I have made a mix tape for the holidays! Well, for Christmas. That is the holiday that I celebrate.

You'll see that I've structured this post a bit differently than the ones for mixes that I've uploaded in the past. Instead of including meaningful/enigmatic lyrics with each song, I've included some commentary. And sometimes lyrics. Since many of these songs are probably pretty familiar to most of us, picking sample lyrics would be way more difficult than with previous mixes. And I've found that I actually have something to say about a lot of these songs, and no reason not to say it. Learn more under the cut!

( From every village town, can you hear the sound? )

In honor of me becoming super depressed due to the changing seasons, I thought I'd share my Moody Mix Tape with you all! I made this mix a few year ago; some of you are already familiar with its soothing, confusing tracks. But the cover art is new!





( Music below the jump. Enjoy! )

Next up: maybe a Christmas 2009 playlist?

Okay, since I know you're all waiting on tenterhooks for it, date news is first. It was not the worst date that I have ever experienced. And... that's all there is to say about it, really. Not very eventful.

So, on to more important matters! Such as a links round-up.

I was recently made aware of the "Nick Jonas Thinks" tumblr, and it is amazing. Long-term readers of Poppy's blog know that I like Nick Jonas, and that I love macros. The "Nick Jonas Thinks" tumblr is a series of fantastic Nick Jonas macros. And they're pretty much all in the same style awesome style:

( In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that these are probably a lot more enjoyable if you already have some familiarity with images of Nick Jonas. Oh, and fair warning: there are 12 pictures of Nick Jonas making cute faces under this cut. )

And now for some embedded video!

( A variety of interesting, funny, and/or thought-provoking video under the cut! )

And now for blog and articles! You know, things that it isn't impolite not to place behind a cut.

I've mentioned, both in this space and in conversations in real life, that I might someday create a substantially sized post about my love of the Jonas Brothers. Perhaps in effort to explain myself, perhaps just to share what is a huge part of my life right now. I am not yet ready to write such a post, if, in fact, I ever will write one (although I certainly still intend to write a review of some kind of their most recent album, because I have some thoughts), but I would still like to share something with you all now. A while back, someone posted a JoBros picspam that is simply amazing. If you want to know why I love this band, this post contains many of the reasons. In the end, it's because of family. (Happy birthday to Kevin Jonas today, by the way! Um, if I manage to post this before midnight!)

This one is a little difficult to explain. You should just click through. It is hilarious, and not in any way inappropriate.

Several weeks ago, my friend Benji linked to some article or another regarding sleep scheduling, an on-going interest of his. Though I don't recall being particularly impressed by the article that he linked, I followed a path of links from that article and found an endeavor in self-discipline titled "How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off." An interesting exercise, I'm sure. But what I really liked about it is the following humorous passage regarding the author's feelings when his alarm goes off in the morning:

It’s nice and warm under the covers. If I get up, it’s going to be cold. That won’t be too pleasant.

Oh, I really should get up now. C’mon legs… move. Go, legs, go. Hmmm… that isn’t how I move my legs, is it? They don’t seem to be listening to me.

I should go to the gym. Yeah. Hmmm… I don’t really feel like working out right now though. I haven’t even had breakfast. Maybe I should have a muffin first. Banana nut. Now that’s a good muffin.

Maybe I’m trying to get myself up too early. I’m still sleepy, aren’t I? Maybe getting up with an alarm is unnatural. Won’t I function better with more sleep?

I don’t have to get up right this minute, do I? Surely I can relax another five minutes or so. The world isn’t going to end if I don’t get up right now.

I’ll bet my wife is toasty warm right now. She told me she hates it when I try to snuggle her at 6am, but so what… she loves me enough to forgive me, right? I know… I’ll start massaging her back and shoulders first. She can’t resist a good massage, even so early in the morning. Then I’ll transition to a head scratching. Yeah, that’ll do it. And then slide right into the spoon position. Won’t that be a pleasant way to start the day?

