I really don't like it when I am too busy or sick to write

I feel like I am in need of another post-every-day-for-a-month challenge to get myself back into this whole blogging thing but I know that if I do that I will just have a whole lot of nonsensical short posts. It is difficult to keep up with school work, a social life, stupid artistic hobbies and a blog all at once. It isn't just a blog that I'm trying to write for though, there are also notebooks to fill. I have almost filled my current notebook actually, which means I can move onto the fancy looking one I got for my birthday.

I am finding that things are jumbled and hectic at the moment. It doesn't seem like I am maxing out my time while I am doing it, but when I finally get an ICDL lesson in which I do nothing but listen to Angus and Julia Stone, go on Facebook, go on Twitter, Google why chameleons change colour and decide to write a blog post, I realise how much stuff I have been doing lately.

I have been working hard with my classmates making a documentary about the surf culture of Australia, which involved going to the beach and interviewing random people I had never met before. That took up an entire Sunday but was extremely productive, and still not finished. Let's just put that on the 'need to complete' pile for now because I have to stare meaningfully at my booklet of history and geography assignments for a moment before deciding it can go straight to the 'need to complete' pile. Oh yeah I also have that little pet project I was working on. . .  I better add it to the pile.

My school work load isn't actually that bad, I just find a majority of it tedious and unnecessary as I already know what I want to do after school. What is adding to the hectic constant doing stuff is my social life. Here i thought I'd never have one of these but alas, people actually want to be associated with me. I'll have to ponder how that happened later because I have to plan a party, make sure I can go to a get together with people, hang out with some people, make some mixes for people because I am slowly spreading Saint Motel through the school like a disease, and remember to put certain books in my school bag so I can lend them to the people I recommended them to. Also I need to go to Timber Town with the awesome Bekasaurous.

Australian's spell Gaol (jail) weird.

I'm not trying to sound like I'm complaining I absolutely love spending all this time with everyone. It is awesome! I just recently realised how much of this socialising business I do. I still have plenty of off time but the point I am trying to make is I have been busy chilling in my off time. Not writing.

Reading, yes but not so much writing.


In my head this is a bit of a problem. For starters It means I am getting out of practice and my blog posts are turning out like this mess. So i decided to post at least once a week. Even if I have to write the post during the ad breaks of my Sunday evening Bones and Castle line up on channel 7, I will make a post before the week is out.

This is my promise to myself and to you. Whoever actually reads this thing.

RachOddSocks

I can't think of an interesting title

It's no secret that change is an odd and inevitable thing. Changes can vary from good to bad to just plain random. Many are annoyingly unavoidable, like getting old or needing a new car because your dearly beloved van exploded. What I think is curious about change is how some changes jump out like a terminator and hit you without so much as an "I'll be back", while others creep up on you, milling in the shadows just out of sight, like a ninja until one day you flick on the light switch and BAM you're ten years older than you realised.

I'm glad to say that the whole growing up thing hasn't slammed me like a freight train just yet. Sixteen is not old enough to start looking for silver strands in the hairline. I am also glad to say that I'm growing up and am pleased with my progress so far. Sure I miss nap time, but I earned my current shoe size and I won't be going back from a 9 anytime soon. That's right, size 9 women's. If you want to buy me shoes, refer to this.

So why all this talk of change? Well just today when I was hanging out the washing for my dad (aren't I nice?) I remembered when I was younger and had some dark blue shoes that were pretty cool. I have no idea why I recalled this while hanging out the washing and I have no idea where my shoe obsession has come from but it is relevant I assure you.

So, I had these cool dark blue jogging shoes that I would wear an awful lot. I wore them so much that they got massive holes in the soles and out the front. My feet also outgrew them to the point that my toe would stick out the hole. Mum didn't notice for a while because I didn't draw attention to it but when she did we went straight to Big W to get a new pair. Would you believe they had a shiny new and nicer smelling pair of the same shoes in a bigger size just waiting for me? Honestly I think my mum must have been incredibly relieved to have such a quick shoe shopping trip. If I remember my toddler years correctly, shoe shopping with kids is horrible.

My mum got me the new shoes that fit much better and I was shocked to see the real damage to my old pair in comparison to their beautiful and young replacements. It wasn't just the obvious holes that made walking through puddles a sock-drenching wonder, but what was really surprising was how much the blue had faded. I knew I had needed the new shoes but really, how had the colour vanished so much without me noticing? Had it bled while I walked through the door of Big W? Would I find a dark blue puddle in front of one of those wet floor signs at the check out?

It's the sneaky ninja changes that are the real wonder. The changes that happen so gradually your eyes get used to them and it seems like there is no change at all, until you get a glimpse of how it used to be. You spot a pencil line somewhere low on the wall where you were measured as a kid, you find an old t-shirt in a box tucked away in the garage that looks small enough to fit on a teddy bear and remember fitting in it yourself. Or maybe you find a mix you made years ago, listen to it for nostalgia's sake, and find yourself wondering aloud "Who on earth would put this much Kelly Clarkson on a mix?" only to realise you are making fun of your own tastes.

From Kelly Clarkson to Saint Motel, from impossibly tiny to women's 9, from gameboy colour to a Samsung Netbook named George. These are just a few gradual changes that I am immensely pleased for, but there are still changes that I would be OK about taking back even for just a moment. Like the change from nap time and ABC's to sleep deprivation and World War II research.

