New Music

Do you have your favorite type of music? Or even a favorite singer or band? I have several from very different genres, but it really depends on my mood.

Music to clean house by? I listen to something upbeat like Earth, Wind and Fire. (no snickering!)

Really depressed? Want to be more depressed? Listen to Danny Elfman's "Music for a Darkened Theater" volumes 1 and 2.

General good listening? Billy Joel and Elton John.

Crossover Country/Pop? Shania Twain and Faith Hill.

Crank it up and rock out music? How about Aerosmith, Journey, Styx, Kansas or Boston? (methinks I'm showing my age here)

Some Classical Orchestra music I like: Handel Flute Sonatas, Bach's Brandenburg Concerti, (isn't fun to use a word like *concerti*?) Leonard Bernstein, Gershwin, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

I also like the variety of soundtracks. Broadway music sort of fits in this. But some movie soundtracks have a whole bunch of different types of music in one nice little package.

These are all typical of me. Those who know me well are not surprised at all by the above list, and could even have named some without even looking at my list. So I figure it's time to branch out and listen to new music.

I did that a couple of years ago and found out that I liked some groups I would never have thought I would. Like Good Charlotte. Have you seen those guys?? Holy Tatoos!!! Whoa. But some their songs speak to me. Like "Hold On". And whoever would have thought I would like Nickelback or Hoobastank?

So now I'm listening to a cd by a group that I purposely picked to listen to because I had never heard of them. (and because I could listen to the cd for free online!) Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Show Your Bones."

I have to be careful, because, as a musician, I tend to listen to the music as a whole and not hear the lyrics. I don't like lyrics that swear, talk about violence, have blantant sexual meanings, or have a truly negative message. But it's easy to miss that. So don't bash me about Yeah Yeah Yeahs just yet. It's hard to type and think AND listen to the lyrics of a new group. The music is okay. Sounds sort of like a grunge band with a female lead singer. A really not that talented lead female singer. A great drummer and lead guitar player though.

Okay, that wasn't too bad. I listened to the entire cd without turning it down or off. Next up...

Matt Costa.

Never heard of him. But since today is my new music day, I'll give him a shot. He is described as "This skateboarder-turned-musician blends acoustic pop with hints of blues, classical, folk and country." Yeesssss. Sounds more like me. (I enjoy the music of Jason Mraz, John Mayer, above mentioned Elton and Billy, James Taylor, etc.)

Listening....

Enjoying...

I can definitely recommend Matt Costa for those times when you just want to lay back and enjoy some music. Nice acoustic guitar licks. Ahhh, but what about the lyrics?

Oh yeah, I'm going to be a Grandma!

Don't know why I haven't blogged about this yet!!!

I'm going to be a Grandmother, or will I be a Grandma? Or Nana, Granny, Grammy, Gramma...

When I told someone at church she said "oh, then you'll be Grandma Howell!"

Grandma Howell sounds, well, not like me. Like someone else. Older. (hehe)

So I guess I will just wait and see what the little grandchild wants to call me. My dear daughter doesn't have a name for the baby yet, so why should I be worried about it's name for me yet?

Chocolate is a Girl's Best Friend

My Favorite Chocolate Bar is:

Chocolate Funnies...

If you've got melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

The problem: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in hot car. The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.

Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.

If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer.

But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?

Money talks. Chocolate sings.

Q. Why is there no such organization as Chocoholics Anonymous? A. Because no one wants to quit.

Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

A box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?

It's been a long time

Wow. It's been almost a month since I last posted. I guess I better get my brain to work. Sometimes that take's a while. Hmmmm.

There's more to life than Google...

I recently read an article about the variety of search engines out there. I realized that like most people out there on the world wide web, I am in a Google rut. Face it, "google" is now a verb. It is the most widely used search engine.

The very first search engine I used besides the resident aol engine, was probably Yahoo. Altavista was another one I remember from long ago. I still love their Babel Fish translation service. Then somebody hooked me up with Dogpile.com. I still really like that one when I remember that there is life outside of Google. AskJeeves.com was another one I frequented. Or was it just Ask.com? (It is now, since Jeeves has been given the boot!)

Here are some new ones that I'm checking out.
Singingfish.com
Blingo.com
Surfwax.com

A couple places I ran across are actually trying to win you over (like above Blingo) by offering chances to win something (msn.com) or by giving you opportunity to get rewards (Amazon's A9 search offers 1.57% off Amazon purchases.)

For those of you into research, you can research search engines at Search Engine Watch.

Most search engines out there are run by Google or Yahoo, so I'll probably just stick with Google unless something better comes up. Google just has so much to offer: froogle, images, maps, even the controversial book search. And I think I'd rather "google" something than "yahoo" something... it just sounds more, umm, right. Or maybe not?