[ Scootch... scootch... Zzzzzzzz ]

Two hours later…

Me: What time is it? I don’t even remember the alarm going off. That was a good snuggle though. Oh well, guess I’ll have to skip exercise today.

Wife: Why do you keep setting your alarm if you aren’t going to get up when it goes off?

Me: Oh, did you think that was my wake-up alarm? It’s actually my snuggle alarm.

SNUGGLE ALARM!! I LOVE THE CONCEPT OF THE SNUGGLE ALARM. It's as awesome as the dance bell at the beginning of HSM2. It's as fantastic an idea as 6 o'clock hugs! (You could argue that it is in fact a logical progression of 6 o'clock hugs.)

I would never have thought of this, but it is apparently hilarious to hear about someone who does not usually read fashion and beauty magazines encountering Glamour for the first time. I mean, the bit where they tell you how they did the makeup for the cover model doesn't seem weird to me at all! But I can see how it might be strange to someone who isn't used to that sort of thing. Basically, I appreciate that the following sentence was legitimately used to build an argument: None of the media through which you experience Reese Witherspoon includes aroma capabilities.

Fuck You, Penguin is subtitled "A Blog Where I Tell Cute Animals What's What," which is a very accurate description. I don't know much about this blog, other than that it's hilarious. It's some guy (I mean, I assume it's a guy, but maybe it's a lady) viciously berating some of the world's most adorable and rare creatures. That's really all it is! But if a really cute picture of an animal has ever driven you to use profanity, this is the blog for you. (Be sure to check out the "Great Moments in History" in the sidebar on the right.)

Okay... now, with all that funny stuff out of the way, all that's left is the feminism and similar topics. Good times!

Let's start with one that's kind of funny, to ease the transition: "Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed To Work!" I would like to see this on a poster all over college campuses. I mean, the poster clarifying what counts as "one drink" of various types of alcoholic beverages was interesting, but ultimately useless, I suspect. Anyway, it's things like this that remind me how subtle and pervasive some types of victim-blaming are.

These next two are both from a fat acceptance blog that I recently discovered called "Shapely Prose" that is totally awesome. Fat acceptance and sizism are really interesting topics! And I do recognize that being able to view them merely as "interesting topics" -- or choose not to think about them at all at any time! -- is a manifestation of my privilege as a naturally thin person. But I've always been interested in body image issues, and fat acceptance seems like a natural extension of that interest. Anyway, this first link is actually not about sizism. It's a feminist article, ostensibly addressed to the fellows in order to explain how to ease interaction between men and women who do not know each other: "Schrödinger's Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced." Quote:

Now, you want to become acquainted with a woman you see in public. The first thing you need to understand is that women are dealing with a set of challenges and concerns that are strange to you, a man. To begin with, we would rather not be killed or otherwise violently assaulted.

“But wait! I don’t want that, either!”

Well, no. But do you think about it all the time? Is preventing violent assault or murder part of your daily routine, rather than merely something you do when you venture into war zones? Because, for women, it is. When I go on a date, I always leave the man’s full name and contact information written next to my computer monitor. This is so the cops can find my body if I go missing. My best friend will call or e-mail me the next morning, and I must answer that call or e-mail before noon-ish, or she begins to worry. If she doesn’t hear from me by three or so, she’ll call the police. My activities after dark are curtailed. Unless I am in a densely-occupied, well-lit space, I won’t go out alone. Even then, I prefer to have a friend or two, or my dogs, with me. Do you follow rules like these?

So when you, a stranger, approach me, I have to ask myself: Will this man rape me?

Do you think I’m overreacting?

This next article is very important to me. If you choose to experience only one thing that I've included in this post, it should definitely be John Hodgman's TED talk, embedded above. But if you choose to experience just two things here, this link should definitely be the second one. Kate Harding's "The Fantasy of Being Thin" is incredibly well-written and sharply insightful. I dare anyone to read it and not find something that speaks directly to them.

