Wednesday, February 22, 2023

I Can Name That Tune With One Emoji, 2022

Last year had some very memorable songs, but how many could you name from just using emojis?  Listed below are a number on songs from 2022 rendered as just characters.  Your task is to decipher them into actual song titles.  For example, if you saw this 🌸🌸🌸, your answer would be the current number song “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus. I’ve tried my best to put in as many as possible, but not every song title can be so easily changed.  Scroll down to get the answers.  Have fun!


  1. πŸ”₯🌊🌊
  2. πŸ₯ΆπŸ₯Ά
  3. πŸ‘»
  4. 🦸‍♂️πŸ‘Ί
  5. ❄️❤️
  6. 🦹🏼
  7. πŸ­πŸ‘Ά
  8. πŸ‘±πŸ»‍♀️
  9. πŸƒ‍♂️⬆️⛰️
  10. ⌛️πŸŒƒπŸ—£️
  11. ☀️πŸ”πŸš—
  12. 1️⃣➡️⏲️
  13. πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί*️⃣🐎
  14. πŸ’°πŸŒŽ
  15. 🍁⬇️❤️
  16. πŸ”ͺπŸ—£️
  17. πŸͺ¨➕πŸ’ŽπŸ™️
  18. 🀞🏼
  19. 🌼🏬🏬
  20. ❌πŸ˜‡

ANSWERS



  1. Heat Waves
  2. Shivers
  3. Ghost
  4. Super Gremlin
  5. Cold Heart
  6. Enemy
  7. Industry Baby
  8. Woman
  9. Running up That Hill
  10. Late Night Talking
  11. Sunroof
  12. One Right Now
  13. Moscow Mule
  14. Buy Dirt
  15. Fall in Love
  16. Knife Talk
  17. Rock and a Hard Place
  18. Fingers Crossed
  19. Flower Shops
  20. Unholy

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Might Be a Coward, I'm Afraid

