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unibrowzz · 3 years

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Mod (finally) reviews all 67 winners of the Eurovision Song Contest Part VI: The 00s

So I gave the 2000s a lot of shit back when I was rewatching them, mainly because the contests became much longer now with the introductions of so many more participants that semi finals had to be introduced, and also because the song quality nosedived. With the televote now in full control of who won, all you really needed to do to get a good result was either send somebody well known in your geographical area, and/or send something weird that would stand out amongst 40+ participants.

This is where the illusion of “bloc voting” came from.

So song, quality for the most part, was compromised in favour of either sending an attention-grabbing vote trap or just somebody famous. But that’s enough about the contests overall, how’s about them winners?

2000- Fly on the Wings of Love

Country: Denmark

Artist: Olsen Brothers

Language: English

Thoughts: I wonder how it feels to wait nearly 40 years to win again only to win as a complete surprise with a song 100/1 in the odds. Must be weird. My feelings towards this song are… kinda mixed. It sounds like the kind of song you swear you’ve heard before over a million times, be it in advertisements, on the radio, being played by buskers or bored guitar kids at parties. But at the same time it feels so completely different compared to other winners and, Hell, even other Eurovision songs at the time. It’s a very striking and recognisable song when talking about Eurovision music, sure. It’s very chill, and relaxed, and the singer has a bizarre voice which somehow sounds heavily autotuned even when he’s performing live.

Is this my personal winner for this year? Not really

If no, what is? Sweden- Roger Pontare- “When Spirits are Calling my Name”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 46th

2001- Everybody

Country: Estonia

Artist: Tanel Padar & Dave Benton

Language: English

Thoughts: And this folks, is what you call a guilty pleasure. I avoided this song for a while because I just knew it was objectively terrible. I knew this barely qualified as a song, that most of it was just two mismatched dudes shouting at each other over a disco track, that the lyrics aren’t that great at all… Et cetera. And yet, trashy as it is, I still really like this song. I don’t really know why, maybe it’s my barely-hidden desire to be an obnoxious contrarian, maybe it’s because the chorus has some fairly decent lyrics (especially for an eastern European entry), maybe it’s because it’s catchy… Or maybe because it’s fun, I dunno.

Is this my personal winner for this year? 2001 really sucked tbh

If no, what is? Honestly yeah, this song shreds

Personal ranking (out of 67): 13th

2002: I Wanna

Country: Latvia

Artist: Marie N (Or, Maria Naumova)

Language: English (I think…?)

Thoughts: You want a song which hasn’t aged well? Well here you go. I’m sure this song was MUCH more bearable back in 2002, but listening to it now is just... What on Earth is she even saying?? I don’t think I’ve heard a song with such garbled lyrics before. On my first listen, I couldn’t even distinguish what language this song was in, and when I finally realised it was in English… good Lord, the lyrics are complete nonsense. And the rhyming? It’s non-existent. The funny thing is Marie herself speaks really good English, so why this song sounds like it was run through Google Translate five times and sung by someone who only started learning English 5 minutes ago is beyond me. But enough about the terrible singing, lyrics and butchery of the English language, does this song have anything else going for it? Not really. I’d put this song into the same category as “Diva”, in that it’s trying desperately to be the next big disco track of its decade, but it just never reaches the crescendo it sets out to achieve. It just drunkenly fumbles around until it ends. What a graceful entry.

Is this my personal winner for this year? No

If no, what is? United Kingdom- Jessica Garlick- "Come Back"

Personal ranking (out of 67): 59th

2003- Every Way that I Can

Country: Turkey

Artist: Sertab Erener

Language: English

Thoughts: Ah yes, the original ethnopop winner. I’m still not 100% sure what ethnopop is, but I’m guessing it’s just slang for the kind of music you’d hear in a gay bar whilst on your holidays. Not that I would know. This is yet another winner where it took me a good few listens to properly enjoy it since I thought the lyrics were a bit… bad. But unlike those other songs, I got into this one way back in (checks playlist) 2014, and I still haven’t managed to fall out of love with it, so to speak. I still really like this song, I’d go as far as to say it’s in my top ten favourite winners in fact. A statement which still hasn’t changed after I watched the 2003 contest recently in July of 2020, so hooray for that. And ethnopop isn’t really a genre I tend to gravitate towards, but I think what makes this song stand out to me at least is how heavy it is. This is a very slow song when you look at its BPM, and the beat just pounds loud and clear all throughout it. It’s not as obnoxious or in-your-face as other songs of its genre, it’s its own thing and that’s what makes it a cut above the rest for me.

Is this my personal winner for this year? Yes

If no, what is? N/A

Personal ranking (out of 67): 5th

2004- Wild Dances

Country: Ukraine

Artist: Ruslana

Language: English

Thoughts: Ah yes, the superior Ukrainian winner. This song is kind of similar to the one above, in that just like “Every Way that I Can” this is a big, stampy dance number, only this time with the distinction that the lyrics were written in 30 seconds rather than a few minutes. It doesn't get lazier than this folks. But I'm willing to forgive lazy lyrics if the song can distract me from them, and thankfully this song can. Plus it’s not like this song needs good lyrics anyway, I get the feeling the focus is more on the beat and instrumental more than anything. And luckily I’m a sucker for that.

Is this my personal winner for this year? Yes

If no, what is? N/A

Personal ranking (out of 67): 7th

2005- My Number One

Country: Greece

Artist: Helena Paparizou

Language: English

Thoughts: I’ll give you “My Number One crawled so Fuego could run”, more like My Number One won so Fuego could pull up the rear in second place behind a song full of chicken noises. But I’m getting ahead of myself. This song I feel is the one which really popularised that… certain brand of Eurovision song. The female-led, east Meditteranean origin, “Yas queen slay” brand of Eurovision song. Yanno. The true gay bar song. Which is, as I said earlier, not really a genre I like nor care for. Do I like this song? Eh. Kinda. I can’t really bring myself to hate it, since I have some good memories associated with it, but... … Well, I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to it, put it that way. It feels kind of aggressive, and not in a way I’m all that comfortable with. The way she snarls that she’ll “get vicious” if her love isn’t reciprocated especially doesn’t sit right with me. Like I don’t want to be a That Guy™ who says people would get offended if a man sang that line, but it still puts me off a bit.