Finally, I have the articles that Sady Doyle (of the fantastic Tiger Beatdown, linked on this blog many times previously) has recently been writing for Bitch Magazine. Sady's blog, She Pop, brings a feminist lens to pop music, often while including sarcasm and CAPITAL LETTERS. So... basically it is a blog that might as well have been designed solely to bring me joy. And now that its run has finished, I'm a little stumped about which posts I particularly want to highlight for you. They are almost universally fantastic, and you should really just click through and read them all. By far the most controversial posts were "Taylor Swift Wants To Ban Access To Your Lady Bits" and its follow-up, "The Red and The White: Some Thoughts On Taylor Swift and Katy Perry." I guess those two were particular favorites of mine.

In conclusion, I'D SAY THIS HAS TURNED OUT TO BE A PRETTY GOOD POST FOR GETTING TO KNOW WHAT POPPY IS ALL ABOUT. (That sentence works best if you imagine T-Rex from Dinosaur Comics saying it, by the way.)

Holy crap, I JUST REALIZED something incredibly important and awesome.

You know who would be absolutely perfect to play Gen, from Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series? Like, you know, if a live-action movie(s) were made from the book(s)?

Joe Jonas

Seriously. Think about it. I mean, yes, I am basing some part of this on the cover art from the awesome paperback volume of The Thief that I own. (See this post for an image of that cover.) Even if that illustration doesn't really resemble Joe very much at all. But I thought of this mostly because I was reading through the excerpt that is also part of the entry linked above, and Gen was just... really reminding me of Joe. In the whole excerpt (and the whole book, the more I think about it), but especially here:

"You could shorten the time without shortening your life," said the magus.

I looked up at him. I'd lost the thread of the conversation. In the moment it took me to recover it, I realized that he was now nervous himself. I relaxed in my seat. "Go on."

"I want you to steal something."

I smiled. "Do you want the king's seal? I can get it for you."

"If I were you," said the magus, "I'd stop bragging about that." His voice grated.

My smile grew. The gold ring with the engraved ruby had been in his safekeeping when I had stolen it away. Losing it, I was sure, had badly damaged his standing at the king's court.

That was when I realized that picturing Joe Jonas in that conversation was ridiculously easy. And of course I immediately felt the need to blog about it!

Seriously, you guys. I want a movie version of The Thief starring Joe Jonas so bad now. WHAT MUST I DO TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN??

Enthusiastic followers of Poppy's dating life (as I assume all of you are) will be quite interested in hearing about a strange turn that my dating plans for tomorrow have taken. While remaining incredibly (shockingly, even) clear about where we will be meeting, I suspect that this fellow and I have suffered a major miscommunication about where we will be meeting! I expect that hilarity will ensue!

(The miscommunication is actually an internal one on this fellow's part, I believe. I'm pretty sure that I have all the relevant information. But seeing how this will pan out is easily the most interesting thing about this date so far.)

EDIT: Dammit, he worked the miscommunication out. I just missed a call from him, but he left a message straightening out where we're meeting. I mean, how is hilarity going to ensue now?? This puts a lot of pressure on my sarcasm reserves. (But I think there are probably more lunch options where we'll be meeting now, so. You know. Six of one, half-dozen of the other.)

I have not been on a date in two and a half years one and a quarter years. (Yeah, I forgot about the date that I went on during the Reunion last summer.)

It is important that I make this statement now, as I have just made a date for this Thursday. I almost don't even want to go on this date just because I will no longer be able to say: "I have not been on a date in two and a half years one year and three months." And I have seriously liked that. I mean, now it's going to be, what? "I've been on a date this week"? "I haven't been on a date in a couple weeks"? BORING.

As soon as I realized that this imminent date meant that I would be breaking the trend (which is so far my personal record for not-dating, if you don't count the first nineteen and a half years of my life before I started dating), I immediately felt the need to blog about it. THIS IS QUITE POSSIBLY (but hopefully not) THE LAST TIME I WILL BE ABLE TO SAY THIS: I haven't been on a date in two and a half years approximately one year and three or four months. (The exact figure is 472 days.)

