Songs that get stuck in my head

I hate it when I get songs stuck in my head. Today it was “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain ” — the burlesque version that Daniel Radcliffe tweaks his way through in the show “Miracle Workers”, complete with honky-tonk piano. I loved the scene, but I don’t know that I want the song in my head ad nauseum.

Usually the songs that get stuck in my head are catchy, popular songs. Pop music. For example, “Baby Shark”. That was in my head for weeks like a parasite, and I was contemplating Ivermectin to get that earworm out. (It is not recommended to use Ivermectin for earworms or COVID-19, as its only use in humans is for tropical roundworms). I guess this is why they’re called earworms.

Getting the song out of my head

I have a system for getting earworms out of my brain, and it’s pretty foolproof, at least temporarily. I blast a song which isn’t inane, which isn’t pop, which isn’t going to stick in my head for very long because it’s not easy to the ears. My favorites:

• Nine Inch Nails, “Head Like a Hole”
• Mike Oldfield, “Tubular Bells” (Exorcist edition)
• The Hu, pretty much anything
• Yes, “Starship Trooper”
• Anything classical

The purpose of these songs is to first, get me grooving. Second, drive out the earworm. Third, dissipate instead of getting stuck in my head like an alternative earworm. Because they’re so complex, they don’t get stuck like pop songs do. And then I have my brain back.

Until the next earworm…

I spent the last couple days on hiatus because of some heavy duty editing I have had to do on my back catalog. Sooner or later I will publish them if it’s the last thing I do! Still have some to edit.

I will write something new. Maybe a short story. Maybe a novel. I need to write something new or else I’ll go crazy.

Time to go edit.

Am I ready for the school year?

One month until the school year starts. That means the rhythm of my life completely changes from working at home to working in my office and in classrooms. This fall I have three face-to-face days with students and two days working from home.

I have my course sites for fall ready, which means my classes are all organized. They’re all in a easy-to-use form for students after some tweaking. I should be ready.

But there’s that transition.

The hardest part for me when it comes to preparing for fall is the transition. I don’t transition well (which makes me think of a diagnosis of ADHD, but I have never been diagnosed). I groove in whatever mode I’m in, but getting into that mode is difficult. So going from very flexible time to giving six lectures a week and sitting office hours will be a bit difficult.

The good thing about fall semester

One of the things that gets me through transitions is ritual. There’s enough ritual built into the beginning of the semester — greeting of students, Convocation, the faculty-staff picnic. Rituals make transitions easier by giving a celebration and a clear demarcation to it.

We missed the rituals last year, and that made everything harder for me. We canceled the picnic. I only met with half my students at any given time. I conducted office hours via Zoom. I had no real transition and it added to my stress level and sense of isolation.

This fall should be a real transition to the school year. I will clean my office to welcome students. I will go to the faculty-staff picnic and cheer on football season and meet with my whole classes and say hello to my fellow faculty members in the hallway. I will once again have a transition with rituals to make the change in routine easier — or, at least, celebratory.

The late night television of the Internet

I’ve just discovered Tik Tok — not surprising because the demographics don’t skew toward Boomer. Tik Tok is strange: filled with amateur vignettes from funny to bizarre to serious, none more than a minute long, it feels a lot like late night television, viewed in a dark room, with lots of infomercials and public service announcements.

The metaphor held when I realized that most of the hits to my posts happened at night. So Tik Tok is an entire community of people watching late night television, and this is what unites them.

My foray into filming

My reason for going into Tik Tok was to film promos for my book, The Kringle Conspiracy. I had been advised that promotion should only be 1/4 of one’s output, so I’ve had to film funny pieces in-between. And I’m falling in love with Tik Tok, it turns out.

I generally film myself on my computer or, when I can get my husband in on things, he films me on the iPhone. Then I edit using a silly little video editor named Crazy Video Editor. I use this, even though it’s a little buggy, because it allows me to put in thought balloons and other effects. I would like a program with even more features to let me be even sillier, but I haven’t found it yet.

I try to film every day — a quick minute or so followed by a few minutes of editing. My films are not hi-def or expertly filmed (there are some limits to the front-facing camera in a computer and inexpert lighting), but they’re fun and that’s what I’m going for.

I have had modest success. In less than a week I have 235 followers and some comments.

To find me on Tik Tok

Just find me at @lleachie. Hope to see you there!