It's so weird that another year has gone by already. Time has slipped through my fingers, it seems. Anyway, it's too late for worrying about that now. The best thing anyone can do is to keep living life to its fullest (I'm still trying to figure out what that means for me).
In the words of Jason Mraz's "Song for a Friend," you have to:
"Climb up over the top.
Survey the state of the soul.
You’ve got to find out for yourself whether or not you’re truly trying.
Why not give it a shot?
Shake it, Take control
And inevitably wind up
Find out for yourself
All the strengths you have inside of you"
So, without further ado, here's my list of New Year's resolutions for 2011 in no particular order:
Try to have more patience with my family, especially with my mother.
Try not to be so sarcastic and too serious. Learn to relax once in a while.
Continue to work hard and maintain my GPA so that I can graduate college with honors.
Clean my room, organize my closet, and do chores more often so that the mess doesn't pile up later.
Keep researching/writing/dreaming/whatever I have to do to get that story written. I have to try not to let my ideas run amok and keep my research, notes, and drafts in order.
Hang out with my friends more. Seriously, I miss them a lot already.
Watch as many classics on TCM as I can so that I can be more knowledgeable, appreciative, and critical of movies. Learn what works, what doesn't, and why the things that don't often work get in the way of a film's full potential.
Read as many books and critical essays as I can, especially when it comes to reading classics and the current bestsellers. I have to be more critical and aware as I read and ask myself more questions. What makes them timeless or bestselling? What makes the characters tick? What do you like or don't like about these books and essays? If you truly didn't like a particular work, how can it be improved? What techniques can you learn from these authors, and which of these techniques worked well? Keep notes for every finding.
Eat less sweets, less fatty foods. Exercise more often. When the weather gets warmer, go out for a jog at least three times a week. I need to get myself a cheap, lightweight mp3 player so that I can fill it with songs to keep me thinking even as I jog through my neighborhood. Also, I have to buy some new work-out clothes. Baggy sweatpants just make my legs itchy.
Spend a few minutes perusing articles in science journals, so that I might be more well-versed in how these studies affect my day-to-day life (as well as how they can be helpful to any of my research, current or future projects).
Always keep an ear open for interesting, creative music from up-and-coming artists. Do not simply settle for the songs currently playing on the radio; though some songs may actually be good, most of the chart-topping songs these days leave a lot to be desired.
Although I resolve to be more critical of what music I listen to, what movies I watch, and what books I read, it's just as important to try to keep an open mind as well.
I hope you succeed in your New Year's resolutions.
The blizzard hit the tri-state area (particularly New York City and the surrounding counties) on the afternoon, evening, and night of December 26th. It left about more than foot of snow in its wake.
People are still trying to shovel their cars out as sanitation workers try to plow through the streets to clear the way for passing traffic. I feel bad for those who are trying to get home but are stuck at train stations, bus stops, and airports, stranded until the rails, roads, and runways are safe enough for travel. As much as I love the snow and snow days, it's pretty rough if you're traveling and need to be someplace at a specific time. My mother didn't even go to work yesterday because the MTA advised that people stay at home as much as possible (some train lines were either delayed or not running at all because of the snow pile-ups and signal problems).
As I listened to the news last night, this has been one of the five biggest blizzards to hit New York City, this one being the second blizzard in 2010 (the first blizzard was in February 2010). It's nice to stay at home and not have to worry about going out, although some people have taken advantage of the abundant snow and had some fun sledding in Central Park, building snow-people, and making snow angels. It's kind of a shame that most of that snow, once they're all either shoveled away or melted away, will become dirtied with... Well, let's just call it yellow and brown snow, shall we? ;)
Sony NWZ-S545
Anyway, my Christmas was pretty nice. My family and I went to church three days in a row (my mom and I sing in the choir while my two younger sisters altar-serve) for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day (which was a Saturday this year), and for the regular Sunday Mass on the 26th. At midnight on Christmas Eve, we ate honeyed ham and queso de bola (Edam cheese) with sweet Filipino bread (called "pan de sal," which I find pretty odd, since it's not actually salty), as well as fruit salad and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
Then after eating our midnight Christmas Eve meal, we opened our presents. I'd been wondering whether I would receive the mp3 player I've been wanting (okay, settling for, really. It's the Sony NWZ-S545, pictured on the right, and it actually had some pretty decent reviews by music-loving consumers) because I've worked so hard to maintain my 3.8 GPA and to get into Psi Chi.
