Part of your world

I'm done being poor. Seriously.

It all started about a month ago when I wandered into Macy's. I immediately gravitated towards a hot pair of jeans that I was totally going to try on. Till I saw the $230 price tag. The same thing happened this weekend with a totally awesome suede jacket in Nordstrom's. $2000. For reals. Even going to Armani Exchange and getting a shirt and light jacket practically bankrupted me. Is it too much to ask that I be able to spend ridiculous amounts of money on clothes?

The same thing goes for food and drinks. Once you've eaten at Bin 36 a couple of times, other restaurants just don't quite seem so special. I've gotten a taste of the upper middle class lifestyle, and it's really hard to come back to reality.

I think I'll get a part-time job, or find someplace where I can actually work full-time, instead of this in-between thing that I'm doing now. Not only will that help give me a bit more disposable income, maybe if I'm too busy to spend money, I won't.

Or maybe I should get myself a sugar daddy. I like older men anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard, right? haha.

Leave Miley alone!!!

Why do I have the feeling that's totally gonna be a Youtube video soon, if it isn't already?

Anyway, I actually do feel really sorry for Miley Cyrus, and have for quite a while. I'm not one for the whole celebrity gossip thing, but this is kind of extreme (oh who am I kidding, I read Perez Hilton twice a day). She seriously can't do anything right at this point. Every time she turns around, somebody else is calling her slutty, or a bad role model, or a future trainwreck.

Guess what? 15-year-olds are way more mature than we pretend. Kids are giving blowjobs in junior high, and having sex not long after they enter high school. A mildly suggestive picture that doesn't expose much more flesh than most red-carpet dresses? Not that bad.

Also, the thing that you have to realize is that Miley can't appeal to a younger audience forever. Her fans are all hitting puberty, and the good-girl image isn't gonna fly for long. These pictures are bad publicity for Disney, who is going to market her to children for as long as they possibly can, but they're kind of necessary for Miley (if a bit early), who's gonna need to establish a serious music/acting career if she's going to avoid falling into obscurity as soon as people discover she's a one-trick pony.

As long as she doesn't get into drugs and go crazy, I say go for it, girl.

I'm gonna give up using lyrics for blog titles

I have come to a realization: I am an health/exercise snob. I used to think that I was just a health nut, but I've realized that not only do I obsess over my own diet and exercise, I look down on other people who aren't as stringent as me.

I realize that this isn't quite fair. I happen to have enough free time to work out every day, and enough disposable income to eat healthy food. Also, I have two essential health-nut qualities: I love to exercise and I think that healthy food tastes better than junk food.

That being said, people are WUSSES. They either go to the gym and pretend to work on the machines, actually doing very little at all, or they go and do real workouts, but give up when they're sore for a couple of days afterwards. Of course you're sore, you haven't gotten off your ass in two years. Or they work out for about a month, then quit when they stop dropping weight every week. Seriously, people. If it were easy, it wouldn't be called working out.

Haha, I'd be a terrible personal trainer. Yeah, I've gotten to the point where I'm pretty knowledgeable about workout routines and dieting strategies, but I'd totally be the bitch-ass boot-camp type of personal trainer. I think that a required quality in trainers is the patience to deal with people and a positive attitude that enforces the belief that getting in shape is achievable. However, I have no patience for wusses and I don't really have the empathy to take things slow with them or help them out that much.

I guess the reason that I don't get it is because I'm addicted to exercise. While some people's stress response is to eat, mine is to go running. I totally live for the endorphin rush. Also, I put much more stock in my personal appearance than most people. It probably stems from some sort of low self esteem, but I need tangible proof that I'm physically equal or superior to other people, or else I feel ugly. Or maybe it's a competitive thing: I totally strive to match or better the other gym rats. In any case, my attitude is probably not the healthiest to have, but the result is that I'm in damn good shape.

Your one-stop candy shop

Well, Madonna's new album leaked yesterday. I've been listening to it, and I must say, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's not what it was advertised as, which is a thumping hip-hop album, but you know, I'm glad. Sure, she dabbles a bit in heavy beats and other hip-hoppy things, but for the most part it's a dancy pop album. I'd put it in the same grouping as Nelly Furtado's Loose. It's definitely a lot better than I was expecting after having heard the first single.

