4 posts tagged “zune”

Mood Boosting Playlist

Dec 1, 2008
Post a comment

aka Hercules.

Listed here for your enjoyment as demanded by Sharkey. I add songs here and there, it started as just 18 tracks. I've created a Hercules playlist on Finetune you can listen to, but it lists the songs alphabetically and doesn't retain my song order. So I've also provided my lineup after the widget.

hercules playlist

Freedom! '90 - George Michael

Groove Is In The Heart - DeeLite

Ready To Go - Republica

Move Along - All-American Rejects

How Far We've Come - Matchbox 20

Fighter - Christina Aguilera

Friday Night - Lily Allen

Somebody Hates You - Snake River Conspiracy

Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson

Cassius Clay - Booda Velvets

Pain Lies On The Riverside - Live

Overblown - Mudhoney

Stand - Liquid Jesus, Pump Up The Volume soundtrack (not on finetune)

Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera

Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz

Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet

Drop Dead Gorgeous - Republica

Lovesong - Snake River Conspiracy

Afternoons and Coffeespoons - Crash Test Dummies

Yield - Indigo Girls

Kiss - Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones

Superman - REM

The Promise - When In Rome

Things Can Only Get Better - D:Ream

Windpower - Thomas Dolby

A Little Less Conversation - Elvis Presley (JXL Radio Edit Remix)

Knock 'Em Out - Lily Allen

Police On My Back - The Clash

Fly Away - Lenny Kravitz

Closer To Fine - Indigo Girls

Bitch - Meredith Brooks

Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple

Hazy Shade of Winter - The Bangles

Candy - Iggy Pop & Kate Pierson

Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode

I Think I Love You - Voice of the Beehive, Honey Lingers (not on finetune)

School of Rock - Jack Black, School of Rock soundtrack (not on finetune)

I Love You Always Forever - Donna Lewis

Veronica - Elvis Costello

Breakfast At Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something

Least Complicated - Indigo Girls

Beautiful - Christina Aguilera

Praise You - Fatboy Slim

Out of My Head - Sun 60 (not on finetune)

Everlong - Foo Fighters

I Believe (When I Fall In Love) - Stevie Wonder

Ironic - Alanis Morissette

All The Small Things - Blink182

Waiting For You - Seal

Personal Experiment - painting

Nov 30, 2008
1 comment

I'm very linear and tend to be very symmetric and ordered about things. Sometimes this makes me a little nervous and worry I'm borderline OCD or something. Serious. So a few months ago when I bought some picture frames, I bought a couple 24x36" blank canvases too (buy 1 get 1 for a penny sale). The reason I bought them is that I am having a pretty change filled, stressful year, and I thought it would be good for me to find a way to express my emotions and try to be less controlled and cerebral. I would also like to stretch myself to be more creative and random, less bound by order. Also, I'm an AWFUL artist. So this is going to be an exercise for me to learn to enjoy something I'm not very good at.

The canvases have been sitting in my garage for months now, untouched. Every time I went looking at paints I got kind of overwhelmed with options (and expense), and a semi-hopeless sense of 'I don't even know what to paint, and the end result will probably turn out disappointing compared to what I feel or see in my head and wanted to paint anyway'. Say it with me now: Excuses. Finally last week on impulse I bought a little oil paint set and package of assorted brushes that were super cheap and in an aisle display at the local craft store.

Today I got all my framed art hung on the walls. (I procrastinate sometimes.) But today I finally:

decided where to hang my large framed catwoman poster

cut the mat and framed my augographed Thomas Dolby poster

knuckled down and did the math to ensure the five Blue Sun travel posters were

centered on the wall

evenly spaced

And for some reason, having the framed art on the walls (and not just lurking in the corner making be feel like a slacker) gave me the motivation I needed to go out on an emotional limb and try painting. So tonight after putting the kids to bed I put on some old sweats, fired up my Zune and popped in the tiny earbuds I had to go buy separately (standard ears are apparently way bigger than mine), grabbed a diet coke, and made my way to the garage to put paint to canvas.

things in my head post-painting experiment:

Cheap brushes suck. Within the first 3 minutes they were shedding bristles in the paint on the canvas. So I didn't bother trying to clean the brushes, just threw them out when done.

