Tuesday Miscellanea

[vovat]

Here are just a few things that have been on my mind recently, and are too long for tweets, but too short for posts unto themselves. I had wanted to do this as Monday Miscellanea, mostly just for the alliteration, but didn't have the chance yesterday.

• Work six days in a row (six evenings in a row, actually) really kicked my ass. And now that I have a day off, I have homework to do. Admittedly, I'm not doing it at the moment, but it still kind of spoils the idea of a day off. I'm not sure why they're having me work so much now. I guess I can't complain, since I need the money, but it's hard to plan anything else around it.
  
• It's weird to me that people still smoke. I mean, I'm aware that they do, but I just don't get the appeal, especially in this day and age. But then, I guess it was largely my upbringing. My parents didn't smoke, and since I hardly ever hung around any other kids, I didn't see them smoking either. I have to wonder if, had I been raised in a more pro-smoking environment, I would have smoked a pipe. You know, because I've always kind of wanted to maintain the image of being an eccentric old man, except not actually old. But really, smoking isn't even considered cool anymore, is it? So why are there still so many new smokers? Honestly, although I haven't done either, I personally can understand hard drugs more than I can smoking.
  
• I might have mentioned this before, but I never know how to answer the "what kind of music do you listen to?" question. I think most of what I listen to is of a fairly similar type, but I can't say I know what you'd call it. I can't say I've ever really listened by genre. Some people will say they like "everything but country" or "everything but rap," but I actually like quite a bit of the former and some of the latter as well. I just don't care for the "I love Jesus and my pickup truck" variety of country music, which seems to be the only thing that makes the charts. There's a lot of crap on the pop charts, but some good songs also get in there from time to time. Contemporary country music, like Christian music (and there really isn't a whole lot of difference anymore aside from country songs mentioning beer a lot more often), is more of a lifestyle than a genre. Mind you, these people aren't the only ones who define themselves by the music they listen to, but they might well be the only ones to still do that after high school. Dismissing the entire genre, however, would presumably mean dismissing Neko Case, Carolyn Mark, and Laura Cantrell, none of whom you're likely to hear on a ClearChannel country station. Neko, at least, seems to get a fair amount of play on public radio, though.
  
• Why have I been hearing so many anecdotes as of late about men saying women can't be funny? What the hell? What century is this again? I saw this basic idea attributed to John Belushi (which means it wasn't all that recent, but still hardly in some other era) and Christopher Hitchens. I guess that, even though Hitchens is an atheist, he can still agree with fundamentalists on the inferiority of women. Personally, I have to say a sense of humor is one of the main things that I find attractive in a woman.
  
• I keep meaning to write about dreams I've had, but I never do, and then I always forget most of the details. I can say that a lot of them involve being lost, either on a highway or in a building. For some reason, buildings keep appearing in my dreams that are basically a whole bunch of things in one, with stores, classrooms, storage spaces, and even dorms. I do recall one particular dream from about a week ago in which I went with some old guy who had played the Cowardly Lion (I guess in the MGM movie, although he didn't look much like Bert Lahr, and he's obviously long dead anyway) to an exclusive restaurant up on a high floor of a building. I was in line for food and was thinking of getting something that I think contained both chicken and lobster (I'm usually not much for lobster, but I do like it, and I think it was supposed to be free). I got mad about something, though, and ran out of the room and tried to make my way back downstairs, only to find that the elevator didn't go all the way down. So I had to make my way through closets and offices, and I'm not sure I ever even did find my way out. I think there was something about my living in the building, but never having even noticed all the extra floors above the living ones. Finding out something obvious that I'd somehow missed despite the fact it was right in front of me is another recurring theme in my dreams.
  

Comments

Totally...mostly.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, three things:
Working too much and all, I know exactly how you feel. I guess what really stresses people out is the lack of some time for yourself in the chaos of everything... I hope it gets better for you.
I don't get the appeal of smoking either, actually, even though I still smoke. I feel uncomfortable about being a smoker all the time, it seems to make people hate me. Why don't I just quit? I guess it's a crutch, and a very effective one at that. I still don't get why anyone would want to start smoking nowadays, though.
About music...I just say I'm ecletic and gtfo. So maybe you wanna see how that works out for ya :P

lyinglies

Re: Totally...mostly.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting! I think I can understand how smoking can be a crutch. As someone who tends to fidget a lot, I know the appeal of just having SOMETHING to do with my hands. I think it's mostly why people still start that confuses me.

"Eclectic" would probably work, although I suppose that really could mean just about anything, couldn't it?

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

So with you on the smoking thing. I understand when people can't quit, but I don't get why anyone would START to begin with, when it is so obviously and well-documented a BAD IDEA. I've been even more bitter than usual this past month now that Diana Wynne Jones has been added to my "People I Love Who Were Killed By That Idiot Tobacco" list.

I think women are often not even given CREDIT for being funny, and there are obvious examples of incredibly funny women who give lie to this. But do you ever hear about them? No, because people are dumb.

I often have dreams in buildings like that myself. They're often like really insane malls, like the Mall of America. And I don't even spend much time in malls.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Have you ever actually been to the Mall of America? I never have, but I hear it's crazy. I remember some story about their wanting to keep a dolphin in the mall, but they weren't giving it anywhere near enough space.

[chu_hi.livejournal.com]

I usually say I like long songs, short songs, songs that are about something specific, and songs that cram in as many lyrics as possible.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

But not medium-length songs?

[chu_hi.livejournal.com]

Eh, they're okay...

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

I think I'm seeing smoking today become a distinction of the class wars. It seems like wealthier people who must smoke are opting for electronic cigarettes. The poor seem to be sticking wit the addictive cancer sticks.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I really can't say I understand what the electronic cigarettes actually are, although I guess I could always look it up on the Internet. But yeah, I kind of agree. Not that no rich people smoke, but I think there was a time when smoking was considered glamorous, and now it's generally viewed as trashy.

[odontv.livejournal.com]

Why have I been hearing so many anecdotes as of late about men saying women can't be funny? What the hell? What century is this again? I saw this basic idea attributed to John Belushi (which means it wasn't all that recent, but still hardly in some other era) and Christopher Hitchens. I guess that, even though Hitchens is an atheist, he can still agree with fundamentalists on the inferiority of women. Personally, I have to say a sense of humor is one of the main things that I find attractive in a woman.

This pisses me off beyond reason. Not just men saying women can't be funny, but I see a lot of women agreeing with that, too. I really hate that a lot of people seem to think the only way you can be a woman and a comedian is to imitate a man.

People who don't think women are funny don't know enough women.

Atheist can still be asshats, too. It always disappoints me when it happens because it gives the rest of us a bad name, but you don't need to believe in god to be stupid.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the women in comedy thing is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since people don't want to give female comedians a chance, there aren't so many of them. Personally, I've never noticed that female comedians are any worse than the men, on average.

You don't have to believe in God to be stupid, but it does seem like misogyny is often fueled by religious conservatism. Obviously not always, though.