Skip to main content

I Almost Got It

Remember how I like to listen to music over and over again? And how I tend to do this at work as a means of helping me concentrate? Well, those two facts are back in order to add just a little more amusement to my life.

A while back, I was working away on something at the office, and I needed to listen to something to help me concentrate. I had heard a new song on the radio that morning that seemed like it'd do the trick, so I fired up YouTube and pulled up "Problem" by Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea. The song has enough of a beat and up-tempo energy that it would provide useful white noise while I chugged along. As is my wont, though, I ended up listening to that song repeatedly throughout the day.

That's all well and good, but since I listened to it so much, I figured out a decent chunk of the lyrics. Specifically, I heard enough of the rap verse to realize that I thought it was decent. It conveys the feeling of the song pretty well, I think. Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised by that part of it, so I tucked it away for future reference.

As it turns out, that song has become fairly popular, so future reference has come up very quickly. I tend to hear that song on the radio quite a bit. It's not the type of song I'll hear every five minutes, but it's no surprise if I hear it at least once on my commute to or from work.

One other fact that I should mention is that I have a habit of "singing along" to rap verses I like. I suppose I also do this with other types of music, but it's a much more pronounced habit with rap. I guess I just appreciate the lyrics, and that's what prompts me to attempt this feat.

So, if we combine these two facts, we come to the conclusion that I try to sing along to the rap verse of "Problem" at least once during my commute every day. And for some reason or another, I can never quite get it right. I know all of the lyrics, to the point where I know if I screwed something up. But despite having it quasi-memorized, I will still miss a couple of words or somehow get tongue-tied to miss out on a couple of beats' worth of lyrics. Don't get me wrong, if this was a test, I'd still be pulling 90% scores, but it's still not quite right.

Better yet, I have realized that I seem to always get it slightly wrong, and this is where my OCD kicks in. I have now resolved to get that particular verse right, and every time I hear it on the radio, my brain unconsciously thinks, "challenge accepted." It's even funnier to others because there are three rough stanzas to that verse, and if I get the first couple right, then I start thinking, "wait wait, I'm gonna get it right this time." And most of the time, that slight bit of distraction is enough to throw me off for just long enough to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The cherry on top, however, is that I have managed to replicate that verse perfectly on one, and only one, occasion. So I know that it's possible for me to do it, but I can't seem to reach that elusive goal again. In a way, it's almost worse that I know I can do this. If I knew I wasn't capable of this feat, I might just let it go. But since I've managed to do it once, I relentlessly pursue that goal again, if for no other reason than to prove that it wasn't a fluke the first time around.

I'm not going to let this song get the better of me, I tell you.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pink

Way back in high school, there was a male teacher that all the girls thought was attractive. It was an open secret that a bunch of them had crushes on him. In fact, the school newspaper even did an article about him that quoted some girl saying, "he's so cute, he even makes pink look good." Yes, he had worn a pink shirt to school one day, and it had apparently been a big hit. I was reminded of this story when my sister-in-law suggested that she would choose pink as the color for her wedding and bridal party. I don't think I've ever made a color look good before, but I remember thinking, "well, I know it's possible to not look stupid in pink as a straight guy, I guess I can try." And I think that's almost exactly what I told her. I also happened to own a gray suit, so I figured the combination would look all right. However, I was pretty much the only one willing to play along. My sister-in-law's brothers wanted absolutely no part of th...

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...

New York City Trip (Day 1)

After my crappy flight , I was now in Newark, New Jersey at 7AM on a Friday morning. I had done a little bit of reading up, so I knew which bus I needed to take and where I was going to get off. All in all, getting into the city was surprisingly easy. I suppose speaking the language does make things simpler. Through no real planning of mine (a theme of the trip, at least on my part), I picked one of the later bus stops at which to get off, Grand Central. I actually just figured that getting off at Grand Central would give me options, and heck, it's called Grand Central. That just screamed "decent place to disembark that might be close to some stuff" to me, so that's where I got off. However, it also meant that we drove down 42 nd St to get to my bus stop. That just happens to be a big street, and it gave me a glimpse of Times Square as we drove by. My bus stop choice had accidentally given me a rough layout of the city. Go me. I had about 6 hours to kill...