A little while ago, I did a blog on
some of the little things in life that pissed me off. Not really sure
it went over so well but I can't help what grinds my gears.
To that end, though, I considered a
sequel blog soon after, though movie reviews got in the way. But,
with nothing at the cinema worth seeing until Prometheus, that gives
me a chance to go through the 2012 releases I have on DVD. However,
I'll save those for upcoming blogs, so that I can study them and take
notes. In the meantime, I thought I'd finally get around to doing the
aforementioned sequel, though this time it would be about ten little
things in life that I like.
Much like the first blog, I'll try and
avoid talking about people in general (though since I made mention of
a group in the first blog, I'll make one exception in this blog to
make it fair). That's not to say there aren't people in my life that
bring me joy, that'd be silly. To be perfectly frank, as someone who
has made the decision not to have children, if someone were to ask me
what would make me change my mind, my number one response is “If
you can guarantee me that any kids I have will turn out like my niece
and nephew, I'd think about it” because I love those kids with all
my heart.
But now, let's get to ten of the little
things in life that I get great comfort from.
- Lateral thinking puzzles.
Despite not having laid my eyes upon a
book of lateral thinking puzzles in years, I've always been a huge
fan of the collections of puzzles. Ones like “In an open field,
there's an unconscious man without a parachute and a rock, and
nothing else. What has happened here?” (The answer is the man is
Superman, and the rock is Kryptonite). I may not be the smartest man
around... or very smart in general... I'm sure I had a point
somewhere. Anyway, my lack of smarts not withstanding, I love
out-of-the-box challenges like that, or complex riddles.
- TvTropes.org.
Check it out here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage I can literally
spend hours on that site, getting lost in the website jungle that is
TvTropes. Whether it be the Crowning Moment pages, like the Funny
Moments or Heartwarming Moments, or the various examples of Executive
Meddling, the site has taught me so much, or given me the names of
things I was noticing as a kid (one of the most common I encountered
is the trope known as I Narrowed It Down To The Guy I Recognized,
which is when you're watching a police procedural show like Law And
Order and it has a famous guest star, they're usually the bad guy).
It's an addiction that I can't give up.
- Finding out the names of songs.
I need to explain this one a little
bit. You ever hear a song on the radio a whole bunch of times but you
can never get a handle on the lyrics or you don't have a pen to write
them down? Doesn't help when the DJ's don't always announce the songs
too, right? Well, when I DO find out the song and who sings it, I
always feel overjoyed when I find out it's an artist I know and it's
like “Wait, that was you?! How did I not pick up on that before?!”
Case in point for a recent song: Top Of The World by The Carpenters,
as I mentioned in my Dark Shadows review. It makes me so obsessive
that I have to find it.
- TV theme tunes.
Sometimes when I'm frustrated, I just
play some of my fave theme tunes from great TV shows in my head to
calm myself down again. The Teen Titans theme, the Mystery Science
Theater 3000 theme, Animaniacs, Darkwing Duck (more addictive than
the DuckTales theme song, easily), Firefly, American Dad!, Red Vs
Blue (OK, that's a web show but where else can I put it? On the
subject of web shows, the theme song for Atop The Fourth Wall, I LOVE
that theme) and Daria. Even ones I don't know all the words to, I'll
play the theme in my head, like the one for Weeds. If my happy place
had a soundtrack, these themes would make up the whole list. Speaking
of songs...
- Weird Al Yankovic
If there's one set of songs that
provide a calming influence more-so than TV theme tunes, it's the
musical stylings of Weird Al. The Prince Of Parody. A lyrical genius
without peer, who keeps things family friendly (for the most part,
Jerry Springer and The Night Santa Went Crazy are both adult and dark
respectively.) and has provided us with timeless classics like Amish
Paradise, Ebay, Like A Surgeon, Phony Calls, Yoda and I Lost On
Jeopardy. But even his non-parodies are hilarious too, like the
aforementioned Christmas song, Albuquerque, Do I Creep You Out, Since
You've Been Gone and Everything You Know Is Wrong. Wonderfully weird
tales involving boxes of rabid weasels, disembodied heads of owners
of fried chicken establishments and the National Guard dealing with
Santa. YouTube anything of his. NOW. Or, see his movie, UHF. Or all
of the above. Do that.
- Driving home on a Sunday morning.
Working overnight, six nights a week,
most of the time I don't have the time to just take a slow, leisurely
drive home and marvel at the wonders of nature. Sunday, however, with
the roads virtually quiet, it's really nice to see the sun on the
horizon (when the weather allows) but even overcast days look lovely.
It's also nice not having to compete with every other jerk-off on the
road, with a lot of them playing a game called “Outta My Way, I
Have A Car!” Really wish more days could be like that.
- Second-hand book/DVD shops.
So, yeah, we all know by now DVD's are
big with me. And while I'll still go buy brand new DVD's at local
retailers, I love the quaint, homey feel of a nice second-hand store,
ones with real character. And in some, I've been able to find rare or
just hard to find items, like Videodrome or The Lovely Bones (the
book, before the movie came out and then suddenly everyone jumped on
the bandwagon ).
- Webcomics.
OK, that's not so little, but I love
going on archive binges (thank you TvTropes) and reading many strips
from particularly good webcomics. While I've still got to start
reading ones like Shortpacked! (www.shortpacked.com), I recommend stuff like Home On The
Strange (http://www.homeonthestrange.com/), The Devil's Panties (http://thedevilspanties.com/), Cyanide And Happiness (http://www.explosm.net/), Menage a Trois (www.menagea3.net/),
Something Positive (http://www.somethingpositive.net/), Questionable Content (http://www.questionablecontent.net/) and the one I'm currently
reading, Thinkin' Lincoln (http://www.thinkin-lincoln.com/).
- Word games on FaceBook.
I used to play stuff like CityVille or
Zombie Lane on FB, but I've found that some of the best games are the
ones that don't require you constantly asking people for stuff or the
ones that you can (usually) finish in one sitting. Word Search, Word
Joust and Words With Friends are my fave games on the site, though I
still love the UNO game. Granted, Words With Friends can be pretty
restrictive with what words you can use but hey, it's not like I can
play with the person sitting next to me. Though speaking of those
types of games...
- Board games.
I don't get the chance to play them
anymore, mostly because I have no board games or other people to play
the game with, but I get a kick out of getting people together,
playing a game, having a laugh and feeling like part of a group.
Cluedo, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scene It?, Chess, Battleship (not
the redone one for the movie, that's an idea so stupid I'm surprised
whoever came up with it wasn't buried alive, along with the people
who suggested the movie), The Game Of Life, Scrabble, Scattergories
and my all time personal fave, Risk.
Also, on the subject, card games like
Hearts, UNO, Skip-Bo, Tanks, Solitaire and Pyramid. Love'em.
Well, those are a few of my favourite
things in life, just the little details that perk up my spirits. What
are some of yours?
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