Though now that I try to think of things that I associate with childhood that have changed drastically, I have trouble finding them. I'm looking around my room for examples only to see a sailor hat, a pile of soft toy monkeys, bed sheets of Lightning McQueen from Disney's 'Cars', a Nerf Gun and Nerf Sword, and a pair of rainbow striped gumboots. Guess I'm not as grown up as I claimed.

RachOddSocks

The Kidnapper's Throne

I recently displayed my completed instillation art sculpture around my school and had my friend take pictures. I like making really creepy art, mostly because I'm a fan of irony and people don't expect bright happy little Rachy to tie her younger brother to a chair, cut him lose, write a message on the chair in what appears to be blood then name the grotesque piece "the Kidnapper's throne".

While you may question my mental state a bit, I do ask you to let me explain the concept behind my chair, though I have a sneaking suspicion that I have done this once before already. Bear with me, even if you are human and not a bear.

The Kidnapper's Throne was an idea born from an Angus and Julia Stone song called draw your swords. Whenever I hear the verse "See them snakes come through the ground, they choke me to the bone. They tie me to that wooden chair, here, on my throne" I get the image in my mind of someone tied to a wooden chair, bound by snakes that coil around their tensed wrists and ankles like ropes. Their fingers scratch feebly at the arms of their unwanted throne as they are choked by the reptiles and held, helpless, in place.

I do have quite an unusually vivid imagination and listening to the song made me wonder if anyone else would think that way about it, or if they would need the image before their eyes. So I decided to make the throne I envisioned, but make it one of freedom.

I want the audience to look at the chair and imagine a scenario. I want them to see someone that had been trapped in this chair in the middle of a Field looking at a freedom they could not reach. I want them to look at it perplexed by the possibility that someone could be tied to a place, an unwanted throne, with no way out and no one looking to help. I want them to wonder how the victim escaped. I want them to imagine, like I do when I look at the chair, what it would be like to be trapped in freedom.

There is no symbol of death or torture within this artwork, not intended anyway. It is about the contradictory nature of the world. How you can live in a place of freedom, yet still feel trapped by social inadequacy. Or how you can be king or queen, looked up to by many, high on your throne, but feel like it is torture. But most of all I wanted to show that even when we are bound by both rope and tape, there is always a way out.

More irony for you: This artwork is about optimism and hope. Wouldn't pick it huh?
 

This is by far the best thing I have made ever. What is great about it is that it changed meaning as we moved it around or took shots form different angles. When it was in a playground, it was a symbol of lost innocence or of fleeing a trapped childhood. When it was next to a no exit sign, it was like a rebellious jab at society.

The chair still remained a contradiction though, not just because always smiling Rach was it's creator. The most commonly asked question about my chair was;

 "Can I sit on it?"

This is the chair in which someone was bound to. The chair from which my little brother tried to escape but only succeeded in giving himself slight rope burn. The chair that resembles what the spawn of Satan might be interested in when wandering furniture shops. Holy hyperbole batman!

Needless to say, I am proud of my creepy chair. It is a huge improvement over the last one i did for art. The one that I will take an axe to any day. It was also very fun taking the Kidnapper's Throne around the school. I would like to thank Miss Prue Hazelgrove for taking these awesome pictures. She is featured here in the picture of us having a tea party with the Throne. She's the blond one.

I would also like to thank our school for throwing out tables and chairs and leaving a table of coffee mugs and plates unguarded. You made this picture possible.

RachOddSocks

Sorry about the lack of posting, I was off curing the common cold.

I didn't actually cure the common cold, but I did read Jeff Lindsay's Darkly Dreaming Dexter and am currently reading Dearly Devoted Dexter. That is relevant because Jeff Lindsay appears to be a fan of alliteration and curing common colds is quite alliterating. A love of literary devices is necessary for a literary rock star like a love of instruments is necessary for an actual rock star, weather it be adoring apparent alliteration or appreciating beautifully sculpted and sparkling imagery.

A simile is like a guitar, the metaphor is it's strings. Irony is the 'quiet please' sign in the corner of the music store. Hyperbole's cover the greatest instrument you could own. The sounds escaping to freedom from their entrapping amplifiers are all good friends with personification. The bang of drums is pure onomatopoeia to a literary rock star. Sarcasm is the over-worked employee saying "No it's not a bass guitar it's a pony" when asked a simple question. When the employee acts naturally you can tell he is an oxymoron. Oh look, a pun!

Well that was a fun paragraph. You probably wouldn't get half of it if you hadn't googled literary devices like I did to come up with all that. The burst of creative and nerdy humor, and my lack of posting, is due to the fact that i finally decided to write something other than a blog post or insomnia driven scribblings.

See I was going to write a short story. Then it got to be almost fifty pages long. Sadly, the many pages means I won't be posting it on OddSocks when it is finished. Once I am done editing I can email it to you, if you really want to read it. I'm sure my email is in my profile or something. It's about zombies. Lots of zombies.

RachOddSocks

TEAM ZOMBIES

I would like to start this by giving my younger brother Matthew all the credit for the new profile picture I have. He didn’t just take that one. No, that is one of many that he took. Every time he took a picture I would be very fussy with it. “My shoes weren’t straight” “The light was too bright” “My socks weren’t high enough” “The NERD logo on my shirt wasn’t clear” Thanks for dealing with it Matt, I doubt you will even read this.


