September 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
This time, the headline doesn’t lie. I really karaoked last night (as opposed to several days or weeks ago), and I really sang five songs. Maybe. Shoot, Nick didn’t hold me to writing them down last night. I’m likely missing some. Frick.
“Summer of ‘69,” Bryan Adams
“Bad Reputation,” Joan Jett
“Livin’ on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi (with...
5 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
Like most things in my life right now, that title is off by a few days. Maybe a few weeks. A few months? Who knows anymore. Things have been upside-down since mid-August, and blogging, singing and everything else took a hiatus for some top-priority family issues and events.
Today, my heart is a bit heavier, but things are calming down little by little. Last Friday, I finally returned to karaoke...
August 2011
4 posts
9 tags
Five Bits of Awesomesauce
I’m not doing well in my goal to slow down this month, but even though I’m still exhausting myself, at least I’m using my time for neato things. Below, check out five from this week.
Jenn is queen of the world. - Ok, maybe not the world, but she’s at least queen of teh interwebz. One of my closest friends, Jenn took a huge risk applying very publicly for a...
4 tags
Five Movie Lines I Use in Conversation
Don’t you hate those people who quote The Big Lebowski or Anchorman over and over, always laughing uproariously because they think that whatever they just said is absofreakinglutely hilarious? Yeah, me too.
Luckily, I’m not one of those people. I am, however, a girl who accidentally inserts random bits of pop culture into dialogue. I’ve already told you about song lyrics I...
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Friday
Theme: #ILovethe90s
Reason: I still was in a 90s mood from my last post, so I declared it the night’s theme and folks kind of took to it.
Side note of awesomesauce: I love hosting karaoke. Like, lovelovelove it. You never know when random weird guys will insert your name into “Piano Man” or when your friends who swore they wouldn’t sing ask to do...
5 tags
Five Favorite '90s Soundtracks
When people ask if I like a movie, I often respond with “YES! It has a GREAT soundtrack!” or “Ugh, no, the music was lame.” It’s absolutely true that the perfect mix of songs pulls me further into a film, and it’s a bit more difficult for me to judge the value of a movie if it doesn’t have a memorable soundtrack. Weird, I know, but that shouldn’t be...
July 2011
6 posts
4 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Friday
Theme: None
My Songs:
“I Think We’re Alone Now,” Tiffany
“Mother, Mother,” Tracy Bonham
“Love the Way You Lie,” Eminem and Rhianna (Duet with Nick - we sounded terrible, though Nick gets major props for plowing through the rap)
“Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,” U2
“Bad,” U2 (Duet with Joe)
And I...
7 tags
Five Lists of Lists
I’ve been busy. Everyone says it, but my April-July seriously has been flat-out, nonstop grueling. I have not slowed down, and I think it’s honestly affecting me in major ways - professionally, socially, romantically, interestingly, and other-ly. My brain isn’t turning off, and my body has been on auto-pilot. Not good. I need to catch my breath, or else I’ll never get off...
6 tags
Five "Brady Bunch" Episodes that Give Me a...
“The Brady Bunch” is one of my go-to sitcoms. I relish going to friends’ houses with cable or visiting my family just because I know they’ll fork over the remote and let me hunt down nostalgia.
Oh, sure, I wasn’t even a zygote when “The Brady Bunch” originally ran. I am, however, a happy byproduct of the syndicated reruns. After school at Grandma’s...
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
Technically, this post’s title is misleading, since I’m typing this at 2:03 a.m. on Sunday. But since I haven’t gone to sleep yet, it’s still Saturday for me, which means that Friday was the night before (Oh dear, is that a new Rebecca Black song?), so I’m going to let it stand.
What: Karaoke Friday
Theme: Total free-for-all. Karaoke was going to be cancelled, and...
5 tags
Five Songs I Wish U2 Would Have Played in Chicago
Most people know that I’m a U2 junkie. WHAT? Anyway, I go to a ton of shows - multiple shows each leg and each tour. You might spend your money on cigarettes and booze, but I spend my money on concerts and ice cream. Granted, there was no ice cream at the U2 show in Chicago this week, but whatever!
It was a great show, changed up just enough from the 2009 leg to keep me interested. On top...
10 tags
Five Recent Things That Made Me Happy
It’s a rather simplistic headline for a blog full of lists, no? But during the past few days, I’ve felt a bit more smiley than normal, especially for this time of the year. Summertime always means that I’m crazy-busy with work, travel and social obligations, so I often buck the “Isn’t summer just AH-MAYZING?” trend and am cranky beyond belief. Recently, though,...
June 2011
14 posts
6 tags
Five More Words I Love to Say and Hear
I love words so much that I want to marry them. I mean, I’d totally be a word polygamist.
