Sweet Digression

Every time I text my friend around 11:00, she tells me to make a wish at 11:11. I try to avoid paying any attention to this, because I never really believed in wishing on things. If you want something to happen, you make it happen. If it’s not something you control, it’s nothing 11:11 can either.

I tend to cheat on wishes anyway. I usually just wish that ‘all my wishes would come true’ or ‘I’d always be happy’ - no big deal. Or that my favorite entertainment wouldn’t get too mainstream or something like that. I try to stay away from very specific wishes for a number of reasons (this is in the unlikely case that wishes actually come true, of course). When I was younger I would watch Fairly Odd Parents, and witness all of Timmy’s wishes go horribly wrong. Simple wishes. Wishes for items, parental attention, grades, school, everything. They all went horribly wrong. It’s been drilled into me that wishes go wrong. Even my favorite movie, The Tenth Kingdom, plays on the importance of carefully worded wishes.

You’re probably reading this and wondering why I freak out so much about something I don’t even believe in. In a way, they’re not just wishes. They represent every action I make, and how everything that seems great could have horrible side effects. To be specific on goals, to realize that great things come at a price. But mostly, they play into my paranoia that if there are some people who control wishes, they’re out to get me and will screw up my life with my own wishes.

This feels like a ridiculous entry, but how about you? Do you believe in 11:11 wishes? Or any wishes? If so, are you paranoid about being specific? Do you cheat on your wishes?

I’ve always hated running. Sixth and seventh grade, I felt the need to do some kind of exercise (I was also swimming every day, so I consider myself pretty insane at that age) and signed up for cross country. Our middle school’s version of ‘cross’ country’ was to run about a mile and a half each day. Sometimes less. At the time, I couldn’t even keep up with that. I didn’t really ‘quit’ cross country - I just never signed up again after seventh grade.

After volleyball tryouts, I completely gave up on sports. After getting over the whole ‘I can’t believe I didn’t make it, I’m so depressed, I’m such a failure, I wish I could just disappear’ feeling, I just began to hold a grudge against school sports (I’m glad I didn’t make volleyball anyway, the coach makes the whole team cry every day).

Eventually, my mum decided I had to start doing something. I managed to put off sports for another season (because of debate, mock trial and the fact that I managed to stay slim enough without exercise). When my other activities ended, however, I had no choice. Refusing to go through torturous tryouts again, I signed up for track.

I’ve been a member of my school’s huge track team (100+ people) for a week now. First day was easy, all we did was stretch for an hour. Second day, we ran 1.5 miles, and then some laps (so about 2 miles total). I was a mess, I couldn’t even breath when we were done. Third day, we did sixteen short laps up these hills. If I thought day 2 was bad, day 3 was much worse. Day 4, we ran the forest (1.2 miles, maybe) for a warm up. Realizing I was going to have to suck it up, I ran to the front of the group and ran the whole thing. It suddenly wasn’t that bad. We then did five sets of bleachers (600 steps) - it wasn’t that bad. I finally found something good in sports: they teach you to shut up and suck it up. Which I guess you sometimes have to do (though, outside of track, I probably never will).

Day 5 sucked, just because they told us to run two miles straight. I ran one then sat down.

Oh! There is an obvious bright side though: my mum agreed to buy me an iPod touch if I did track (for track purposes), so now I have an iPod touch. It is addictive. I seriously need more music though.

How about you? What is your view on running/school sports?

I’ve been going on about this forever on twitter, and I decided to just let all of my frustrations out here once and for all.

Four years ago, I got my iPod. At the time, it was somewhat cutting edge (being the first generation video). I wanted it, needed it, begged for it, paid for some of it, got it.

My iPod and I have gone through a lot. We’ve gone through my sixth grade music stage (when anything catchy was instantly purchased), my sixth grade TV show phase (when I felt obliged to purchase every episode of ‘Kyle XY’ and ‘Three Moons Over Milford’). My iPod was there for me when I began to branch out and listen to music away from the radio. My iPod even put up with my youtube downloading phase, for when I started to hate purchasing iTunes gift cards. My iPod was there when I starting feeling bad about this but, still not wanting to buy from iTunes, began to buy physical CDs from the local music shop. My iPod has my name engraved on the back. My iPod has gone through numerous pairs of headphones. Up until this year, my iPod was my friend.

Then this year, my iPod betrayed me. Lately it’s just like, ‘I don’t like this song, I refuse to play it’. (Granted, this iPod has put up with my for four years. I don’t know how long that is in iPod years, or how long iPods tend to last, but it sounds like a while). I’ve tried staying faithful to my iPod. When the iTouch first came out, I ignored my want for it. The nano chromatic had me going crazy, but I kept my iPod. When my friends began to get the iTouch, i though I needed it too. But on to the problem.

I start track next week, so I decided to update and charge my iPod in preparation. After not letting me upload videos (even though they were specifically in iPod format), I spent an hour re-converting the videos until they finally uploaded. I brought my iPod to school that day, and tried listening to it after I finished my work. It let out an insanely high pitched beeping noise, shocking everyone within a three meter radius. I did the cool reset thing and tried again. It seemed to be working perfectly, until I pressed pause. The song paused, but wouldn’t start again when I pressed play. I thought ‘okay, whatever, cool reset thingy to the rescue!’. So I reset it in order to de-freeze it. It then had some problems with playing specific playlists.

So, now more than ever, I definitely need a job. Because I really want a new iPod. Which iPod is the best buy?

The other day, I was on AmIrite.com. It’s one of my favorite websites to spend the time going through, because it’s nowhere near as dull as MLIA or FML are lately. One person said something to the extent of, ‘People who say music is their life but have never played an instrument are annoying, amirite?’, and almost everyone agreed. I moved my cursor over to click ‘you’re right!’ before thinking for a moment.

Throughout my lifetime (that of an average high school student), I’ve played piano, recorder and guitar. I’ve only truly loved guitar, but my practicing skills are awful, so I’ve started/stopped/started about three times. Same with piano. Recorder wasn’t really an instrument, just a gateway into playing others.

This experience has left me with basic knowledge of notes on guitar, as well as chords (I can also read tabs and attempt finger picking, as well as play chords by ear, the strumming pattern is the problem). It’s also left me with a very basic, easily forgotten knowledge of piano.

But I listen to music. I love music. I’ve been to two concerts in the past month (TnS and SSPU/Muse yesterday ¹), I have a wide variety of music interests (ranging from 80’s pop to rock to indie and everything). I take a Music History course and am beginning to understand how music has evolved through the centuries. I’m love buying CDs and organizing my iTunes, I try to find new music constantly.

Let’s say I still went to concerts, still loved music, but had never played an instrument (my playing is very limited as it is, so this isn’t a stretch). Obviously I wouldn’t go as far as to say that ‘music is my life’, but would that really make my musical interest any less important? What if I just couldn’t focus on making the music, was too impatient (this somewhat applies, since I could never write a song), or just lacked talent?

How about you guys? Do you play an instrument/have played an instrument? Do you think playing one is necessary to full enjoy music and be a fan?

(I hope this entry makes sense)

¹ A very good show, flashy and awesome and lots of talent from both bands. But the TnS one is still my favorite of the three concerts I’ve been to.