In other news, I have been reading a book called Zombies VS Unicorns. The concept originally began in February 2007 when Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier began having a heated discussion over which is better, Zombies or Unicorns. This book is a collection of short stories by various authors all of whom have an opinion on the matter. Every second story is a Zombie story while the rest are Unicorn stories, each one an attempt to convince the reader which creature is best.

So far I’ve enjoyed the Zombie stories most, though there was a Unicorn story (purity test by Naomi Novik) that was absolutely hilarious, mostly because it kind of inadvertently made fun of unicorn legends. When I first started reading I wasn’t sure which side I was on. I was torn because while I love Zombie games, Zombie stories and Zombie movies, Unicorns are magic horses with deadly weapons on their heads.

While playing Left 4 Dead 2, I realised I had been a zombie supporter from the start. Sure Unicorns are cool and Robot Unicorn Attack is an epic game, but they are just not as awesome as Zombies and Left 4 dead is also an epic game.

This is my opinion and I am sticking to it. Listen to this though, you might find it interesting. When I first saw the film Zombie Land I was eating a massive bowl of Froot Loops. Now whenever I watch it I think of Froot Loops. A bowl of Froot Loops is practically a bowl of sugary rainbows. Unicorns are often associated with rainbows. My mind was blown when I realised this. I can tell you don’t care either way.

RachOddSocks

You can get extreme caffeine high from six or so glasses of Pepsi max. Who knew?

The thing about the holidays that can be kind of annoying at times is the fact that I don’t have to go to bed early because I don’t have to wake up at a reasonable hour. Sure it is greatly missed when the holidays end, but when I don’t wake up until 12 in the afternoon, I can’t help but feel guilty for wasting the day away. Also when it is that late in the afternoon it is no longer socially acceptable to eat Froot Loops. I still do of course; No one should be told when or when not to eat Froot Loops.


Today, after waking up at about 12 for the second day in a row, I decided to go for a walk. I went to my mum’s house, helped clean stuff up a bit, and then we watched a few episodes of Castle. I had this massive bottle of Pepsi with me and a glass. So as my mother and I watched the awesome crime show, speculating about the crimes, saying things like “I bet you it was that guy” or “I so didn’t see that coming” or “I remember watching this episode on TV. Don’t remember who did it though yay!” As we watched I poured myself glass after glass of Pepsi Max, laughing along with the witty banter and clever one liner’s. That show is much better than I make it sound, I assure you.

Anyway by the time we had watched about three episodes, I had drunk many a glass of Pepsi max. Sure there isn’t sugar in Pepsi Max, but there is definitely caffeine. As I was leaving mum’s house the caffeine was very much coursing through me and hyping me up. The effects have worn of now, but I do recall texting long messages as I walked so I wouldn’t have to make awkward eye contact with the passer-by. Being hyped up on caffeine at the time, they turned out pretty interesting. Here they are.

Text Number 1

I drank too much Pepsi max now the caffeine is getting to me. I’m shaking a little. This text is difficult to type because my fingers are wanting to text faster than my brain wants to. . . .Say things? I don’t even know anymore. I better walk off this caffeine high before something crazy happens like I turn into Astro Boy or something. I don’t know why Astro Boy I’m just texting while I walk so I don’t have to look at people in cars as they silently judge me with their licences and destinations and agendas. I suppose I do have a destination and an agenda but I don’t have a licence or a life. I just saw a guy riding a bike with a fluffy looking trailer attached to it. You know the kind for small dogs. I don’t think he has a dog though it was holding his shopping.

Well that was the first long text I wrote and saved in my phone. If this were a sham-wow commercial, this would be the part where I’d say “But wait, there’s more!”

Text number two

It isn’t fun walking past people on the sidewalk and making awkward glances here and there so I’m going to keep texting to myself. I usually send these texts to people but these ones are getting quite long. Sometimes when waiting for a lift on a bench outside the shops you can’t help but feel like everyone glancing at you as they pass is thinking you have no life so you are sitting there waiting for one to show up and greet you. Feels kind of the same now only I’m walking so they are thinking that I am hoping to stumble upon a life as I wander. If I text as I walk they might believe that I do have a life and that it is texting me now about something so important my reply has to be extremely long. Imagine if you saw me walking and texting right now. If you were to watch me for long enough and actually be curious about what I am doing, you would probably think I was sending an extremely important text. Or maybe I’m texting a cop saying there is a weirdo watching me as I text walk.

That’s right everybody, I am a freak. Still, it gave me something to blog, didn’t it?

RachOddSocks

This keyboard is annoying

My dad's laptop is pretty cool, I guess. It is kind of old though so it inevitably has some quirks that come with age. Typing on it is like using a typewriter, by which I mean if I don't smash at every key like I have a personal vendetta against it, my words miss out on a few letters.

Another annoying quirk was just demonstrated to me before I started this sentence, believe it or not. When this laptop is unplugged it freaks out. It isn't an instantaneous freak out. At first the background changes to a default image. When it happens, I have a feeling this is what goes on in it's head:

"Oh dear my life support system has been shut down. It's cool it's cool. I can handle this, I'm sure. It won't be forever, right? I can handle it. Yeah I can do it. . . . Maybe they don't know that it's happened. I should warn them, I mean, let them know. Yeah I'll change the back ground they will notice that."