Is this my personal winner for this year? No

If no, what is? Hungary- NOX- “Forogj, Viláj!”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 36th

2006- Hard Rock Hallelujah

Country: Finland

Artist: Lordi

Language: English

Thoughts: My mother always asks me “how did this win?” And I always tell her, “Well it’s been nearly 15 years since it won and you still remember it, so clearly it left an impact on people.” So, obviously, this is a gimmicky entry; without the giant monster costumes I highly doubt this would’ve even qualified, let alone won with what was then a record-breaking score. After all, rock/metal songs don’t tend to fare well at this contest. Even with the drunk European public in full control of the vote, most of them are lucky to even make it onto the left side of the scoreboard, and getting into the top ten? Forget it. It's too niche of a genre for it to have broad appeal, especially given how a lot of viewers (in my experience at least) DO tend to be older and more conservative, shall we say. Now, I'm not an expert on rock or metal myself, so I can't really say whether this is a good representation of the genre or whether this is what outsiders THINK it's like, but even to my untrained ear this does sound very tongue-in-cheek. Like I don’t want to go so far as to say this is a parody of metal music, but it definitely doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. The song, I mean. Apparently the band is very serious about their monster aesthetic; but I digress. That said, I do have a soft spot for whatever sub-genre of metal this is, so I don’t mind this one in the slightest.

Is this my personal winner for this year? This or Croatia

If no, what is? Croatia- Séverina- “Moja Stikla”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 30th

2007: Molitva

Country: Serbia

Artist: Marija Serifovic

Language: Serbian (Translation: “Prayer”)

Thoughts: Ah, this one takes me back. This was one of the first Eurovision songs I remember truly falling in love with way back in 2013. I must’ve been about 16 or 17 at the time, heavily into dark, edgy music, and this song was just pure heaven for me. Ticked all the right boxes. It’s dark, it’s brooding, it’s sultry, the vocals are stellar, the lyrics are incredible; like, I wanted the title of this song tattooed on my wrist, I loved it so damn much, I just wanted to declare to the world that I loved this song. But that was then, how do I feel about it today? Obviously not the same, tastes evolve over time and after a while I wasn’t so easily suckered into this song’s spell like I used to be. But at the same time, I can’t deny that this is a fantastic song across the board, and one I still like despite it being my edgy favourite from back when my taste in music was terrible. Plus this is also the best-sung song of the 2000s, but that’s like being the tallest person in a room full of toddlers.

Is this my personal winner for this year? Yes

If no, what is? N/A

Personal Ranking (out of 67): 3rd

2008: Believe

Country: Russia

Artist: Dima Bilan

Language: English

Thoughts: Ah yes. The song that finally made Terry Wogan quit after 30 years of “commentating”. The song that proved to the people of the UK once and for all that the contest was rigged to favour certain countries and that countries in western Europe would never win again. Was it worth it? Not really, but I’m not complaining. Now, I don't like Wogan's commentary at all, but really? This song? This is the straw that broke the camel’s back? This song isn’t bad per se, it’s just… Very underwhelming. And outdated. Like I can smell the 2000s off this one and it smells like Lynx body spray and hair gel. It's stuck in that awkward phase where it's too old to be cool, but not old enough to be retro, and it’s forever doomed to be a product of its time. It’s just an average, generic, “I have a dream and I can achieve it” pseudo-ballad; nothing outstanding or special. The performance feels very stale and formulaic too. The only way to describe it is it’s what I imagine an American person would THINK a winning Eurovision song would be like based on what they get told by their European pen pals. Dated music, hot Russian men, over the top presentation, like this just reeks of what outsiders (or British people, for that matter) think Eurovision is made of. On a different note, mediocre and dated as this song may be, I can still kinda see how it won (and no, it has nothing to do with Russia’s international relationships). Dima himself is a very… unique performer; one who performs with the questionable energy of an overexcitable children’s YouTuber, and his dramatic and exaggerated movements make this whole performance a bit of a blast to watch. But that doesn’t really save how painfully bland the song is.

Is this my personal winner for this year? No

If no, what is? Latvia- Pirates- "Wolves of the Sea"

Personal ranking (out of 67): 48th

2009: Fairytale

Country: Norway

Artist: Alexander Rybak

Language: English

Thoughts: I’m not going to lie, my feelings towards this song are incredibly mixed. There’s a lot of appeal here, with wild violin solos, swooping vocals and a pounding beat, as well as a very singalongable chorus; like, this is a good, solid song. But… something here just doesn’t gel with me. This, to me, is one of those “good by default” songs that’s a solid ‘A’ across the board, but something’s just… missing for me. There’s not enough here for me to go out of my way to download and listen to this on a regular basis. It's in the same boat as “Waterloo” in that I don't dislike it, because it’s still a good song, but I can't say I like it either, because it’s such a default "best Eurovision song”, so I can’t sincerely say I like it. Am I making sense? Probably not. But basically my thoughts are “it’s good, but it’s not my kind of good.”

Is this my personal winner for this year? Ehhhhhh

If no, what is? Germany- Alex Swings, Oscar Sings- “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang”

Personal ranking (out of 67): 29th

#final round tomorrow ayyy #eurovision #mod's winner reviews #esc winners

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kitkat-the-muffin · 3 years

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I think what I like most about the dream smp is how it’s half roleplay half dudes playin minecraft

Like, with Aphmau rps it’s just plot n stuff that rarely ever acknowledges minecraft logic, and with Stampy rps it’s so minecraft that you forget it’s even a rp until the main antagonist shows up every 15 episodes

But the Dream SMP is a nice mix of the two. You have these well written characters and plot points, world building, backstories, and settings, but you also have minecraft logic and people who fight against each other in a war one day and then hang out at a party the next. The characters are kind of more well rounded when they don’t hold grudges too long, ya know?

The blend is nice. Right now the fandom can enjoy the terrifying angst of Tommy’s resurrection in prison alongside the wholesome comfort of Tubbo and Ranboo adopting a zombie piglin. The fact that it’s so obviously a roleplay is good for the sanity of the fans and the actors while also giving the streamers something to joke about off script

Idk I just feel like it’s one large passion project that everyone enjoys and partakes in and I love that

#I do like Aphmau and Stampy but I genuinely like DSMP more #also aphmau hasnt freakin posted a rp in like a year #dream smp #dsmp #rants #minecraft roleplay #mcyts #minecraft rp #rp

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stampys-lovely-world-countdown · 5 years

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Record Player Pt 2

by ghost

They had decided to resurrect him about a month ago.

In their last battle with Hit The Target, he had let them kill him. He gave up. Maybe it was seeing Veeva, a potion bottle in her hand, primed and ready to disintegrate his organs. Maybe it was the arrow stuck in his side. Maybe he had just gotten tired.

Whatever it was, he let them kill him. He simply stopped running, stood there, and waited for the glass to shatter against his chest as the steaming liquid burned him alive. William could still remember the broken look on his face.

He had changed. How they didn’t know, but they wanted to give him a second chance. They had been talking about it for about two months, and by early April the only person still against it was Veeva. She finally agreed though, remarking that “if he comes anywhere near us, I get to roast him on a spit and wash my knickers with his blood.”