Which brings me to my next point, which is somewhat related to Stin's complaint about Hollywood. Pop music has no subtlety, and people put WAY too much emphasis on star power. I'm 90% sure that 4 Minutes was the first single from Madonna's album purely because it features Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. People go immediately for the song with names that they recognize associated with it. And this is sad, because those aren't necessarily the best songs. In fact, they tend to be disjointed and mediocre, because they tend to cram together several incompatible vocal and musical styles. And usually, the most popular songs are the ones with the heaviest beats or the cheesiest lyrics. It's really annoying, but possibly the worst thing is that I fall for it. I realize how inane most pop music is, but still, as soon as the beat starts going I immediately start bobbing my head/strutting/dancing/whatever else is appropriate at the moment.

And now I have a huge confession to make: I actually like Ashlee Simpson. This is associated with all sorts of guilt, because she represents everything that I hate about pop music. She's only successful because her sister was famous first. She has absolutely no talent (have you ever heard her try to perform live? ewwww), and most of her music is pretty inane. Also, she's WAY too artificial (remember how her nose used to look completely different? And she's had a completely different hair color for each of her albums) However, I think that her voice translates very well on records and most of her music is very catchy (the majority of her second album not included). Also, she's spunky. Spunk goes a long way with me.

y'know, I tried really hard at first not to make this into a music blog. However, I spend about 8 hours a day with my iPod plugged into my ears, so it's kind of inevitable that I end up thinking about music a lot. Whatev.

I am a weapon of mass consumption

Can we talk about how much I LOVE Lily Allen?  Seriously, go to her myspace and listen to the first song on the list.  It's totally my new favorite song.  She's totally fabulous, even if Perez says that she's kind of a trainwreck these days.  (Of course, I think that if I went through a miscarriage, I'd go a little crazy for a while too.)

Anyway, enough about celebrity gossip.  In other news, I GOT A NEW COMPUTER!!!  AND AN IPOD SHUFFLE!!!  They're both totally hot.  I got the upper level of Macbook, which is basically an updated version of my old computer, except it's black.  And twice as fast, with 3X as much memory.  Yay for being a consumer whore!

Can't get you out of my head

Wow, this is a gay month for music. Madonna and Kylie Minogue are both releasing new albums? Now all we need is Cher to come back.

I've been listening to Kylie's new album today (it's called 'X') and I'm about halfway through. It's a whole lot of fun. Obviously, she's not gonna change that much since she has to keep her gay fanbase. I've never been way into her except for a few of her singles, but it seems pretty solid to me.

Now let's just hope that Madonna redeems herself with the rest of her album.

Please don't stop the music

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to update very often. Truth be told, I'm lazy. I know, it's a shock, right?

First off: There are some cover versions of songs that should never be done. Today at the bookstore I heard a saxophone version of the theme from Schindler's List. How wrong is that? Another one that I heard in Nordstrom's was a male-vocal version of Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful.' It actually took me like 3 minutes to figure out what the song was. While I'm at it, why don't I rail on ironic versions of Britney Spears songs? Because, believe it or not, it's been DONE BEFORE. And while it's funny the first time, I've heard about three alternative versions of Toxic and one of Gimme More, and probably more that I'm just not specifically remembering right now.

In other news, I'm about to play my last symphony concert ever. Well, kind of. I'm still gonna be on the sub list for next year, so i'll probably end up playing at least one. It's kind of a sad time (although I won't miss schlepping to Iowa twice a month) because I've been in it for 6 years now, and it'll be the first time since I was in elementary school that I wasn't in at least some sort of orchestra. I feel kind of like an entire era of my life is ending. Unless I stick around and do the University Symphony next year, which I'm seriously considering. I'm pretty sure that they accept employees...

While I'm talking about music, I have a confession to make: I officially have no taste, or more specifically, I have the musical taste of a 12-year-old girl. For instance, I actually like Avril Lavigne's last album. And that single by Miley Cyrus? Totally addictive. I've even recanted my criticism of Madonna's new single and actually listen to it now. (Well, no, my criticism still stands. What's even worse is that the version I first listened to isn't the real version, which is even worse. I'm assuming that it was the radio-friendly version, which was sped up and didn't have the dumb intro and outro)