What I listen to (a lot)

So I have a last.fm account. Basically, it tracks everything you listen to, whether that be via iTunes or Spotify or whatever other music streaming you use. I always find it interesting to look at my stats because it keeps track of what your most songs/artists are over certain periods of time. It's really cool to see the listening trends you go through, and I definitely have them.

The artist I've listened to the most during the:

• Last seven days: Walk Off The Earth - 32 times
• Last month: Julia Nunes - 82 times
• Last three months: Imagine Dragons - 306 times
• Last six months: Julia Nunes - 334 times
• Last twelve months: Noah And The Whale - 414 times
• All time: Mae - 2704 times

The song I've listened to the most during the:

• Last seven days: Walk Off The Earth, Little Boxes - 16 times
• Last month: Foster The People, Waste - 18 times
• Last three months: Imagine Dragons, On Top Of The World - 68 times
• Last six months: Imagine Dragons, On Top Of The World - 68 times
• Last twelve months: Imagine Dragons, On Top Of The World - 68 times
• All time: Ben Folds, The Luckiest - 415 times

It's good times in my music library as you can tell. You can tell I've definitely been in a trend of Imagine Dragons and Julia Nunes, which is entirely accurate. And that Noah and the Whale has become an integral part of my life. I thank my friend Jordan for that. He got me into them even though he was all the way in Scotland. (And will be for only about 2 more weeks! Insanity.)

Noah And The Whale's song Blue Skies just came on. It sure is a great one. I mean, it's sad and simultaneously happy.

Well, I'm going to do some homework now. And then I'll play ukulele because I haven't done that yet and I cannot resist.

Last YouTube video I watched: Dave Ramsey Changed My Life

Zumba, spring music & Sunday recap

I had my first class of spring semester this morning at 9:05, and let me tell you, it is awesome. Zumba is pretty cool, I must say. Becca and I have the class together which makes it even more fun. I've come to realize there is a reason I play soccer and tennis and racquetball and basically any other sport: I'm not coordinated when it comes to dancing. While Zumba isn't all dancing, that's the easiest way to explain it. You combine a bunch of international music and things like tango, chacha, samba and so forth and then you add in a little jumping around and fist pumping and that's Zumba. It's still quite fun despite by poor dancing coordination and is a fantastic workout.

Now here's something I need to think (re. write) out loud (re. quietly) about. I need spring music. I don't necessarily mean music that reminds me of spring but more like a soundtrack for spring semester. Every semester I seem to have one. The last few I've made it a legit playlist that is called "winter 2012" or whatnot. I did start creating a list of music for Jordan and I to listen to once he gets back from Scotland since I know that's probably the thing he's missed the most. That's kind of a spring playlist I suppose but mostly it's just filled with music I listen to all the time now that he might have missed out on. Some of it is stuff I know we both already listened to. I'm looking for a new band. Or at least a band I already listen to that has a new album out. Over the last few days I've been listening to the newest Jason Mraz album, Love Is A Four Letter Word. It's enjoyable, but I need a variety to make it a soundtrack. I figure it's time to do some YouTube research and find some new artists there. ShayCarl recently expounded on his love for Walk Off The Earth, so maybe I'll give them a listen. They're the band that did the Goyte cover on guitar that is insanely awesome.

And now for what happened Sunday! I spent all day w/ Becca and her family. Her brother graduated this past week and her sister who is married w/ 2 kids was in town; the most recent child of hers is only 6 weeks old. We went to church with all of them and took up, like, three rows. We had brunch at her sister's in-laws' house and it was delish. There were pancakes, ham, bacon, sausages, fresh fruit, whipped cream, donuts, muffins and more. I am quite fond of brunch I've decided, though I'm mostly just fond of breakfast food at any time of the day. After we ate we just hung out there for a while and eventually went to watch the movie We Bought A Zoo, which was not too bad. I already was pretty critical of movies and then last semester I met Hank who just made things worse since he's quite critical of movies as well. I don't want to say I expected it to be worse but maybe I did. It was incredibly predictable, though what can you really expect from that type of kids movie? I will say it was much funnier than I expected. After the movie we took a little drive over by the Provo Airport and went birding, aka bird watching. This was strangely fun, though I suspect it was mostly from Becca and her brother hanging out the window and sunroof while driving down a rocky dirt road. My favorite part was seeing a beaver! Forget the birds; beavers are where it's at. Being around Utah Lake also made me want to go kayaking really bad. A lot of the area reminded me of the wetlands/marshlands type stuff there is back home, except in the background there were mountains and not tons of trees. Then after that we just had a nice little dinner. It was a great day overall.

I'm about 100 pages into the Word Freak book and Scrabble has just gotten even more awesome. I'm going to memorize all the words that start with Q that don't need a U, and I might also take on all the two letter words because there aren't that many of them either. This book basically just makes me want to learn how to play Scrabble super hardcore well but that would mean literally doing nothing else but studying words and learning how to anagram like nobody's business. Anagramming is a thing I want to learn how to do well, though. 

My afternoon will be spent reading more and then playing ukulele as well. It's perfect ukulele weather, I've decided. Hopefully I can learn some Julia Nunes songs this week.

Last YouTube video I watched: Italian Chicken Burger Recipe

Longboarding high

I went out on my board for the first time in months. I was gone maybe half an hour, probably a little less. It's a beautiful day, currently 59 F. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, so I will most definitely be going out then as well.

