Tastes & Poses

http://www.last.fm/user/EndlessAudacity/

Last fm is a pretty cool website. It tracks the music you play in Winamp or Media Player, makes lists of the artists you play the most, the songs you play most, people who have the same tastes as you, and -best of all- it recommends artists you might like, based on what you've played before.

I'm not afraid my musical taste, is like my taste in art: quite shallow. I like peppy songs, or sweet songs, without worrying whether they're actually good. You'll never find me listening to a techno or whatever song while I'm at home, though I don't mind them at a party. It's quite clear to see in my top artists list: I'm not very cool :)

Some people are cool: they praise the alternative music, the things that are hip without being mainstream. Nice for them. But... I'm quite confident that a few people I know, praise this , simply BECAUSE it's hip without being mainstream (I suppose they somehow believe this makes them hip, without being mainstream). They talk about music without knowing what they are saying and you just know that secretly they're Kylie fans. Posers are sad and should just accept themselves for the shallow pop-loving ditzes they are.

It's possible of course they don't even realise they're posing and actually think they prefer the hip music to the latest Madonna, but in that case they're just really pothetic and not excused at all :p

And I don't know why, but I get the strangest recommendations, people I've never heard of and can hardly find. Tim's tastes are more towards the alternative and his recommendations are much more mainstream than mine, it's silly.

One of my recommendations picked a rather unfortunate name: Femminem. Maybe you're wondering why this is unfortunate, but you see, for FunWeekend last year, Cathy and me went to the pharmacist to buy woman condoms and guess what those are called? Woman condoms, blond Dutch ditzes singing crappy songs, I'm sure there's a powerful metaphor to be found here, but frankly I'm too lazy to go look for it.


The last couple of days, relationships have been the topic of conversation in my circle of friends (and on all the blogs you find in the links section). Joy, despair, marriage, mockery (the classical stages of any relationship if you ask me :p) all are commented on.

I think it's odd how some single people (before you start cursing me, mind that I said some) seem to think that a boy/girlfriend is the answer to all their problems. I've been single a lot and there was only one period of time this made me unhappy and that wasn't because I was single, just because I was still in love with my ex-boyfriend. I can understand that being single for ages might get a little exasperating, and yes, we all need a hug, a good conversation with a likeminded individual and -let's face it- a shag every once in a while. And it is true that these things are different within a relationship then when you get them from friends / co-workers / anonymous men or women on a chat-site.

But some people seem to believe that having a relationship will solve all their problems. Here's a newsflash: it doesn't darlings. I love being in a relationship and I love my boyfriend, for better or for worse. But there is worse and there's no denying it. Having someone you love, who loves you back, can be truly amazing and make you feel like the tallest person in the world (well, a little latter than I am in my case, let's not ask for the impossible :)), but it can also make you feel the most miserable you can imagine.

It's not a secret that Tim and me have had a tumultuous relationship, so I'm not going to pretend everything was roses. In fact, I know most people thought we would be over in a month. We lasted longer than that, but not without lots of work, a lot of fights and copious amounts of tears.

We're on our second time (or third if you're going to be technical :p) around now and things are much smoother. I'm not going to claim we're sailing through life effortlessly now, far from it, but we don't have embarassing huge fights in public anymore and that's a big plus :) I guess we both learned and we both grew up a bit. We struggle with all the same things and it's almost comical how the same issues keep coming back, and back again, like in a bad soap opera, but unlike Sami Brady & Lucas Roberts (yes, it's a Days of our Lives reference and there's nothing you can do about it!) we have learned to deal with them in a different way.

I wish I had some sort of strong and catchy conclusion to this whole rant, but I don't. I don't think life is about conclusions, and if it is, I haven't made any yet. I just found questions that lead to more questions. The main question on my mind nowadays is "Can we make it?". I think we can, if neither of us grows tired of banging into the same walls and talking things through, and if we both keep believing in it.

We're pretty stubborn people, so who knows ;) Maybe love really is enough sometimes.

In random news: The Stella awards have been handed out. What you say?

The Stella awards are named after Stella Liebeck, the woman who spilled hot coffee over herself and then sued McDonalds, and won, for millions of dollars. The Stella awards are handed out each year to the dumbest people with the craziest lawsuits, who actually won, and were thus rewarded by society for being f-ing morons.

The runner-ups:

* Jerry Williams won 14,500 dollars from his neighbour because his beagle bit him on the arse. small detail: mister Williams was shooting at the dog with a pellet gun when it bit him.

* Amber Carson got 113,500 from a restaurant because she slipped in a soft drink on the floor. How did the drink get there? Miss Carson herself had just thrown it at her boyfriend.

* Kara Walton won 12,000 from a nightclub for falling out a window and knocking out het front teeth. Why was she there? She was crawling out the window so she wouldn't have to pay for the toilet...

The Winner:

Mrs. Grazinsky, who won 1,750,000 dollars... She sued the company that makes Winnebago's (you know, those big camper things, mobilhome or whatever they're called). She had just purchased a new one and went out on the freeway, where she set the speed at 70 miles per hour, put the camper on cruise control and then went into the kitchen in the back to make sandwiches. She crashed and instead of being arrested for endangering other human lives, and being so f-ing stupid it boggles the mind, she sued the company because "the manual did not say you shouldn't put the car on cruise control and leave the steering wheel". She actually won all that money PLUS a new camper. The company changed its manual so it now actually says the thing cannot drive on its own. Hail justice!