Caesar's Bath meme

[petronia]

I said I liked this one so nyahnyah tagged me for it. XD It's a good exercise for such a one as me.

Said meme takes its name from Mel Brooks' A History of the World (Part I), and, upon receiving it, one is supposed to list five things that one's circle of friends or peer group is wild about, but that one can't really understand the fuss over. Quoth Caesar, "Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice."

1) iPods. Which is why I don't have one, which sucks because I'm too lazy to research and purchase an alternative. I've tried iTunes, I've mucked around with other people's iPods, and... exactly as above. Nice but not thrilling. Original flavour iPod is too heavy (my flash mp3 player is small and light enough to dangle on a strap from my wrist, and I bought it for that specific reason), the brushed-chrome finish on the Mini makes me wince because I know I'd scratch it up within thirty minutes, and iTunes is... huge and controlling. I'm a big fan of lightweight; I used Winamp v2 until my music collection hit 50GB and I could no longer remember the name/artist of each individual track and what sub-sub-genre I'd stashed it under.

2) Death Cab For Cutie. Probably the entire genre that includes Death Cab *tries to come up with band names, fails due to utter boredom*. I don't hate this stuff the way I hate the more wail-y and bombastic woe-is-my-skinny-whiteboi-life emo rock, I don't exactly think it's lame the same way I (am encouraged by my self-identified "peer group" to) think of Bright Eyes as lame, in fact I have a fair fondness for Ben Gibbard's voice. But for all that the Postal Service is a bit too blippy-perky for me the IDM touch is sorely needed; gives the music backbone. Otherwise it just doesn't register to my ears.

Quote dance-punk unquote is nice-but-not-thrilling as well. ...Actually, so much of "indie" rock is - but if I start on this vein I'll still be here two hours later going, "Acid house? I don't really feel it. Trip-hop yes, deep house sure, but acid... eh."

Actually, wait, one more. Tori Amos. I had a snarky paragraph about this one poster on some music blog/comm or other who wrote that Sarah McLachlan was "the dippy girl-next-door who did Wiccan crafts" but Tori was "dangerous and crazy and would really put a curse on you" and thus evinced more psychological depth or something, but then I deleted it because all the Tori fans I know personally just, y'know, dig her music. For that matter I quite like a number of her songs but it's just not the sort of thing that inspires my rabid devotion. Maybe my "redheaded pop goddess with iconoclastic/intense/unbalanced persona" slot is taken up by Shirley Manson already.

3) Go. The game. I can't see the appeal... no, I lie. I suppose I can see the appeal. However I don't like playing skill-based games unless I'm skilled enough at them that I'm not just floundering about, but one can't really develop skill at something like go unless one puts in the time, and I can't be arsed to put in the time. After about an hour or so a little alarm goes off in the back of my mind buzzing "You've spent the last hour on a board game," and it keeps buzzing until I stop and go do something more "productive" instead. What I don't get is why other people don't seem to have this alarm. I was dating this guy who started playing go because of HnG and it took over his life and ability to hold a conversation and... I dunno. My hang-up, my loss, probably.

Ironically I'm kind of fascinated by computer go algorithms, but that's due to my suspicion that any AI who wants to take over the earth first needs to learn how to play go well.

4) Boybands. XD Gets its own section because it's not actually a strict music thing. I've talked about this at length, but let's just say that if the societal construct of sexual orientation were based purely on one's reaction toward manufactured pop celebrity, I would be a huge dyke. Also, boyband RPS. I was talking with some people who confessed to me that they were active in popslash fandom, reading and writing, despite the fact that they did not actually find any single member of NSYNC physically attractive. I was like, "........Uh whuh?"

5) Chocolate. Nice. Would eat it if it were good quality and placed in front of me. But not thrilling. *grins*

EDIT -- Oh, wait, tagging yes. Uhm, just do it if it seems fun to you, I wish to maximize branching for this one. XD

Comments

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

...and now I know of two females who are not slaves to chocolate. *boggles* You *do* know choco-mania is only slightly less defining a sign of femininity than having a *womb*?!

That said, this looks like a fun meme. *grins*

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do. *g* Some people would claim Tori Amos fandom is the third most defining sign.

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

...and there goes *my* girl cred, then. I doubt if I've ever actually heard any Tori Amos.

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

*waves hand* Actually, that's how I feel about chocolate also! I don't hate it or anything, but I usually avoid it unless it's good quality and I really feel like chocolate.

I've never understood the girl + choco = luv thing, really! But I get my girly kicks from collecting tons of cute sneakers and boots instead, so.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

This is what I get for procrastinating. iPods were on my list, and now it'll look like I copied you. I'm probably wearing the same Gap shirt as you also. Fine I'm so changing mine. (From my perspective it's a case of priorities: I like my iPod but would miss my car or my refrigerator much more if it stopped working.)