You know how runners rave about how good it feels and the whole runner's high? Yeah, longboarding definitely gives me that. I've never had a runner's high, nor do I ever really want to, but if it feels half as good as a longboarding high does that'd still be pretty good. How I longboard is sometimes how I wish I felt running. My mind becomes so clear. I hardly think about anything, even when I'm trying to work things out. I get distracted to the point of thinking about nothing. I often like going out on my longboard to figure things out a little, but the actual figuring doesn't last long.

I distinctly remember the last time I went out longboarding before it got too cold. It was a night late in October. I'd gone on a date the night before, a first date, and had a really great time. No one was really around that night and I had a lot on my mind so I took out my board. It was probably around 9, maybe even later. Riding at night is definitely better than riding in the middle of the day but not quite as good as riding when the sun is beginning to set, like it was when I went today. My figuring out of the whole date situation and other things was weighing heavily on my mind but once I got out on a smooth road, nothing else mattered. The feeling your feet and legs get longboarding is crazy. I love it. I get so relaxed on my board. Eventually I did figure out how I really felt, but it took awhile. If I have the intention of going out on my longboard to think, I usually spend a lot more time out.

One thing I wish I had was my own soundtrack while longboarding. I have running playlists, or for tennis, or for walking home from school, or just really chill things. But I don't have a longboarding one. I don't often bring my iPod w/ me since a) I want to be aware of traffic, b) headphones can get annoying and c) I love the sound of my wheels on the asphalt. Said playlist would definitely include songs off the new Coldplay album Mylo Xyloto, all the songs from Imagine Dragons' new EP Continued Silence, and I can see it having a couple Weezer songs.

So try longboarding if you like skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding or any of that stuff. Even if you don't like those things, you should still try longboarding. It's magical.

Last YouTube video I watched: Meeting Charles Barkley

Thai deliciousness & musicality

Tonight my friend Trent, who is Thai, made authentic Thai food for some friends and myself. You may remember me mentioning my love of such food after Hank introduced me to it last October. I haven't had it since then but tonight did not disappoint. There is something so fantastic about a finely made curry. Just having dinner made for you is lovely, and not something that happens very often at college. It's nice having friends who cook ethnic foods. It's nice having a college family of sorts.

I could go on for ages about this food but I've also been inspired to talk about musical tastes and how crucial they are to relationships, both between friends and romantic interests.

While I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, I usually try to narrow it down for people. At the very least, I tell them I'll listen to basically anything but rap or country. Unless it's George Watsky; I like when he raps. But I digress . . . For the sake of many conversations I limit myself to categories like indie-folk or piano or jazz, when really the music I listen to is all of those things combined at times. A lot of the time my descriptions of music include specific instruments. These days it's often banjo, ukulele; and it's always included piano. Beyond the chill folk type music I love, I'm also kind of into electronic/alternative stuff, like Passion Pit. And then there is a'capella, which is unlike anything else and more fantastic than most music.

I've been thinking about music a lot as the time draws near that Jordan, who is basically my musical soulmate, returns from Scotland. I'm pretty sure the only thing regarding music Jordan and I have disagreed on is that I kind of like Iron and Wine's version of Such Great Heights almost more than I like The Postal Service's.

Music does so much to change relationships of all sorts. You can obviously be friends w/ people who have different musical tastes. I sure do. But I must acknowledge the fact that my perceptions of people and my respect for them can be lowered exponentially upon finding out their musical tastes are, well, different than mine. Yes, I do, at times, exhibit the behaviors of music snobs. I try to avoid it as much as possible, but I cannot always help myself. It's especially disappointing when I find myself attracted to a boy who seems incredibly wonderful and then I find out what he listens to and it becomes difficult to sustain the previous level of attraction. These things can be worked through, usually by focusing on the music you both happen to like, but life is just easier when you share the same musical loves. The music people like either heightens my respect for them or causes it to drop. There is no space for plateaus in my world of music. It's a weird concept, that my thoughts on someone could change so drastically because of something like music. I sometimes wish it wasn't that way, that I wouldn't use music as such a guide, but then I realize some people probably think my music is crap and are probably doing the same thing to me. Yet I don't care that they do.

At times I find myself feeling very hipster-ish because of my affinity for music basically no one else listens to. I don't do it on purpose. I just happen to spend a lot of time on YouTube where there happen to be an incredible number of talented musicians. This is not to say I don't listen to mainstream music, because I do, though it usually is limited to Coldplay. (I love Coldplay terribly and will never not, no matter what people say about them.) I made a playlist for a dance party Lorraine and I wanted to have. More than half the artists on that playlist I discovered through YouTube and no one would have heard of. It doesn't help that over Christmas break I seemed to have become some weird type of hipster/nerd/athlete combo.

For a taste of what I listen to on a general basis, I suggest reading my 25 songs of 2011 post. It is not comprehensive by any means, but it might give you an idea of what I enjoy. For example, it includes no big band or jazz music, which I was practically raised on, so just know I love things of that sort. For a truly comprehensive look at the music I love, I suggest examining my last.fm profile. That shows basically everything I've listened to since May 2007. (The song count is probably off since I forget to scrobble my iPod all the time but the most listened to artists is very accurate.)

Last YouTube video I watched: 4AM Monday (I also love running to this song.)