I’ve already told you about some of my favorite words, so here are five more. I know you’re fascinated.
Serendipity
Elusive
Triangle
Zephyr
Seraphim
Note #1: I find it odd that I love so many words that have have religious connotations.
Note #2: Yes, I realize that I’m a dork.
5 tags
Five Things Caused a Ruckus at Karaoke Last Night
Wow. Last night was one of the most surreal karaoke episodes ever. We were back in our usual haunt instead of that abominable hellhole from last Friday, and things were quite ducky. New people joined us, old friends returned and our favorite DJ was running the karaoke show. And then… shite got weird and bitches be trippin’ and all that. Actually, it was mostly one guy who be...
4 tags
Five Clash Songs on Repeat
I’ve been feeling pretty meh for a couple of days. Naturally, I drown my sorrows in music, and my drink of choice lately is The Clash. I’ve gone through much of the catalogue, but for whatever reason, the five songs below keep getting the repeat treatment, no matter if they’re the studio, demo or live versions.
Hateful
Janie Jones
Train in Vain
Police on My Back
The...
3 tags
Five Song Lyrics I Use in Conversation
My brain thinks in song lyrics quite often. I’ve used lyrics as headlines in materials for work, as handles on teh interwebz, and as the engine to the train of thought for future therapeutic karaoke. But I find myself more and more often using song lyrics in actual conversation and not even realizing it until well after said conversation has concluded. Some people pick up on it, and some are...
4 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
WAIT! That title is a complete lie! I certainly did NOT karaoke five songs last night - I’m lucky I got to do two!
Due to uncontrollable circumstances, we weren’t in our usual Friday spot, so we decided to try a place nearby. Stage, lights, a little Less Than Jake between singers - sounds ok, right? Wrong! Read below for five things that sucked about this one-time-only bar:
Pushy...
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Wednesday
Theme: None
Side note of random blah: Insomnia has finally caught up to me - I’m tired, yo! Thus, I’ve got nothing witty to say today. You’re #sadpanda, I know.
Five songs that did not suck last night:
“Good,” Better Than Ezra
“Longview,” Green Day
“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” Blue Oyster Cult
...
3 tags
Five Things I Did Not Clean
I suck at cleaning. No, really, I’m uber-terrible at it. It just doesn’t occur to me that I need to wipe out the oven or vacuum the cat hair from the refrigerator vent every once in a while. I mean, I’m not gross-gross or anything; I do remember to scrub the toilet and wash dishes, but beyond the basics, I’m a domestic un-goddess (as we’ve previously discussed). A...
5 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Friday
Theme: It was originally supposed to be “Disney Stars Gone Bad,” but specific people weren’t there for that. Instead, it became a free-for-all and eventually duet night.
Why: We were celebrating my being the hottest damn geek in STL.
Side note of awesomesauce: We changed up our group and had a lovely mix of regulars and newbies, including *gasp!*...
6 tags
Five Musings from a 'Sexxxay Cybergeek'
In case you don’t remember, I was a nominee in this year’s “STL’s Sexiest CyberGeek” contest, coordinated by Girls Guide to the Galaxy. During a three-week period (ish?), readers voted daily on which of the six female nominees and four male nominees they thought were the geekiest and, yes, sexiest. I thought it was a lark and sort of hilarious. I played along and...
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Wednesday
Theme: None, but it once again magically turned into a duet night.
Why: After playing Settlers of Catan and eating gelato and a bazillion gingerbread muffins at the Gelateria Tavolini, I was crazy-hopped-up on sugar - so much that my hyperactive self wanted to sing with and hug everyone like gangbusters.
Side Note of Awesomesauce: Starla made her solo debut! She usually...
8 tags
Five Things I Did Instead of Sitting Still...
An uber-active work and social life means that I’m constantly on the go. Celebrities with professional schedulers ain’t got nuthin’ on my Google calendar. So when hours free up, it’s a rare thing where angels sing and I drool as I get excited to finally - FINALLY - read those novels and comics I’ve been putting off for months. Admittedly, I also become a bit antsy and...
5 tags
Five Glen Hansard Songs That Will Wow You
Sometimes blog posts turn into something other than what you had envisioned. I was going to bitch about how this awful Ke$ha song had been stuck in my head since 10:30 p.m., and use that as a springboard to write about five songs that act like earworms. That’s not happening now, luckily! Jenn and Blake mentioned Glen Hansard this morning, and now I’ve awakened this major Frames kick....
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Wednesday
Theme: None, but it kind of became ladies night for me.
Why: I don’t usually gravitate toward songs led by female voices, but for whatever reason, these spoke to me in the car hours before getting to the bar. Thank you, iPod-that-shuffles.