This is my first time working with oil paints or canvas; all my prior painting has been with acrylics on wood or plaster. Now I know that *for painting on canvas*, I like oil paints more than acrylic. They take longer to dry so the colors blend for a long time and you can get a lot of depth through layering. Less important with crafts, where acrylics are ideal.

Sometimes, I would catch myself just painting and not thinking about anything. When that would happen I would be surprised by how happy I was - it was borderline endorphin rush happy. Contributing factor: I was listening to my Hercules playlist (mood boosting songs) and I'm pretty sure by 5 songs in I was singing along. Loudly. Singing + busy hands = 100% proc utilization.

I had no idea what I was going to paint, just a general idea of an idea I wanted to convey. What I ended up with was NOT what I initally thought I'd paint. But within 2 seconds of putting brush to canvas, I realized I needed to get a feel for how the different brushes would apply paint, how the paint would spread on the canvas, and what the colors would look like before I tried to purposely paint anything particular.

I need to do some reading on oil painting and learn what the standard supplies are and what they are used for. Seriously. I did ZERO research and only bought a very cheap set of 12 small paint tubes ($4.97) and a very cheap set of assorted brushes (also $4.97). Not doing research and acquiring every possible supply I might need is not like me at all. Which in a way, is part of what this whole painting experiment is about. Trying to be creative, non-linear, not obsessed with symmetry, relaxed and not overthinking everything, just expressing. But I definitely need to see if there is someething that thins the paint a bit, there is no way I would be able to paint anything of detail with paint as thick as what I was working with tonight (though that could be a function of my using cheap paint also).

I need to buy a palatte. just a cheap plastic thing will do. And a plastic tarp to hang behind the working canvas since I don't have an easel and am just propping the canvas against the wall on top of boxes. Investing in an easel seems premature and excessive at this point since I don't really know that I'll take up painting regularly enough to warrant it.

Yes I took a picture of the finished painting with my iPhone, but no, I am not posting it publicly. The photo doesn't do the painting justice, the painting is prettier. But it is still lame hotel lobby art that could have been done by a 6 year old. I am proud of it and find it immensely boring at the same time. I haven't decided if i'll paint over it or add to it another night (once I've got brushes again).

Even if I never create anything better than boring hotel lobby art, the experience was worth the investment. Happy is good.

blogjam

May 10, 2008
Post a comment

Since starting to Twitter I have been slack in my blogging, and now I have multiple posts to write all jammed up in my head waiting to get out.

However. It is 11:20 pm and I am tired. I have finally gotten all the pictures for the different blogposts onto this computer so I'm ready to start writing... but for now I'm going to sleep. I'll write as much as I can tomorrow to get caught up on v2 of the Test Kitchen Experiment (awesome), my Zune 2.5 testing (entertaining), and the Emerald City ComiCon (uber-geeky), at the very least.

bonne nuit et bons rêves

ZUNE!

Feb 7, 2008
4 comments

I got an iPod for my birthday last year. I love my iPod. It is sleek, shiny, sexy. Unfortunately I FUCKING HATE ITUNES FOR WINDOWS!!! Worst. Software. Ever. EVER.

Current Zune's aren't quite as pretty as iPods, but the custom engraving on the back is just about the coolest thing ever. And the software is incredibly easy to use. Best of all, with the marketplace subscription, I can download any music I want for just $15/month, which is so totally worth it. I can check out new artists and albums and if i don't like them, I just delete them. Nothing lost. I like owning hard media, so I still buy CD's for the ones I like, and love that the risk of buying something I end up not liking has been removed.

KymPossible's Mission Music is now housed on this:

Zunepic

the lyrics were in last week's NTT if they look familiar. And OF COURSE I went with the pirate Valentine image (technically it's named 'Toxic'). That can't possibly be a surprise to anyone who knows me.

Mood Boosting Playlist

Personal Experiment - painting

blogjam

ZUNE!

About Me

My Links

Neighborhood

Tags

Archives

knytz

4 posts tagged “zune”

Mood Boosting Playlist

Personal Experiment - painting

blogjam

ZUNE!

About Me

My Links

Neighborhood

Tags

Archives

Subscribe

knytz