Showing posts with label lists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lists. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Plans. AKA The Post With No Direction.

Plans.
Death Cab has them. Harvey Dent has them. Your Mom has them and your Dad has them and your grandparents had them.Your children will have them.

I have a love-hate relationship with plans. I need them for stability; I make more lists than anyone else I know. It seems as if, as long as there's a plan, everything will turn out all right. If it's on the list, somehow it will get done, and even if it doesn't get done, at least it was on the list. At least I planned to do it. And as I listened to the haunting, soothing melody of What Sarah Said, I began to think about the Joker.

"It came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time."
Death Cab for Cutie

"Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just, do things. The mob has plans, the cops have plans, Gordon’s got plans...Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying."
The Joker (The Dark Knight)

So why do we need them? What makes plans so very important? Why can't we just go with the flow, just allowing things to come to pass? As I've said before...human beings are strange creatures. We feel a constant need to manipulate our environments, as if letting control leave our hands will collapse our universes. It's not as if our respective universes are always within our own control, even when we make plans. Planning for something doesn't miraculously make it come true...we can't plan things into existence.

There's a positive spin on this, though. We can't plan for the good things that will happen to us, a majority of the time. They will just occur, whether we expect them or not.

I'm not suggesting it would be better to float lightly on the surface of life, allowing things to happen to us, rather than seeking them out. I couldn't do that any more than I can say it, and honestly, I don't see the purpose in trying to suppress my desire to make plans. And I'm not suggesting fate exists, either. I'm simply saying that things will happen even when (especially when) we don't plan for them. I don't think God makes them happen. I don't think Fate makes them happen. I don't think they're meant to be. They just come to pass.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Lists

It is Monday. Meh. Bof. And other such interjections which mean "blah".
I used to write in a diary, but I wasn't very good at it, as I rarely kept up with it, and frequently my writing got so angsty/whiny/just plain boring, that I annoyed myself. So I stopped. I have since replaced my diary with a little book of lists. The lists describe the daily happenings of moi and my thoughts better than the diary format ever could. I shall occasionally share these lists with you, dear followers. Here are a few of my most recents:

Words Impossible to Define
Trollin'
Sketch
Respect
Hot

Concerts I've Attended and My Ratings of Them (in Retrospect)
Journey: **
Riders in the Sky: ****
Allison Krauss and Union Station: *****
Shania Twain: **
Jimmy Buffett: **
Dave Matthews Band: ****
Jack Johnson: *****
Maroon 5/Counting Crows/Sara Bareilles: *****
U2: *****

Things with Which I Have a (Possibly Unhealthy) Obsession
France
Audrey Hepburn
Lists
Steampunk stuff
Gossip Girl
Vampires (the evil kind, not the sparkly vegetarian types)
Josephine Bonaparte
Period fashion, especially Colonial
Lady Gaga
The Beatles
Knowing the lyrics to every song I hear
Virology/epidemiology
Navy blue
The Cathedral of Learning and the Wren Building
Imperfect things
John Mayer's twitter updates

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Stuff That Everyone But Me Likes

I began listing in my head yesterday all the things that I dislike, soon realizing that half of this list consisted of things other people like very well. Thus, this post was born. Eventually this list will be followed up with Stuff No One But Me Likes, such as the number 36, my favorite number, and also the number of items on this somewhat indignant and highly irrelevant list. Enjoy.
  1. Spaghetti
  2. Perogies
  3. Overly simplistic writing
  4. Summer weather
  5. Soup
  6. Bella Swann
  7. Bacon and cheese, atop anything that isn’t bacon or cheese
  8. Silence
  9. “Bless your heart”
  10. Babies
  11. Unnecessary capitalization
  12. Underusage of commas
  13. Golden Corral
  14. Long fingernails
  15. Cultural relativism
  16. Giving or receiving driving directions
  17. Candy corn
  18. Romance
  19. Hijabs
  20. “Talking” as a relationship status
  21. Gas stations
  22. Bad French accents
  23. Grits
  24. Roman-numeraled watches
  25. Trickle-down economics
  26. People who “hate lawyers”
  27. Tiny dogs
  28. Tiny handbags
  29. Throw pillows
  30. English history
  31. Parenthetical remarks
  32. "Irregardless"
  33. Euphemism
  34. Soft mattresses
  35. Australian accents
  36. Oprah's book club