Five songs:
“Away,” The Toadies (Decidedly not sung by ladies. Also, I wanted to sing “I Come from the...
4 tags
Five Products I Daily Put onto My Face
It’s late. I have insomnia, boredom and apathy. I gave up driving and singing 39 minutes ago to return home and take a shower, but that hasn’t happened yet. I’m in a weird mood - ponderous, slightly panicked and itching for… something still unknown.
… So why not tell you five things that I pile onto my face each morning, right? Yeah, I don’t know how my brain...
May 2011
7 posts
4 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Friday
Theme: It accidentally became duet night.
Why: It was my goal to to get as many people as possible in front of a mic, especially since I had out-of-town friends in tow. Duets are the easiest way to do it.
My songs:
“Human,” The Killers
“Bad,” U2 (duet with Joe)
“Radar Love,” Golden Earring
“Resistance,” Muse (duet with...
6 tags
Five Bullet Points About Yesterday
Dear Life: Why must you be so cruel? Why must you throw a bazillion things at us at once in the name of “character building” or “teh funniez?” Just chill out a little and give us pesky humans some breathing room, ok? Love: A-Bot.
I don’t really know how to list out recent shenanigans (some positive, some not so much), so here are five bullet points about things that...
5 tags
Five Things That Are Awkward About Being...
- My name is Allison, and I’m a vegetarian.
- Hi, Allison!
When you’re a vegetarian, people assume all kinds of crazy things. That’s fine; I do the same about meat-eaters. But it’s when people feel the need to tell you what’s in their heads that the shite really starts to go down. Like, your joke question about my thoughts equating vegetable “slaughter”...
4 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
I’m going to tell you right now that this post is full of lies. I didn’t karaoke last night; I karaoked last Friday, last Wednesday and the Wednesday before that. I also didn’t really nail five songs on all of those nights. Le sigh. I’m glad to be back on the karaoke wagon, though. Those couple of weeks without it left me shaking like a heroin addict who’s jonesing...
7 tags
Five Things I Must Do Today
Well iffn this ain’t the most boring post I’m fixin’ to write yet!
I’ve been a busy girl — exhaustedly so — and I haven’t had much downtime in a couple of months. While I’ve been doing some interesting stuff, it’s not an altogether healthy thing to run around nonstop. A blog post about that is in the works, but for now, I’m trying to...
5 tags
Five Songs I Play When I'm Pissed Off, Part 2
When we last saw our dazzling heroine, she was eating strange food and gushing about nerd costumes. Yeah, screw that. Your heroine is going back to the rage. Here are five more songs I play and scream-sing when I’m pissed off.
Note: I’m limiting myself to five here, but because my true list of pissed-off songs is much longer, this subject has become a series of blog posts. Here’s part...
5 tags
5 Star Wars Costumes I Want to Make
Hey, nerds, you should know that it’s Star Wars Day. Say what? Yep. Every May 4, it’s time to say “May the Fourth be with you.” Get it? Fourth = Force = funny? *crickets* Ok, if you’re a Trekkie, you can just leave now.
I geek out on Star Wars in a big way. I own just about every Expanded Universe novel ever (the pre-prequel ones are sort of boring, admittedly), I...
April 2011
20 posts
6 tags
Five Foods I MUST Have When I Go Home
“Home” for me means various places in Ohio and Pennsylvania, particularly the Pittsburgh area. The region has all kinds of quirks - a preoccupation with high school football, a strange dialect, black and yellow EVERYTHING - but the interesting food is what I keep coming back for (Ok, I guess I like family and friends, too). Despite much of the area being in an economic depression,...
6 tags
Five Songs I Played in Rock Band Last Night
You fine readers should know by now that I get the karaoke itch something fierce. Every Wednesday and Friday (and other days, if time and funds allow), I gather with friends to warble five songs that I can post for you lovely people. However, I’m out of town and won’t be back to my singing post until May 4 (maybe even May 6, if the Social Distortion show runs too late next Wednesday)....
5 tags
Five Songs I Play When I'm Pissed Off, Part 1
Time for a new music series, kiddos!
It’s been a craptastic 24 hours. Oh, sure, the Arcade Fire/The National show was phenomenal, and I was super happy to bask in sonic orgasms with a good friend, but from there, everything went downhill. Broken promises, a towed car, $350 in fees, the DMV, red tape and much more have made for a very disappointed, unhappy and exhausted A-Bot.
I’m...
geekleetist asked: You make this nerd PROUD!
11 tags
Five Things I've Been Up To Lately
Well, I did it. I fell off the blogging wagon and bumped my ass. My goal was to post something each day for you lovelies to snicker about. But, like evil exercise, once you skip a day, it’s easy to beg off another. And another. And another. I’ve got reasons for not writing since last Friday, though. It might be a stretch to call all of the reasons “good,” but they’re...