Guess what I got instead as a pleasant surprise because I wasn't actually counting on it? (I've been asking my parents to get me one for YEARS).
My sister and I got the 8 GB version. We smiled and rejoiced once we unwrapped our presents. We're learning how to use the program/music manager for our devices, little by little. We were able to put our favorite songs. Now, we're actually trying to be more helpful with chores around the house so that we might deserve more awesome gifts in the future. (This behavioral reinforcement that my mother came up with sure is working!)
Right now, my device is charging on my computer as I'm blogging this post. :)
There's really no smooth transition into the following topic, so uh, here it is: another thing that's crossed my mind today...
"nice to hear that i remember this song from that movie too but please work on your grammer and spelling."
What's wrong with the above comment? The user who wrote that particular comment was just as guilty of breaking rules of grammar and spelling (note that it's supposed to be spelled as "GRAMMAR" and not "GRAMMER"). Also, the lack of punctuation just makes the comment more difficult to read.
CORRECTION: "It's nice to hear that. I remember this song from that movie, too, but please work on your grammar and spelling."
Sorry, I just have a thing for calling people out on their BS, especially when the person in question (whoever that Youtube user is) just unwittingly portrayed him or herself as a hypocrite when it comes to "proper" grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation. Sure, that comment was left on Youtube and was not meant to be included in an academic thesis. It should, however, behoove people to at least try to write or type "properly" over the Internet.
This is not to say that I myself always write or type using "proper" grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation. I know that I don't always adhere to the rules. I'm a human being, after all, and just as prone to errors as the next human being. I do, however, try to adhere to the rules of proper use of the English language even when I send someone a text message using my non-full-keyboard cell phone. It's just easier that way. Also, I don't want to fall into the lapse of "chatspeak." I refuse to do so, although the most I'll ever engage in chat-speak is to occasionally type "LOL" or "LMAO" if I happen to find something particularly funny or if the comment calls for a light-hearted chuckle.
I'm all for experimental types of writing in fiction and creative writing (e.e. cummings has some lovely and whimsical poems), but you should know the rules and learn to apply them in the proper manner before you can actually break them.
Okay, so I know that in my last update, I said that I wanted to create a new blog site with a somewhat different ambiance/tone from this one.
I decided not to go through with it, so I'm staying here for the time being. Blame it on my laziness, which suddenly sprang up and took hold of me as I clicked through countless photography and artwork as possible backgrounds for the other blog I wanted to create. Add that to my frustration with trying to re-size the images so that they can fit as a full-image background, and you've got yourself a defeated blogger.
So yes, I am staying here on "A Muse Sings." After having spent about two years on this particular blog, I think I rather like it here. I may tinker with the layout once in a while, though. While I do love my current layout and background, I also want to experiment with some things. Call it web-design practice for when I finally make it as a published author and need my own website to promote my works and keep in touch with (hopefully) readers.
For now, things will just relatively remain the same, although I did update the icon slide show to include some icons of my favorite SyFy show called "Warehouse 13." It's about two U.S. Secret Service agents named Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering who must retrieve paranormally-charged artifacts and bring them back for safe and highly confidential storage at the warehouse, which is run by Artie Nelson (pretty much the manager of Warehouse 13) and Mrs. Frederick (she's the official owner/caretaker). There's also Leena, a psychic who owns the bed-and-breakfast close to the warehouse where they all live and also Claudia Donovan (my favorite character, played by Allison Scagliotti) the teenage tech whiz who was once able to hack into the warehouses' secure database and now works as a warehouse employee maintaining the many machines and gadgets used to efficiently run the warehouse. I'm a slightly more than a little obsessed with "Warehouse 13," as you can tell from reading this (and if you spotted the redhead in my profile picture, that's Claudia Donovan). But hey, I'm proud to be a geek girl.
