Another Friday, another music log. I only have two songs for today but they are really good rock songs.
Let's start with “Sick of Me” by Beartooth. Most of their songs fall on the heavy metal, hard rock side of things, but they have a few which are the perfect combination of those genres. This song is one of them. This is a great song about making the effort and pushing yourself, so you end up in a far better place than where you are right now.
I lost six of my years
Fighting fire with fear
And it's tearing me apart inside
I can point all the blame
Try to relieve the shame
But I think it's time I took back my life
'Cause I'm sick of the person I used to be
So stressed out, burned out, living in my agony
Hated all the words that they said to me
So I jacked up, blacked out, wasted all those memories
I won't go back
...
'Cause I'm sick of you
I'm sick of me
I'm sick of the person I used to be
Back in October of 2019, I had the clutch replaced on my daily driver, a 2013 Mazdaspeed3. The clutch started to slip as I neared 90,000 miles on the odometer. From then on, it just started to slip more and more. All I could do at that point was to get the clutch replaced. Here is a list of parts that I had to purchase to get it replaced.
It is a rainy Friday in Texas, time for another music log.
The first song for today is “What Would Love Do?” by Scott Stapp. If you don't know who Scott Stapp is, he was the vocalist for the rock band Creed, which was one of my favorite bands back in high school. I don't remember why they've disbanded, but the rest of the band members are still making music in another rock band, Alter Bridge.
Anyway back to the song, this is a beautiful song about the power of love. Not the cheesy corny kind, but the kind of love that stops you from giving in to your rage. I really love the lyrics on this song.
Go ahead and throw it in my face
Remind me of each of my mistakes
Turn on me tell me I'm wrong that it's all my fault
I feel I'm losing control
Putting my fists through the wall
This is the place that I break I can't take anymore
I see the fear in your eyes
I'm frozen standing still in time
What would love do?
If it were here in this room, standing between me and you.
What would love do?
It would look in my face and stop me from hurting you.
That's what love would do
Research on deindividuation theory has been conducted in numerous settings (not just driving) and has found that when we feel anonymous, we’re more likely to disregard societal norms for behavior.
Basically, it’s easier to get mad at someone when we don’t know them because we’re less likely to be held accountable for it.
“It’s the same reason why people feel like they’re entitled to be angry on certain social media platforms,” Dr. Himanshu Agrawal (a psychiatrist at the Medical College of Wisconsin) explains.
Since we rarely know the person in the car next to us (and since we also have a box of glass/steel between us and them), driving creates that sense of anonymity, making it easier for us to lash out.
When I decided to read this article, I was doing so because I wanted to learn more about road rage and how to avoid it. I didn't expect to run into this gem. This article basically says that one of the causes for road rage, is also responsible for the sad state of communications online. If you really read into it, it does make sense.
One of my goals this year is to be able to do more pull-ups. Currently, I can only do 2 in a row. I want to be able to do 5 in a row before the end of this year. This pull-up guide from Nerd Fitness seems to be exactly what I need.
For my first music log for 2020, I'm starting off with a band I've rediscovered on Spotify, The Cranberries. Listening to their songs transports me back to my high-school/college days. It is very unfortunate that their vocalist passed away as they were finishing up their latest album. Dolores is one of those singers with a unique voice and singing style. You could easily tell if The Cranberries were on the radio because of how she sang.
First song for today is their hit song “Zombie”. This is one of those songs that defined a generation, a generation that was growing up during the 90s. It was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar so it has something of a sentimental value to me.
This is a great song to learn on an acoustic or bass guitar. The chord pattern is so simple, Em – C – G – D, so all open chords. You could play this over and over again in what would be a fun jamming session with friends.
Award-winning psychologist Bruce Hood draws on research from his own lab and others around the world to explain why psychological ownership is an emotional state of mind that governs our behaviour from the cradle to the grave, even when it is often irrational and destructive. What motivates us to buy more than we need? How does our urge to acquire control our behaviour, even the way we vote? And what can we do about it?
Timely, engaging and persuasive, Possessed is the first book to explore how ownership has us enthralled in relentless pursuit of a false happiness, with damaging consequences for society and the planet – and how we can stop buying into it.
Sounds like a very interesting book. Adding it to my “want to read” list.
Imagine my shock then, to find myself enjoying the game! Lebron and his teammates were skilled ballplayers, exciting to watch and fast on their feet. Two quarters in, my fears had lifted. Unlike fifteen years prior, this basketball arena was the site of my ultimate, God-given purpose. God had not created me to be a basketball player, but He had created me to love and support my student, Lebron.
Maybe where you are right now is not where you want to be. Or, maybe you are exactly where you need to be, to be of the greatest help to someone else.
This experiment is about weekly planning. My goal is to figure out whether doing so will improve my life in some way. It might look like I'm doing this for productivity gains, but I'm not. That is because my primary motivation for this experiment is to plan out leisure activities for when I have free time.
Do I play video games? If so, what game? Do I read a book? If so, what book? Do I watch a show on Netflix? If so, what show? Do I play board games? If so, what game? Do I play the guitar? Do I do some recreational programming? Do I write a journal entry? Basically, I want to take away those kinds of questions and just have a list that I can look at to determine what I should be doing next.
Sometimes they accused demons of making their minds wander. Sometimes they blamed the body’s base instincts. But the mind was the root problem: it is an inherently jumpy thing. John Cassian, whose thoughts about thinking influenced centuries of monks, knew this problem all too well. He complained that the mind ‘seems driven by random incursions’. It ‘wanders around like it were drunk’. It would think about something else while it prayed and sang. It would meander into its future plans or past regrets in the middle of its reading. It couldn’t even stay focused on its own entertainment – let alone the difficult ideas that called for serious concentration.
Interesting read on the age old problem of distraction. It is just made worse now with all of our digital devices clamoring for our attention.