanity is not allowed to openly admit to being superficial. Nobody is going to admit that they wouldn't want to sacrifice their great body for the knowledge to help or hinder the world.



In fact of the 8 previous answers I have checked out only one person admitted to preferring to take looks. They figured while smart people would have the ability to know the answers to life, the universe and everything the good looking people simply wouldn't think to wonder about it.



So I think this a topic where a large percentage of people would answer very hypocritically. How can you say you would rather be intelligent than pretty when you decided against doing anything more demanding than arts at uni and spend $30 a week on your fingernails?

Equation

At this point I am going to reference the picture and say I am reckoning this a statistics calculation though I couldn't say for sure it not being my own picture... But if that isn't suggesting I already fall towards the intelligent rather than good looking side I don't know.



In another way to answer the question. If I'm going to do it on an 'out of ten' scale ie if my intelligence is a 9/10 my looks are a 1/10 etc. I'm probably going to go with intelligence of 8/10 and looks 2/10.



I have no great aspirations to be Einstein or the person who works out the specifics of putting an artificial atmosphere on the moon - not that I wouldn't want to reap the benefits and live on the moon =P. People who are that smart are weird - hell I'm not even that smart and I'm weird so I figure they are probably going to worse.



Also a small part of me would like to be able to face myself in the mirror every morning. Plus it gives me a head start over all the people with perfect intelligence who have perfect ugliness as well. Don't be denying it - all those 'extremely good looking' would be judging on looks and somebody needs to be able to tell them what's going on in the world.



Honestly looks are fairly low on my list of things to do. I don't like judging books by their covers - I generally at least wait until they've opened their mouths. But for extended periods of time there is little I can stand more than dumb people - I'd hate to sacrifice my natural ability to think about things to be just another pretty face.



This is when I think about the book I am reading at the moment 'Brave New World'. Not for the first time but certainly for the first time in a long time. There is a superficial society. The illusion of high intelligence which covers superficiality. Everybody knows lots of stuff but nobody has the ability to think, to question. Nobody is intelligent.



Interestingly the main character is intelligent. He knows something about this world isn't right - something isn't going deep enough. Coincidentally he is ugly - remarkably so for his Alpha-Plus caste status. Too short, too scrawny. I'd rather be him than any of the other beautiful people in that dystopia.

Loving a Bit Of Romance

So... Apparently Plinky wants me to get romantic today. Write a passage in the style of a romance novel. Little do they know that that is my most fluent genre... Possibly it is my only genre - I can't say anything else appeals to me - unless of course I can read romance into it :P. This isn't to say this will be a work of art but hey... should be fun.



Sarah stared at the distorted reflection of an elegant and distinctly feminine woman in stained glass panelling of the church. I can't believe she's making me wear this, she thought as her hand sub-consciously worried the loose curls which brushed across her shoulders.



She was much more at home in a pair of overalls, her hair locked tight against her skull. It was more convenient, more comfortable. She was a mechanic by trade and to be perfectly honest she would much rather be checking beneath the hood of the mustang they'd arrived at the church in than preparing to walk down that aisle. Thank God there was nobody from her normal life around to see her today.



Now it seemed everything was ready for the bridesmaids. Except for the dress, this is was straight-forward enough, Jessie first, then Sarah and finally their father and Olivia. As Sarah moved to her position she was reminded that the dress wasn't the only thing she didn't normally wear.



'Dammit Olivia, but these shoes are going to kill me before the day is through.' She attempted in hushed tones to break the nervous tension that was building around the bride.



'Sarah. Think of it this way if you trip and fall on your arse its not your wedding you ruin.'



Still, Sarah crossed her fingers to herself as she took the first step. And the second. The slow procession time made this shoe thing pretty easy. After a metre of two she was into the rhythm enough to look around discretely at the family, the groom, the groomsman...



Woah. What was he doing here? What was he doing here as THE BEST MAN? How was he in any way connected to Olivia's about-to-be husband Matthew?

"Wow--even on my wedding day, this is pretty cool!"

Sarah tried to convince herself to breathe. How could Matt's big brother Jonno and Jonathan P. Walters the third or the three-hundred and second of whatever retarded number he had after his name be one and the same?



