My pop culture education update

Ok, so I have been squeezing more and more pop culture education into my head. I'm starting to become concerned that all these things I find useful and interesting will fall out of my head in an attempt to squeeze all these popular (as deemed by 'society') things in. What if for example:

• I suddenly stop loving Shostakovich and wanting to have his theme tattooed across my body (his name means much more to me than my own does. Even thinking of his music and what it means to me conjures  up such emotion that encompasses so many things in my life, right from back when I was around 16 and played his music for the first time) to instead spend my time shouting 'Get to the chopper' to my friends.
• My practice of Nicherin Buddhism keeps me on the straight and narrow. I'm not into the whole wishy washy thing of religion, it's not my cup of tea. I like Nicherin Buddhism as it teaches that I am responsible for my life, there is no external being out there deciding how my life will go and that if I want to achieve something then I have to pull my finger out and go and do it. Think of Buddhism as one of those Americal motivational speakers but without being irritating.  What if I gave all this up to start spending lots of time blogging about fashion? What if I spent all my free time seeing what was new on the catwalk (I thought I'd never see that sentence come out of my own fingertips) and traipsing round the high street trying to find the latest styles at budget prices. What if one of life's big dilemmas was 'should I risk wearing this *insert clothing item here* out tonight in case *insert name of friend here* is wearing it'.
• What if I suddenly forgot how to have a reasoned debate? What if my ability to concisely and effectively convey my point and reasoning fell out of my head one day and I somehow I became able to remember all the films that Arnold Schwarznegger had been in? What if I could name them chronologically and include the name of the character he played in the film? Would this be a good thing?

I guess the conclusion that I'm coming to is that pop culture isn't something that people need, it's not like a part of me is missing because I don't know these things. As a grown woman, I'm gently chided by some friends for not knowing these things but I never feel that I've been missing out as a child and that I've been living under a rock for the last 26 and a bit years. It's superfluous, is pop culture. It's not something that we need to make us good, rounded human beings. Some of my friends seem to think that pop culture does make us rounded human beings, I disagree. I believe that there are far more important things that make us 'human beings'. Empathy, courage, conviction, resilience, passion and a desire to improve ourselves are all much important elements than being able to quote every line from Wayne's World 2.

#HogletNights

In bed. I was supposed to be watching episodes of Desmond's but for the last 20 mins I've been entertained by Murray. Murray is our African pygmy hedgehog, we've not even had him a week yet. A few things about Murray:

• He has very sharp teeth
• He likes to scratch himself
• He can run very fast
• His prickles hurt

I've actually just had to stop here as Murray has just climbed into the bottom of my wardrobe where all my shoes are. I need to check on him, make sure he hasn't gotten caught in shoes. He did get caught in my knickers and I had to winch him out, tangled in a pair of M&S finest. I had to coax him out with a cotton bud which he wanted to chase. Nice.

• He sleeps A LOT
• He crunches biscuits like a motherfucker

Anyway - he's all round awesome. He's very different to Linford (my tortoise in so many ways). Linford is low maintenance, not affectionate, doesn't require a lot of attention and is just happy being on his own and climbing on stuff. He eats greens, he poops, he climbs about and then he goes back to bed. It goes sleep, eat, climb, sleep, more sleep, poop, sleep, climb, eat, poop and more sleep again. Murray goes sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, poop poop, poop, poop, poop, poop, eat, run around, run around, run around (this goes on for some time) and then back to sleep. He's nocturnal so having his cage in our bedroom probably isn't a good idea!

In the last 20 mins he's got a little routine going. He jumps out of his box onto the floor, circumnavigates the laundry bin and then spends a few seconds seeing how far he can ram his head in a toilet tube. Runs around with said tube on his head (he gets it WELL past the ears) until I pull it off and then off he trots around the bottom of the bed. Then he comes up the other side of the bed, having to tackle 2 pairs of knickers on the go (one, as previously mentioned is the M&S no VPL black knickers. The other is a cream cotton thong with green polka dots and pink trim). He then crawls down the back of the bed before jumping back into this box.

The only variations on this have been when I used an Alan Partridge DVD case as a breakwater (geddit?) stop him going down the back of the bed, when he climbed in the wardrobe and earlier on when he tried to leap down the stairs. 

Still a little frightened of holding him as his prickles hurt but hopefully when he becomes more used to me, he won't put them up as much.

I could watch him run around all night but I can't cope with the hag from hell on a night of no sleep due to hedgehog-fancying!

My pop culture education

Right. I know nothing about popular culture. Nothing at all. Well, that's a lie - I know that it exists. This is what I knew about pop culture 6 months ago:

• Lady Gaga sings songs and wear dresses out of meat.
• There is a man called Justin Bieber who sings songs and has lots of fans.
• There is a difference between Star Trek and Star Wars.
• Lots of people like zombie films

There is a little more but not much. I guess I don't really know much about pop culture because I wasn't brought up knowing about this. My parents liked dub and Orbital so this is what I listening to when I was growing up. When I got to 13 and started 'rebelling', I loved classical music (I had some wrong kind of crush on Rimsky-Korsakov when I was 13) and Marilyn Manson.  I've never liked mainstream music and this is what's in the media, on the TV, on the radio etc. I've never had that exposure to it so guess it's largely passed me by.

BUT - I am 26 and a half now. My lack of pop culture knowledge is obvious and I frequently get a ribbing from my friends for not knowing what is going on. For example, I thought that Arnold Schwarznegger was the stage name for the man who's real name was Robert de Niro. I thought they were one and the same. I still don't know who Robert de Niro is. Why don't I know this?! I'm going to blame my parents. 

I still don't think I'm "missing out", even though my friends do. I don't think I'm not as rounded a person as I could be because I haven't watched Dr Who since 11 February 1985 (the day I was born). I don't think that I'm missing out on life because I don't know who is shagging who in Holly wood. But, I think it would be interesting to try and fill my head with all this knowledge and at the end of this process try to see if I really have been missing out.

Areas that I'm going to concentrate on:

• Films. Not Korean horror films that I like but big blockbuster (or is BlockBuster the right word here?) ones and those American films that everyone loves. I've already watched Knocked Up and Role Models. More to come. I've also seen Evil Dead so know who Bruce Campbll (or Bruised Campbell as my boyfriend says)
• Comic book knowledge. This is pop culture knowledge. Fact. I've read 3 Alan Moore comics, that's enough for now. I can't do everything.
• Knowledge of who people are. I now know, Arnie, Bruce Campbell, Angela Rippon. Loads more!

I shall report back with my #PopCultureEducation findings

Spelling

I can't spell dissector either. This is not a good start

Start

This is the start of my blog.

I had a blog before but it was rubbish and depressing so I deleted it. I can't say that this one won't be rubbish and depressing but that is not my aim!

The name of my blog comes from a work friend who was talking about his dissecting skills. He said his dissecting skills were average, and the name 'An Average Dissector' was born.