    A few months ago, I mentioned how I just needed two more classes to finish graduate school and get my Masters.  However, that will not be happening this semester.  While that was what I was planning to do,  I ultimately had to withdraw from both of classes, but the lamest of reasons. Last fall, after I passed my exit exam, I registered for what should have been my final two classes.  I had three to chose from.  I passed on the December class on early twentieth-century American literature.  I believed I wouldn't have the time with the holiday season and all.  Turns out, I might have been able to do so after all.  Instead, I signed up for the two remaining classes being offered in the spring semester that I hadn't taken yet.  The first was a perspective class on some undefined period of American literature.  I knew nothing about what period was being covered.  I couldn't even get a hint, as the course had no books being offered.  The other was a course on Thomas Hardy.  There were five novels being covered, plus a major selection of his poetry.  In an effort to save money, I was going to just check the books out of the library.  Also, I managed to find the complete poetry selection for much cheaper than the near eighty dollar edition being offered.  The exact same material, though.  Well, about ten days before the semester was supposed to start, I received an email from my professor about the class, featuring the syllabus and calendar.  It looked like we would spend one week discussing a novel, and the next week we would be discussing the analysis and criticism about that novel, with the last weeks of class going over various collections of poetry.  Apparently, the editions the professor demanded included critical analysis, as well as the novel itself.  I sent the professor an email about how important it was to have those exact editions of the novels. I got a reply the Sunday a week before classes started.  Yes, I needed those versions, and only those versions.  The next day, Monday, I checked the local libraries again see which versions they had, but I already was sure they were not the same versions.  Fortunately, I own a bookstore.  I knew my distributor carried those exact versions.  I could just order them from it.  Unfortunately, only one of the books were in stock, and I don't think it was the one for the first week of class.  Also, it could take my distributor four to six weeks for them to get the books back in stock, well beyond the time I needed them.  Since this is basically the only national book distributor, online book stores might not have them either, not that I would purchase them through a competitor anyway, not without extreme duress.  This meant I would have to go through the university book store, basically a Barnes and Noble outlet.  I don't buy used, if I can help it, as one can't know exactly who had the book last.  I couldn't do rental either, as I had a hard time trying to return the last time I did that.  So, new it was.  I exclusively use a rechargeable card for online purchases; I haven't used it for anything else. Because it was just after the holidays, I knew I had enough money on it to pay for the books and the sales tax.  However, the shipping and handling costs wouldn't be known until I actually completed the sale.  The card provider had taken out a fee it shouldn't have, so I didn't think I had enough money on the card.  I had to wait until the next day to load for onto it, and then another day to make sure the transaction was successful.  Normally, such things were automatic, but I needed to be safe.  So, this put me to the Thursday before classes began. I had already determined that I could buy just the five books I needed, and not the eighty dollar one I didn't.  I went to finish the sale, when I was asked if I was picking the book up in person or if someone else would be doing it.  I somehow missed the delivery option.  I had to cancel the order and then wait until I was sure the servers were clear.  I tried again, later in the afternoon.  This time, I made sure it was delivery.  I was right about the handling charge, as I wouldn't have had enough money on the card for even the lowest possibility, five to seven days, although it would probably be less since the store was fairly close to the school.  I went to fill out the rest of the form and clicked confirm.  The card was declined.  I tried things a little differently, but I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  By then, it was time to close the store and go home.  I tried one last time that night, but I couldn't finish the sale. I would have to call them the next morning, from the store, and ask them what I needed to do.  This would mean that the books might not be sent out until that evening, or possibly the next business day, which would be the following Tuesday due to the Martin Luther King Junior holiday.  This would mean I might not get the books until well after I needed to start reading them.  I made a hard choice, but I dropped the class that night.  I couldn't risk falling behind due to a late delivery.  I didn't really want to read such depressing books anyway. After a fraught weekend of having to activate my multi-factor authentication, without warning over a three day weekend. a finally got word on my other class, on the first day of work. Turns out, the class was about American drama from between the two World Wars.  I had heard of only a few of the plays, one from the movie version, and maybe two of the writers.  When I went to put up my bio for the class, I noticed that the others were younger than me, and English teachers for grade and/or high school getting their certifications, so I had little in common with them.  I also saw on the syllabus and calendar, unedited from when the class was last taught two years ago, that there would be two major assignments.  The first shorter one, ten pages (!), would be a peer reviewed conference paper,  That's when I realized that this was the same professor I had a few years ago who had me write the same thing, and I almost was just barely able to finish it.  The second, longer assignment would be a fifteen page seminar paper of the type that would appear for a literary journal. I had no intention of being in a position to write such things.  In fact, I was starting to doubt why I was going after my Masters in the first place.  I was never going to teach children.  I probably wouldn't get a job at the collegiate level unless I went after my Doctorate, which would be difficult at my age.  That's why I wanted an MFA instead, so I could write while using teaching as my money-maker, without the fuss of too much academic stuff.  I was worrying so, I had trouble falling asleep that night.  I contacted the class, mentioning my problems.  I looked up the synopses of the plays.  Mostly, they were about a person trying to get ahead in life, but the only way that was possible was in the death of someone.  I looked for physical copies of the plays at the local libraries, so I wouldn't have to read everything online, but one only had two, as well as analyses on a few more, and a second library just had one play and nothing else.  My professor probably would've wanted more recent material anyway, if I could find anything through the school's online database.  I am just not that proficient with such things.  Give me books any day over such craziness.  I fretted a few more days before dropping that class as well, without ever checking back with the rest of the students or the professor.  I was just too embarrassed.  I could've done the work, but it just didn't feel right for me, as this class was taking me in a direction I wasn't planning to go.  Maybe I was wrong for dropping these classes.  Maybe I was wrong in ever trying to get my Masters so long after I graduated.  I just wish I cold actually talk to someone.  Not email, message, or phone, but actually talk face-to-face to help me out.  I thought I knew what I wanted, but I just can't seem to figure out how to get there any more.  That is the impression that I get, anyway.

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Just Let the Kids, er Man, Play