Sarah admitted she had been a little bit taken by him the first couple of times they had met. Until he had made the move, and she unwittingly had fallen for it. Who knew that could be a bad thing? Suddenly he'd gone from this nice, attractive man to a man-eating businessman with nothi...



Sarah felt herself starting to topple. Its funny how in these situations time always slows down to a crawl as though it doesn't want you to miss a single second. Staring at the small step at the front of the church she couldn't help but curse inwardly that she had gotten so close to making it.



Unfortunately there had been no magical gust of wind or man's arms to appear from nowhere and save her. She hit the deck, and hit the deck hard, most would claim it had been the most complete face-plant they had seen in a while.



She was still regaining her wits when she felt strong arms reaching out to right her. Unfortunately she knew those arms. Fast enough to inflict whiplash on top of all her other injuries her head snapped around to death stare her would-be helper. Only she got distracted by the compassion in his eyes and the hint of a smile on his lips...

Hitting Up The Reruns

Wow. So it is currently a long time since this plinky prompt was posted. Unfortunately the last couple haven't been particularly suited to me. I can't remember a good strong case of dejavu (though I have done it before) and I have no great interest in children's books. So instead I figured I'll talk about reruns.



I love a good rerun. I guess most people do. However I don't actually watch that much television these days. I couldn't tell you what is on at the 8.30 time slot on any channel on any night of the week. In fact they could have changed the time for the news and I wouldn't know it... its has been weeks (provided you count the half an hour watching 'its academic' in the common room (a childrens 4pm quiz show) if not its been far longer).



However to kick-off my list of programs I can watch again and again (typically on my computer or via dvd) I am going to say the one show who I can guarantee is still on at 5pm every weekday...

M*A*S*H*
I always loved M*A*S*H*. I don't even know what it is about it that makes it so easy to just watch and watch. Even when you know most of the jokes and the outcome of every story line its just a good time. I must not be alone in this, it has managed to run perpetually for as long as I can remember - round and round in circles. It will be a sad day when MASH is kicked off air.

House
It isn't quite old enough that reruns typically get played on tv (unless its a football night) but I am happy enough to watch through the episodes again and again via DVD. I just love watching the character of House and how he interacts with everybody around him... it doesn't get old.

Dad's Army
I'm starting to see a pattern here. I watch a lot of old war time sit coms... Perhaps that's why I joined the military... I hope not it certainly isn't a particularly good reflection of it. Though at times - maybe it is.



Basically I don't watch that much TV at all. This list was surprisingly hard to come up with. There are other shows which I watch on and off... But there is no 'if its on I'll watch it feel about them'... I'd much rather be reading a good cheap mills and boon a second time...

The Morning So Far: My First Flat

So I read this plinky topic a first time last night... but the statement 'your morning so far' didn't really fit with me... It had been tempting though because yesterday morning began at midnight still awake and waiting for my relief from the watch duty so I could go to bed... Nevertheless that is no longer 'my morning so far' so I'll describe this morning instead.



The trick? Plinky wants me to do it in third person.

tire change

The alarm, more correctly the radio, broke through the general silence. There was no signs of life in the uni accommodation region - nobody in their right mind interrupts the sleep of others before 8 on a Sunday. Still the alarm rang.



With a crack of a single eye, mind protesting, she confirmed that the time was still 0750. Not surprising considering she was the one who had set the alarm not 12 hours before. Just the same that time seemed so much less reasonable in the morning light.



She had her friend to meet up with but knowing that Steph had been out until unknown hours... she wouldn't be up and adams for long to come. Snooze for the win. Worst case? The girl had taken her phone off silent before bed specifically for her friend to contact her... she had predicted her own response to the alarm.



A number of snooze alarms later the phone rang. To herself she conceded it probably was a reasonable time to get up now. Dressed and downstairs in a matter of minutes. She took in the slightly panda-eyed appearance of her friend and knew a big breakfast was in order. To the cafe district.



The drive to the cafes involved driving through the construction chaos of what was once a simple roundabout. The construction work had been therefore so long (as is always the way with roadwork) that it was simply all in a days drive. Until what felt like a pot hole. A hell of a pot hole considering she hadn't been driving anywhere near the only visable pot holes on the road.