Then when I don't do anything about this whole unplugged thing, it starts to lose it a bit:

"Hello! Can you here me?! My plug is not powering me right now! Running on battery here, this is not a drill! HELP! I'll just make the screen go black for  second to alert you to this. Oh dear. . . . I need a lie down."

And that is when it shuts down completely and I am forced to plug it back in.

Unfortunately my dad's Internet only likes to work for this laptop, thus forcing me to use it and put my trusty George the Laptop away. Which is why this post is taking me for ever. It is also why my posting has lessened in frequency. In fact, the post before this one was typed on George the Laptop then moved via USB to this unnamed old laptop and posted onto OddSocks. I think I might stick to that method as typing on this one is bothering me a little.

Anyway, the main purpose of this post is. . . . For it to be posted at 11:11 on the 11th day of the 1st month in 2011! That's 11/1/11 at 11:11. Or, if you are Alyssa 'I live in America' Karounos, 1/11/11 at 11:11. Why do we have the day and month opposite? Anyway, make a wish!

RachOddSocks

Look Bek, this one has you in it!

“It’s never the differences between people that surprise us. It’s the things that, against all odds, we have in common.”
That is one of my favourite Jodi Picoult quotes. Everyone is different in so many ways it is just plain incredible that we can possibly have anything in common with each other.

How is it that there are different musicians loved by the thousands world wide? How can a single book sell copies to a million different people? How can a television series be adored by a good portion of the population?
Every single one of us is unique, and yet we can like the same things and have the same interests as other people. The chances of agreeing on absolutely every single subject are slim though. While I have friends that have a lot in common with me, there will be differences.

For instance, my friend Bek and I love almost all the same kinds of music. We used to have very different playlists but as the years have gone on, and our file sharing has frequented, our playlists have almost merged into two indistinguishable clouds of rhythm and melody. I am pretty sure she still has way more music than I do (disadvantage of not owning an iPod. Discman for the win) but we still rarely listen to the other's music without saying at least once “I love this song!”
Bek and I may have music interests that appear to have been separated at birth, but if our music interests were twins they would be fraternal twins. By which I mean they are not identical. There is still the issue of Duffy.
Bek very much likes the Welsh musician, while I find her voice annoying. It doesn’t matter that we have this difference in opinion, I’m sure it isn’t the only one music wise, even though I did get over my brief Taylor Swift phase. And we certainly have differences in opinion in other situations.

The point is, while we don’t both love Duffy and I don’t usually play Lady Gaga willingly while she absolutely does, we both love Paramore and have spent many a sleep over rocking out to Fall Out Boy.
It isn’t odd that we have tastes that differ, what is odd is that we have so many that don’t. We don’t just share the same favourite music, but books too, and the same love for simple things like popping bubble wrap. It isn’t the things we disagree on that make us friends. We don’t bond over my contempt for Lady Gaga, nor do we converse often about Bek’s lack of enthusiasm for the works of Derek Landy. We talk about Paramore and Harry Potter because those are among the things we have in common.

Because it isn’t amazing that I’m more into crime mystery stories than she is. It isn’t wondrous that she really likes wasabi and I can’t handle the stuff. It is hardly even note worthy that she can walk in heels with grace as I stumble and trip.
But it is amazing that we both say “That is so awesome!” when seeing a book called ‘Zombies VS Unicorns’. It is a wonder how the two of us, in the clutter of people on this planet, can meet and have a great time eating garlic bread. And it truly is amazing that, despite every difference between us, when we saw nuns out side Paddy’s Market in Sydney the first thing we both thought was “Take a picture”.
Because, despite our differences Bek Day, you and I have an awful lot in common.

Life's too short to correctly pair your socks

I realised that my first post of the year didn't much acknowledge the fact that it was the first post of the year. I know I used the phrase 'New Year's Day' at least once, but the post didn't have much to do with it. I thought I might just make up for it now.

Over 2010 a lot of things have happened and a lot of things have changed.

There are ordinary things:

I now fit size nine shoes.
I am convinced that The Cure is a band that I desperately need to hear more of.
I have eaten sushi.
I have purchased a flippin' sweet jacket that I wouldn't have been daring enough to get in, say, 2009.
I have learned how to correctly spell necessary on the first try.

Then there are the more odd things I have done in 2010. I realised that there are a few quirky things that I never would have done in 2009 for fear of what people would think of me. Life is more fun when you get over other people's opinions and do things like:

Dress as a space cowboy.
Wear a sailor hat in public.
Wear rainbow striped gumboots on a formal occasion.
Write an entire story using mainly song lyrics.
Write "I wish I had a Harry Potter shirt" on a T-Shirt and wear it in public.
Sing. Constantly. I didn't realise how often I sing until it was pointed out to me. I'm OK with this.


I know that if a ran into someone I had known in primary school while I was wearing my sailor hat, they wouldn't recognise me. I had never done anything like that in primary school, I was so worried about what people will think. I am so glad I got over that. Even when everyone is at school, everyone wearing the same uniform, doing the same thing, you never know what they are all thinking. You never know who decided not to correctly pair their socks that day either. Just saying.

formal feet

RachOddSocks

Writing stuff at 3 am is always fun.