So Stampy went down to the nether to find him (again). Stampy didn’t tell them the whole story, but from what he had told them, Hit The Target had changed. He almost didn’t want to come back to the Lovely World. He agreed to come back, though, and promised he wouldn’t pull anything. It all seemed rather odd for him.

Now he just stayed in his castle all day every day, and every week, and every month. It was getting concerning. At least, for William it was.

He decided that he would do something, even if it was small. Who knows? It might turn out well.

Trying was pointless.

That was the conclusion he had come to.

Again and again, he had tried the same pointless things, always coming to the same pointless result, stuck in the same pointless loop. He was just going in circles.

At first, Hit The Target had loved being evil, adored it actually, but slowly it had lost his flavour. He had started to get stressed more often, angry more often, and he wouldn’t admit it to anyone but he was sad more often. He didn’t think any of the helpers noticed but Veeva definitely did.

Eventually, it was Veeva who had broken the cycle. When she left, that was when he really started to notice how bad things were. If he continued on alone, he was most absolutely not going anywhere. So he stopped.

Now he was just laying in bed. He found himself doing a lot of that lately. You could call him a professional at it even.

He had built up a sort of nest of detriment around his bed. Blankets and crumbs and wrappers of chip bags. Dirty dishes, dirty clothes, empty wine bottles and even a crusty bottle of ketchup. It was perfect for wasting your non-existent life away.

Every day he would sleep in until around one in the afternoon, pillage down to the kitchen to grab an armful of food that had absolutely no nutritional value, and then go dump it on his bed back upstairs. There he would slowly work his way through pizza roll after hot pocket as he stared up at his ceiling, thinking about the dark, soul-sucking abyss of fate until four in the morning. Charming.

And so he laid, soaking in misery, until one fateful Friday (Was it Friday? He didn’t know. Days didn’t matter anymore), when something changed. There was a knock on the door.

For a solid thirty seconds, he was wondering if he had imagined it. But then he heard it again, a loud, banging nock, resounding through the empty stone halls. He decided that it might be worth getting out of bed over, since it was pretty much the only thing to have happened in a month.

He tried to stand up but then promptly fell back onto the bed from dizziness. Obviously his body had gotten too used to laying down. Once he successfully stood up, he went to the window, where he could see the front entrance down below. Somebody had left a tray of cookies on the doorstep.

The weight of his groan nearly shook the entire castle. It was one of those goddamn helpers again, wasn’t it? Them with their never-ending, bone-grinding, teeth-clenching cheeriness.

But he didn’t have the energy to be annoyed very long. He wasn’t going to give up free food.

#slw record player #stampylongnose #stampylonghead #stampy's lovely world #stampy #william x hit the target #william x htt

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inkofamethyst · 2 years

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April 23, 2022

My attempts to predict the future are meant to serve as a cushion, of sorts. A protective measure. It kind of sucks? I really kind of hate it.

And no, I will not reveal what prompted those thoughts at this moment.

On an unrelated note, I went to the formal today! Just got back, actually. It was fun, but I feel not only exhausted but like every muscle in my body is tense. I don’t... I don’t entirely understand why.

I don’t think my dress was entirely appreciated because my hair extensions cover the strappy back. Unfortunate, but I look good in it otherwise.

Um. I just-- I don’t feel good right now and I don’t know why there’s just this great sense of discomfort currently resting on my chest. I think.. it could be partly because there are little things that “went wrong” I “did wrong” from my perspective which, first of all, probably aren’t problems in the slightest, and second of all, cannot be changed. But I still feel on edge. My stomach aches; I want to scream, there’s just so much tension.

Maybe I just need to go to sleep.

Today I’m thankful that my first attempt at stovetop grilling chicken thighs went well.

I’m going to take a shower and watch some critical role and scarf down some oreos and chug some water.

[edit, half an hour later: I think I was/am on the verge of some sort of anxiety attack (or, perhaps a less-severe anxious episode) actually. Hm. I’m sort of just breathing right now.]

[edit 2, another half an hour later: Better now. Stampy uploaded a video today and I really needed that.]

[edit 3, about two hours after that: Finally managed to pick myself up and take my shower, and I leave my room listening to CR and hear one of my roommates’ bed full on creaking (like,, over my earbuds it sounded like the washing machine was on which, obviously, is weird at two in the morning and it took me a second to realize) and like,,,, the absolute hilarity of me having an anxious episode a few doors down from my roommate who’s (presumably) having the time of her life... I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry honestly. If that ain’t college life idk what is.]

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seacrowisland · 6 years

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Langblr Secret Santa

Hiya my dear @genderqueerfujioka , I’m your Secret Santa and here to spread some Langbrl joy! Since the Langblr coordinator told me you were interested in Italian and Literature I thought, I might share a short introduction to Italian Literature with you as it is the thing I’m currently studying in university. However, when stalking your profile, I couldn’t help but notice that you are very interested in learning Swedish at the moment, which is why I have created a second gift for you. This way, you can decide which language you want to focus on today and keep the other one for Boxing Day or New Years. (Or open it right away as well.)

If you want to be a pro at Italian Literature (or seem like it) you have to know these three drama queens:

From the left to the right they are Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco Petrarca (also known as Petrarch). They are also called the “tre corone” which means “three crowns” and even though they published all of their works in the 14th century they are still considered the finest literature one could possibly read. (They are like Italian Shakespeares basically and everyone’s obsessed with them.)

Let’s start with the first one, shall we? Dante was a pretty cool guy. Born in 1265 in Florence he first became a politician, but since he choose the wrong party (there were two oppositional parties in Florence at that time and they were at each other's throats) he had to flee from Florence in 1301, which the other party used to deny him entrance into the city for the rest of his life. (If he had paid enough money maybe they would’ve let him back in but he wasn’t really interested in that.) Dante then basically founded Italian Literature as he used the “volgare” (the language of the common folk in Florence at that time) as the language of his stories. (Before him it was all Latin, from then on all the authors wrote in the Florentine accent because through Dante it became cool.) His most famous work is “La Divina Commedia” (“The Divine Comedy”) in which Vergil, a Latin poet, as well as one of his lovers, Beatrice, lead him through the three realms of the dead. (Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.) Sort of ancient fantasy literature which also teaches about theology, philosophy and also about science at that time. He died in 1362.

Boccaccio was a little bit more chill, he was also a politician (born in 1313 in Florence as well) but instead of getting send into exile he kept calm, travelled a lot and wrote a set of 100 novels called “Il Decameron” (from deka=ten and hemera=day because it takes place within ten days). The novels are all centred around a group of ten young people that flee from the plague in 1348 and lift in the countryside for ten days. (Obviously, the plague wasn’t over within 10 days but it’s a story after all.) During those days they each told a story every day and then the one who had told the best story was selected king or queen of that day. The novels all take place among normal, upper-class people (merchants most of all) and are focused on the intelligence of the characters, which was something quite new at that time. Boccaccio was also obsessed with Dante and literally wrote a biography about him, there was that much enthusiasm. (Even though Dante didn’t return it.) He died in 1375.

