I like Bollywood music.

Perhaps you've noticed the new music links way down there?

Giving my recent computer problems, I'm quite grateful for that list.


It started with this song.

Chiayya Chiayya was featured in the movie Inside Man, at the beginning, setting the tone for a kick ass movie. (That I really want to see again.)

For a long time, CC was the only Bollywood song I listened to - after all, I don't know Hindi. (Or Tamil, but the Kollywood songs came later.)

But I explored youtube, checking out the other songs from the movie - like Dil Se Re.

My love for the music grew slowly until (I believe) the spring semester, when it just exploded. I now have 71 Bollywood and Kollywood songs in my favorites. (All youtube videos - the internet rocks!)

I still like songs in English, who doesn't? But when I'm on the computer or doing chores, it's Bollywood.

With one exception that I put in the Bollywood links folder - Summer Wine by Ville Valo and Natalia Avelon with scenes from Dil Se. This person also made a video for that cheesetastic classic I'm Too Sexy featuring Shahrukh Khan. (And yes, he is sexy.)

However, I'm the only one in my family who likes it or any non-English music. My mom likes the 12 Girls Band, and that's about it.

My sister said I'm the only one in the world who likes this music, but that's not true. She can't even be happy that I'm listening to newer music! (Though I still love the Beatles.) She says I like weird music, but she likes er er er, weird music. I bought her the Juno soundtrack and she likes the vampire song. I used to send her Bollywood videos and she never gave me feedback. So I had to ask her face-to-face what she thought of them. She likes music she can understand. Fine.

As to why I like it - I don't know. I can't say why I like any music.

However, I found a great quote about foreign music this weekend from Steve Hochman at Spinner, and it fits.

Sure, not understanding something can be a barrier to enjoyment. But at times it seems it can also be an enhancement. There's something in the purity of sounds, something that changes when meaning is assigned to them, whether the real, literal meaning or the Buffalax treatment. And there is certainly a lure of the exotic, enhanced by a sense of true foreignness. Listening to some French pop recently spurred the question as to whether the same thing in English would be just kind of average, while in a breathy en Français chanteuse delivery it's sexy and romantic. Frankly, it's a lure that's not just a matter of the verbal language but musical too.

Of course, there's also a snob factor. "Oh, you listen to songs in English. How cute. I appreciate the finer things in life." But that's not my motivation, I swear! I like the music because I like it. I should also note that I don't love every song in Hindi - there's variety, they're not identical or anything.

I really wanted to put a video in this post, but I can't pick one (or even 2)!

Okay, this one rocks:



And so does this one:



And this one:




Last video, I swear. Many videos feature groups, and it would rock if someone put this one on at a party or dance and everyone started dancing instead of Thriller or something else.



One last thing about the movies themselves - I've never seen one. I haven't seen Bride & Prejudice. However, I recently ordered the movie Dil Se from Amazon, and I can't wait to see it. (Bollywood movies are also at Netflix! How cool is that?)



ETA: More thoughts on the quote from Hochman. I agree that singing the direct English translation of a foreign song would probably suck. I mean, what sounds better musically - "Yeh Ladki Hai Deewana" or "The Boy Is Crazy"? (At least I think that's what it means - it's what the subtitles say.)

But I love translations of some English songs - especially the ones from animated musicals (Disney and Dreamworks). I love the French version of "Colors of the Wind" and the Hebrew and French versions of songs from the Prince of Egypt. These are great songs to begin with, and they sound great in another language. Not just French and Hebrew - there are many different languages available for most Disney songs. (At least on youtube!)

Wickett and His Legs

Right after I took this picture, the yapping began.

I'm glad that I can see what he's doing with his legs.

If the picture was bad, there would be much head exploding and bitchiness. I already snapped at my mom for referring to the issue as "cyber" something, when the internet wasn't involved in any way. Though it's involved now.

We got a new digital camera probably long enough ago that it is no longer new. But it is to me.

I took that picture, and I was like, man, I want that on my computer and blog.

I plugged the camera in and all hell broke loose.

First, there was a box saying there may be errors, do you want to scan this device? I said no.

I had no idea what option to choose to upload the picture, since I didn't want all the pictures to upload. So I chose the view option. They opened up in Windows Media Player, and the first one was text that said this file couldn't be shown. But clicking on the arrows led me to pictures that could. Month old pictures.

So I decided to go back, hoping to find mine as it was the last.

But no.

A month old video.

It started, I tried to hit stop, and it started skipping and making a horrible noise. I manually shut the computer down.

When I turned it back on, everything was default - all documents gone! I called tech support, and no, they weren't gone. Not that it mattered, all my school papers are saved online, and most of my pictures are at photobucket.

The worst part? The only reason I called tech support?

Firefox was back to the default! All my favorites were gone! At first, that's not a bad thing - every interesting website or video is on this blog. But I had a different favorites folder filled with random blog posts and websites I wanted to check out when I had time - like now, since school is over.

So I have no idea why it happened, or why my name, password, and userpic (for the computer) were saved.

But I'm never using that camera with my computer again - I'll just upload everything to photobucket!