With you on the Tori tepidness.

Okay, I know what's replacing iPods. Neil Gaiman.

[motorbike.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAA YOU SPEAK BLASPHEMY.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Hehehe.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I know I was in shock when you revealed that you were underwhelmed by chocolate. XD

Huh? They don't think the boys are hot and they want to read RPS about them? Buh? (I guess then this could be...cause they like the music? I suppose?)

Count me in as another who is too damn lazy to play board games.

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

Huh? They don't think the boys are hot and they want to read RPS about them? Buh? (I guess then this could be...cause they like the music? I suppose?)

More like, good writing is good writing? :D

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I guess... but then you would have to actually pay attention to the bands. I suppose it's the same as reading fanfiction for series you don't like that much.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

No, it is not because they like the music. *g* I think it's because the quality standard in popslash is high. Just... I dunno, if I were going to read something purely for literary quality and not hawtness I'd do me some Nabokov. XD But that's just me.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I mean, not that Nabokov isn't all about the hott underage action or anything.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Well... popslash is free, and you need to go to the library to get Nabokov. I'm now wondering why it has such a litsnob appeal. I never thought that a boyband fanbase would be particularly literate.

[tongari.livejournal.com]

... then again, the fanbase are not actually fans of the boyband's looks or of its music? :D

[sjdr.livejournal.com]

They're fans of the setup, from what I can tell. It's the discrete unit and mechanics of boy-band-ness that they are interested in, not the boys in the band themselves.

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

but who can resist it! when a band has 3 members, but one looks useless in junction with the other two, DOES IT STING? DOES IT HURT WHERE IT MATTERS? and of course, the one aspect of foreign boybands I immediately latched onto despite all forgivings: IF THEY FORM WHEN THEY ARE 15 AND LIVE TOGETHER WHEN THEY ARE 16, HOW DO THEY WORK OUT THEIR MASTURBATION SCHEDULE?

Er.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

... So, er, what are they fans of? Their personalities? (not being snarky, I really have no idea. More seriously, the RPF authors?)

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Can't get into Go without someone else who knows what they're doing. Otherwise you have to play randomly and hope for the best (actually you probably have to do this anyway, because all that stuff about "easy to learn" is garbage).

XD my brother and I gave up and now we use the goban for Connect Four.

[sjdr.livejournal.com]

You're actually quite correct, but people (http://senseis.xmp.net/) who (http://www.goproblems.com/) what (http://kgs.kiseido.com/) they (http://gobase.org/)'re (http://www.pandanet.co.jp/English/) doing (http://www.dragongoserver.net/) are actually really ridiculously easy to come by. I'd actually reccomend learning to play online and with the help of a few good books over any random local, unless you happen to live in London or San Francisco or New York. Hell, even then, unless you're actually taking lessons from a pro, and not only a pro, but one who's at least competent at teaching.

... sorry. Obnoxious board game timewaster is me!

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Did I say anything about timewasating? Aha, with the amount of time I spend on Scrabble...anyway Go is a perfectly good way to use time, although I probably won't take you up on those. But thanks.

[dipping_sauce]

Chocolate. Nice. Would eat it if it were good quality and placed in front of me. But not thrilling.

More for me! XD

[sjdr.livejournal.com]

I've talked about this at length, but let's just say that if the societal construct of sexual orientation were based purely on one's reaction toward manufactured pop celebrity, I would be a huge dyke.

Do you mean that you have "dyke-y" music tastes, or something else?

I don't hate this stuff the way I hate the more wail-y and bombastic woe-is-my-skinny-whiteboi-life emo rock, I don't exactly think it's lame the same way I (am encouraged by my self-identified "peer group" to) think of Bright Eyes as lame.

While I basically agree with you about the sweet little orchid Mr. Oberst, dude, Bright Eyes is totally the opposite of "emo rock".

And I'm going to ignore the whole go thing, other than to say, dude, that's exactly why I like go. Not only can you not really be into it without being skilled, you know exactly how skilled you are, to a fairly fine degree, at least within any one ranking system (KGS, IGS, NNGS, AGA, BGA, local go club, whatever). It's awesome.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Do you mean that you have "dyke-y" music tastes, or something else?

I mean (jokingly) that if we were to define sexual orientation solely by what manufactured pop celebs (boyband members, girlband members, Japanese idoru, American Idol contestants etc.) one finds hot... er. x_x Basically I'm saying I have ever only found female pop idols attractive.

While I basically agree with you about the sweet little orchid Mr. Oberst, dude, Bright Eyes is totally the opposite of "emo rock".

Yes, they were two separate clauses/instances of what I find lame. *g*

Go: hey, my hang-up my loss, like I said. (I think I just feel a bit OPPRESSED and DOWNTRODDEN and FREAKISH that every other thinking person who likes Hikaru no Go seems to feel the urge to at least attempt to learn go, except me. Which is sort of what the meme is all about, really.)