Last but not least Petrarch. (I’m gonna call him that even though his actual name was Petrarca but Petrarch is more common among English speakers.) He was born in 1304 and—not, not Florence, but Arezzo, Italy. As his dad was a politician, who worked close to Avignon, Petrarch grew up in France, in a rural area close to the Mont Ventoux. Why does this matter, you might ask? Well, because Petrarch one day (in 1336) decided to climb up that mountain (most people at that time had better things to do than to climb up random mountains, so it was quite unusual for him to do so) but what made this hike so special is, that he wrote about it in a letter to Francesco Dionigi. In this letter, he has the spectator was in the centre which was a massive cut in the experience of nature and landscapes in the 14th century. Suddenly the entire aesthetic changed because suddenly there wasn’t just nature but a reflection of your innermost self within the things you see in front of you. Petrarch was a poet and also the founder of the (Italian) sonnet (which was later copied by many Englishman and once it was already out fashion picked up by Shakespeare to be cool again, so Petrarch is the reason why people are able to obsess over Shakespeare’s sonnets) but most of all he changed the worldview from being centred on God and his creation to being focused on the self and your feelings. In his poems, the “Canzoniere” (consisting of 366 poems) he wrote about one thing: His love for a girl called Laura. When Petrarch first met her, she was already bound to another man, but that didn’t keep him from loving her. He wrote to her 266 poems “in vita” (so whilst she was still alive) and 100 “in morte” (once she had died), talking about his feelings about her and so on. (By the way, they weren’t just sonnets but also songs and ballads.) I’d also have to mention, that the Italian sonnet differs from the (standard) English sonnet: Both have 14 lines but whilst Shakespeare had three quatrains (abab cdcd efef) followed by a heroic couplet (gg), the original Petrarchan sonnet consisted of a rhyming octave (abbaabba) followed by a rhyming sestet (cdcdcd).

To include some actual Italian, here’s Petrarch's XXXV (35th) poem. (I included an English version below so that you can understand it properly, but I’d definitely encourage you to try and read it the way it is.)

Solo et pensoso i piú deserti campi vo mesurando a passi tardi et lenti, et gli occhi porto per fuggire intenti ove vestigio human l'arena stampi.

Altro schermo non trovo che mi scampi dal manifesto accorger de le genti, perché negli atti d'alegrezza spenti di fuor si legge com'io dentro avampi:

sí ch'io mi credo omai che monti et piagge et fiumi et selve sappian di che tempre sia la mia vita, ch'è celata altrui.

Ma pur sí aspre vie né sí selvagge cercar non so ch'Amor non venga sempre ragionando con meco, et io co llui.

(And now the English version)

Alone and thoughtful, through the most desolate fields, I go measuring out slow, hesitant paces, And keep my eyes intent on fleeing Any place where human footsteps mark the sand.

I find no other defence to protect me From other people’s open notice, Since in my aspect, whose joy is quenched, They see from outside how I flame within.

So now I believe that mountains and river-banks And rivers and forests know the quality Of my life, hidden from others.

Yet I find there is no path so wild or harsh That love will not always come there Speaking with me, and I with him.

So, first of all, you can probably totally tell, that this poem is about how in love he is and even though he’s trying to hide it from people, it’s not really working out the way he planned it. I’m not going to go on about the verse rhythms and stuff like that, but I would like to point out (a) the beautiful form of the Italian sonnet and (b) the connection between the nature (fields, sand, mountains, river-banks) and his feelings, wanting to find a path that hides him from people and most importantly lets him escape love. (But, as he precisely states, there is no such path.)

There are lots of other Italian writers (like Giacomo Leopardi, who totally looks like Eddie Redmayne and was one of the first romanticists or Carlo Goldoni, who was super important for the Italian Drama, which in itself it a whole other story) but if you know the tre corone, people are going to be super impressed and their works are also great reads. Personally, I most enjoy Boccaccio because his stories are quite simple, but Petrarch's poetry is nice too and if you’ve got the time, maybe one day you’ll read into “La Divina Comedia”. (I honestly tried but couldn’t do it.)

I hope you enjoyed your gift! If you want to talk about Italian Literature (or Drama or poetry) you can text me anytime. I know, that this isn’t exactly a vocabulary list or anything like that, but I always enjoyed not only learning my target language but also a few of the cultural backgrounds so hopefully, we’re on the same track here. Happy holidays and have a good new year!

#langblr #secret santa #langblr secret santa #italian #italian literature #dante #dante alighieri #petrarch #francesco petrarca #boccaccio #tre corone #la divina comedia #the devine comedy #langblrsecretsanta2017

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years

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The Only Thing ‘The Simpsons’ Predicted Is Our Stupidity

If you’re on the internet, you’ve seen the articles. YouTube videos, bargain basement listicles, and social media profiles all ring out with the same refrain: The Simpsons predicted this. Donald Trump’s election, the COVID-19 pandemic, 9/11, murder hornets, and even the explosion in Beirut are all fodder for the shittiest parts of the internet’s favorite content mills.

After 30 years and almost 700 episodes, The Simpsons has become a source of prophecy. It is, of course, all bullshit. When The Simpsons have gotten the future right, it’s only because the show was a razor sharp satire of American life that imagined the worst possible outcome for comedic effect. The Simpsons obviously didn’t have a magical ability to see the future. It’s just that there’s so much of it, people on the internet can splice frames of it together to tell whatever story they want. If it did accidentally predict anything, it’s because our reality is now stupid enough to resemble a cartoon satire of American life.

Like all good satire, The Simpsons held up a mirror. Audiences were scandalized when it premiered in 1989 and they understood that they were part of the joke. But they laughed and kept laughing. Thirty years later, little has changed and many of those early The Simpsons episodes still hit.

Bill Oakley was a writer and a showrunner on The Simpsons during what some fans consider the show’s prime, roughly seasons four through nine. Oakley keeps up with the growing lists of purported predictions and even has them broken down by category.

“Category one, which occurs extremely rarely, is legitimate things we did predict,” he told Motherboard in a Zoom call. “Category two is stuff that just happened in history that people are unaware of because history repeats itself. They aren’t predictions of any sort. Three is just complete bullshit which is usually when somebody pastes two or more old scenes, usually from different shows, together.”

The theory that The Simpsons predicted the Beirut explosion is a typical category three.

“The Beirut one was particularly egregious,” Oakley said. “It was from two different shows and it in no way predicted the Beirut explosion, it just predicted an explosion.”

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Simpsons as prophecy has come in waves. The first real wave came after 9/11 when fans pointed out supposedly secret messages coded the first episode of season nine, “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson.” In a quick sight gag, Lisa holds up a magazine with a $9 fare to NYC. The $9 is next to Manhattan skyline and the Twin Towers.