Speaking of which (being a geek girl), I just found out this morning that I finally got that "A" that I've been striving for during this past semester in my Experimental Social Psychology class. So maybe I really am cut out to be a scientist/researcher in psychology after all.
For now, I'm going to take it easy and (as usual) try to get some more writing done.
I finally finished everything I needed to do to try and pass my classes for this past semester and I celebrated the end of the semester with a friend by eating at a restaurant called "Cabana" which served some yummy empanadas and churrasco with black beans and rice. So the semester ended on a very good note. :)
I haven't gotten much novel-writing done, but I have been editing like crazy during my spare time. Things are getting along pretty well so far. It could be better, but I'm not about to start complaining here. I got into Psi Chi, the honor society for Psychology, I got a bunch of A's on the essays I've written for my classes, and I'm planning to write an article for my college's psychology student newsletter for next semester as well as maybe intern at a non-profit organization for people with developmental disabilities. I don't know if I'm going to be able to squeeze in more writing time between then and now, but I can certainly try.
This may be a little off track, but is it weird that I want to start a new blog? Me and my itch to web-design, hehe.
Anyway, if I do decide to create a new blog and if you actually enjoy some (if not all, haha) of my posts, then please stay tuned. If I decide to make a new blog site, then I'll update and share the link. If not, then feel free to keep on reading my crap on this site. ;)
One of the reasons I was considering the change is because I feel absolutely embarrassed to know that I've authored some pretty weird/random/fan girl posts. You probably thought I was nuts when I (perhaps unfairly) expressed my frustration with my body image and directed it at actresses like Megan Fox. In which case, you were probably right. It was silly of me to do so, I'll venture to say. But DAMN, did getting those feelings out feel good at the time. Vent posts are, after all, vent posts. Still, I sounded a little immature in those posts, and the same goes for my Twilight-hating posts. Don't get me wrong, though. Despite being a fan of the series when I was still in high school (alas, I was one of those delusional hopeless romantics when I was a teenager), I pretty much take into consideration the series as a whole and just shake my head at it. There are so many things wrong with it, like glorifying suicide as the ultimate expression of "true love" (New Moon) and letting some pretentious moron get in the way of you seeing your friends to the point where he vandalizes your car to prevent you from driving out to visit your friends (Eclipse). Don't even get me started on glorifying physical and sexual abuse (does the phrase "pillow-biting" ring any bells?) and how the author of the series ruined initially good characters by forcing them into pedophilia (Breaking Dawn). Instead of poking fun at the series for the sheer "lulz" factor, I wish I had written a more academic kind of post where I could have critically analyzed the series in much the same way I would critically analyze any work of literature for any of my English classes.
Anyway, I suppose that after writing all of that, I just want a change in the tone of the blog. I want it to be about taking a step back and critically analyzing works of literature, television shows, movies, current events, whatever. I tried to do that with this particular blog, but I'm not sure that I'm doing that well enough.
I'm also kind of embarrassed about those posts in which my friends and I did some crazy and stupid things. It's not so much the crazy and stupid things themselves that I'm embarrassed about as it is the way that I wrote these posts like I was sniffing fruity-scented markers at the time I wrote those posts. I've come a long way (and still have a long way to go) as a writer.
That's what I want my blog posts to be like -- pieces with which I can hone my writing skills as well as my skills in critical thinking, research, and logic. I also need to figure out a way to systematically organize my posts (through tags) so that they're not all over the place and just long rambles (although rambling in and of itself may not necessarily be pointless if you actually do have a point to make after the entire rambling).
Plus, I figure that it would be a good way to start of the new year -- with a new blog and (hopefully) a refreshed perspective.
In any case, I'll update and let you know what I ultimately decide to do, and if I do decide to create a new blog, I'll include the link in the next post. If you've actually been reading my posts, I thank you and I hope that you continue to do so. Drop me a line anytime; I'm always welcoming of comments.
