someone told me to write a post about this and I think it turned out just fine

(I suggest reading both bottom to top and top to bottom.)

The events of my day two days ago are as follows in reverse chronological order (i.e. backwards):

While eating another cookie

I wrote the end of this.

I woke up

After sleeping

I went to sleep.

Obviously.

Nutritious.

And then I ate gummy superhero vitamins.

And I pondered.

And I pondered.

That's the meaning of the word “society"

We are literally society

Which isn’t productive.

I pondered the idea of people blaming society,

And then I typed this.

And rolled my eyes.

And watched “your special CNN coverage on the Republican Debate."

And then I ate a burrito

This caused me to eat a cookie.

Because I felt sort of ill.

But at about 10:36 p.m. I realized that I hadn’t eaten dinner

Which spell-check doesn’t think is a word,

And I got home and practiced piano a tich.

Then I sang to weird music with my brother.

Like, how creepy is that?

How much we forget.

And how many people we each meet who forget us

And how many of them I will never meet

Because of how many people there are in the world

And I felt very overwhelmed

Because of this song.

And I cried

And picked up my brother from basketball,

And I pondered,

Well, my mom drove me home.

And I drove home and listened to Hamilton.

After that, they took a group picture.

But I enjoyed it.

So it’s alright.

Because I didn’t really want to memorize another poem anyway

Don’t feel sorry that I didn’t win

Because the girl who won was very good and performed dense poems

And it was the girl who I knew was going to win

And then the winner was called,

She did very well.

She was the other girl from my school!

And the runner up was announced

So we clapped our hands for the woman’s husband and for her being right-brained

And the intermission ended.

Because why would you say no to your favorite person?

I said of course.

Just then, someone asked me if they could hug me.

I don’t understand how someone could dislike hugs.

There was a short intermission.

By this kid who looked like he was twelve, but was probably fifteen.

This resulted in me being complemented on my “pose"

So I sort of spun around.

I forgot to wait to have them take a picture,

And said bestial with a long ē sound.

So I stood on the pink piece of tape.

And my name was called again

And I waited.

And listened.

So I drank more water.

Then I coughed because my throat was dry,

No one else did.

I didn’t.

But what if you accidentally looked?

If you looked at her, she’d give you a line.

Speaking of which,

A few people got lines from the prompter.

Then I listened to other people reciting their poems

And then I walked back behind the curtain and got a drink of water

Because they told us to wait

I sort of smiled and waited for them to take a picture

And maybe no one noticed.

But then I recovered,

"A late day walk"

I stuttered a bit on one line

And "instead of a cup of tea"

And I stood on the pink piece of tape on the ground

They called my name

But that’s different.

Unless it’s an argument and I’m right.

In fact, I’m hardly ever concerned about winning.

More about having fun.

But I wasn’t really intimidated because I wasn’t too worried about winning,

And the other people all did very well.

So it was fine.

There were only seven people

Which I would usually despise but

I didn't recite yet because I was second to last,

And other people recited their poems, but

To begin, the woman who runs the thing recited a poem

...very cool too.

Then I met some of the other performers/competitors as they arrived,

I met one of the other performers/competitors who was very cool.

Well, we’re usually either late or early, but almost never on time.

That hardly ever happens to us.

We were early!

My mother and I arrived at the museum in which the Poetry Out Loud thingamajig was to take place.

But then I was fine, and I had a snack.

So that was lame.

I twisted my ankle getting into the car.

As I needed to be at the Poetry Out Loud competition by 6:30.

I left that class early too,

And watched other children of my general age perform picture books, such as The Giving Tree and If You Give a Pig a Pancake.

And we sang this cool song in rounds,

I went to a theatre-acting-class-type-sort-of-thing,

We listened to Spring Awakening.

Well, my mom drove me to the city.

Then, I drove to the city. 

But I wasn’t scolded, so it’s okay.

If it hadn’t been, I would have been scolded.

It’s alright, because it was on my conflict calendar.

And I left early. GASP.

