A Fun Blog!

There was this brilliant site a couple of years ago called Muxtape that was shut down because apparently it broke all sorts of laws and I guess in that respect it makes sense that the RIAA or whoever disabled it.

Basically you could upload all sorts of music to it and create playlists for your friends and listen to them, over & over.  It was magical.

I’m going to start posting mixes semi-regularly through 8tracks.  The first one can be seen below, titled cold feet, colder floors.

I love making mixes for people.  It can be intensely personal and if it’s a mix for someone you don’t know very well but you have a desperate desire to impress them, every impression, look & word you’ve wanted to convey can be done through a mix if you do things right.

If it’s a mix for a friend of yours, you want to have the perfect combination of familiar and unfamiliar songs to evoke a sense of time & emotion.  You also want to leave them gasping in awe of your taste in music. 

If it’s a mix for the Internet, you want to stand out & combine things in ways that haven’t been seen before.  When you’re making mixtapes Internet-ready, there’s a lot more urgency.  You don’t want your mixes scooped.

I’m kind of excited. 

Coming soon: my favorite tracks of 2010, a Jens Lekman preparatory course, & some covers of some songs.

I’m making my way through The Drunkard’s Walk, by Leonard Mlodinow.  FUN FACT: I met him a little while ago.  He is nice, and wonderful, and completely unassuming.  Also he looks like a teddy bear.  A teddy bear smarter than almost every other teddy bear I know.

It takes me a really long time to process books when I’m digesting every bit of them.  Some days are better than others.  I started this book probably a month ago & have been toting it around ever since.  I don’t do this often enough—my taste in books tends to the entertaining, escapist, or familiar and this is quite a departure.  The last book I can remember really paying attention to (all the words, not just some of them) was And Here’s The Kicker, by Mike Sacks.  I highly recommend it for anyone interested in being a funny person.

The point, dear reader, does not belong to me.  I don’t even know if it belongs to Mlodinow.  It belongs to him more than it belongs to me so I guess that’s the important thing.

I hear the word “random” a lot in my life.  I used to be very close with a girl who would use it whenever she really meant “weird”, “uncanny”, “inconsistent”, etcetera.  It was one of those things you notice but don’t want to be a douchebag about.  Or at least I didn’t want to be a douchebag about it.

This book is a meditation on randomness and what that truly entails, and I have been sopping up the soup of his knowledge with my crusty French bread of ignorance.  There, I said it.

I’m really only about halfway through the book & have been stationed at page 108 for about a week, but what I’ve taken away from the book (at least so far) is the importance of probability in life.  Probabilities affect so many pieces of my life and I have no part in them.

I don’t think that the things I do have no effect, but it’s nice to know that there’s at least one thing that doesn’t really give a shit about me.  It’s pretty easy to believe in math.

Dear Margaret,

You don’t have to become an Adult, but I understand that fear.  While being a kid has been one of the better parts of your life, remember the shitty parts of being a kid too.  You did not know about common sense.  You did not know that bike shorts are not always a good fashion accessory.  You couldn’t curse as delightfully as you do now.  You didn’t have as many stupendous, stupidly magnificent friends. 

You did not have your sister in the capacity of best friend, best sister, person who knows you best and really, truly loves you. 

You have that now.

I think that you’re worried about hardening into someone without a sense of wonder, and excitement.  You’re worried that you’ll become Metapod, whose only attack is Harden.  And that is only slightly better than Magikarp’s Splash.

It’s true, you’re older.  You’re also better.  And as long as you don’t stay stuck in a rut but rather continuously evolve, I think you’ll come out on top.  Do not stagnate. 

Just retain all sorts of senses—your sixth sense, your spidey sense, your fashion sense, and of course your sense of adventure.  Trying to live up to this will not be easy.  Correct this tendency.  It is a major fault. 

Metapods eventually become Butterfrees.

Past Margaret

This isn’t a blog post about physical metamorphosis.

I am turning twenty one in twenty six hours and the thought is terrifying and delightful and it’s still not quite hit me.

The weather has rapidly turned to cold.  There is wind, and people in long flannel pajamas, and puppies licking my fingers, and the clock has turned back.

I’m rapidly turning into an adult.  I don’t know how it happened—all of a sudden, I’m working 9-5, I’m hiding snacks in my desk, I’m requiring caffeine to focus properly.  I’m going to the gym after work.  I’m making telephone dates.  I’m considering opening a Roth IRA.

I’m worried that I’m going to turn into someone I don’t recognize.  I’m turning my head into a calendar.  I’m trying to organize my mind at the expense of my life.  I’m turning my head around and around, I’m turning into an impression of a snowy owl.

I’m trying to believe that moving out of my parents’ house will not mark the end of an era, but rather the beginning of a stronger and more open relationship.  I think that’s actually true, but it’s hard to turn my heart against the faces of my stuffed animals.

I don’t want to turn into an Adult.  I don’t think it’s necessary.