[sjdr.livejournal.com]

I mean (jokingly) that if we were to define sexual orientation solely by what manufactured pop celebs (boyband members, girlband members, Japanese idoru, American Idol contestants etc.) one finds hot... er. x_x Basically I'm saying I have ever only found female pop idols attractive.

Aaaah. I was thinking the old phenomenon of "OMG I AM STRAIGHT BUT LIKE ANI AND THE INDIGO GIRLS WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!!!!!". Which is... uh, yeah.

Go: hey, my hang-up my loss, like I said. (I think I just feel a bit OPPRESSED and DOWNTRODDEN and FREAKISH that every other thinking person who likes Hikaru no Go seems to feel the urge to at least attempt to learn go, except me. Which is sort of what the meme is all about, really.)

Oh, don't think I was affronted. ^_^ Just sort of agreeing with your appeal: it's not somethingone can fart around in. The only way I justify spending hours on tsumego as opposed to, I don't know, programming or doing math or cleaning or what have you is that one KNOWS WHERE ONE STANDS. Sure, you're wasting time on a board game - I totally understand the sentiment - but you know exactly what you're getting in return. Of course its "productive"! I just went up two whole stones! Etc etc.

Trust me, you're not freakish. It's much, much lamer than everyone makes it out to be: it's like the Sims, much of the reason it's addicting is because of the constant progrssion.

[flamebyrd]

There seems to be a Winamp plugin for iPods so you don't have to use iTunes. I find this a great relief, even though I don't have an iPod, simply because I really dislike iTunes. It is, as you said, huge and controlling.

I still used Winamp 2.9x until... yesterday, when I finally caved and switched my default player to Winamp 5. Now I just have to talk myself into downloading the version with music library stuff.

When it comes to go, I am utterly fascinated by it despite being absolutely terrified and refusing to ever, ever, play it. But it's so hard to explain why without sounding completely brainless: "There's too much thinking involved" makes me sound rather like one of those people who refuses to watch subtitled anime because it's too hard to 'read' the dialogue, or something.

I will admit to having read popslash, but only because [Unknown site tag] writes and recs it, and I've been a torch fangirl for years and years and years. I went through about three months where I was trawling rec pages constantly, then I just... stopped. And yet I still would be able to sing (or even hum) a single nsync song, unless you count "Yvan Eht Nioj". Heh, and I probably wouldn't even be able to pick one of them out of a crowd. It's All About The Words, I guess.

This is really long and pointless, isn't it?

[flamebyrd]

Blah, that was supposed to be flambeau.

[flamebyrd]

And now I feel obliged to clarify my above statement about people not watching subtitles because of the reading to point out that I realise there are people who really can't handle the reading, but those aren't the ones I have in mind.

And okay, I don't really think people like that are stupid. I just have no comprehension of their point of view. Maybe I should have made an example about people refusing to read books or something instead.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

The Winamp5 media library is great, if you've hit the stage I have whereby there's no way of finding a given random song without doing a partial title/artist search. ^^; Otherwise, it makes the player lag like hell.

Actually, thinking about it, I think it would be a lot easier for me to read popslash just because I was a preexisting fan of the ficcer if I weren't so visually-oriented. I can't read without picturing the characters and action in meticulous detail in my mind, but I too have trouble with the picking NSYNC members out of a crowd thing, so it's either "blurry" or the resultant image does nothing for me. ^^; I mean I have read some popslash, I was careful to pick topics for the meme that I've some experience with, as opposed to stuff that so fails to incite my interest that I've never bothered to try it out. XD

[meril.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on iPods. I have a heavy, brushed-chrome thing that plays MP3s. It's called the Palm Tungsten E. It also lets me type homework and fic, compose email, and keep many many lists. It also lets me read lots of books and wakes me up when I take a nap at work. It does almost everything that my laptop does. (And newer models are wireless-capable.) I figured as long as I was going to spend that much on a small electronic device, it may as well be *useful*.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

After about an hour or so a little alarm goes off in the back of my mind buzzing "You've spent the last hour on a board game," and it keeps buzzing until I stop and go do something more "productive" instead.

Actually I've never learned go, but you have precisely defined the reason I have trouble playing board games, card games, simulation computer games, tetris-style reflex-strategy games...well, for the last two, I'm obsessive for about a week, and then I can never play them again without having some bizarre knee-jerk guilt reactions. It's too self-contained; you can become incredibly skilled, but only in fulfilling the exact requirements of the game. If becoming a brilliant player isn't that important to you, then there's no point (so states my subconscious). For some reason RPGs and the like don't have this effect, because they get classed as fiction, and my brain seems to be wired to consider absorbing a story in whatever form to be a perfectly adequate use of time.