Have you ever noticed - perhaps on social networking sites, on television, in films, or perhaps you may have had personal experience - that people, especially young girls, call each other "slut" or "hoe" or "whore" or something extremely degrading and disrespectful, even in a joking manner to their friends, and then shrug the whole thing off like it was nothing?
I get extremely annoyed whenever I see it happening.
The whole virgin/whore dichotomy perpetuates the misconception that females are the ones to blame for rape or any other kind of sexual harassment/abuse, instead of assigning the blame on the one who actually carried out the harassment/abuse. It works the other way around, too, like when you call a guy a "pussy" or a "fag" or overtly reference genital parts for the sake of stupid jokes. It's not funny. It's offensive, disrespectful, and immature.
So if you've done something like this in the past, please get over your giggle-fits over mindless sex jokes and have some self-respect for yourself and your friends. Grow up and think before you blurt things out, lest people get the impression (even on Facebook) that you're an insufferable airhead who spews sexist slurs against others.
It's been 5 hours since I've agonized over the introductory paragraph to my paper for my Asian American Women Writers class. I know what I want to write, but the words keep getting tangled up in my mind. Caffeine at 1AM probably wasn't such a good idea, especially if you're writing an essay on strictly defining what's personal and what's political within a particular poem. In the end, the poem is always the function of the personal intersecting with the political. If I made your head ache with this ramble, you can probably get a gist of why it's been bothering me (in which case, I should say I'm sorry?). On the other hand, difficult poems are worth every circle of confusion and wonder.
There's more to poetry than just the appeal of seducing your readers' senses with images of how your “love is an anger is a fire.” You pen these images, but what does that line truly mean? It all comes down to context; a verse constructed with the sole purpose of posing as “deep” and “sophisticated” to others often has the tendency to alarm other people’s bullshit meters.
Sometimes, the worthwhile poem is the one that sucks you into that cold whirlpool of confusion, dousing you with more questions than answers. To truly obtain meaning, you have to get lost in order to find yourself. Try reading “Tradition” by Quan Barry or “The State Will Be Served Even By My Hand On These Letters” by Sun Young Shin if you don't believe me.
So I'm back. Sort of. I just thought that I should update since I haven't written anything on here for a long time. School, stress, and tiredness are the three culprits that deter me from blogging. I wish I was more prolific with writing more blog posts, and I wish that these posts were more inspiring or more thought-provoking.
I've written some pretty good essays for my classes this semester, though. I'm actually surprised that I was able to score some really good marks on them. Procrastination has always been a friend of mine, and he always pushes me to write my essay assignments at the last possible hour. It's obviously not a very good way to go. Up to now, I still haven't learned how to successfully manage my time. I usually just shut my eyes and cross my fingers when I hand in something and hope for the best, even when the effort I put into each paper wasn't always my best. What you give is what you get, usually.
On one paper I had to write for personality psychology, for instance, I had received a check-minus. That paper was supposed to explain (from Rentfrow et al., 2006) a model of the geographical distribution of personality traits across U.S. states. It was probably one of my worst-written papers, since I wrote it about three hours before it was due. All I did was summarize the article instead of adding analysis or critique, which was probably the worst thing that anyone could have done on an article review. I'm not trying to excuse my crappy effort in writing that particular paper, but the article was too long and too dry to read, and it was loaded with statistics. I don't know about you, but I only have a basic understanding of statistics. I doubt the average Joe or average Jane would understand the jargon, either.
In any case, some of the other papers I've written for my Islam & Buddhism class, as well as for my Asian-American Women Writers class, turned out pretty well. I'll try to post them here at a later date to share (and if you decide you use them in your own writing, please cite them).