But the articles about Simpsons predictions really took off when America elected Donald Trump the President of the United States. In a 2000 episode “Bart to the Future,” Lisa is President and she references the budget crunch she inherited from President Trump.

According to Oakley, this is the only category one prediction he credits.

“‘Always predict the worst, and you'll be hailed as a prophet,’” Oakley said, quoting his comedy hero musical satirist and math genius Tom Lehrer. “Back then, it played as a joke because people were like, ‘Oh, that’s preposterous.’ As [writer Dan Greaney] has said in the past, the reason he picked Trump is that it seemed like the logical last step before hitting rock bottom.”

And here we are at rock bottom.

According to Chris Turner, a journalist and author of Planet Simpson, an academic deep dive into The Simpsons satire and impact on pop culture, one of the reasons The Simpsons has become a source of prophecy is that it’s popular and there’s a lot of it. It’s the same with Nostradamus. The French prophet wrote a book of poetry called Les Prophéties where he vaguely predicted the near future and commented on current events. There’s so much of it and it’s so vague that Nostradamus’ name has become synonymous with prophecy. Every decade, people find new ways to explain how his work predicted their present.

“You have a show that’s been such an institution in western culture for the last 30 years now that it takes on an aspect of parables or Bible stories,” Turner said. “They are these stories that people just come back to again and again and again for new interpretations and new meanings. In the age of gifs and memes, there’s a ton of stuff there to be mined.”

“With almost 700 episodes, there’s an infinite amount of material to choose from,” Oakley said. “There’s probably nothing that you couldn’t say The Simpsons predicted.”

According to Turner, The Simpsons has always had two lives in pop culture. The first is as “this incredibly deep satire that calls out American culture on its excesses,” he said. “But there’s also always been a superficial layer.” The Simpsons was a huge success when it started airing in 1989. It was always a smart show, but it made headlines back then because it was also a crude show.

It may seem ridiculous now, but a 10-year-old boy telling his principal to “eat my shorts” struck some viewers as insidious and disgusting. In a People magazine interview, First Lady Barbara Bush said The Simpsons was the dumbest thing she’d ever seen. “If you weren’t an aficionado during the first four or five years, that was your understanding of the show,” Turner said. “It’s that show with the foul mouthed characters and the boy is unruly.” Turner said that the idea that The Simpsons can predict anything is drawn from this surface understanding of the show.

I loved watching The Simpsons as a kid, and I love rewatching it as an adult. What strikes me most about the show is not the hardline predictions it made, but how it’s dark satire of American culture still holds up. So many of the problems it identified are still problems today.

When Stampy the elephant rampaged through Springfield, he went through the GOP and Democratic conventions. “We want what’s worse for everyone, we’re just plain evil,” the signs in the GOP convention read while people cheer. “We hate life and ourselves, we can’t govern!” The democrat signs read while people boo. When the people of Springfield are faced with a choice between voting for two monstrous aliens, they still can’t break out of the two party system. “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos,” Homer said as a whip cracked into his back.

“The Simpsons is one of a number of examples of the limits of satire,” Turner said. “There’s a tendency to think that by pointing out how ridiculous a thing is, it will somehow fix it. A more extreme version of this is John Stewart and Stephen Colbet’s Rally to Restore Sanity.”

Using The Simpsons as divination is also fun. It helps people make sense of a chaotic world. It functions in the same way a good conspiracy does—picking through the tangled mess of modern life and putting it in order. Qanon isn’t that different. The people who follow Q do their “research” and sort through cultural detritus, images, news stories, and half remembered anecdotes to build a narrative that helps them make sense of the world. It’s funny, but it’s also disturbing that humans can connect the dots of disparate pieces to tell whatever story they want. The Simpsons is just a more visible, and more benign, version of this kind of thinking.

If The Simpsons was ever a warning or prophecy, it was a warning about trusting authority.

“There’s a certain segment of society, a very small segment, that read Mad Magazine or watched The Simpsons and got a point of view and developed a skepticism of what authority figures might say,” Oakley said. “There’s 80 percent who didn’t, never gave a shit, and didn’t pay attention to anything. And those people vote and now I’d say we’re paying the price.”

The Only Thing ‘The Simpsons’ Predicted Is Our Stupidity syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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wonderfulmeaning · 6 years

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mandimormon-blog · 7 years

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5 To-Do Lists, You Can’t Live Without

Where have I been? Well, blogging world, I’ll tell you where I’ve been… not here. Not here because a few shorts week ago, I acquired an adorable little notebook. In my handy dandy notebook (yes, I’ve used this Blue’s Clues reference half a dozen times, *yawn*) I make to-do lists. Plural. I’m absolutely obsessed with to-do lists. I like the sense of accomplishment you get from placing a check-mark on the paper next to the job completed. If I’m having a good day, I’ll even put a circle around that check-mark. If my day isn’t as positive, I will scribble the words out on the line ferociously, while scrunching up my nose.

I had read once to avoid becoming overwhelmed or stressed, your to-do list should consist of three things. Then after accomplishing those three things, make a new list of just three things. Homie don’t play that game. Homie is an overachiever.

At the beginning of the week, I had roughly 32 items on my “priority to-do list” and if you’re wondering why I’ve coined this a thing it’s because those items have to be done, there’s not waiting until the last minute, I need to rock them out. Sometimes I’ll create an “Advanced Planning to-do List” and I’ll jump around and give myself a window of completion. Procrastination eats me alive. I’m not saying I never procrastinate, I do, A LOT. I’m just saying it’s unnatural for me to procrastinate without having that feeling you get that’s kind of like impending doom.

Oh, allow me to add, on my beautifully printed “priority to-do list” I added a small box in my right column and added the header, “ALLEN” to it. That’s my husband’s name. I created him a priority list, too, so he didn’t feel left out, of course. I will blame it on the fact he told me he wouldn’t buy me a saw. He doesn’t trust me with one. But I always have this puffed up, I-can-take-on-the-world-feeling when I leave Hobby Lobby, so I requested one. My request was denied.

Blogging has fallen off of my Sunday Priority List, even considering Sunday is my “day of rest” that I usually do a bare minimum if anything. My computer has changed the method in which it uploads my camera roll, now, too. So, the ease no longer exists. Instead it throws all of my photos onto the date they were captured and since I can’t remember was happened 24 minutes ago, I’m not having much luck remembering what happened almost three weeks ago.

I do, however, have one little note in my iPhone. It reads:

Before my oldest daughter, Reis, tells everyone (that would be her fifth grade class and “squad”…. A tennis instructor, piano teacher, grandmother, Sunday School Teacher, church friends, the mail lady, anyone who happens to be near her at the moment of remembrance) about me. Yes, me.. her mother, the idiot. I thought I would beat her to the punch. (But I didn’t.)