Apart from a brief comment about the pot hole both girls switched back to thoughts of breakfast until about 2 minutes down the road the car started to feel funny... Now she'd never personally had a flat before but she had been in the car when somebody else had had one. This sounded suspiciously like that moment...



A brief and to the point 'Damn it' proceeded the girls pulling over and discovering a very flat tyre. Problem. Neither girl had EVER had to change a tyre before. Unfortunately it isn't a skill women are particularly well known for. They must have looked very lost and unsure of what to do though because they got the attention of a couple out for a jog.



Thank God for that jogger, he knew exactly what to do. He took care of it almost without assistance from either girl. Something about having a pink car must give away the aura that 'this driver is pretty much helpless in a car crisis'. Fantastic :).



Alls well that ends well... They got to breakfast thanks to the very lame looking spare... All that's left to do is fix it all up later this week... Turns out they had run over a nail... stupid construction zone.

Qualities of Me... A Full 10

List your 10 best qualities. Its funny. And its not just me. Everybody struggles with this. I hope everybody has put modesty on their list if they've run out of other things to put. Though I reckon even some people who couldn't come up with 10 probably wouldn't consider themselves modest (and rightly so).



What is it about people asking other people for qualities? Qualities of a good leader, qualities of a good person, qualities that make a good friend or a good relationship. Nobody knows. Hell even the words are open to interpretation. Nobody seems to get quite the same definition of integrity. Loyalty seems to make sense and then somebody suggests that being disloyal isn't being disloyal... then what is loyalty? and is it what you meant.



So anyway my list... This will be interesting. I am going to go for the full 10 count if it kills me...

Determination
Put it this way.... Would I be doing a full 10 count if I wasn't determined.

I Go With The Flow
I am an epic stress bunny or I would have used the word relaxed but basically in most things I am able to not be too flustered by whether we catch the bus or decide to hire a cab (to use a mundane example).

Punctuality
I do NOT like being late. In fact I prefer to be 5 minutes early. If you tell me to be somewhere I will be there. End of story.

Dependable
I was torn between using the word loyalty and the word dependable here. Basically if you need me to do something I will do it. If I can't do it I will be endless apologetic and supportive of either getting somebody else to do it or finding an alternative. But generally.. I will be there for you.

My Sense Of Humour
So I may make myself laugh perhaps more frequently than I ever make my audience. That's Ok because I enjoy it. The people close to me get it... even if they only get the weirdness of it and not the genuine humour I get out of it. Generally though... they think it is funny to. My sense of humour is a good quality because it is unique but I definitely have one.

Spontaneity
This is an entertaining one. I am about as original as a four legged chair. I am terrible for habit forming and have an excessively addictive personality. So why spontaneity? Well how is it spontaneous if that is what you do all the time? Predictably spontaneous is not fun at all... I am spontaneous in that every so often I just do something... not because it makes sense simply because I can.

I know the balance of Cleanliness
We all know that cleanliness is next to godliness... yeah well it happens to be one of those false gods where you have to sacrifice virgins frequently. Being too clean is frustrating... or perhaps more it is that expecting OTHER people to be that clean is frustrating. I love a clean home... certainly I do my own cleaning chores frequently enough. But I will wear my jeans more than once without washing them and know that if I don't vacuum daily the sky will not fall down... balance - i like it.

Honesty
I am... generally... honest. In my work, in my opinions, in my life. I am one of those people who can tend towards a bit blunt at times... but not too often for it to cause issues. I generally try to make education comments about whatever situation I happen to be in.

I Don't Hate or Hold Grudges
Hate is such an ugly emotional state. I consider myself very fortunate to not be so inclined to hate frequently or easily other people. My internal mind is occasionally judgemental but I rarely so much as comment about it. I can work with most people, handle the people everybody else hates relatively well. People can piss me off occasionally but I never hold that against somebody. Why? 'Jesus said, "This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you."' Jn. 14.22

Unique
Because I don't think I have mentioned this word more than once or twice I figure it can be a quality of its own. I am unique... mind you everybody is unique so wouldn't it be more unique to actually BE normal? Perhaps but it wouldn't be nearly as fun... there is much more variety available to a person who's unique. I am me, and by me I mean the part of who I am that can't be quantified or even properly qualified.