I've also recently conducted an online survey on academic procrastination and Facebook usage for my research project in my experimental social psychology class. I had some trouble yesterday when I was entering the data on SPSS because I wasn't sure how to score the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (PASS). (Interesting acronym for the scale, right?) Thank goodness I was able to figure it out. I'm still scratching my head, though. When I tried to run correlations between the degree to which students procrastinated and their desire to decrease these procrastination behaviors, something weird happened with the scatter plots.They ended up looking like a stem-and-leaf plot. I don't know if I ran the analysis wrong in using the wrong measure, but that's what I ended up with. Here's to hoping that my professor won't be too harsh when I present the results to the rest of the class.
Worries aside, at least something good has happened to me recently: I've been accepted into Psi Chi, the International Honor Society for Psychology. It's great to know that all those semesters of studying and hard work have paid off in some way. On December 1st, I'll be an official member of Psi Chi.
Anyway, in other recent events:
I've also been active on Twilightsucks.com. They've moved to a new site, so if you're interested in checking it out, here's the web address. I love reading the topics that they have there regarding issues such as Meyer's erroneous exaltation of her Twilight Saga (it's NOT a saga, people!), Meyer's less-than-savory writing skills, Edward's creepiness, Bella's idiocy and dry narration, the abhorrence of Meyerwolf imprinting, and the nature of what vampires actually are. There's also a bunch of sub-forums for discussing other literary works according to their respective genres (such as Stephen King's works, J.K. Rowling's HP series, Charlotte Bronte, Sarah Dessen, etc.), as well as a series of sub-forums dedicated to sharing and discussing writing tips. If you want to make a club, you can petition to create your own club. If you want to talk about movies (not just the Twilight movies) or television shows, then you can also discuss them in their respective sub-forums. TS is a pretty cool site overall, and its members are also just as enthusiastic and thought-provoking when it comes to discussing and critiquing literature, film, television, music, just about anything, really. You just have to know where to look, read up on the past comments, and join in the conversation. The writing forums, especially, have helped me with my own writing.
I've often found that discussing books that bother you can teach you a whole lot more about writing than books that you've absolutely loved reading. Why? Let's just say that you can often spot the mistakes and the bullshit more quickly with a book that's bothered you than with a book you deem as the quintessential story. Another website that's similar to TS is Reasoning With Vampires. Not only does it provide you with a good laugh about how stupid or disturbing some parts of Twilight are, but the site also points out the ineffectiveness of Meyer's grammar and diction. Good things to know when you're crafting your own stories.
I enjoyed these particular posts from Reasoning With Vampires the most:
Finally, there's this:
I hope you learned a few things and enjoyed these tidbits, which were brought to you by Reasoning With Vampires.
Meg Cabot's retelling of the myth of Persephone, in her new series "Abandon," seems pretty interesting. I just hope it's not as formulaic and has twists that could surprise me, possibly something as enjoyable as "The Mediator" series and the "1-800-Where-R-U" series.
For instance, in "Avalon High" (the novel, not the mangas)... the entire time I was wondering why the story surrounded Ellie, the protagonist, when she didn't seem to have a solid connection to the original characters in Sir Malory's version of the Arthurian legend. Boy, was I wrong. In a good way, that is. On the other hand, I'm not so crazy about that Disney adaptation of the book.
Anyway, getting back to "Abandon": I also hope that the female lead in "Abandon," Pierce (Persephone), won't be a weak heroine, as in the Greek myth. She better put up a fight when John Hayden (who is obviously Hades) tries to kidnap her and force her into a romantic relationship with him. I really don't like it when the heroine just blindly accepts the events happening around her without at least questioning why it's happening, and I absolutely hate it when she gives up everything in the name of TWU WUV, even if the supposed hero is a walking douche bag. As you can already tell, I'm not a big fan of those kinds of Harlequin-ish happy endings. So, having said that, here's to hoping that the story might actually be good. If the first book turns out to be all right, consider me persuaded to tag along for the rest of the ride.
I've never really been a prayerful person, and I don't necessarily agree with everything that my religion teaches. Does that make me any less of a Catholic or any less of a Christian?
Are we not taught to question things and keep an open-mind? If so, then why do we define things according to what God says? Who are we to know what God intended? Who are we impose these judgments on others, simply to justify our discomfort with that which is different?