I still have my prepositions memorized. Yes, I can basically rap or auctioneer those darn words, at lightning speed. Over the week of the 15th, I had a great time helping my fifth grader out with memorizing those words, impressing myself mostly, due to my impeccable memorization skills.

One evening, immediately after studying, just before saying our family prayer together, I was still jotting things down in my handy-dandy notebook, and as I was doing this I reiterated the fact I still had these words memorized from 7th Grade, Mrs. Smith’s class. Then, I tried doing the math.

On the bottom of the page, I scribbled out to the side 2017 minus 1999 jotted my answer down and said to her, without the slightest hesitation, I blurted, “See! 28 years ago.”

Instantly, from across the hallway in my other daughter’s room I hear, “Wow. You really can’t do Math. Can you?” (That was my husband, obviously eavesdropping on my conversation with my oldest daughter.)

Reis began laughing uncontrollably (seriously), “Yeah, Mom! 28 years ago you were two. Did you memorize them then?” The laughter continued.

I’m pretty sure I stared at her like that emoji with the line straight across, eyes open. :- |

“I meant 18.” I said with a little bit of attitude because no one likes to be picked on. Am I right? Still, no one in my household cared and they cared even less that I still had in my memory bank from 18 years ago, every darn one of those prepositions. They only cared that I couldn’t subtract.

After the laughter began to die down, Reis asked me to remove my paper from my notebook. I ripped it out and handed it to her. She carefully folded the paper in half and put it into her messenger bag. “I’m taking this to school tomorrow to prove how horrible you are at Math.”

It may be 12:59 a.m. and I’m writing a blog in the first hour of Wednesday, but let’s face it, with my to-do lists, and our two-week Spring Break, I haven’t had a lot of extra free or me time. I hear from a lot of strangers, “Two weeks for Spring Break? Wow, that must be nice!”

Ummm…..

I love my children, I love them to the moon and back. I would do anything for my children. I like to support them in all of their endeavors and be there for them as their cheerleader. I love to have teaching moments with them and observe them. Each of them are so different and unique but I love them all with my whole heart.

However, a two-week Spring Break without any real travel plans and with Mother Nature’s temperament has been a challenge, to say the least. Sure, if you’re sitting on a beach somewhere south of here where it’s 20 degrees + warmer with your children, I’m sure that sunshine is adding a sparkle to your day. The sun did not even come out today, not once, and yesterday it came out for a millisecond.

Our schedule is just off. It’s off because if we begin getting something together, (which believe it or not with only 5 days left of the 13 day break, we are… finally) it will be back to school, again.

The first day or two, our youngest two did about 16 laps in 3 minute around the couch and bar. Did I mention Jude had his “ninja stick” in his hand? Yep. I didn’t know who’s eye was gonna get it that day. Remi? Jude? Mine? Who knew?

Productivity was what was needed to keep our house in order. I don’t mean watching six hours non-stop of Stampy Cat on YouTubeKids. If you have younger kids you may know exactly what I’m talking about. The obnoxious laugh? The Minecraft tutorial? This wasn’t an option for me in my childhood. The closest thing to that I had was when I was in upper elementary and it was called a Giga Pet I got from KB Toys, ironically on the Village Mall where the Humane Society sets up shop, now. My Giga Pet died all of the time, if it lived longer than a day, it was a miracle from above.

This past weekend, we did a little inventory magic. In Remi’s bedroom sits my 3 foot tall Barbie doll house from when I was younger. Inside of this house and a canvas hamper specifically for toys, were Barbies. Lots and lots of Barbies. I told both girls, they were to remove all of the dolls, and figure out which ones they didn’t play with or would like to donate. Then they were to count the dolls, and select 20 of their favorites to keep out. The rest would be stored inside a tote and they could change them out, during the year. Lo and beyond, the girls counted 62 Barbies (not even including the baby or Kelly-sized dolls). 62. We aren’t excessive buyers. You have to believe me when I tell you that.

They’ve acquired several as gifts and even more from my mother. She allowed the girls to take home dolls that were mine when I was a little girl. I loved my dolls and played with them for hours and hours, probably because Stampy Cat wasn’t an option, like I said. My sister and I each had our own doll house in our basement, and I remember plugging in my AM/FM Radio / Alarm / CD Player, and they would have dance competitions. I usually would have them perform to “Movie Luv”. I have a feeling anyone reading this will enjoy this playlist from Movie Luv:

1. (I've Had) The Time Of My Life (Dirty Dancing) - Bill Medley And Jennifer Warnes

2. A Whole New World (Aladdin's Theme) (Aladdin) - Peabo Bryson And Regina Belle

3. Take My Breath Away (Top Gun) - Berlin

4. Colors Of The Wind (Pocahontas) - Vanessa Williams

5. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) {Benny And Joon} - The Proclaimers

6. I'd Die Without You (Boomerang) - P.M. Dawn

7. Gangsta's Paradise (Dangerous Minds) - Coolio

8. Stay (I Missed You) (Reality Bites) - Lisa Loeb And Nine Stories

9. Unchained Melody (Ghost) - The Righteous Brothers

10. It Must Have Been Love (Pretty Woman) - Roxette

11. I Don't Wanna Fight (What's Love Got To Do With..) - Tina Turner

12. Can You Feel The Love Tonight (The Lion King) - Elton John

This was actually one of the first CD’s I ever owned. I remember going to a slumber party and listening to LeeAnn Rimes “Blue” and Spice Girls “Wannabe” and I begged my parents for a CD player. I needed this kind of music in my life. I even remember staring at the square compact disc case wrapped in plastic, after shopping at Hills. Life was grand. I was probably close to Reis’s age, at that time. The closest thing I had to an iPhone or iPod was Dream Phone, the board game, with the hot pink “Night at the Roxbury” style phone.

I will refrain from doing the math to tell you exactly how long ago that was. But, in 2017, my daughters, Reis and Remi decided to each select 10 dolls to equal the 20 keepers. They had no problems whatsoever with parting, temporarily with the other dolls. This made a world of difference in decluttering, too. I highly recommend it, girlmoms. Out of the organizational patterns in my brain, I kept receiving the same prompting over and over, again, to designate a specific number of hangers for their closets, too. X # of hangers for pants, and X # of hangers for tops, so then it would force minimalism upon them. But I decided, slowly… very slowly. Plus, their closets don’t even look bad, at the moment. I think it’s because they panicked when it was super warm once or twice in February and packed up their winter clothing and drug out all of their summer things. Summer apparel has much less material than winter.

Anyway, along with this purging/de-cluttering effort, I went to the local hardware store and grabbed every paint sample I could see with colors I was drawn to. In that same afternoon, (this was the afternoon on their last day of school before Spring Break) I choose colors for my living room, dining room, bathroom, hall, and stairwell. I also picked up some prepping items and paint supplies.

