July Sweeps - Day 522

I wasn't cut out for being a producer when it came to podcasting.  I was always loathe to ask others to lend their voices to our productions, let alone get on them about getting us their lines on time.  I'm only working on one audio drama right now, and the writer/director sends multiple emails out, reminding us/me that our lines are due, and just how overdue they are when I fail to get them to her.  This is an invaluable talent to have as a producer, and one that I never developed.  I always wanted to seem like a "nice guy," and a nice guy gets fewer results than somebody who is there to do a job and expects everybody else to do it too.

Boy, the cabin is noisy right now.  I say it a lot, but the sheer volume of popping, stretching, almost banging wood on the upper walls and roof are unbelievable.  I've got a story set up here that I was thinking of recording, and I just don't think the audio quality would be good enough (not to mention the damn chirping smoke detector, which caused merry hell for multiple recordings last year).

I went for my usual walk, and it was another of those evenings with not another soul in sight, and no wind, so the water reflected the sky.  I walked around the back of the lake, and found the little puddle I was trying to find after getting lost in the brush last week (I keep meaning to record the bubbles slowly rising from the underground spring, because it looks so captivatingly cool), but the sun was too low to really see anything.  It's always amazing to know that nobody else is around, that the lake and sunset are for my eyes only.*

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In July: 733

Tonight, I went out three different times (twice out back and once up top) to look at the stars and listen to the owls hooting (there were two of them, and I'd like to think they were talking to each other).  It took my eyes a minute to get used to the dark, and then I could see a million stars, whereas when I first stepped out each time, I could only see the brightest ones.

Push-ups Today: 66 (and either it's the altitude or my own laziness, but they were the hardest sixty-six push-ups in a year)
Push-ups In July: 817

The other day, I was talking to a girl named Kylee (another of those literally faceless young women I sometimes interact with), and I asked her about her name (usually, I see it spelled as "Kylie" or occasionally "Kyliee" maybe), and asked her about how Kylie Minogue spells her name.  The girl didn't know who Kylie Minogue was, and that's fine**, but I made the mistake of trying to explain who Minogue is and what a big deal she was in Australia (and pretty much everywhere that speaks English but isn't the United States).

And I said, "She was totally the Madonna of Australia.  Back in the Eighties and Nineties anyway."

"Madonna?" Kylee said.  "The singer, right?"

No, Madonna the Russian scientist that invented the deepfryer.  So I asked her, "Well, who would you say is the most famous Kylie then?"

And she said, "Well, Kylie Jenner, obviously."  She didn't add "Duh," but she totally could have.

There's a Kylie Jenner?  Not Kendall, but Kylie?  I'd do a google search, and surely it would turn up either naked or infuriating pictures, but there's no internet here, so I'll just bask in my willful ignorance.  In the Andy Weir book I'm reading, the main character makes reference to the Nintendo Power Glove, and then his mind reels at how old he has gotten.  Sigh.

The internet is so useful, this was the result for a search of "Kylie Jenner Power Glove."

A glutton for punishment, I said to her, "So, Madonna was an absolute giant in the music industry, from when I was like eight years old.  She's like, well, I don't know who the equivalent of Madonna would be today, if there is one."

And Kylee, bless her heart, said, "Maybe Olivia Rodrigo?"

Like I said, bless her little faceless heart.  "Well, no," I said, "Olivia's great, but Madonna had hits year after year after year.  Maybe Beyonce is the closest thing we have today, but--"

And Kylee asked her coworker, one who was born before Obama was president, who the Madonna of today would be, and she (Rosie) said, "Um, I don't know.  Maybe Beyonce?  Or Taylor Swift?"

And Kylee wrinkled her nose underneath her mask (I'm guessing), and said, "Taylor Swift, ugh."

I said, "You don't like Taylor Swift then?"

She said, "Well, a long time ago I did.  When she was young."

Sigh again.  I'm going to eat another donut now.  And then one after that.

Words Today: 863
Words In July: 6526

*I know a guy who is planning to move to Alaska, for pretty much that same reason--except I get the impression he hates people a lot more than he loves the outdoors.  I hope he enjoys the trip, and the notoriety of being the first grown man on record to be eaten by a moose.

**I wasn't the slightest bit interested in this Kylee person, just making conversation.  But it was one of those conversations where, right off the top, she mentioned she had a boyfriend, which in my experience, happens for a reason.  And then I started thinking about how this ordinary girl, who didn't even know who the biggest female pop star of my lifetime was could nab a steady boyfriend and I couldn't.  You know what I mean.