This song was used in Shrek, and I LOVE that. I know the internet has taken to ironic Shrek love as a way of bashing this early-millennium gem, but it is so full of humour and wisdom, and really survives the rewatch (and the rerewatch and the rererewatch – you get my drift). Same goes for Shrek 2 – I know I love it more than Alex does, but hey, he loves other movies he saw as a tiny more than I ever will (massive Labyrinth fan, and I just can’t stick it… it’s on too many drugs for me). I admittedly have only seen Shrek 3 once, and haven’t watched the subsequent attempts by Dreamworks to print more money. I may need to watch them for ‘education’ purposes over the next few weeks, but I do totally get that it was a bit of a golden-egg-laying-goose for Dreamworks… But they should have stopped well before ‘Shrek the Halls.’ (Like that Frozen short we all had to sit through before Coco. Don’t get me started on milking the animated-kid-friendly-merch-machine around the holiday season).
So, I like Shrek enough that I may actually write with the soundtrack for the next few days. Then I’ll go to one of the other great pop-music-as-soundtrack films, like Guardians of the Galaxy or Love Actually. Anyway, back to Shrek: today’s song comes from the bit of the film when they are journeying back to Duloc, where Shrek blows up a frog like a balloon, and Fiona turns a snake into a balloon animal.
My beloved monster and me We go everywhere together Wearing a raincoat that has four sleeves Gets us through all kinds of weather
This is a post about thinking about the things we come habituated to, whether they are habits we are intentionally forming, or habits we’ve just found ourselves with over the years. My big unbreakable habits include tea-drinking, and less wonderfully, scrolling social media for too long each day. I’m really trying to reduce that second one, but also to add in a few more good habits. I’ve begun reading more again. Not quite at the crazy pace I once could, but I am genuinely excited to get a delivery of a surprise box of books soon – will review both the delivery and the books in due course.
My beloved monster is tough
Since I began this blog back in February and then avoided it fastidiously for some months, I have managed to write 27 posts, with most (all but 3) having been written in June. This has amounted to over 13 000 words, not all in the same direction, but I’m still pretty darn impressed with myself. I will move towards writing 13 000 words in the same direction too, but I’m still figuring out an idea for my first novel.
At times, even in this artificial constraint of short blogs just to get one out a day, it has not been great. In fact, sometimes it’s been the last thing I’ve felt like doing, but hey, I am POWERFULLY motivated by WordPress telling me I’m on an x-day long streak. When I press the publish button, I will see the “you’re on a 21-day streak” message, and dammit, it feels good.
So I’ve made it past the pop-psychology short version of ‘form a habit’: do something for 21 days, and you’ll form a habit, apparently. Very pop-psych. I have read some (actual) research that it’s not actually just a 21-day affair; it apparently often takes a bit longer than that to get something entrenched. At 21 days, however, you start to apparently get over the slog, but it supposedly takes 66 days to form automatic associations and actions, and 90-odd days for those changes to embed into a lifestyle of practice. So I guess you’re stuck with me for another few months of lightning blogs.
Are you enjoying them?
Day 22.
Writing song:
Everyday Adventures 