Then I danced and sang about Indians being brave and stuff of that nature at rehearsal for Peter Pan

With all of these short lines.

I feel like I’m writing a picture book

And we read Romeo and Juliet in English

Then we insulted people, Shakespearean style,

So I practiced my second poem in front of my English class.

And regionals was that day.

To catch you up, I won my school competition for Poetry Out Loud.

But that’s really fine because it’s just a card game.

I lost.

After that, I played some card game called Kings and Beggars

After that I ate lasagna.

Which I don’t find very interesting but I suppose one must know how one can do so if one ever needs to.

I also made a chart comparing different ways to make presentations,

Next I made a presentation about how to make a good presentation.

But whatever.

Okay, my ankle still hurt a little bit.

After that, I walked to the other building and did a very weird thing to my ankle where I couldn’t walk for about three seconds but then I was absolutely fine.

Then I walked to class and did math with circles and angles and suchlike.

I arrived at school.

We had driven the back way because people were building things and such the other way which was causing rather a jam.

This was a fantastic start to the day.

And Troye Sivan was on the radio with YOUTH.

Well, my mom drove me to school.

Then I drove to school.

I wasn’t quite in the mood to have my legs turned into popsicles.

It was chilly, so

Most people would be fancy later on in the day’s activities, wearing dresses and suits.

Even though I wouldn’t be coming back home before doing other, more fancy, things

And I put on my white overalls

I did things that one does to get ready in the morning for school.

And then I woke up.

I slept,

First, I went to sleep.

Poetry.

-

Some things that freak me out:

Ants,

Being forgotten,

Forgetting things, and

Illogical societal standards.

"I'm a f***ing Indian woman who has her own f***ing network show."

Dear Mindy,

I’m a firm believer in the fact that the best idols are people you would want to be (best) friends with (it's a tier, not a person). With whom you’d want to be friends. I admire you because you’re a real person, which sounds super obvious, but I’m sure either you or someone else who is reading this knows what I mean. You’re likable and funny, and that’s basically my goal in life. Not only that, you are also an actress, which is also a possible goal in life of mine, and in general a major topic of my blog. Therefore, when my English class was asked to identify our ideal reader, you came to mind.

This blog is a mishmash of drama nerd word vomit, how-to’s on things that may or may not be relevant to anyone’s life but mine, and theoretically visual arts, but that hasn’t really come up yet. It is my hope to be able to say that you would enjoy my blog if you ever read it, and I believe that in some world that could be true.

You are, in a sense, the embodiment of my blog. If you hate it, then I apologize for that horrible insult, but assuming you like it I hope you’d be flattered. You’re real, you’re funny, you’re an actress, and you’re just simply the greatest. You have great lines, as a person and as a character. I hope you realize the positive impact you have on people’s lives, my life, by just being in existence. 

Love,

Sam

I mean, just look at this beautiful person (click here to see this picture in it's native habitat).

P.S. I thought I should inform you that you are my actually-Mexican-yet-Indian-looking friend's theoretical Indian television mother. Thank you.

~~~

In reality, there is no single person to whom I write each blog post. I am not Julie from Julie and Julia. Therefore, and because my blog covers a decently wide range of topics, I decided to include more than one ideal reader in this post.

~~~

Dear Troye,

You’re another one of my role models, not only because you (seem like you) are a great person, you are also extremely involved in art and it’s world. You write and make music with your beautiful voice, act, and make YouTube videos, which I guess could be considered a form of art. Truthfully, I simply admire your personality (and of course, your lovely accent). You are an inspiring human being just because you are a kind person and are following your dreams in doing what you want to be doing.

Your music is lovely, your lyrics are lovely, and your taste in anything visual is generally aesthetically pleasing. You just have this vibe about you (that clearly penetrates screens, as I’ve never seen you in person) that’s very lovely.

This picture was captioned "Troye Sivan on a colorful pillow." (as seen here).

Also, if you are truly reading this, I’d like to say that you should really add Salt Lake City to your Blue Neighborhood tour dates thanks :) and of course you’re adorable, which is something I definitely strive to achieve, a goal which I attempt to extend through my blog.

