But you should never be embarrassed by
Your trouble with living
Cause it's the ones with the sorest throats
Laura, who have done the most singing


- Laura Laurent, Bright Eyes


I don't know why it took me so long to realise this, but folk songs with their great, ruminative lyrics (and boring tunes, if heard in isolation without lyrics being clear) are not meant for journeys on public transport, when you only want something catchy and upbeat to distract you from the situation of being stuck in a moving vehicle with strangers you don't care/dare to know better.

I'm appreciating Bright Eyes all over again, sitting here, in my bedroom, typing out my Southeast Asian History readings for revision. (also helps that it's pretty late in the night/early in the morning...privacy and solitude)
He has this meta-attitude which reminds me of a literature student (i obsessively tried to find evidence of a lit college degree, to no avail), and which I relish, and inspired me to write these:

"Prancing around with my meta-attitude
Picked up from literary education
Treat me with irreverence
and I'll reciprocate with affection"

It's crappy and unrefined. The last 2 lines are from another realisation that I enjoy the company of people who don't bother to be polite, simply take liberties with me in a good-natured way. I need to feel defensive, in a light-hearted manner, and then be coerced out of my shell into making snide remarks as counter-attack. I like those back-and-forth interactions.

***

It just came to me. I read about someone saying people nowadays are like cyborgs the way they're always plugged into machines.

It couldn't be truer, I almost literally have my earphones embedded into my body, and when one mp3 player runs out of battery, I unplug it, with the cord hanging, searching for the next thing to plug into, like an umbilical cord of a music-hungry zombie looking for its victim-mother.

Same goes with plugging into the power socket with my laptop.