For those who are (incomprehensibly, I must say) more interested in the details of the date than in tracking my inevitable slide toward old-maidenhood, I can provide the following: a fellow from church called me up and asked me out to lunch this Thursday. That is really all I know so far! I think his name is [Redacted], but I can't be 100% certain, because I am totally shit with names. If I need to blog about him more, I'll come up with a blog-name for him. (Also, I will hopefully figure out his real name at some point.) And I think that he's the guy who came up to me at church and awkwardly started a conversation a couple weeks ago, but, again, I can't be 100% certain that this is that same guy. If it is, then he's very tall and thin and quite resembles my oldest brother. Seems like a nice (albeit fairly awkward) person.

Daylight Savings Time is finally over, bitches!! This is how I celebrate:

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!



So, I ABHOR AND LOATHE Daylight Savings Time. My reasons for this are myriad, but it's mostly just because I grew up in Arizona, where almost the entire state (everywhere except the Navajo Nation, which extends into NM and UT) does not observe Daylight Savings Time. Other parts of the US that do not observe DST: Hawaii, and all of the territories and protectorates (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands). GOOD JOB, GUYS! STAY STRONG. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Indiana. QUITTERS.)

I think we need to abolish Daylight Savings Time altogether, and if we can't do that, then we should really start calling it "War Time" again.

Oh, also!

Remember how I mentioned "Target Women" several posts ago? As it turns out, this is part of a larger show, infoMania, which is TOTALLY AWESOME. (infoMania, by the way, has the greatest theme song since "Dog on Fire.") Other totally awesome segments include "That's Gay" and "Sergio's White Hot Top 5."

( Cut for LOTS of embedded video. )

I thought I wanted some mashed potatoes. But then I decided maybe not right now. So now I have a saucepan of chopped up potatoes sitting in water on the stove.

Much more importantly: everyone who is not yet watching Castle needs to get on that, and quick. Hulu has the last five episodes, but I strongly recommend starting from the beginning. (If necessary, I can offer tips on how to find the earlier episodes.) THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD, YOU GUYS. Nathan Fillion's character dressed up as Mal Reynolds in the latest episode! As a Halloween costume! I don't know whose idea that was, but this is clearly a show that I can get behind. And it's been nonstop delightfulness like that from the first episode. I'll probably gush more about the show after I have some indication that at least some of you are watching it.

Speaking of fun entertainment! Omer and I recently saw Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. It was quite good! (Check out the trailer here on YouTube.) John C. Reilly has forced me to take some huge strides forward in remembering how much I love long, voluminous coats, mostly by taking some huge strides forward while wearing long, voluminous coats in this movie -- once while backlit by a huge full moon, which was totally fricking awesome. That image doesn't even do the sequence justice, seriously. He comes over that hill, in front of the moon, in the long trenchcoat, and then digs up a grave! All while Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" is playing! I swear, everyone looks better in a trenchcoat. Some basic Wikipedia research makes me unsure about whether I might like to read the books upon which the movie is based (which happen to be the first trilogy of a set of twelve books total). They sound... really ridiculous. Anyway, the movie was very good! Highly recommended for easy-going funtimes!

Tomorrow is Halloween! I don't actually have anything to say about that, I think. I'm not attending any parties, dressing up (not even as Lady Gaga), or even planning on handing out candy in a non-begrudging manner.

Omer bought several bananas the other day. I tried warning him that I might not eat any of them (which, as it turns out, I haven't), and now I'm getting the feeling that we're headed straight toward a loaf of banana bread. Anyone have awesome banana bread recipes? I'm going to my trusty Good Housekeeping Cookbook if not.

Have I mentioned Stephen Torrence here yet? This guy is totally my new internet boyfriend. Important facts:





You're welcome.

I haven't watched I Kissed A Vampire yet, mostly because I kind of forgot about it, and also because I hear it's really, really bad. But adorable Drew Seeley! I'm sure I'll check it out soon.

I've been writing this post for so long that I actually decided to make the mashed potatoes, and I'm eating them now. But a big portion of that time was spent looking for images of John C. Reilly and trying to find out if Active Voice ever reviewed the Darren Shan Saga. (Evidently, they have not.)