Love (again),

Sam

~~~

If either one of these people were to read my blog, I would hope that they would leave with the knowledge of what it's like to be growing up in the art world now, a world in which they are each already immersed. I hope they would continue to read based on the stories and the writing style, and I hope that they would hope that I would continue to make my way in this thing we call art.

Although this may have not been the most interesting post, it’s important to identify the ideal reader in order to make a blog, or any writing, better. Knowing your audience makes everything more clear. (WHICH WE CAN RELATE BACK TO MONOLOGUES!!!! AND OTHER ACTING!!!! DON’T YOU LOVE HOW EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED!!!!??)

Thanks readers and ciao and love again,

Sam

people don't spend time in junkyards and there's a reason for that

This post is a detour, but a much needed and very important detour.

Humans spend a lot of time in the bathroom. It just seems to be a fact of life.

Spending time in spaces that look like this:

(picture from here)

…is not necessarily super fun. If your bathroom looks like the junkyard pictured above, or a different junkyard, or if you find things that look like this:

(picture from here)

lying around, or even if it just feels a little cluttered, here’s what you should do:

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR BATHROOM IF IT LOOKS LIKE A JUNKYARD

1. Start with the things you see right when you walk into the room. Don’t focus on drawers quite yet. (Just to be clear, I’m not telling you how to clean a toilet or a bathtub, more like a countertop.)

2. Clear the counter. For this step, I put all of the stuff that was on my counter in a big tub like this one:

, and put the tub on the floor and out of the way. 

3. Physically clean the counter. If you’re anything like me, your counter isn't just cluttered. There are hard-water deposits all over the place, especially around the sink, globs of things that you'd put on your face or in your hair if they weren't on your counter, etc.

To rid your bathroom of these, use a cleaner suitable for whatever type of counter you have (I have granite (?), so I used 409 Stone & Steel cleaner.)

the drama.

Sticky stuff will usually come off with a few good wipes of a paper towel, but luckily I didn’t encounter much of that this time around.

For hard-water deposits, I first used 409 and a paper towel, then 409 and a scrubby-bristly-brush thing, and then Lemi-Shine (For those who don’t know, Lemi-Shine is stuff that goes in the dishwasher along with… dishwashing stuff and it gets the hard-water deposits off of glassware.) This mostly worked, but it was hard to scrub in the tight areas around the faucet. I was more concerned about the clutter, but if you’re wanting to get really nitty-gritty, try using an old toothbrush to scrub the harder to reach spots.

4. Now that your countertop is spotless and sparkling comes the hard part. It’s time to sort through all of the junk. I sorted everything into piles of what they’re used for (i.e. hair, nails, teeth, face, etc.), just to make it easier to look at than one big heaping pile of hairspray, toothpaste, and lotion.

5. Then I threw away the stuff that was gross and  the stuff that I never used. At this point, you really do have to be willing to throw things away. Truly consider what you actually use on a daily basis. You don’t have to throw away everything! That said, be reasonable about it and don’t keep the never-opened bottle of expensive lotion that you bought three years ago.

6. Here, it’s a really good idea to have some sort of organizer. I got one for Christmas, but you can find them online here. I distinguished between things I use on a daily basis and things that I use every so often (or even never, but I saw no reason to throw away perfectly good chapstick). I tucked away the things I only use every so often in drawers, and filled the organizer with stuff I actually use.

7.  By now it’s really up to you as to how you’re going to organize everything. From previous experience, I would not recommend clumping, say, all of your hair stuff together, rather putting your bobby-pins separate from your hair ties. I’ve found that the less clear you make each item’s designated “spot,” the easier it will be for the whole thing to fall back into chaos. Again, though, it’s really up to you and what you know will work.

8.  Leave as few things as possible out in the open. A lineup of three bottles (detangler, dry shampoo, and a different hair thing that apparently has ten different uses), a big bottle of mouthwash, my toothbrush, a huge jar of coconut oil, and hand soap are the only things not in some kind of storage trinket. The fewer things without a specific spot, the less room for error (and the further in the future your next clean-out will need to be).