My husband is incredibly particular about prep work. I am not. That may seem contradictory since I’m a list person, but wall painting is one thing I’ve never been a perfectionist about, at least until this day. My sweet, incredibly particular about prep work husband had pulled his back out on Sunday, the day before this day. Therefore, if I wanted the paint done in a lickity-split kind of way, I needed to help as much as I could. Naturally, when he gets injured I will give him the commission to do something hard to challenge his skills. That’s exactly how it went down. He pulled his back out and I said it looks like a great time to paint the entire house. It’s honestly strategic, believe me. He began to one-time (or spackle) the divots and holes in the drywall. One word, “countless”. Let’s see, we moved into this home in 2013, I believe. You know the drill, you do the math. In 2013 my children were even younger - sticks and stones and brooms and nails driven by mini-hammers, you name it, it’s been repelled or slammed against our drywall. After my husband and I had finished spackling, our son, Jude, said, “It looks like the walls have polka dots or the pox. Are we leaving them that way?”

I picked up some cheap sandpaper at Dollar General, but didn’t really work on it much until the next day. But as I did the first two spots and they were ehhh.. so-so, with that sandpaper. My husband came waltzing through the front door with a miracle. They call it, “a sander”. Maybe to you it’s ridiculous I didn’t know what one was or had never thought about using one, but to me this was one of those “Aha!” moments. My husband advised me to cease using the sandpaper sheets, and to use this tool. At first, I asked him if I could potentially chop my fingers off. He assured me I couldn’t but to keep it flat. He showed me and handed it over. I fell in love. He left, again, but when he returned, I showed him what a great job I did and even in the places we hadn’t spackled that felt mildly uneven or bumpy, I hit those, too. This tool was the most amazing thing and my walls were almost new (without the new paint). I told him I was so good at it that he could hire me. We’d be a local-brand of Fixer Upper. I added that I could only use this tool though, because that’s where my talent lies, and I don’t really feel like I’d enjoy working a full eight-hour day, but if he needed the image, I was in and could probably put in a solid 1-3 hours, depending on whether or not it was running season.

I did get a stellar half workout in with my roller. I’m short-ish or average, I think, for a female. Even with the extension on the roller, I had to calf raise to reach the top of the walls where it intersected with the line that my husband cut in along the ceiling. Even though he cut that in and all I did was roll everything, I still managed to get paint on the ceiling in three places.

While I painted and cleaned, I decided my oven needed dissected. Thank you, Pinterest, you are the best ever! I found a pin describing how to clean in between those glass panels – after taking the oven door apart (no joke) I was about to scrub that grease off, and my oven looks like new. I also allowed a baking soda, salt, vinegar mix to coat the inside overnight and voila! It looks like new!

I also made an executive decision to repaint my dining room chairs… oh and reupholster them. Owned it. Seriously, what a different a little fabric makes.

Anyway, the entire Operation Cottage Renovation was completed in just 2.5 short days. Just in time, because on Monday, we held an Ice Cream Social + Family Night in our little cottage, and forty people showed up. That’s a lot to cram under one tiny roof, but it was so great!

You know I love to plan parties. That’s just one of my favorite things to do in life. I’m serious. Unfortunately, Covington isn’t exactly the target market for that kind of expertise, so I just plan a lot of parties for my family and my children.

Pottery Barn Kids happens to have a free ice cream party printable set. I recycled my turquoise blue strawberry baskets, found 4 sets of ice cream bowls for $.88/set, which is incredible and not to mention the frugality of reusing those suckers, over and over, again. My husband and I went out on Saturday night, which wasn’t the norm and I’ll discuss why in like two seconds. During our date, we ate (we always eat, food is life) and we got party supplies, those being toppings for ice cream sundaes. Anything you could imagine, really, it was great. We also snatched up supplies for our “Family Night” portion of the event. Wooden sticks, rods, pipe cleaners, foam blocks, playdoh, duct tape, etc. Right now you may be wondering what on earth we were doing with those materials and why, and I’ll tell you.

Like a broken record, on Monday nights it’s Family Home Evening. Since many that aren’t of our faith don’t understand that terminology we called it, “Family Night”. My husband explained to our large group, we do this as a family to build unity, every week. He also described our evening as being a “Family Home Evening… on steroids”.

We left out the formality of it all and had our Elders (Young Boy Missionaries 19+) explain a little bit about the Book of Mormon. Many people don’t understand it’s a history, like history of any textbook or journals, ancient writings, in this case – those of the people in the Americas.

We briefly read in the Book of Alma (which is from the Book of Mormon) about what Captain Moroni did to prepare his cities for hard times. In this particular evening, we were focusing on one of the preparations which was “fortifying” or strengthening their cities. This included building a large fortress with trenches and defense mechanisms for that time period, even though they were not currently under attack. This prepared them for when they did fall under attack, the sight alone of these beefed up fortresses caused the enemy to retreat. You may be thinking, nice story, get on with the point.

That point is how it’s important to reflect on what we can do to build ourselves up and strengthen ourselves while things are smooth sailing, to endure the harder times. If we don’t prepare, we’ll fall apart.

My commission to the children and families in my home that evening was to build their own fortress to defend themselves. Object lessons are my favorite with small children. Seriously, they’re fantastic.

As soon as everything was cleaned up and the house resumed to normal, I began “listing” the next actions in my life. One of those being creating a Ninjago Birthday Invitation and to evaluate my shopping list for this upcoming party – can I just say, It’s gonna be great?!

Jude is highly involved in his party preparation. An example of this would be evidenced by the fact that when I asked him what he wanted to have as a party theme, he quickly answered, “Ninjago” and didn’t back down. No biggie. I honestly thought it would be Lego Batman since that’s been all of the hype this year, or even Minions or Minecraft, but nope. Ninjago and after extensive Pinterest research, I’m ready to execute this plan.

I showed him my board and ran ideas past him. He then took my cell phone from me and began pinning what he liked to his board labeled, “Jude Party”. I didn’t send his cake request to the cake decorator, it was a three dimensional gold Lego Ninjago Lloyd, but I did send another super cool one he liked that was still pretty extravagant.

I’ll be working on crafting my husband a kimono-type ensemble to he can be Sensai. This age group I’m guessing will be slightly squirmy so we will plan game after game and backup games. Jude has requested his buddies attend Ninja Training and unlock their potential to be Masters of Spinjitzu.

This is great because there’s only like 300 pins about Ninja training games for parties. I’m loving the “fire” jumping, hoop crossing, plank walking, brick wall breaking, shirikin tossing, balsa wood breaking obstacle course. Can you tell I’m stoked? This only downside to all of this is planning it on a dime. For real though, usually, I buy here and there and everywhere and then my husband will say, “Hey… you only have X more to spend.” This time, from the get-go I’ve had a budget. Budgeting is SO HARD for the compulsiveness inside of me.

