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The Princess Bride is on.  I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid.  My Nana had it on VHS, and I would go to visit her while Mom was at work; in the morning I'd watch Nickelodeon and see the Elephant Show* and David the Gnome**, have a jelly sandwich for lunch, and then in the afternoon we'd put The Princess Bride in the VCR, she'd sit on the couch and read her magazines, and I'd color in the coloring books she bought especially for me (they were fairy tale characters, and if I didn't know the story I would ask her and she would tell me; I learned more fairy tales than any other kid I know, and to this day I'll make references to stories like Thumbkin and Rose Red and people won't get it), and eat those vanilla wafer cookies that are like what is inside of a Kit-Kat bar, and watch the movie.

That "never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line" guy just called Andre the Giant (is the character's name Fezzik?) "hippopotamic."  As in "resembling a hippopotamus."  That's genius.  I shall use that word.

* If I hear Sharon, Lois and Bram now, I am automatically transported to my preschool days - I attended the Vo-Tec school in the afternoons, and would eat my jelly sandwich while watching "Ephalent" and leave for school as soon as it was done, where I would promptly get knocked upside the head with a cardboard brick by a kid named Scott.

**  And the theme from David the Gnome - a tune I can summon up in my head to this day - makes me so nostalgic I want to cry, remembering Nana's house and the sunshine of my early childhood.  Look around you, there are many things to see...

(no subject)

Buttercup's not all that convincing as the most beautiful woman in the world, but I've always thought Wesley was hot.

(no subject)

Did you know that birds have two separate vocal cord things?  I've often thought it sounded like my bird was making two noises at the same time, and it turns out that yes, that's exactly what he was doing.  He can croon and chirp at the same time, or whistle with two notes in harmony.  It's cool.

I envy him that, because whenever I hear harmony, I hear all of it.  I can't follow just one line, I hear them all, each a separate thing and yet all together creating another separate thing that is the group of them.  I'm listening to the Bangles' cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter," and I'm trying to sing along, but I can't pick a single line to cover - I want to sing them all.  I have to play it three or four times and sing different notes each time.

If I could slow it down a little and get a good handle on each separate line of the harmony, I could sing it over and over and multitrack it in Audacity and have a one-person harmonized version of it, but I'm not really feeling up to that tonight.

I also sing the backup vocals on most songs.  I hear them just as well as I hear the lead singer's melody, and I usually like the notes the backups sing better - they often get to go for dissonance or at least a good, interesting effect with a note three steps down on the scale 

My family has a history of singing in the car to pass the time on long trips, and it always amused my mother and annoyed my sister to have me singing counterpoint.

I don't claim to have a wonderful voice, and I don't think I need to have a wonderful voice.  I sing for myself, for the joy of it, and although I'd like for other people to think it was pretty - I always crave praise - I'm perfectly happy singing to myself and my parakeet.

Time, time, time, see what's become of me...