5 tags
Five Favorite Unprofessional Haircolors
I’ve been dying my hair since high school. Back then, it usually was some shade of burgundy or purple-brown or even - sigh - Koolaid-dipped tips. I never went blonde, though an unfortunate Sun-In incident and a highlights mishap made me come close. Blech. I will never voluntarily turn into Supergirl, people. Never.
For most of my adult life, though, I’ve tried to own my brunetteness...
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Wednesday
Theme: We were supposed to do Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond songs, but apparently I fell for a fake-out once again. One day, I’ll learn.
Why: The other fake-suggested theme was Insane Clown Posse, and, um, I don’t know any of their songs.
My songs:
“Spiderwebs,” No Doubt
“Basketcase,” Green Day
“Mr. Jones,” Counting...
5 tags
Five Words I Love to Say and Hear
Ok, we’ve firmly established that I hate things. But I also like things! Especially words! And exclamation points! Yay!
Here are five words that roll off the tongue like velvet (Ew! You keep velvet in your mouth?) and sound like angels singing. If, you know, all angels had decent voices. Or if I believed in angels.
Daffodil
Roundabout
Hobnob
Mellifluous
Azure
For the record, I had...
5 tags
Five Perfect Pop Songs, Part 2
As we’ve established, some pop singles cut through the crap of what passes for interesting music on the radio and give me the shiny, happy feeling that R.E.M. intended in that one atrocious video (The “Sesame Street” version was much better. My favorite monster is the one who says, “I am SO sad.”). Here are five more pop songs that are perfect to my ears.
Note: I’m...
4 tags
Five Stupid Words and Phrases I Detest
It’s been a busy day - planning a year’s worth of videos, editing a bunch of crazy whatzitz and reading about “Webster” on Wikipedia have created a tired Allison who just wants to win at bar trivia and then go to sleep. Thus, I humbly submit this totally phoned-in list of five words/phrases I detest.
Bro - I’m including all words associated with bro: bromance,...
3 tags
Five Things I'll Throw onto the Grill
Ok, I won’t actually be the one grilling. By now, you probably know that I can’t cook. Moreover, I don’t go to the grocery store often, and when I do buy food, it spoils before I get around to using it. However, I’m more than happy to let others throw the shrimp on the barbie, or whatever the kids say about grilling. In honor of today’s gorgeous weather, here are five...
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Friday
Theme: It started out a free-for-all but somehow turned into country/Miley night -mostly by others, though I’ll cop to singing Miley again.
Why: People like to cause me good-natured pain.
Awesomesauce #1: It was Triefy’s birthday!
Awesomesauce #2: Our weekly group is growing, and I lurve it!
My five six songs:
“All Shook Up,” Elvis Presley
...
4 tags
Five Eye-Rolling Social Media Buzzwords
It was inevitable - now that the internetz has realized that this social media whatzit is real, everyone’s an expert at it. Well, seemingly. Everyone’s an expert, yet no one really is. A few thought leaders push information and best practices, while everyone else retweets, republishes and regurgitates like fiends.
The social media field has its own jargon and cliches like any field...
3 tags
Five Songs I Karaoked Last Night
What: Karaoke Wednesday
Theme: First it was oldies. Then it was Shania Twain and Britney Spears, which I took to heart but later realized was a joke. And then it was back to oldies with random bits mixed in.
Reason: We’re fickle with ideas - but I do love me some straight-up old rock and roll!
My songs:
“Baby, One More Time,” Britney Spears (Yes, it pained me.)
“Do You...
5 tags
Five NES Games I Feel Sort-Of Guilty About Loving
In our house, video games were a staple of family entertainment. We played our hearts out after school and before dinner, and then again after homework and before The Newlywed Game (My brother and I constantly asked what “making whoopee” meant, much to Mom’s chagrin). We went through the Intellivision (lowercase V), ColecoVision (uppercase V) and several Atari models until we hit...
5 tags
Five Perfect Pop Songs, Part 1
There’s a lot of crap on the radio (Hello there, Katy and Ke$ha!). Like, a lot. But sometimes, there are radio-friendly singles that fight through the muck and emerge with angels trumpeting their existence. Who would have thought it possible, right?
Below are five pop songs I consider perfect in every way - especially for radio singles. Granted, “perfect” is uber subjective;...
4 tags
Five Somewhat Shameful Purchases
Jenn and I were craving a girly day - nothing but shopping at stores like Sephora and Forever21 for things we craved but didn’t really need. Also in order: repeated shouts of “Who on Earth would wear THAT?” while holding up one-shouldered, 80s-style jumpsuits. (Side note: I don’t understand jumpsuits and rompers. They make it impossible to use the restroom quickly and...
