Finals Study Music (LAST SEMESTER EVER EDITION)

First you're ready to go although something is missing and someone behind you is chewing loudly... you know you gotta have some dubstep/techno, to drown out the noise around you and to keep you awake on the late night library sessions

Nero - Promises

(and of course the totalitarian dystopian Orwellian video to match goes well with what we all feel about higher education during finals week)

mix it with some folksy/indie/hipster stuff to remind you how it's never to late to say "scew it" and run off to the west-coast and become a hippie...

The Lumineers - Ho Hey

Or run away to England:

Bombay Bicycle Club - Shuffle

until you remember those six-figure student loans.  So you want to go back to when life was simple and your parents did everything for you:

Lushlife - Teenage Dream

Then like any hopeless romantic you know it's time for something mildly epic love story to let you know you can always find love... once this paper is over.

Gossling - Wild Love

(holler at the red string, LAP classmates, you know where it's at)

Next thing you know you're listening to former Disney Channel star Selena Gomez and dancing at your carrel thinking

Selena Gomez & the Scene - Hit the Lights

And then you start to get a little crazy and find something like this:

Grimes - Oblivion

If you're me you think "I'm less than 6 months older than her, and I also have dyed my hair interesting colors yet she's a Canadian music star performing at SXSW and I'm about to finish law school, she's employed and I'm not."

To cheer yourself up from looming unemployment and studying for the bar you find this little gem:

Cosmo Jarvis - Gay Pirates

Even though if you listen to the lyrics the song is kind-of depressing, there are awesome lyrics like: "It's you my love, you're my land ahoy, yeah you're my boy" and I dare someone to listen to this without calling "Yo Ho Sebastian" out at least once!

And then this:

Luke Million - Arnold

After someone shushes you for laughing out loud in the library, you get to work...

Then pretty soon you decide you need to have a song for a montage to while browsing the internet, oops I mean studying your outline, which leads you to some 80s jams.

The Who - Baba O'Riley

Thinking about John Hughes passing makes you think existential thoughts and become sad so you listen to something that reminds you summer is coming, but also that you won't live forever

David's Lyre - Heartbeat 

For some reason, that does the trick and now you're refreshed and ready to work... only it's two hours later.  At least you have tomorrow to study-- oh wait, tomorrow's the final?
... and you haven't finished outlining cause you've been reading my blog?
...well there's always this classic to fall back on in times of need:

oh your final is on Virginia Procedure... whoops!
At least you've got some fun new music?

If you've enjoyed the small selection here, I'm always wanting to share music I love with people! Comment, e-mail or message me somehow & I'll give you some more recommendations!

Free Write Every Day: Day #4

Friday February 24 11:00pm

So I traveled home today.  Like most times that I drive home in the middle of the day, it just seemed to highlight how I can be two totally different people at once.  It feels like the last 24 hours were really two completely separate days and when you think about it, it is actually sort of mind boggling how in todays world in less than 2 hours I can be 100 miles away.  This never ceases to amaze me when travelling by plane.  


For instance, this past fall I took a trip to Las Vegas to play in the national championship tournament for an adult kickball league (a story in itself how my sister roped me into this sport in the first place).  I was in Las Vegas for less than 48 hours and by the time I got back it, the journey and the time spent almost seemed as if they belonged to someone else.  As if they were not mine to own, that I couldn’t have travelled that far and returned in such a short time.

An even better example occured last summer when my grandfather turned 85.  My grandmother had planned a surprise party for his birthday.  Bizers and Robinsons made the trek to Huntsville Alabame from Texas, Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia.  Unfortunately the main party (and my grandfather’s birthday) fell on Saturday May 6, the day after finals. Even more unfortunate was the actual surprise was set to take place May 5, a day I needed to devote to my last final exam.

I found a ticket where I could leave Saturday mid-morning from Richmond for Huntsville, and then leave to go back to Richmond the following day in the early afternoon.  In order to afford the ticket I had to incur a layover in Charlotte, N.C. a city towards which I have a semi-reasonable wrath due to interactions and games with their Varsity women’s soccer team (grrr).

Unfortunately, due to some ridiculous layovers and delays, I got to the party and it was great to see the whole family.  I was definitely bummed to miss a bart of the whole cleebration but I was even more bummed when the airline cancelled my initial flight, which then meant I had a longer layover.  I once did the math and I think I ended up travleing for $18+/hours for a 16 hour trip.  however, I am so glad I got to see my grandpa’s happiness to be surrounded by so many people that love him.

Free Write Every Day: Day #3 (really #7, Out of Order)

So on Thursday, February 23 I used my "free day of writing."  It was unplanned but I had a lot of work due by Friday morning and the next thing I knew, midnight had passed and seeing how I do not possess a time machine, I did not have a free-write that day.

I will use this space as a brief reflection on the time spent writing (which is weird because there are three more entries for you to read... even though I'm finished):

I guess for me, writing holds that place in my life that physical fitness or exercise holds for other people.  I think about it, I think about how I will be better for it, I think that I will not regret doing it, but inevitably most of the time I only ever think about what I want to write.  Since I am in the gym a lot (teaching yoga, teaching a core-training class, refereeing IMs or doing a personal workout) I hear a lot of "exercise talk."  You know, the little phrases people are always telling themselves to motivate them to get to the gym or to actually push themselves.  Stuff like: "you never regret a workout, you only regret not working out", or "everyday you're either getting better or worse" (I guess I actually see more of these on pinterest and have even pinned a few myself "There's no easy way to get in shape"

Can I please apply this motivation to writing/schoolwork in general?!?

I know there are times I enjoy writing, I know I have been proud of my schoolwork in the past, I know I have busted my butt to finish assignments and enjoyed it, I just don't know where that is now.  Sometimes I feel like there's so much on my plate, I let things slide because I just cannot imagine how to get everything done so I give up on one thing, but that's not how I should be approaching learning.  I have no idea how I will make it through Bar Prep this summer (that's a different post entirely unto itself)...

20+ years of formal education and I know what I should be doing, I just don't know how to get myself to do it...