Watching Fight Club, I always sympathise with Edward Norton's character at the beginning, at least when he is talking about insomnia. When you can't sleep but really want to, it is horrible. I've never had it as bad as the Fight Club guy, but insomnia doesn't need to last a week to be unpleasant. A single sleepless night can make you feel like the world has gone out of sync.

You aren't quite awake as you stumble through the hours. Your eyes look but don't completely register the images they capture; you look without seeing. People talk to you and you hear them, but when you try to listen not much stays with you. You suffer through the hours, eyes half open, finding that every single light just wants you to know how fragile and sore eyes can really get.

Every moment of silence is spent with no thought at all. The moments in which no one speaks to you and you don't have to concentrate on anything, those are the moments you are awake but not there. Saying you are sleeping with your eyes open isn't quite correct, because it is more like you are on stand-by mode. Nothing registers in your mind at all because you don't even realise you are awake. Your body knows it, but your mind isn't entirely convinced.

I once fell asleep at around 1 am, only to awaken at around 4 am. Try as I might I was unable to fall asleep.

I couldn't help but think over and over in my mind "I have to go to school in a few hours whether I sleep again or not."

I did not sleep again, I just lay there, watching the sky go from black, to gray to blue. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, the sun was warm but not burning. It was a beautiful day, and that is all I remember of it. I recall feeling cheated because I was destined to zombie walk through such a lovely day.

I'm not sure if I even wrote any notes that day for any lessons. I don't even know what lessons I had, I just remember that I had both History and Geography at some point because I took the opportunities to look like I was listening intently to what the teacher was saying. Even when I am doing a sleep deprived zombie walk I can still give our History/Geography teacher a decent Yes-Miss-I-have-an-intense-interest-in-this-subject-and-I-am-learning-more-from-you-talking-then-I-ever-would-from-writing-anything face. Keep that face on and the lecture/bookwork ratio will shift.

That day was a blur; people talking to me, my responses hardly intelligible, teachers talking at me, words dancing and swaying on the page of a book as if they would rather slide around the white sheet of paper then allow me to read them. In every classroom I would stare at the hands of the clock on the wall as they ticked , seemingly slower and slower. The second hand would move so slowly it looked like it wanted to go backwards.

By the end of the day when I had finally gotten home, I collapsed on my bed and realised all at once why I had to zombie walk through the day. All day since I got out of bed without finishing my sleeping, I had just been awaiting the moment when I could catch up. Sleep was no longer out of reach like it had been at 4 am, because it had been waiting all day for me to arrive. This time it was ready to be my means to an end. And how I loved it.

No I am not suffering insomnia now, it is New Year's Day. People stay up late on New Year's for some reason. I can get away with that in the holidays.

Irrelevant title

When you don't feel like saving up tonnes of money to buy an iPod that will inevitably stuff up somehow, you usually save up less money and buy an mp3 that will do the same, but in a cheaper way. When you get sick of scrolling through the list on your mp3 to listen to the artists and albums you want, you usually just shrug it off and tell yourself to suck it up.

Not me. I decided to go on eBay and buy a diskman or Walkman or whatever you want to call it. Now instead of scrolling through an annoyingly long list of tunes on a really dodgy mp3 I flip through my CD case and choose my favorite albums to listen to. My collection is coming along nicely and I have no regrets. Well, occasionally the music jumps a bit but I mostly have no regrets. Here are some of my favourite albums and why they are my favourites.

Angus and Julia Stone's album 'Down the way' is fantastic. I may have mentioned the advanced awesome levels of this album in previous posts. The songs are just so calm and laid back and relaxing I can't help but enjoy it. Also it reminds me of the snow.

 One track in particular that I have been adicted to on this album is 'Draw your swords' because it is amazing. Unfortunately it is also the only Angus and Julia Stone song I have ever heard that has a swear word in it. Mum doesn't like me playing it and there is not a single censored version on the internet. I have to settle for listening to it on my Walkman alone. Still, it is great.

Florence Welch is just plain inspiring. I don't own the 'lungs' album myself but I have all the songs on a mix CD. Not in the right order but I have all the songs. The songs are so good. Half of them tell a story and I love it when songs do that. 'Bird song', 'My boy builds coffins', 'girl with one eye', 'dog days are over', and 'swimming' are a few that I can't seem to stop listening to from this album. Can't help but love the music and quirky lyrics.

Saint Motel's EP 'Forplay' is absolutely fantastic. For $5 and $4 postage I got Saint Motel's first ever CD with 6 songs, 6 music videos and even full lyrics for every one of them. And just because it came all the way from LA, I put the packaging on my wall with all the other interesting junk.

It really is quite a miracle that I have heard of them at all. They are a band based in Los Angeles that hasn't gone mainstream yet. They are not played on any radio station in Australia. In fact, the only reason I heard them at all was because I am a Castle fan and a couple of their songs were on a video Stana Katic and Seamus Dever were apart of called The Alternative Travel Project. Stana Katic and Seamus Dever play Detectives Kate Beckett and John Ryan on Castle, if you didn't already know.

