Friday 5 x 2

(Link in meme-roll)
What Ails ‘Ya

1. How do you treat a bad case of the Mondays?

   If it's really bad, I stay home in bed. Otherwise, I just suck it up and get on with things.

2. How do you fight off a case of the blahs?

   Recurring theme here: I sleep. This is, of course, the worst case scenario. If it's just a minor blah, I'll listen to music, read something, distract myself till I feel better.

3. How do you deal with a bad hair day?

   Pin it up, pull it off my face with pins and so forth, and forget about it. It's been my look for most of the summer, to be honest.

4. What’s your strategy for FOMO?

   I have, over the last 3-4 years, learned to sit still, bite my tongue and stay out of other people's piles of drama. I don't always succeed in suppressing the FOMO, but I'm much better at it than I ever used to be.

5. How prone are you to Instagram envy?

   Not at all. I don't even have an account. I'm too old for this shit. ;-)

I Don’t Get It Either
Questions inspired by stuff I don’t get.

1. Twitch is an enormously popular livestreaming platform mostly for watching people play video games. It has more than 1.5 million broadcasters and more than one million visitors per month, and Amazon acquired it for nearly a billion dollars in 2014. Which of your computer activities would you livestream if there were a way to make some money doing it?

   None of them. I just don't see the attraction of watching other people do stuff. Maybe it's because a large part of my job is watching people (and helping them) figure out stuff online every day. Watching that on my free time sounds tedious. I know it's me, because my son has a YouTube channel on which he uploads himself and a friend playing various video games and talking. It's a giant yawn for me. I also have a coworker who uses Twitch this same way with games. I don't get it. Not at all.

2. EDM (electronic dance music) is usually performed by DJs on stage in front of audiences, playing tracks they’ve mixed, right off their laptops. If you were a push-button DJ playing your tunes in a club, what would be your opening and closing songs, assuming everyone’s there because they’re into whatever sounds you’re into?

   I used to DJ at my college's radio station. Nothing like this, of course--we were not mixing our own songs because laptops didn't exist (as such) then, but I would think based on that experience that opening and closing with the same thing all the time would be really boring. Then again, I haven't been to a dance club in over 25 years...so what do I know? (I do like listening to EDM though--it's good, mindless stuff to motivate me when I need to get through a particularly dull task.)

3. What’s a good Adele song, and why is Adele so popular?

   I have tried to understand the Adele Phenomenon. Her voice is very good, but not The Best Ever. Her Estuary accent is grating and awful, plus hard to understand for most Americans. I think it's because her voice is perfect for heartbreak songs, and she does a great job at selling them. I can't recommend just one song; pretty much everything knocks you on your ass when you hear it the first time.

4. The Walking Dead?

   I have no idea. Zombies are not interesting to me in the least, except as an occasional plot device. There's some subtext about "why zombies, why now" that sounds very similar to last decade's "why vampires, why now" and all the faddish stuff before that. It'll pass. I hope, soon. Zombies are boring.

5. Every generation seems to arrive at a “They don’t write ’em like that anymore” attitude. Why does it seem like most middle-aged people lose interest in new music?

   Because we do not have the time nor the intense friendships that are required for wanting to be sure we are keeping up with all the pop culture bullshit. Once you have a full-time job (or multiple jobs), kids, sick parents, a late mortgage/rent payment, and IBS, the concept of knowing the favorite condiment of every member of [Insert Pop Band Name Here] becomes a little less "necessary" to know. I mean, it's still perfectly fine to know that stuff--or all the character's names and astrological signs on Doctor Who or Game of Thrones--but not everyone you meet needs proof that you're cool when you're 30+. Because, chances are, you are very much NOT, not to the actual Cool People.