so nice

9.  Keep everything as nice as possible for as long as possible. Good luck!

Alright,

Sam

we've all got our junk

And my junk is Deaf West’s Broadway Revival of Spring Awakening.

Here’s what happened:

I received a lengthy text message which included a detailed description including persuasive reasons as to why I must must must

you (all three images taken from this video)

must

must cont.

see Deaf West’s Broadway Revival of Spring Awakening, including the fact that it is life changing. This text was from my theatre-cousin-sister-best-friend-actress-person, so I had reason to believe this was reasonably reliable information and a reasonably good idea. My family was already planning a trip to New York (from which I returned absolutely recently), so I thought we could make this happen.

I started researching ticket prices and dates immediately.

It happened quickly, but my sister-cousin-best-friend (who lives near the greatest city in the world, work) bought two tickets, each for $108.25, which I payed her back in a cash-filled envelope with her name on it. We arrived in New York City on Thursday after a two hour drive from the Newark Airport (gridlocked. surprise, surprise). Our tickets were for Friday night.

I don’t have words to explain it.

The show was amazing; it was brilliant. It was beautiful. Half of the cast, more or less, was deaf or hard-of-hearing. Each character either had two actors, one signing and one for voice, or one actor who both sang/spoke and signed. I don’t want to spoil anything or say too much, but the way they did the whole thing was stunning. The voices for the signing actors were sort of like their minds or consciences, or a more real version of themselves. I don’t know how to explain it. It was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Really. Look @ this masterpiece. (photo from here)

During ‘Totally Fucked’ the whole show sort of hit me. It’s so POWERFUL. The whole thing. I can’t speak, or type rather, but it was ridiculous.

In a good way, of course.

Afterward, my lovely sister-cousin and I waited by the stage door. I was "sort of" in shock.

Joshua Castille liked my cotton candy hair. AH. I signed ‘thank you’ and ‘beautiful’ over and over to Treshelle Edmond. She hugged me and was super lovely and I was internally freaking out in the best way possible.

I can’t describe.

I wanted to learn ASL (American Sign Language) when my mother took classes. And then I wanted to learn it even more when I met friends who sign. And now, because of this show, it is absolutely vital that I learn ASL. I just have to. I know a little little little bit, but I simply must learn more.

According to the card thing that was in the playbill, you can find local ASL classes at signlanguagecenter.com, or learn by downloading the ‘Marlee Signs’ app. I haven’t tried either of these things (yet), but I’ll take their word for it, and maybe you could too.

If you want to fully immerse yourself in the Deaf West Spring Awakening life, you don’t have to see the show. If you can, by all means, but we can’t all live in New York City or fly there on a whim, can we now?

Here’s what you should do:

Listen to the soundtrack. It’s honestly not very long, and it’s very good. For the fulfillment of all of your teen-angst needs, you can find the Original Broadway Cast Recording on iTunes here. I highly recommend it.

Here’s what else:

Learn ASL (tools above). It’s way cool. And honestly super useful if your friends speak it too.

Watch the Vlogs of Purple Summer (found on YouTube here). These cast vlogs are super cute. I’m only on Episode 2 and I’m already in love with everyone. It’s a great time.

There’s always YouTube mining as well. Do some searches and see where you end up. The internet isn't such a bad place after all.

oooh ahhh

This show is absolutely brilliant, Deaf West is brilliant, the cast is brilliant. It’s all just brilliant.

Just like that,

me

P.S. Happy New Years Eve!!
P.P.S. What the actual hell is going on with the spacing ITHOUGHTIFIXEDIT

here's what I like: books

Books. I like books. I like them a lot. Books are words that turn into images without one stroke of a pen to make the picture, because it’s all in your head. It’s a bit like Alice. I take it back; it’s exactly like Alice.

If you were confused, this Alice.
(image from here.)

Because of life, I haven’t had much time to read books lately, but somehow they always manage to keep in my life and keep me sane (or make me go insane). As of late, the books in my life have been few, but without further adieu, I present them to you, all in a queue (which is a fancy word for line, ooh):

The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography - James M. Rubenstein