Anyway back to Saint Motel. On their face book page under genre it says "You tell us" because you really can't pick a single genre for all their songs. Except for alternative because that is the genre for when all else fails. I feel like mentioning their song 'Pity Party' which has an extremely happy sounding tune that is contradicted by lyrics such as "Your ship's sinking now. Go down with it." and "Can't clean out your wounds with rusty knives so why do you try". I love it and can't get enough.

 I would try to name my favorites off this album but they are all my favorites so I really can't. The first ones I heard on YouTube were 'Butch', 'To my enemies', 'Dear Dictator', and 'Pity Party'. Those are all links to the actual videos so go for it. If I saw Saint Motel live I'd be one happy literary rockstar. It would have been cheaper and faster for me to buy this CD off iTunes but I live in the 80's so I got it by mail.

The Juno sound track. I really like this movie because it is weird and I'm into weirdness. It's another CD that I don't actually own but I own a burnt CD containing all the songs. Because my brother bought it on iTunes like a normal person.

The songs are unusual and strange but the accustic guitar work is beautiful. The songs are, for want of a better more literate and descriptive word, adorable. There are many on there that I absolutely love but my favorite is 'all I want is you'. Why? The lyrics. "If you were the wood, I'd be the fire. If you were the love I'd be the desire. If you were a Castle I'd be your moat and if you were the ocean I'd learn to float." It is just plain adorable!

Nirvana's Greatest Hits. Another reason why I should be in the 80's. Nirvana is the band that stopped before it's time. 'You know you're right', 'Silver', 'Come as you are', 'Lithium', 'Smells like teen spirit', and  'Heart shaped box' are my favorites from this album at the moment.

 Hey God? Can we trade Kurt Cobain for Justin Beiber? . . . .  What do you mean Justin Beiber will only get us Michael Jackson? . . . . Fair enough. What about Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus? . . . . Yeah I guess heaven wouldn't really be holy after that. Worth a shot.

This one is my brother's CD but I made a copy for myself. Mumford and sons Sigh No More CD is brilliant. I can't listen to mumford and sons without feeling inspired. Not sure what I'm inspired to do, their music is just inspirational. My favorite tracks are 'The cave', 'Little lion man' and 'Thistle and Weeds'. That last one I have been listening to the most because it has the same sort of feel to it as 'Draw your swords' by Angus and Julia Stone which is like my song of the month or something. The whole album is increadible though and it is proof that there is room for banjos in the music industry today.

I serendipitously stumbled upon this at the library yesterday and just had a Matt Costa session. 'Mr. Pitiful' is still my favorite of his but there are other songs on there that I quite liked and will enjoy more of in the future.

                                    
Paramore, The Final Riot! live in Chicago. Listening to this on the way to Sydney to see Paramore perform at Sydney Arena psyched me up so much. Watching the DVD always makes me wish I could re-live that concert. Paramore sounds amazing and are a band that sounds even better live. You know how you get those bands like Fall Out Boy that have a singer that doesn't sound as good live? Definately not the case with Paramore.
 
Hayley Williams has an amazing voice. When I saw them at Sydney Arena in October, Stan Walker randomly joined them for Misery Business. I'm sure Stan Walker has a lovely singing voice, but in comparison to Hayley Williams he was just. . . . Miz Biz didn't suit him. I'll leave it at that. That concert was amazing and the only thing that would have made it fifty million times as awesome is if they had played All I wanted and Let the Flames begin. I mean fair enough though with all the songs they played I don't think even Hayley Williams would have the vocal endurance to play those songs too. Want to know what I mean?
 
Here's a link to all I wanted from the album Brand New Eyes and here is a link to the video of Let the Flames Begin from the Final Riot Album. If you only watch one video of the two, watch let the flames begin. You will then understand why I so desperately wanted to see the performance of that song live. And just because I can and it sounds good, an intro paramore did at a concert that wasn't the one I went to but sounds awesome dispite the terrible quality in video. It's called The lies we want to feel. 
 
Just to clarify, that was the greatest experience ever for me. It was the first actual concert I went to ever (let's face it, the big Exo day doesn't count) and it was epic. I want to do it again.
 
. . . .
 
There you have it. The CDs I have been listening to quite a bit, not including the mixes I've made. I make an awful lot of mixes.
 

How to spend a sunday without internet

Zombies.

RachOddSocks

It's been a while since I've made a post title extremely long and the post not really that impressively long. Perhaps I'll make up for it now? I'll do that.

I was sorting through the pictures on George the laptop and discovered something that is of no surprise whatsoever: I needed a whole folder for the pictures of my feet in various places. I take pictures of my feet an awful lot. The reason, I believe, is because I have many photogenic pairs of shoes and socks. Anyway I named all the photo's of my feet and I'm going to put them in this post along with what I named them.

1. My feet with odd socks shortly after I bought them. The socks I mean.

2. My feet with odd socks in the dark

3. My feet on the steps of a park at church

4. My feet in the lounge room after naming my slippers Alberto and Rodriguez

5. My feet at West Port Park when I stopped for a moment to take a feet picture.

6. My feet at the Younghusband's lodge

7. My feet at the movies while waiting for the midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one to start.

8. My feet and other feet under the table at Tara's 16th

9. My feet after doing the paper run in the rain and mud and a few unusually slippery driveways

10. My feet after cleaning my gumboots that were quite muddy indeed.

11. My feet look sketchy

I recently got new Converse shoes that I will have to wear and take pictures of. There are so many names for Chuck Taylor's Converse All Stars. People call them Chucks, Cons, All Stars and my personal favorite, Chucky T's, just to name a few.

