We got your back

Sometimes things get lost in my brain. Detail, description; sometimes they just don’t stick around like they should. My brain sometimes has an exorbitant amount of difficulty sorting and organizing information. It's as if it doesn't get shelved quite where it belongs, so when I go back to look for it I just can't find it anywhere (these mental difficulties sometimes extend to my dorm room, needless to say). So this is why I like lists. They force you to separate, evaluate, organize. A clear, consecutive, numbered list can be such a beautiful thing.
Thus, I had originally wanted to write this whole introductory-blog-post shebang about lists. I was going to compile a list of my Top Ten (or maybe Five...Ten is a lot) Favorite Lists. This turned out to be a little bit more confusing than I expected. I can't even think of that many lists off the top of my head, and where would I go to find them? I had almost given up and switched to my Top Ten Favorite Chemical Elements (coincidentally, I'm currently writing this in my geology class), until I came across Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year list for 2007 (I guess they haven't made the 2008 version yet). It's a user-compiled list that also includes words from M-W's "open dictionary", which is apparently a wiki-type thing where users can just add their own definitions for words. I have to admit, I did learn a couple new words from the list, as well as some other things, including the fact that apparently Facebook isn't just a proper noun anymore! Obviously, I have a few things to say about some of the top ten entries. Here are some I found especially notable, with my comments:

1. w00t. Yeah, really, w00t. Two letters and two numbers that comprise the Word of the Year. I love computers, I really do (see: this blog), but it does make me a little sad that the top two entries on this list are exclusively internet-related. That's not what words are about. You can't write a fucking poem with the word w00t in it. Give me a break.

2. facebook. Lowercase f. Also, all of the definitions listed - the eleven separate submitted definitions for the word - are all verbs. "I just finished facebooking my friends and family." "Have you facebooked those photos from the party last weekend?" "Did you facebook today?" "Hey, I saw you facebooked me." Ugh. You know how sometimes when you write out a word a lot and then it stops seeming like an actual word (which is debatable anyway in this case), and then you can't even remember what it meant in the first place, or why you're saying it, and it's just suddenly completely unfamiliar? I think it's time to move onto the next word. (Hey, maybe this newfound word-repulsion will mean that I'll stay away from a certain social networking site for the rest of the afternoon!)

5. blamestorm. I have never heard this word before! It's great! It's one of my absolute favorite things to do. "Generally pejorative; to spend, or more commonly waste, time attempting to place blame for a given failure." I wish this was in the real dictionary instead of the fake open one. Kudos to Alex Flood from Michigan who submitted that one!

7. apathetic. Of course one of the words is apathetic. Apathetic is pretty much everyone's favorite word for some reason. I should probably try to link this to some huge sweeping judgment on society today or something, but I don't really feel like it.

8. Pecksniffian. Etymology: Seth Pecksniff, character in Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens. "Unctuously hypocritical." I'm just a little blown away by the fact that we can have both w00t and a Dickens reference on the same list.

Other words on the list that I didn't have anything to say about are: conundrum, quixotic, sardoodledom, hypocrite, charlatan.

I think I like words even more than I like lists. I also like books and films and music and stuff, but I figured talking about some words would be a fitting enough introduction for something that going to consist entirely of me just writing a bunch of words (some more meaningless than others). And as far as the actual obligatory-introduction part that I meant to include earlier, but got sidetracked:

Hello! I'm the Tuesday girl. I come between the Monday girl and the Wednesday boy. I really can't tell you what I'll be writing about in here. I already said that I like words and books and movies, so there'll be a little bit of that, and I'll probably usually if not always have at least something music-related (just hold on, we're getting there). Also, I talk a lot. Get used to it. Or, you know, I could try to be more concise or something, instead of going on paragraph-long rants about Facebook (sorry - facebook). Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The music part. Yes. So I thought maybe I'd just post some songs that have some of my favorite uses of words in them. Sometimes it's just a single word that I love (see: dirigible), sometimes it's all the words as a whole just being great. But my point is, words are great. Words are everywhere. Words are in music and words are in lists and words are in blogs and on the back of your soda bottle, and I think that's pretty neat. And here are some words for you to hear.

Joanna Newsom - Bridges and Balloons
The girl obviously has a pretty serious vocabulary. Seriously, my heart skips a beat whenever I hear her sing "dirigible".

Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes
I really adore the way he plays with words in this songs. Okay, so, no, I don't think any of them actually seem like palindromes, even if that is what he's going for, but that doesn't mean that they don't just sound really fucking cool all strung together.

UGK feat. Outkast- Int'l Player's Anthem
A certain later-in-the-week blogger might make fun of me for this because yes, I am completely obsessed with this song, and yes, I haven't been able to stop listening it for - what, the past six months? - and yes, I pretty much just want an excuse to post it. But seriously, I love the way he breaks up 'chiropractic'. That takes skill, man. And, you know, that's just what I always tell my friends: "You know I got your back like chiroprac."
N.B. I only have the radio-edit version. Which is total bullshit and something that I really have to remedy ASAP, but that means that's what you're getting, too. Apologies.

P.S. I can't say "Vote!" because the polls are probably closed. But keep your fingers crossed for tonight, bros. The anxiety is starting to set in.