This, as you may have guessed (you smarty) is my geography textbook. Somehow or other, it takes me about twelve years to get through one page of this book. Don’t get me wrong, it’s interesting as hell, if you think hell is interesting, or interesting as something else, like rainbows (besa el arcoíris??) if you don’t. Point being, the information is interesting, but the way it’s written can be… sometimes not.

Find it here if you want it, which you probably don’t.

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

I read this book for English. I can’t decide if I liked it or not. That is to say that I enjoyed the story (I think), but it’s always hard to tell with books read for school. A book read for any reason other than your own desire to do so is one that I believe will not be best enjoyed. Even a book recommended by your fellow book-loving friends (bless their hearts) will not be quite as climactic as one you’ve selected yourself. That’s just the way it is. I am, however, a big geek* for books set in World War II, which it partially is, and books so dripping with wit and weirdness that you find yourself cleaning the table with a dishrag every time you pick it up. Which it is.

Find it here if you want, which you might.

45 Arias - Handel

This is the new voice book that I just bought today. As is evident, it’s Handel, which is classical, which is opera. Opera is a word that either scares people and makes them run away and hide or fall on the floor of Costco and laugh until they pee themselves, so we’ll stay away from it for now. Classical is so fun. If you’re into singing, I would, in all honesty, highly recommend it. It sounds like it wouldn’t be, but just take my word for it and know that it is.

Find the book here.

Holt McDougal Online - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Otherwise known as my.hrw.com. HRW, and who knows what that stands for, will be the death of not only me, but also my entire math class, and most likely the teacher’s seven or so other periods. There is no way to describe this abomination except to say that it makes me not like math. I LIKE MATh. Shoot me. Except actually please do not shoot me, or anyone for that matter. I would strongly advise against it. Anyway, HRW, whatever the heck it means, is horrible, and even just typing about it makes me want to forcefully tear out sections of my hair. And I like my hair very much.

You don’t want to find this book.

The Boston Girl - Anita Diamant

This novel is what I am (not really) reading in my free time. I say "(not really)" because I hardly have any free time at the moment, what with auditions foR PETER PAN WHIch I haven’t discussed on this blog but what’s to say right now anyway, and with other things such as an essay which I should possibly be working on right this very moment instead of going over the five-hundred word suggested guideline in this blog post, etc. Anyway, I like this book a lot so far and would recommend it to people who like books such as this.

Find it here.

The Odyssey - Homer

Although I did read The Odyssey for school, I actually did mostly not dislike it. I’ve taken to calling Penelope “Penny,” which is super cute and lovely and if you’re having a child soon, which you’re most likely not because as far as I know, most of the people reading this are either teenage girls or my English teacher, who is a grown man, but if you are, you should name your child Penelope and call her Penny. Unless it’s a boy, or some other gender, in which case, name him/her/WHY IS THERE NO GENDER NON-SPECIFIC SINGULAR PRONOUN IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IT RUINS MY LIFE ALONG WITH HRW.COM whatever you would prefer. On second thought, name your child whatever you would prefer anyway. Unless it’s Derfla, which is Alfred backwards and comes up when you look up “most horrible name ever” on Google, in which case I beg you not to do that.

(If you really want The Odyssey, you can most likely find it anywhere.)

Other books I strongly recommend are Life After Life, I’ll Give You The Sun, Eloise in Munich (that’s a thing, right?) NO IT’S MOSCOW SORRY, Eloise in any other place at any time such as Christmastime or Paris, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Howl's Moving Castle, anything by Sophie Kinsella, and the Harry Potter Series. That should give you some variety.

I want to be Eloise. (image from here.)

Your obedient servant,

Not quite Alice, but close enough.

__________________________________________

*I’ve determined through extensive research and intense questioning that geek is a term used to describe a person who likes weird things, a dork is a person who does weird things, and a nerd is simply someone who’s smart. But really I think you should use them however you’d like. It is, after all, your book.