How have I been surviving this long Spring Break? Can I just say it’s nothing like summer because in summer, we go to the pool, daily. As far as we’ve gone is Conner Prairie and that finally happened yesterday (Tuesday). Another Spring Break survival hacks for non-travelers would be seeing a movie, twice. I went to see Beauty and the Beast on Friday night with my mother and we met up with my sister. It was a great time and I loved this movie! It was my scout-out of the movie, of course, I had to make sure it was child appropriate (due to reviews I’d read which were completely off), and not scary. So, while I watched it with my sister and mother, my children watched the animated version for the first time, ever. I know… parenting fail. I grew up in love with animated Disney movie classics and my kids have watched maybe ¼ of them. We’re working on it, though.

Over the weekend my oldest daughter and her bestie had convinced us in order to keep the house looking nice and neat, before our ice cream social, we should go to see Beauty and the Beast. Actually, they brought this up in front of my mother and of course, grandma saves the day with the funds needed to attend this movie. I ran and cleaned up and set up what I could that day, then the girls and I left for Champaign to see it. The boys ran errands for us and did their own thing. Jude didn’t even like the half of the animated version he watched so he wasn’t all about seeing it, again.

We were so confused as to why the movie was so expensive, but realized when we arrived it was being it was being shown in the BIG D theater. Of course, we climbed to the tippy top of this ginormous theater. I honestly felt winded after coasting up the steps a couple of times. I may run but my body denies inclines at all costs. There were only about four other movie-goers in the theater with us, which was amazing, too. My favorite kind of movie, restaurant, amusement park, grocery store, is one with only a handful of people in it with me.

I mentioned Conner Prairie, oh yes. Today, we traveled to Fishers for an interactive historical tour. We learned about Indians, Pioneers, the Civil War, tested out the new Treehouse exhibit which is marvelous. I asked my husband to observe the structure and examine it closely, because I feel the Covington City Park would benefit from a version of that. Maybe not four stories, but I do love the height. It was the best part! Of course, Jude would tell you the best part had to be the rifle range, where he learned how to handle his “bayonet”, march, and fight in a battle.

All of the kids enjoyed that at least until we did the hot air balloon. Yep, we did it. We’ve seen it there time and time, again, but this time it was checked and circled off of the bucket list.

It was a toss-up between whether my husband would go up or I would go up. He voted me, and I voted him and somehow he convinced be that I should go, although two things were very big deal breakers for me. Those were 1.) This was opening day of the outdoor experience, meaning our hot air balloon pilot was out of practice for months. 2.) It was windy. I visualize that cord being severed and us flying away never to be seen or heard from again.

However, all three of my children were game to go up and excited to the moon, so was I going to risk not flying to the moon with them? Nope… I went. I went and when the middle disappeared and we continued to ascend up to the 377 feet, taller than even the statue of liberty’s torch, I began to feel like I shouldn’t make any sudden moves. Of course, my darling children had expressions of pure delight and excitement while I stood there reminding them every 4.5 seconds to hold on to the sides, while each of my feet held pressure against the walls to immobilize me, while I clinched my teeth down. I did look around and take a few photos and a video, but I felt like we were going to blow over sideways, so really what was going through my brain was how I was going to instruct my three children. Another family was up in the sky with us, and the pilot had told them to look around, we only would be at the maximum height for 3 minutes before descending. They all seemed to gravitate toward us, making the balloon off balance, I bit down on my tongue to fight off the urge to scold them to get back to their own side and quit attempting to tip us out of the basket. Finally, we were going back down but near the ground it was described to us that our balloon was doing a “pendulum” effect. It began rocking and not landing steady and I prepared my mind for evacuation, but worst case scenarios considered, they weren’t needed.

Thankfully… we made it and I needed a timeout from that moment forward. Actually, I really just needed some lunch. Hypoglycemia gets the best of me, from time to time, creating short-temperedness and attitude. Omission from any meal or delay isn’t good for any member of our party.

I feel pretty satisfied after updating the blog and this wasn’t on a list, because the list it exists on is a mental or unwritten list. Just like the Pineapple Upside down cake I made my husband, last night, wasn’t on the list. So, I guess I don’t have to use a ‘list’ for everything as it had seemed. #talented < I’m totally kidding.

I hope my readers enjoy the memes. I stumbled across a fantastic application and I had to test them out in a very non-serious way.

While my husband and I attended a Youth Temple Trip, the Saturday before embarking on additional busyness including my cousin’s bowling birthday party which was loads of fun for everyone, I received a couple of impressions.

I was flipping through Doctrine and Covenants and randomly reading a scripture verse or two, and I happened to stumble across this one:

Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God; D&C 109:8

This is in my top five scripture verses. It also commits me to making this list my new checklist. Am I working on these things? How is my evaluation of myself and my home? New month, new goals.

That’s what I love about life. We are constantly reinventing ourselves. A better version of who we are, continual growth, gaining wisdom from mistakes and failed experimentation. Failure gives us exactly what we need to brush ourselves off, jump up, and move forward.

In fact, busyness is not what it’s all about. I’ve asked my husband, on a few different occasions recently, how do I become less busy? Less commitments? Dropping tasks? More efficient delegation? Saying no? Busyness doesn’t allow time for the Spirit to prompt you, for inspiration to come, to be present with family or children, I know for sure we weren’t designed to live life in the fast lane 95% of the time, as evidenced by those mini-panic attacks or rapid speech that accompany semi-meltdown moments.

So sure, I may have elaborated on five different lists (maybe even more, I lost count), but I’m really not wanting to achieve some sort of level of mastery for being busy. Even looking at the word busy is annoying. It looks like “bus” with a “y” it seems to have letters missing. Probably because they were too busy, too.

The list I’m keeping, going into the month of April, is that of D&C 109:8 - the goal I’m creating is Peace, Meditation, and Prayer. How will I get out of the habit of being busy or having less commitments? One at a time, I’ll finish what obligations I’ve begun, without taking on additional commitments (that are of a part-time or full-time nature or require multiple tasks per week). I’ll make sure to evaluate my progress to see if it’s improving me, as an individual.

I am going to make a commitment to going to bed early. The past couple of days, I’ve had roughly 4 hours of sleep, per night. When I opened this blog draft up, I mentioned to my best friend I didn’t even know what it says because I was so tired while writing it. It may be like reading a foreign language.

One last commitment -- this should honestly go without saying, seeing the good or positive in every situation and every person, I encounter. I’m extremely grateful General Conference is this coming weekend so I can be inspired and my questions can be answered. Now, I think I may go sit out in the beautiful sunshine. Namaste!

#LDS #mormonmommy #mothering #parenting #busy #springbreak #life

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