imfromohio:

Thanks to Mia for planting this idea.  

I am a super sentimental gal.  If you ever gave me a card, post-it, letter, picture, poster…basically, anything, I treasure it and remember the day you gave it to me and what I was wearing and what you were wearing, so…yeah.  It’s hard for me to throw things away.  Don’t judge me.

I drove home for Thanksgiving this year and found some ripped CDs in one of those visor CD holders in the trunk.  I remember transferring that from the trunk of my old car to the trunk of my new car in 2010.  And I didn’t actually listen to those CDs in my old car since that car didn’t have a CD player.  Yes, this collection of CDs had been in the trunk since 2004, probably last used in 2003.

Ah, 2003.  Such a bad, bad year for me.  The worst, actually.  Starting in the fall of that year, I began to make my sloooow climb up out of the crap that was that year.  Now that I’m almost 10 years on the other side of that, I was kind of delighted to find those CDs - to see where my head was.  So, without further ado, I present “Mixed Tape #40”…

1.  Backstreet Boys - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

• This is from their first CD and, for whatever reason, I got it from the library.  I probably thought that my love for *NSYNC was well established enough that I wouldn’t feel too traitorous exploring what I ignored.

2.  The Black Eyed Peas - Where Is the Love? [with Justin Timberlake]

• The re-emergence of BEP; the beginning of the Fergie years.  Nice trick they pulled on me with this song.  God, I hate them so much now.

3.  Weezer - Island In the Sun

• Pretty sure that Jewelee Peters turned me on to this song.  I liked that no matter how jolly the lyrics were, it still sounded melancholy.

4.  Paul Oakenfold - Starry Eyed Surprise [with Shifty Shellshock]

• I’d first heard of Paul Oakenfold from the Justin & Christina EP that was released that year.  He did a remix of “Rock Your Body” that I really liked.  So I think I heard this song on a Coke commercial and liked it a lot; it sounded like a skating rink song.

5.  Snoop Dogg - Beautiful

• Right in the middle of my obsession with any and everything that The Neptunes produced.  However, this was my least favorite of the stuff that came out that year.

6.  Jay-Z - Excuse Me Miss

• I drove a sports car and I loved leaning back in it, playing this song…while I drove to work at Applebee’s.  Yuck.

7.  Pharrell - Frontin’

• LOVED this song.  I loved that Pharrell absolutely cannot sing, but it so didn’t matter; this song is out of control charming.

8.  Hieroglyphics - You Never Knew

• I was on some message board and someone was running down a list of must hear hip-hop songs - this was one of them, so I decided to check it out.

9.  Souls of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity

• Again, on the list.  I thought this was, like, the sickest melody ever.  It kind of reminded me of “They Reminisce Over You” - there’s some kind of lingering sadness under that.

10.  The Black Eyes Peas - Joints & Jams

• The REAL Black Eyed Peas!  Also, the song after which my iPod is named.

11.  The Gap Band - Outstanding

• I closely associate this song with summertime, skating rinks and just good times.  The melody line is fairly simple until Charlie Wilson gets to that “You blow my mind” part.  He does it a couple of different ways to make it interesting.

12.  Javier - Crazy

• Oh, yeah.  Season 1 winner of “The Voice” on my 2003 mixed CD!  I first heard this song on BET (Whaaat?  Back when I actually watched it/knew what channel it was on).  It caught my attention because I think that they reworked the intro/outro to the song so that he was playing an acoustic guitar, unaccompanied.  That was unheard of back then.

14.  Black Men United - U Will Know

• I have no idea why I put this on here.  I had the Jason’s Lyric soundtrack, so it’s not like I was lacking.  However, I adore this song.  First of all, Tevin Campbell opens the song.  Can’t go wrong with that.  I also get this swell of pride every time I hear all of those men singing “You will know.”

15.  Ahmad - That’s How It Is

• On a Jason’s Lyric kick, apparently.  Again, no idea why this was on here.  I was probably just trying to fill up space at this point.

16.  Nappy Roots - Roun’ The Globe

• I don’t know, man.  I don’t think that I loved this song then.  I sure don’t now.

17.  Wayne Wonder - No Letting Go

• See above

18.  Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - Tha Crossroads

• I think, at this point, I was getting songs that I always liked but never owned.

19.  Mary J. Blige - Beautiful

• I had the remix with Black Star.  I LOVED the remix with Black Star.  Like, more than the original.  My love for the remix made me ignore the original for the longest.  Then I caught the original and was struck by how pretty it was.

I think…I think I can let this one go, now.

I’ve noticed an interesting trend in my Facebook friends recently: everyone’s a philosopher!  Whether they’ve taken to phrasing their life discoveries in their own way, using those word graphics to convey some kind of ironic observation or just employing the tried and true method of quoting a more notable figure than themselves, people close to me are using social media to transcend the mundane.  And that’s awesome.  And yet, it’s also a little bit dangerous.

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Concert review, by me!

ilovecharts:

iOS 6 to make the 4S a lot better than the 4

All of the songs have these ridiculous bass lines.

Even the fake songs!

I’ve got some irons in the fire. Well, really, one massive iron that I pray will both retain its relative massosity (yes, I just made that up) and break off some of its mass to form two huge additonal irons. Like a planet named Possibilities, with its two moons: Opportunity and Blessings (Why yes, I am taking a geology class. How did you know?) There’s one tiny problem, though: I’m getting impatient. And it’s the kind of impatientness that stems from one part jealousy and two parts anticipation. That’s the worst kind of impatience that I’ve known, because it’s an almost impossible struggle to be happy for and encouraging to people who are ready to yank their irons out, when you have one that kind of mocks you when you steal a glance at it, hoping that it might be ready earlier than promised. What’s that you say? Irons don’t talk? Quiet! You’re messing up my narrative. Anyway, it’s selfish and petty and it’s everything I strive not to be, but there it’s still there.

Anticipation…you wouldn’t think that would be a bad thing, right? However, I’m finding that since I’m so focused on the upcoming stage in my life, I’m losing all appreciation for what’s going on right now. Today’s prayer is that God quiets my overstimulated heart so that I can revel in the stillness while I have it. Anyone feeling similar?

I…this has to be my child. Future child, hear me: you will wear this!

(via childrenwithswag)

How clarity is defined:

clarity |ˈklaritē|

noun

the quality of being clear, in particular

• the quality of coherence and intelligibility 

• the quality of being easy to see or hear

• the quality of being certain or definite

• the quality of transparency or purity

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