in which I explain how you can become a pig too

I was going to write a post about the ten out of twelve rehearsal we had yesterday. But I’ve just now decided against it, as that’s not necessarily a fun thing to experience firsthand, and in that case why would one want to experience it secondhand? So instead I’m going to talk about stage makeup. Because that ties in and it’s much more interesting anyway.

Stage makeup is absolutely ridiculous. I love it so much. It is the most fun thing to put on, so satisfying to take off, and just altogether a jolly good time. Right now, as you know if you’ve read any of my other posts, I’m doing Shrek the Musical, so there are some… interesting makeup looks taking place.

As a pig, I’m supposed to be pink. A funny thing happened where the girl who designed the makeup looks for fairytale creatures forgot to do the pigs, so ours was a last minute design. It’s adorable though, and all's well that ends well, so no hard feelings.

Get the look: Pig

You’ll start with the “normal” stage makeup look. That said, if your stage makeup looks normal, you're almost definitely doing it wrong.

First, you’re going to need some foundation. Lots of it. In fact, just cake it on there and see where it gets you. You’ll probably need more, but at least it's a start. Make sure it’s a shade or three darker than your actual skin tone, because you don't want to end up looking like a piece of paper under the lights.

Speaking of paper, you also don’t want to look flat. Even if you’re a pig who’s supposed to be chubby, you still need to contour. In fact, you can contour to make yourself look more chubby. Start by creating a shadow under your cheekbone. Rounding out this shadow will also round out your cheeks. The easiest way to do this is to make a fish face and draw two lines with your shadow colour where your cheeks naturally cave. Cave isn’t the right word, but you know what I mean. Unless you don’t. Oh well. Anyway, draw two lines underneath your cheekbones and blend downward from there. To round out the cheeks, you can extend this line sort of to the bottom of your nose. You’ll also want to contour your nose a bit by darkening the sides and highlighting the bridge. Contour your jawline as well by darkening your neck and directly underneath your jaw. If you’re a guy and/or want a sharper and more masculine looking jawline, you can also highlight above the jawline. To finish off, just add some highlights and shadows where you think they'll work out. It’s really an in-the-moment process. 

a visualisation of what your highlights/contouring
should look like in a general sense

More contouring info can be found in this educational video, but keep in mind that you'll want to be about eight times more dramatic than this for stage.

The next thing you’ll need is some blush. For normal stage makeup, you can simply smile very widely and plop some blush on the apples of your cheeks. When doing the pig look, you can do this, but we’ll be putting on more blush later. Much more blush.

your blush look at this point

Now for the eyes. Remember that you’re going for a magnified version of the Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman look. Your eyes need to be dark and obvious as… Oh, I don’t know. Something very dark and obvious. First comes eyeshadow. Obviously, for this look you’ll do pink. Cover your lid with white, and add in some different shades of pink on the edges, in the crease, etc. You should probably highlight your brow bone as well, but that step never seems to actually work for me. Eh, do it anyway. Next, line your eyes with white. Yes, white eyeliner. Right above your lashes you should have a line of white, as well as some in the inner corner, outer corner, and in the waterline. This will help your eyes look larger. Draw a black line above the top white line and line the bottom in either black or dark brown under the water line. I like to blend out the bottom line, but that's optional. Actually, all of this is optional. Now, apply a ton of mascara (and falsies if they suit your fancy).

a lil step-by-step for ya

Fill in your eyebrows next. Almost all of the guys in Shrek literally use black eyeliner to fill in their brows, and the girls could probably get away with going darker than they are at the time being. You can hardly go wrong here.

For pig specific cheeks, you’ll need a ridiculous blush that looks absolutely like the colour your tongue gets when you eat a red lollipop. Or like a maraschino cherry. Or like the little number icon on the messages app. It’s whatever you please, as long as it’s ridiculously red. Take this red on your finger and smile really widely. Draw a circle on your cheek and fill it in. And then add more on top of that. In a circle.

