My Commuting List (*SPOILERS*)

[Kyle]

On my one hour commute to work everyday, I let my mind wander and I think of things that I want to look up (or need to do) when I get to the office. I have Siri keep a list for me on the phone. When I listen to music (as opposed to podcasts) like I did today, the list is longer than on other days. Here's my list from this morning:

-Cup of borax in toilet overnight
-Sudafed dosage for bigger
-Where is snap
-Party prep
-Calendar beard
-Composing harmonies
-Protest music
-Kim Carnes Rumor has it plagiarism
-Winter butterfly
-Trap movies
-Sixpence None the Richer origin and WATN

As you can see, as I stop concentrating, my list is influenced by what I'm hearing on the radio (which was the 80s and 90s channels on Sirius).

So in the next post, I will reveal the results of inquiries. *SPOILERS FOLLOW*

[Kyle]

-Cup of borax in toilet overnight: This has been at the top of my list for a few days. I'm leaving it there to remind myself to try this on my kids' disgusting toilet this weekend. I'm leaving this on the list.

-Sudafed dosage for bigger: I wanted to see if I can take more sudafed because I'm fat. I can't. Still just a max dose of 60 mg every 4 to 6 hours. Erased.

-Where is snap: I heard "Rhythm is a Dancer" by Snap! on the 90s station and wanted to find out what happened to him. It turns out that Turbo B, the rapper, still performs around the world on nostalgia shows. It also turns out that he wasn't actually Snap!, but just a rapper that was on all their hits. Snap! was a DJ created group. When I found that out, I realized I didn't care what happened to Snap! but only Turbo B. I'm glad he's doing well. Erased.

-Party prep: I needed to review my character information for the murder mystery party tomorrow. I haven't done that yet, but I opened a tab for it, so that I'll do it at some point today. Erased.

-Calendar beard: I want to check the calendar and see if I have anything important in the next two weeks that would prevent me from trimming my beard weirdly for the murder mystery party. Guess what? I don't! Yay! Erased.

-Composing harmonies: I thought of this when I heard Air Supply. (Side note- oh my god- I forgot Air Supply existed!) Before looking it up I thought, maybe it's just as easy as singing an octave or two higher or lower. Nope. It involves shifting up or down (normally to minor or major keys) to create harmonies. It seemed like it would make a lot more sense if I remembered how to read music. Damn. Erased.

-Protest music: I heard Allentown by Billie Joel and realized for the first time in my life that it was a protest song. Hey, why don't we have protest songs anymore? I mean, I'm sure we have them, but they're not on the charts or popular are they? So I looked it up. Yeah, there's no real protest songs that have any popularity this decade. I predict they are coming, though. Erased.

-Kim Carnes rumor has it plagiarism: I heard a song by Kim Carnes called "Do You Remember?" or something like that, and it opened eerily similar to a part of Rumor has it- or some song by Adele. So I wanted to check and see if there were plagiarism accusations. There aren't. Damn. Erased.

-Winter butterfly: At this point in my drive, I almost hit the biggest, most beautiful bright-blue butterfly I'd ever seen. It was amazing. But how could a butterfly that big survive when we've had our first hard freeze several times already? It turns out it can't and it wasn't a butterfly. I'm guessing it was a piece of trash kicked up by the tire of another car. Damn. Erased.

-Trap movies: This year I watched "High School Exorcism" which was a "trap movie"-- it billed itself as a horror/possession movie, but in the end, it was a movie to convince you to accept Jesus if you want to ward off the evils of Satan. It was truly terrible. But know I want to watch more of them. I did an initial google search, but I'm looking under the wrong terms. So I left the tab open so that, if I have time, I can follow up. I'll leave this one on my list too.

-Sixpence None the Richer origin and WATN: I heard "There She Goes" and vaguely remembered that the name of the band was from a Shakespeare play, but then I became skeptical of that. So I wanted to verify the origin of the name and, while I was at it, see where they are now. Well, guess what? It wasn't Shakespeare. It was from a C.S. Lewis story about a kid that asks his dad for Six pence to buy his dad a gift, which the dad happily agrees to. The kid buys the gift and when the dad gets it, he's initially happy until he realizes he's "six pence none the richer." That's a cool name origin, but it's a really shitty sentiment. Fuck that dad. What a fucking jerk. Anyhow, I also learned that the band is an alternative christian band, which many people think would bother me, but it doesn't because the music is just stuff that I dig, whether it's secretly about religion or not. The band still tours on nostalgia tours-- which apparently is what happens with any artist that had at least two hits.

[buckett]

THIS is a trap movie:

[Kyle]

Yeah, see- that was the problem with my google search.

[Ronster]

I could send you my collection of "TRAP" movies if you'd like.

Six Pence None The Richer's song "Kiss Me" is even more catchy in Japanese:

[Kyle]

I spent five minutes trying to find "movies that try to trick you into being religious" and didn't find much. Suck.

[Phoebe]

Let us know how the borax in toilet thing goes, and if it works better than, say, squirting in a ring of lysol toilet bowl cleaner and letting it sit there for a while. Do you put it in the bowl or the tank or both?

I like your method of noting things down while driving. I use the drive as a time to purge stress, and either talk through conversations I need to have at work (morning, on the way) or AAR the conversations I did have in hopes of learning for the future (evening, going back home). Since my CD player doesn't work (due to having a particular CD I made for myself stuck in it, irretrievably, in one of the universe's moments of bitter humor) I apply my magical arts to the radio, which is the only place I feel like it's safe to use them, and sing loudly in a way I intend to be in-tune but which is apparently out-of-tune.

I'm more familiar with trap-type comic books and other brief literature - not sure I have ever seen a movie in that genre!

[Eliahad]

Kyle, what do you want to know about composing harmonies? This is a thing I cam actually explain.

[Kyle]

I appreciate it, Eli. I actually figured out how to do it (I used to be able to read and right music, but haven't used it in a couple decades so forgot the particulars). I'd like to figure out how to do it by ear, but I don't think I have enough pitch sense to do it.