The camera had more than 200 files on it. TWO HUNDRED PLUS. And some were music? The hell?

So that's it. The story of the picture.


ETA: Well, it's almost 1:30 on Saturday morning. I wanted to look something up I just saw in a book. Everything is back to default - the little clock and picture and news ticker thing that goes on the right hand side... ::sigh::

The worst part of the default setting? The default background.

It keeps telling me I can't save any of this, because I'm on a temporary account, though I logged in to my account. I'm going to blame Windows Vista. It hasn't been bad at all - the only thing annoying is the pop up asking me if I want to run a program... five seconds after clicking. But it never asked me if I wanted to delete the recycling bin, which I totally didn't want to do! (I did it twice.)

Oh well.

I'll call tech support again later today.

"Operation Deserter Storm"

Combines Iceland and the Daily Show, which is totally awesome. And made me laugh my ass off.

And now, here are the videos! (Oh, and Jason Jones. Not as hot as John Oliver, but still fine. Did you see him as a greaser last night?)

I know it's a bit late, but it's still hilarious.

Travis Childers won

Who?

Him, what with the pro-life and pro-gun liberal agenda that Barack Obama endorsed.

In addition to the ads in the older post, there was another one that made my head feel like exploding.

Well, I can't find it on Youtube. Let me listen to my music.

Aneeeeeeeeways, in the ad, Childers promises many things. Like not raising social security taxes. And not privatizing social security.

So how will it be paid for? Naturally, this is not answered in the ad.

But I can guess that it will be taxes. (Not that I'm opposed to that in the slightest.)

Grades

I got all As last semester, with one A+ (in French).

This semester was better and worse. I took 5 classes last semester, and 6 er, last, in spring. (My last day was May 1st.)

I got 5 As (2 A+s in French and my science lab) and one B. The B is in the science lecture course. That class has the distinction of being the first class I ever fell asleep in.

Rhymes With Orange made me laugh.

Here:


I am loving my first summer weekend.

I'm a bit lazier than usual - no walking to the Tiger Den to get some food - but there's no guilt, no worries, no assignments.

I have a worry doll. My sister got it for me in New Mexico. (It's from Guatemala - they have World Markets in Albuquerque!)

I used it every night in school. Friday night (er, Saturday morning), I slept in my bed for the first time since coming home. I picked up the worry doll and said, "I'm worried about the pain." Then I was like, wow. That's it. So I put the worry doll on my dresser. No need for it now!

This is so ugh.

Marry Him! by Lori Gottlieb

This is a disgusting, arrogant, and depressing article.

The author's a single mom who calls herself a feminist. She waited to get married, she held for her true love, but now she's wiser and knows she should settle. Not until the end of the article does she acknowledge her son again, in a good way, I guess.

And while I have a much higher tolerance for settling than I did back then, now I have my son to consider. It’s one thing to settle for a subpar mate; it’s quite another to settle for a subpar father figure for my child. So while there’s more incentive to settle now, there’s less willingness to settle too much, because that would be a disservice to my son.

Before that, this is what she has to say about her son (and dating):

Before I got pregnant, though, I also read single-mom books such as Choosing Single Motherhood: The Thinking Woman’s Guide, whose chapter titles “Can I Afford It?” and “Dealing With the Stress” seemed like realistic antidotes to the faux-empowering man-hunting manual headings like “A Little Lingerie Can Go a Long Way.” But the book’s author, Mikki Morrissette, held out a tantalizing carrot. In her introduction, she describes having a daughter on her own; then, she writes, a few years later and five months pregnant with her son, “I met a guy I fell in love with. He and my daughter were in the delivery room when my son was born in January 2004.” Each time I read about single women having babies on their own and thriving instead of settling for Mr. Wrong and hiring a divorce lawyer, I felt all jazzed and ready to go. At the time, I truly believed, “I can have it all—a baby now, my soul mate later!”

Well … ha! Hahahaha. And ha.

Just as the relationship books fail to mention what happens after you triumphantly land a husband (you actually have to live with each other), these single-mom books fail to mention that once you have a baby alone, not only do you age about 10 years in the first 10 months, but if you don’t have time to shower, eat, urinate in a timely manner, or even leave the house except for work, where you spend every waking moment that your child is at day care, there’s very little chance that a man—much less The One—is going to knock on your door and join that party.

They also gloss over the cost of dating as a single mom: the time and money spent on online dating (because there are no single men at toddler birthday parties); the babysitter tab for all those boring blind dates; and, most frustrating, hours spent away from your beloved child. Even women who settle but end up divorced might be in a better position than those of us who became mothers on our own, because many ex-wives get both child-support payments and a free night off when the kids go to Dad’s house for a sleepover. Never-married moms don’t get the night off. At the end of the evening, we rush home to pay the babysitter, make any houseguest tiptoe around and speak in a hushed voice, then wake up at 6 a.m. at the first cries of “Mommy!”

Try bringing a guy home to that.

No one forced you to have a kid.

I don't know why she had a kid as a single mom, but taken with her obsession with marriage, marriage, marriage, even if he's "rude to the waiter" she must think she's incomplete without both.