There you go.

For lips, you can't go wrong with bright pink. I like to overdraw my cupids bow and my bottom lip a little bit, but it's really up to the discretion of your very own. Blot some concealer on them to reduce shine, which will be amplified x one million with the lights.

And of course, you’ll need a pig nose. I apologize in advance for how uncomfortable it is. When in doubt, just remember how cute you look as a pig and everything will be alright. In the end, you can always un-pig with Pond’s cold creme. Or coconut oil. Take your pick. 

(The pigs are German but I don’t speak that language and even though Google Translate is almost definitely incorrect...) auf wiedersehen.

discussing why teaching yourself is a fine idea, the universal language, and words that don't exist

I taught myself to play “I Am Not a Robot” by Marina and the Diamonds on the piano a few days ago. Now, this could be a post about how sad my life is, how tragic that I spend my days teaching myself to play powerfully empathetic tunes on what looks like a large xylophone as shown in movies before colour television.

(See what I mean? I'll settle for "not really.")

Or.

Or, it could be a post about how teaching yourself is a fantastic way to “waste time” by doing something actually productive. It is immensely satisfying to be able to play a song that you know, and even more so if no one else showed you how to do it. I cannot describe to you the enjoyment of having the chords sound dare-I-say correct. When you start the song on a D and it comes out exactly as it does when you listen to the version Ms. Diamandis herself released in 2010 as her third track of her first album “The Family Jewels," it's just gratifying if I do say so.

The satisfaction that notes are universal. A C chord played at Carnegie Hall is the same one a lowly thirty-one-year-old plunks out as he tries to find the meaning of life, or at least a way to get out of his mom’s basement. The excitement that comes from the fact that there is the slightest possibility that I could harmonize with someone on the other side of the world, if the accident will. That a note in “See I’m Smiling” could be the same as one in “Seven Nation Army” as one in “Für Elise.” Now, who knows if any of those have the same notes at all, but just the possibility and the probability. What I’m saying is that it would hardly be unlikely.

Music notes are among the few things that are truly universal. Music breaks language barriers, economic barriers, political barriers, physical barriers. Caen las murallas, amiright? Music notes convey emotion because of where a dot was printed on a page and what sign comes before a measure. And that's insane.

Some disagree, arguing that lyrics convey the meaning of a song. I ask them, then, why do we have notes? For fun? Does so-and-so from that one opera sing in a minor key just because they’re picking and choosing? No. S/He/Xi does not. It’s done that way to convey certain emotions. The fact that the human ear, and maybe other ears, for that matter, can hear emotion without the language that we created is only fitting. It’s also somewhat of a miracle.

So that was a fun stream of consciousness.

As a spacer, let's add in this picture from the floor of the Marina and the Diamonds concert, because relevance etc.

In other news, on the yesterday-of-yesterday I had a “what-the-heck-even-is-irregardless” moment. Which, in fact, what is irregardless?

For those of you confused, I’m referring to the literal word “irregardless,” which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Let me break it down for you. Regardless means “without regard” which means “without paying attention to the present situation” or “despite the prevailing circumstances.” "Regardless" is already a negative word. The prefix “ir-“ is also negative, as in irregular, irreplaceable, irrefutable, etc., making “irregardless” a double negative word (or shall we say “word”).

People apparently got confused, probably because of the “irre-“ trend going on, and started saying “irregardless” where they should have been saying “regardless.” Now “irregardless" and “regardless" are used interchangeably by people who aren’t peevish about those sorts of things, and also probably never had a grammar geek for a mother. It's probably hereditary. Anyway, "irregardless" is apparently now in the dictionary, but at least it’s categorized as “informal” or “non-standard,” which is the least they could do.

Then again, so is “ain’t" as it turns out, so being in the dictionary barely means anything at all.

If you’d like to read the article that I turned to for answers during this time of crisis, click here. If not, that makes sense, as many people most likely don’t really care about that sort of thing. I say it's all in heredity. Cheers.