We do not have that right because we're only human. Being "human" is a broad spectrum; we're all effed up in one way or another, so to point fingers and point guns.... it's all a waste. If we continue to cling to our prejudices and our narrowed views of the world, then I'm afraid our lives are wasted.
There is something out there (Holy Spirit, Tathagata-garbha, Kundalini, Tao, etc.) that is also intrinsic to human nature, which makes us want to end the unpleasantness of life - not just the unpleasantness in our lives, but also the unpleasantness in the lives of others.
I don't mean to sound preachy here, but it's just something that's been on my mind lately. I just want people to be willing to give others a chance, to be open to ideas that may contrast vastly from their own, and hopefully reach a greater understanding from suppressing prejudices.
Unfortunately, a prejudice-free world like that would work better in a John Lennon song.
I was scrolling through the newsfeed on Facebook this morning when I saw that one of my friends had posted a link to some guy on Youtube ranting about how the song "Airplanes" by B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore annoyed him. His main complaint is the song's overwhelming popularity, and he tries to deconstruct the lyrics to point out how "annoying" and "stupid" it is to wish upon an airplane. He made me laugh a little, but he looked like he was being overly dramatic.
I responded to the link on Facebook, and it actually turned out to be quite lengthy. I decided to re-post the Youtube link here, along with my thoughts on the matter:
I happen to really like that song! I agree with this guy... but only on the point that yes, the song is pretty much everywhere. I'm going to try to defend B.o.B. here because the song struck a chord with me.
The only reason why someone would want to pretend an airplane is a shooting star is because they've hit rock bottom. B.o.B. (before his fame and success) felt hopeless that his dream of becoming a music artist would never be realized. He was so depressed and disillusioned that yes, he wanted to make a wish on a shooting star. But since he couldn't see the stars in the night sky because he lived in the city, and the only things he could actually see in the night sky are the tail-lights of aircrafts, B.o.B. was so far gone in his despair that he wished on an airplane.
It may sound stupid, but I assure you, there's more to it than that.
And I guess that figuratively speaking, the airplane represents B.o.B.'s desire to escape from his struggles and his self-doubt. He felt that he could never have that ticket to success, and he found that because his dreams are so out of his reach, it's next to impossible. So yes, it's silly to make a wish on a boeing 747 because that wish will never come true. You could also say that it's stupid to make a wish on an actual shooting star because that never actually produces results. Or that it's stupid for someone to pray to a higher power, despite the lack of evidence that said higher power actually does exist.
But people wish and pray anyway because they feel as if their lives are out of their hands. It may seem childish, illogical, and futile to think that these wishes and prayers actually stand a chance at coming true, but people do it anyway. These behaviors -- wishing and praying -- usually reinforce other behaviors that increase the likelihood of attaining the desired goals (such as persistently submitting demos to a record company or writing query letters to literary agents in the hopes of getting discovered, despite the high probability of ending up in the slush pile).
People may relate to the song because it expresses the feeling of longing. Everyone's longed for something that they felt was impossible to attain, especially if that something is an unrealized dream to become someone who's successful in all of his or her creative endeavors. B.o.B.'s "Airplanes" was written on such a personal level that it's almost as if you're B.o.B. himself, trying to get the music producers and influential people in the music industry to give his songs just one little listen, but feeling invisible and rejected in spite of all his efforts. It stings when you've come so close to achieving your goal, but the opportunity just never turned out the results you were aiming for. And now that he's a success, B.o.B. is thankful to have finally achieved his dream. All those struggles made him the man that he is today.
Some people get so annoyed with something that infiltrates their everyday lives that they vent about their frustrations. That's fine -- everyone's entitled to the freedom of expression. The problem, however, is that people often vent about something without looking at the big picture. This person in the Youtube video, for instance, poked fun at this song and took it so literally that his belittlement of the chorus destroyed any meaning the author meant to convey. If the person in the video didn't like the song, then that's okay because that's his opinion. However, because this person took the lyrics so literally, it becomes obvious to anyone watching this video that he only took the chorus at face value and didn't at least try to dig deeper to uncover any merit that the song might still possibly hold. I can't take his opinion that seriously because he sounds like he's never actually thought the song through, and his outright refusal to at least consider the possibility that someone else might appreciate the song shows that he's biased and not open to views that may differ from his own.