    I don't play as many games online that I used to, and only two of those games are actually competitive against others.  One of them, SongPop Classic, has become very successful for me lately.  After just one week, I am already past halfway on the monthly challenge path, having already finished most of the daily challenges, all of the weekly challenges for the first week, and even the expert challenge for the period. I haven't been as successful on my other competitive game these last few weeks, Golf Clash, but not for the same reasons.  About three weeks ago, the game vanished from my Facebook page where I exclusively play it.  I noticed that another game vanished as well, but later on in the day.  That game was back the following day, but Golf Clash was nowhere to be found.  I searched on various social media sites for information, and it appeared that the game was completely taken off Facebook everywhere.  Not only that, but many players who didn't play on Facebook were experiencing other problems as well.  After two days, and missing the opening round of a tournament, the game's publishers finally updated everyone that there were problems, but they did not comment on what the problems actually were.  Rumors were rampant on social media, but nothing was confirmed although a consensus was growing.  The main reason seemed to be that Facebook changed some of their guidelines, and my game no longer met them.  Other effected games either made fixes faster or had greater difficulties.  Players who weren't seriously effected by the lockout berated those who were non-stop, basically blaming them for not securing their accounts by multiple ways or from not playing on mobile devices like they were.  The hatred was intense.  It was only after five days that the publisher confirmed the rumors were true and that they were still working on the issue, this after a major tournament had ended.  It was at this time that I finally caved in and decided to finally recover my account on my phone.  Well, it turned out that while I had started the process, I never did complete the recovery security set-up.  My account was still locked out, but I had a new account set up.  It didn't allow me to contact the other players in my group.  It didn't allow me access to the improved gear and resources I had accrued.  It didn't allow me to play in all of the special events that were going on. However, I now could see the special deals that phone players had had for a few months, if I just downloaded games, took surveys, or made online purchases.  I just stayed with looking at ads.  After twelve days, the friend who got me started on the game finally contacted me to see why I hadn't been playing.  I described the problems with the lockout.  He offered to help, but there really wasn't anything he could do.  Meanwhile, the publishers finally came out with a third statement mentioned that they were close to fixing the problems, as well as that they would be offering compensation to the affected players.  The hatred between affected and unaffected players began to bubble up even higher, as the two groups complained about each others playing styles. Apparently, the second tournament during the lockout may have seen a sharp drop off in performance, as the overall lack of players became noticeable.  Then, last Tuesday, while I was checking on social media, someone mentioned while they were trolling another poster that the game had came back.  I quickly checked, and the game had indeed returned.  It turned out that not that most of the players in my group had any problems other than no pictures in their profiles turned the lockout.  I explained my absence and was able to start playing again that night.  I also made sure to secure my account a second way. A day or so later, I received my compensation.  I got all of the resources I used for the tournament I missed out on back.  I would be getting a free run for the next season of challenges.  I also received about half of the amount of resource I would have gotten for free if I hadn't been locked out.  Whatever on that one.  I was actually able to do well on the past weekend's tournament, as well as playing quite good the past week.  Then, the next shoe dropped yesterday.  The publisher announced that they would be pulling Golf Clash from Facebook in April.  Now, I prefer to play on the three-times bigger screen of my MacBook with a mouse than on a phone.  I've tried to ask my teammates about how to get two accounts on the same device, as well as how to run an emulator so I'll be able to play my own way, but I have had no luck so far.  There are even rumors that the game will be taken down completely later on this year, as the company behind the publisher has a new golf game of their own that they might want the focus to be on instead.  That company has already cancelled a few games this year, so the rumor might have a little truth to it. So, in two months time, I'll be playing still.  Maybe not as well as I used to, but I'll at least have something.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Pop Until You Drop, Part Four

    This is the last one of these, I swear.  One of the main reasons why I hate Chris's friends reveal their secrets was to allow Chris to break his father's word and tell Sam everything.  These secrets were the impetus for the entire book, so I needed a way to get them across.  First, I revealed more about how Jonathan's mother and siblings died, at the manor basically.  Morbid, I know, but it reveals a lot about Chris's grandfather's nature.  It set up the secret about how Jonathan get into college, as well as his job there.  I admit, I only added that part after scandals broke out involving celebrities getting their children into college.  It was a rather late add, but suited both the characters and the overall plot of the book.  The main secret I wanted to reveal was about Jonathan's wife, basically Sam's 'mother.'  I hinted in the first book that her character wasn't too great, and I upped the ante in this one.  I always planned on her being sort of a gold digger, but making her a major reason why Chris was never found until he was an adult was the last straw.  I wanted some ambiguity if she really was trying to take money from Jonathan, at least so that Sam wouldn't be feeling too bad towards her.  Now, I didn't spill all of the secrets involving the Burton family.  There are few more left.  That's right.  There is going to be one more book in this series to finish off the story of Chris and Sam.  There was just too much more information left to write.  This is the reason why I ended the story before the wedding.  I knew there would be more to relate.  I am still in the framing portion, but I have the main beats laid out.  I just have to figure out the best way to connect them all together.  I don't want to spoil too much, but I can give out a few details.  First, the title will be connected to both art and fatherhood, again.  I'm not sure how, yet, but it will focus on modern art of the early twenty-first century.  Second, the action will take place four years later, yet again in late May/early June.  Sam will have just graduated college by then, and he is getting ready to get onto the US team for international competition in swimming.  Chris will still be married to Addie, with one child and a second one on the way.  Third, while most of the scenes will take place in New York and Lexington, there will be a major scene taking place in a new location in a different state.  There will also be some chapters set in Chris's hometown, as it were.  Yes, we will finally get to meet Chris's mother and find out exactly why their relationship is so choppy.  Fourth, as mentioned above, I have a few more secrets about the Burton family.  Early in the book, Chris finds something that puzzles him, and he goes through the entire book wondering what it is he found, if it is anything at all.  It might be nothing, but it might turn into something else entirely.  Fifth, Chris's friends won't be seen, but I will flesh out the futures I mentioned in the blogcast and include them.  In fact, Chris will only have one friend in the entire book to talk to, and he will be someone unexpected.  It turns out that there are plenty of secrets going around, and Chris will have to navigate carefully before any of them blow up in his face.  I probably won't start this book for a few more months.  Maybe not even until next year, but that just will give me more time to plan.  See you then.