RachOddSocks

Things I don't have to do for 6 weeks or so

I don't have to do homework, write essays,
wear a skirt,
wake up before 8 in the morning,
google anything to do with World War 2,
wear black polishable shoes,
go down Mumford Street,
make a packed lunch,
listen to someone talk about sedimentary rocks,
take notes on what someone is saying,
pretend to be interested in geographic statistics,
miss my favorite TV show on account of it airing late on a 'school night',
stop playing zombie games in order to work on assignments,
stop playing zombie games in order to go to bed and wake up on time,
stop playing zombie games,
or say the phrase "I'd better go to bed, I have school tomorrow."

I love holidays.

RachOddSocks

Some of my favorite quotes.

After filling up the last post with fight club quotes, I felt the need to put up some more of my favorite quotes from random things. TV, film, literature or even just people, can present us with a memorable line or two from time to time. Sorry about all the Jodi Picoult. I'm a fan of hers, can you tell?



"Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it."  Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper)
 
"You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not." Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper)

"The truth doesn't always set you free; people prefer to believe prettier, neatly wrapped lies" Jodi Picoult (Keeping Faith)

"When we're awake, we see what we need to see. When we're asleep, we see what is really there." Jodi Picoult (Second Glance)

"Heroes didn't leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn't wear boots and capes. They bled, and they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back."  Jodi Picoult (Second Glance)
 
"A mathematical formula for happiness: Reality divided by Expectations.There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality or lower your expectations." Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes)

"Living with regrets is like driving a car that only moves in reverse." Jodi Picoult (House Rules)

 
"There is a reason the word belonging has a synonym for want at its center; it is the human condition." Jodi Picoult (Vanishing Acts)

"I have come to believe that this life I’m living will never really fit." Jodi Picoult (House Rules)

“When you begin a journey of revenge start by digging two graves, one for the enemy and one for yourself” Chinese proverb

"We should celebrate with ice cream"
"We'd be fools not to." --Castle

"You are so lame! You're a lamey, Mclamester!" Castle


"Oh my god. This is quite possibly the worst coffee I've ever tasted. It's actually kind of fascinating. It tastes like a... (pauses to sip the coffee) it tastes like a monkey peed in battery acid. Try some?" Castle

“You want to make God laugh? Tell him your plan.” Robert Downey Junior

"This is the captain speaking. We have a . . . little problem with our entry sequence. We may experience some slight turbulence and then. . . explode."---serenity

“I’ve got to say, you are my kind of stupid.” Firefly

 

"You know what the chain of command is? Its the chain i go get and beat you with until you know who's in command!" ---Firefly



"Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."---Firefly


"I don't want to die now! I have a head ache. I don't want to go to heaven with a head ache I'll be all grumpy and won't enjoy it!" -The Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams



"Your friends poetry is terrible. It's like he ate a dictionary and started vomiting up words at random." -the city of bones by Cassandra Clare


"Why are you always so suspicious?"
"Should I answer chronologically or alphabetically?"-Sherlock Holmes


"No woman would marry a man who can't tell if someone is dead or not!" Sherlock Holmes


"If home is where the heart is, then your true home's in your chest!"--- Dr.Horrible's sing along blog




That was fun.

RachOddSocks

Mismatched activities

If you have been wondering about my recent lack in posts, which I doubt since I have no structure whatsoever in regards to my posting, it is due to the fact that our Internet had once again been run down. I blame YouTube once more. Also I blame Saint Motel because while I didn’t have their CD I had to listen to them via YouTube. Curse you awesome music.

Well now I have my Saint Motel CD and a few drafts of blog posts just waiting to be posted. This being one of them. There are a few things that I have to blog about, though their levels of interest vary from not very interesting to maybe mildly interesting if you are lucky. The theme of this post is brought to you by mice and fight club. You read that correctly I assure you, unless you think it said lice and light bulb.

First I shall explain the mice part. I’ve had pet mice for ages. They just don’t seem to want to stop breeding. Honestly, right when we think we have successfully separated the boys from the girls, there is a new litter of baby mice running about the cage. We have a few new mice in the cage that are small and adorable at the moment. I was playing with them the other day, letting them crawl all over my arms and whatnot. In fact, that was shortly after I watched Fight Club. . . .

I have to say fight club is awesome. Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and the ever wonderful Helena Bonham Carter all star in it. I’m pretty keen to read the book it was based on, written by a guy by the name of Chuck Palahniuk. Pronounce that last name out loud I dare you.
So there you have it, the connection between mice and fight club. What will I do with this connection, you ask? Why, I am going to put up fight club quotes between pictures of my baby mice, of course!


                             “With insomnia nothing is real. Everything is far away everything is a copy.”

                

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we are free to do anything.”

“On a long enough timeline, the survival rate of everyone drops to zero.”

“Life insurance pays off triple if you die on a business trip.”

“If I didn’t say anything people always assumed the worst.”

“I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.” 

“If you wake up at a different time in a different place, could you wake up a different person?”

                                                 “The things you own end up owning you.”

                               “From now on, all those with shaved heads: space monkeys.”


That last quote just might be my favorite quote of all time. Aren't my pet mice adorable?