Being annoyed with the song's popularity and its overwhelming salience in pop culture is one thing, but mindlessly poking fun at it without critically thinking about the possible merit and substance (in terms of figurative language, tone, and the overall meaning, etc.) that the song might actually contain is something else altogether. If the song actually lacked substance and meaning, then I would probably hold the same opinion as the person in the Youtube video. However, since there is some meaning and relatability that I can derive from the lyrics of the song, I can appreciate B.o.B.'s efforts as a recording artist. I find that he's really quite talented because of his willingness to share that personal part of his life in a song. That takes guts. For someone to just simply scrape across the surface of the chorus for the sake of belittling B.o.B.'s experiences without at least thinking about the overall meaning of the song is immature. Sorry if it sounds like I'm ranting, but I really think that the guy in that video missed the point completely.
Now if there's one song out there that annoys the freaking hell out of me, it's Usher's "OMG." I don't appreciate a song that contains gratuitous hate and excessive cussing, or a song that obnoxiously objectifies a woman's body as if the totality of a woman's worth is solely determined by men who substitute their brains with their scrotums. Usher's "OMG," in my opinion, falls under the latter category.
Just look at some of the verses in the lyrics:
"I fell in love with shawty when I seen her on the dance floor
She was dancing sexy, pop, pop, popping, dropping, dropping low
Never ever has a lady hit me on the first sight
This was something special; this was just like dynamite
Honey got a booty like pow, pow, pow
Honey got some boobies like wow, oh, wow
Girl, you know I'm lovin' your, lovin' your style...
...Fell in love with honey like my, oh, my
Honey looking wonderful; fly, so fly
Honey like a supermodel; my, oh, my
Baby, how you do that, make a grown man cry?"
Lust in and of itself is not love. If anything, the lyrics of "OMG" suggest lust at first sight, and it's obvious that the guy in the song was so at a loss for words because he's thinking with another body part rather than his brain. Is a woman only deserving of love if she's got the figure of a supermodel? Way to sound like a superficial caveman.
If a guy walks up to you and says any of those lines, you would think he's a total creep who feels as if he's entitled to sex just because he tried to flatter you with how much he thinks you're sexy. It's actually insulting if you think about it -- whether he intended it or not, he's insinuating that the only thing he cares about is getting into your pants, and he doesn't even pretend to like you for your personality. Because anything that has boobs and a butt that happens to be dancing right in front of him is the only thing that warrants his attention. And I'm sure that yes, the emotions that the guy is feeling must be like dynamite... because his efforts of schmoozing any self-respecting woman with his shitty attempt at flattery is sure to blow up right in his face.
So why are songs like "OMG" among the chart-topping songs of 2010? Simple: sex sells.
There is no substance in Usher's "OMG" -- nothing that even remotely qualifies as having depth or creativity with the use of figurative language. Instead, we get a mindless repetition of some horny creep's sexist and unimaginative wet dream. The redundancy and the uninspired diction of the lyrics grate at me so much that they make my ears bleed.
The lyrics of "Butterfly" by Jason Mraz and "Nothin On You" by B.o.B. have more creativity and meaning than "OMG" will ever have. The lyrics of these songs actually sound somewhat poetic, if you consider the diction, syntax, and use of figurative language to create imagery. Usher's "OMG" fails to use any of these. Don't get me wrong. I like some of Usher's other songs -- "Confessions Pt. 2," "Burn," and "My Boo," to name a few. But his latest singles, which have a more club-like ambiance to them, fail to impress me. They sound way too contrived.
A song doesn't need to hold a deep and profound meaning for me to appreciate or like it, but it should have something in the lyrics that shows that the artist or songwriter behind the song made a sincere effort at aiming for creativity.
