]]>What are your top 10 most-played songs currently?
In no particular order:
You Remind Me of Home - Ben Gibbard.The lyrics in this are just extraordinary. I love the poetry of it, and it's such an easy light song; perfect background music.
I Only Came For You - Wood. I thought it sounded a little Deftones, Jason thinks it has a Radiohead appeal. Sultry ballad. All longing and wistfulness.
Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel. This song is just awesome. It is the most random, poppy, lovely summer driving-to-the-library song ever. I like it most on backroads with the windows down. (PS: Everything by NMH is excellent.)The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice. I don't know. I just don't get sick of it. It's still my favorite of his powerful love songs.
Crooked Teeth - Death Cab for Cutie. This is one of the songs I had in my playlist, and every time it came on I would start singing, absently. It reminds me a bit of Dandy Warhols. More fun than anything.
Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones. What. Classic. I had to find a song for one of my characters to perform in the book, in a band, and this was perfect. When I listen to it, it makes me think of the scene, and I laugh.
Graycourt - The Love Language. This song is ridiculously pretty. I can't say enough about The Love Language in general; their music always makes me think of twilight, that change from day into night.
Electric Pink - The Promise Ring. Oh em gee. I hated this song at first. I was like, "This is the most annoying song I've ever heard." And whenever I think that about a song, I'm destined to fall in love with it and dance to it in the kitchen.
Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie. I can't pinpoint what I like about this song. It's just something about the beat, the electronic sound of it.
I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab for Cutie. Possibly the most simple, compelling, intense love song I've ever heard. It still makes me emotional.
Have you ever tracked down any of your old high school friends and fellow students?
Submitted by campsite2007.
Yes.
One time I tracked Audrey to the kitchen. And I watched her drink. And then she asked what I was doing. It was weird.
Tell us about a lesson you had to learn the hard way.
Feeling like an adult and being an adult are completely different things.
What were the main household rules when you were growing up? What are the rules in your own house now?
Brought to you by the movie Georgia Rule.
There's only one thing I can think of that I REALLY appreciated about my parent's house, and have tried to emulate here: our home was our home. My brother especially used to bring hundreds of rowdy little boys over-- and then, later, obnoxious teenagers who ate all our food and made lewd comments. My parents had a rule that if one person in the household was uncomfortable with a guest, that guest wasn't allowed over. It sounds harsh, but it made our home a real sanctuary... It went for their adult friends too. They had one friend that Michelle and I couldn't stand. He just came off as mean, petty, and creepy, and my parents would go out to dinner with him rather than have him around. It was nice to know I could could always feel comfortable with whoever was in our home. Or be totally alone, if that was the case.
I just like home to be safe, warm, secure, calming. In my house, as the mom, the main rules are to keep it clean and not fight. Easy, right? You'd think so. Heh.
How well does your name Google? Who are you up against? (Celebrities, etc.)
Submitted by Matt Blank.
I need to start updating my Vox. Seriously. The new plan is just to do QotD, and see if I can get in a habit.
I am the third Becca in Google at the moment. So, if you type in my name, I'm the third hit. I'm not really up against anything, though, except Beccary and the Becca cosmetics company (both of which beat me). Heh.
I get tagged all the time by the delightful Ali, and I always want to do them and can't figure out where to fit them in normal entries. So I decided, from now on, my Vox is just for memes and question-answering and what-kind-of-couch-am-I? quizzes. BE DULY WARNED.
To kick things off--
My Four Favorite and Least Favorite Christmas Songs, Because I Couldn't Think of A Fifth One For Either Category [from here]
Favorite
1. "Carol of the Bells" by the Trans Siberian Orchesta. This is an amazing piece of music-- it's one of the few I'd love to see performed live.
2. "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey. Everytime I hear it, it makes me think of glittery Christmas parties with champagne and that cute red dress you only dig out once a year.
3. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". I don't care who performs it; it's just perfectly sentimental without being over the top. It's the cocoa in front of the fireplace song.
4. "Merry Christmas, Baby" by Hanson. They do the most fun rendition of this song ever. Hanson OWNS guilty-pleasure pop.
Worst1. "Mary Did You Know?" by Clay Aiken. WHAT IS THIS? Seriously. I'm all for stories about Jesus and Mary (and Joseph), but these lyrics are wincible. Over-the-top cheesy.
2. "Christmas Eve In Washington" by Maura Sullivan. It's not as stupid or annoying as some songs, it's just lame. It's LAME. It's benign and blah and just goes on forever.
3. "Christmas Shoes" by Newsong. I'm sorry, Ali. I know this was in your top list, but it's kind of like a Lifetime movie put to music. Heh.
4. "The Gift". I first heard this sung by a 12-year-old, and I was like, eh, it's not a very good song, but if a 12-year-old wrote it-- I won't snark. Then I found out that Garth Brooks did it, too. For some reason, this song grates on me. And I got into a fight with Jason over it, so I have some extra negativity attached.
So, now you know; just in case your present was going to be a holiday mix CD. Hee.
I'll do another one before Christmas-- I need to breathe some life into this Vox account.
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]]>What's your method for calculating a tip?
This is a great question. For one, I never leave less than a five dollar tip; even if the meal was two. I know from being a waitress that we make virtually nothing per hour, so our tips equal our hourly rate. If a waitress only has two tables, and that's all she does for an hour, I want to make sure she's at least getting minimum wage (especially since we had to share tips with busboys and hostesses).
If I have a good server, I usually cut the bill in fourths, and leave one fourth-- 25%. I think the most I've left is 40%, and the least is 10%.
]]>What did you think you would never ever do... but did?
Submitted by Murky.Have sex. Which sounds like too much information, but seriously, when my mom had The Talk with me at 12, I was dialing convents. It sounded like the most horrible thing ever invented. Gross, uncomfortable. And it might hurt? And I might bleed? And I might HAVE A BABY? YOU ARE KIDDING ME. No, thank you. I said I was going to die a virgin.
... So, yes. Now I'm off to tuck my two kids in.
]]>What's the last thing you usually do or think about before you fall asleep?
I always wonder if someone wrote me an email.
So I get up to check my email.
Nothing.
Then I lay back down and turn on Nick at Nite.
I watch "Roseanne" or "Fresh Prince".
I wonder if maybe I have an email now.
I get up to check.
I go back to bed.
Nick at Nite.
Repeat until 3 AM.
]]>How many places have you lived in your life?
Four? Let me think-- I was born in Germany, moved to Minnesota-- then Indiana-- back to Minnesota-- then to Virginia. And in about four months we're headed to North Carolina, so that will be number five. Or LUCKY number five, as I like to say. (I don't really. I just said that for the first time.)
I'm hoping to live in at least another three states before I die, and one other country. I'm lazy about learning other languages, so it would probably be someplace in the British Isles.