-RachOddSocks

Music and naptime, suitable for all ages . . . right?

Ladies and gentlemen, that's right all six of you, I have something to write about. Thursday night I saw the film Due Date with Robert Downey Junior. I mean the film features Robert Downey Junior, I wasn't with him when I saw it. It was funny. What made it even more funny was the Rockstar energy drink I had drunk before and during the movie. I have a few fun facts for you about this lovely energy drink. It is amazingly delicious. It can make you go mental. I like to drink it. When I drink them too quickly I go insane.

We were running late for the movies, I had an opened Rockstar in my hand, I was power walking and I drank it at a non-recommended pace. It is difficult to sit still in a movie when your heart rate goes nuts, or when your hands are shaking from intense caffeine, or when you can't think of a third thing to put in a sentence. When I drink Rockstar too quickly, I inevitably have an intense sugar rush then an intense sugar crash and wake up feeling sleepy the next morning. Being the genius that I am, I managed to forget about the exam I had the following morning. Yeah I probably failed that. Oh well it's just maths.

I drew this when I finished the exam. It says "Rockstar. Guaranteed to keep you up until 3:30 the night before your exam." I really don't think I did well in that.

What I originally wanted to talk about is what happened after the energy drink started to wear off. I was exhausted but not sleeping. I am no stranger to insomnia. It is like a terrible house guest, showing up unannounced, messing up my sleeping patterns, eating all the food, being impolite and just leaving without cleaning up after itself.

There is one up side to having experience with insomnia, because I had several ready made time fillers by my bedside. Unfortunately George the Net book was in the lounge room, but I still had my fancy paper notebook and my even fancier CD Walkman. Yes yes I know it is no longer the 80's but I like listening to substantial CD's rather than ripping them onto an iPod then leaving them on a shelf. Besides I can't afford an iPod.

So there I was, conclusion that I would not sleep drawn with detail and colour. I picked up my fancy Walkman and my even fancier go-lo bought CD case and started flipping through for something to listen to. Oh the choices! Paramore, Florence and the Machine, Nirvana, Mumford and Sons, just to name a few. Then there are the compilation or Mix CDs that fill a fair portion of that case. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Saint Motel, Pierce the veil, the Real Tuesday Weld, the Cure all feature on a few of them.

None of these were what I was going for. I needed constant mellow, something to chill out to. Just as the phrase flew through my head I remembered the last time I had listened to music for the specific need to chill out. It was winter (chill out get it) and I was sitting in a cool windowsill, gazing out at various trees and rooftops of Falls Creek. I was scribbling in my notebook, my old one that is, and watching the snow drift like the debris from an exploding cloud. I had my head leaning against the cold glass of the window as my recently purchased Angus and Julia Stone album, down the way, played on my speakers in the background.

Needless to say I listened to it again last night. Not only because the mellow tunes are great for tired eyes, but because as I listened I remembered the snow. I was even more aware of the cool breeze seeping in from outside, the cold touch and the music of the 'down the way' album aiding the memories. I listened to the whole CD as I had many times before and I marveled at how a memory can be linked to a sound, a feeling stirred by the strum of a guitar, a mind challenged by a meticulous jumble of lyrics.

Music is pretty amazing when you think about it. How many things can you say have been around for you since you were born? How many things can you say have changed to suit you as you've grown up? From the Wiggles to Bullet for my Valentine, when said like that it seems like a great leap. Music is completely unique. There is something for everyone, it doesn't matter what your interest.

I think it is really awesome that you don't have to listen to just one kind of music. I have mix CD's where Marylin Manson precedes Florence and the machine and follows Bombay bicycle club. Those three genres are so different it doesn't even make sense that I love them all, but I do. It doesn't matter if I'm listening to cheerful songs like Mr. Pitiful by Matt Costa then I get the urge to listen to a depressing song like 9 crimes by Damien Rice. Creepy video for that last one.

Another awesome thing about music is how it works with your imagination. For instance, whenever I listen to Florence and the Machine's Girl with one eye, I always picture the performance in my head. Because I have never withheld my mental arguments I have had with myself, the weird thoughts I have had when seeing unusual things, or even my opinion on things no normal people even think about, I will not withhold how I picture Florence's performance either. I even told you about the time I walked all the way to McDonald's to use the Internet and forgot to charge my Net book before hand, so any respect you had for me is probably gone anyway.

When I hear the song I always think of an old fashioned gentleman's club. The lights are dimmed, the audience is all well dressed and looking at the stage in the middle of the room, where there is of course a large ebony piano among band members and instruments. As the electric guitar starts, the singer steps out in an impossibly sparkly red dress and starts singing the song. It just sounds like the kind of song that has to be sung while the singer lazes about on the grand piano and strolls around a stage winking at the men in the audience as their jaws drop.

Florence Welch!

That's how I see it anyway because I have an unusual imagination. Wouldn't trade it for the world though because it makes my dreams interesting and therefore my sleep less boring. Speaking of which, unhearted by Automatic Love Letter is a good song. Giving you lots to listen to in this post aren't I? I really appreciate music and I hope you appreciate that this post took me like two or three days to write because I am so easily distracted. That and I was recovering from the effects of Rockstar and sleep deprivation.

The moral of the story is Rockstar energy drink makes you feel like a Rockstar. And it is awesome.

-RachOddSocks