Another thing that bothered me:

and the theme of holding out for true love (whatever that is—look at the divorce rate)

It couldn't be because women got married young to someone they thought they loved, that they settled because they didn't want to be a spinster, no, all divorced couples were fools who thought they knew what love was! I'm sure there was love at first, but marrying someone you're crazy about doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up divorced. Especially if you take your time and don't settle into a marriage too soon. I know that, and I'm only 19!

Even women who settle but end up divorced might be in a better position than those of us who became mothers on our own, because many ex-wives get both child-support payments and a free night off when the kids go to Dad’s house for a sleepover.

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS WOMAN?

Marry a rich guy, no matter how bad he is, so that you can get a divorce and still be rich. The author doesn't want a partner, a lover, she wants a wallet. She wants a body.

My parents' divorce was not hard on my sister or me. But I know plenty of people who weren't so lucky. And if there's money involved, the divorce will be even nastier. She's living in a fantasy world.

Her descriptions of marriages is even more depressing:

The couples my friend and I saw at the park that summer were enviable but not because they seemed so in love—they were enviable because the husbands played with the kids for 20 minutes so their wives could eat lunch. In practice, my married friends with kids don’t spend that much time with their husbands anyway (between work and child care), and in many cases, their biggest complaint seems to be that they never see each other. So if you rarely see your husband—but he’s a decent guy who takes out the trash and sets up the baby gear, and he provides a second income that allows you to spend time with your child instead of working 60 hours a week to support a family on your own—how much does it matter whether the guy you marry is The One?

"You're never going to find 'the One' and you don't want to die alone, do you?"

She is obsessed with not being alone - never mind that she has a child, a child that loves her, a child that will be there for her forever.


One last thing, the bit that made me want to blog about this bullshit:

And all I can say is, if you say you’re not worried, either you’re in denial or you’re lying.

What are you supposed to be worried about? Being 30 and unmarried.

I've got about 10 years and 3 months until I'll be 30. I don't want to get married. I don't want kids. But I'm too young to know any better. I don't like being around little kids, but once I have one, I'll change.

As for marriage? I definitely don't want to settle! Settling sounds like marriage for marriage's sake only, being Mrs. Somebody is all that matters. I believe that that is what my dad did (though he didn't settle when he married my mom! She is so much better than him!) and he's on his 4th divorce. He's got 5 kids and only one kinda sorta likes him. He came from a broken home, and I guess he wanted to create the perfect one. He certainly tried with us - appearances, appearances.

The author knows what's best, and she knows that within 10 years, I will be baby and marriage crazy. Because her feelings are the same as everybody else's.

Settling is depressing, it is a reality, and it is sick to push it as the only alternative to dying alone.

I am glad I don't live in Mississippi.

Why?

There's an election coming up. Between Greg Davis, the Republican, and Travis Childers, the Democrat. Both are middle-aged white guys. Childers has the heavier southern accent.

I don't watch that much network TV, but the bits I do watch are often filled with their commercial fight.

I've seen the ads on Jeopardy while away, far far away in my dorm room. I came home Wednesday, but we were too late for Jeopardy. It happens.

Yesterday, we watched Jeopardy and an hour of Judge Judy. I had no idea how much I missed my mom's "judge shows"!

So many political ads.

There are 2 ads that drive me up the wall. They're done by the National Republican something.







The second one's not an ad, it's a news story about the ad.

Why is Childers responsible for what Barack Obama does? And what does it matter if conservatives can't trust him? He's the Democrat, they wouldn't vote for him anyway!


There are other pro-Davis/anti-Childers ads out there that do not attempt to smear him by saying, "If you elect Childers, women and black men will be in power. LIBERALS! He's a liberal!"

Anyways, the ads say things like he didn't pay his taxes or he doesn't care about the elderly.

Boring, right?

Well, there are ads like that on Childers' side as well, naturally. "Greg Davis did X, Y, Z. He won't be any good in Congress. I'll be better than him! Vote for me!"

Sadly, there have been no ads tying Davis to anyone but himself.

This is the latest Travis Childers ad (to me, anyway, I first saw it yesterday):


He doesn't say what party he is in. And watching that commercial, and only that commercial, would make you think he was the Republican. He's pro-life and pro-gun. He let me down, man, I wish he was as liberal as Barack Obama. The attack ads on Democrats always make me like them more - they're painted as liberals who support gay rights and abortions for all.

Then the response ad comes out and they deny it all. "I'm conservative in everything but name! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE vote for me!"

It bothers me a whole lot. There is a perfect, one word smear for Democrats, at least here: "liberal". There is nothing similar for Republicans. Every Congressional election feels like it's between two Republicans, going by the commercials.

Does the opposite happen in "blue" states? Do Republicans fall all over themselves to swear they're liberal? I doubt it.


I'm out of things to say, so I'll leave with this infamous Republican attack ad:



You do too have too many guns!

Great Mother's Day Comic

I'm a sucker for Oedipus jokes.

The comic:




What card did I get? One from the dog. I'll just share it with them.