A Pirate I was Meant to Be
Feb. 2, 2005
This morning, I woke up and suddenly had the urge to listen to "A Pirate I was Meant to Be," the brilliant rhyming ditty on the merits of a swashbuckling life from "The Curse of Monkey Island." This urge was probably placed deep inside me several years ago and only just know bubbled its way to the surface.
When I was still an undergraduate, I found that I had a tendency to repeatedly hit the snooze button until I missed my first class or two of the day. Somehow, classes never seem as important when I have to stop dreaming to get to them. Thus, I devised a plan to get myself out of bed. Since I shared my bedroom with my computer, I downloaded a pc-based alarm clock which allowed one to schedule an mp3 to play at the appropriate time. I chose the whimsical "A Pirate I was Meant to Be" for its upbeat tune, lighthearted demeanor, and of course, piratey goodness. Surely, a song about buccaneering would get me out of bed!
As you might have suspected, it worked. Who can resist the siren song of sea dogs? Every morning at the appropriate time, I would awake to the accordians and pipes and salty voices. Since my computer was out of reach of the bed, I had to stand up to turn it off. By this time, I was awake enough to remember my priorities and get to class.
Now that I have a multi-room house, I can no longer use the computer to wake myself. Slowly, I have fallen back into repeated use of the snooze button. The problem manifests itself even more when I forget to set the coffee maker the night before. Thus, this morning, after once again sleeping later than I intended, I rushed to my computer and downloaded "A Pirate I was Meant to Be." The memories of North 1, programming with Ed Y., and my tiny room came back, and I smiled. Now, if I can just run some speaker wire into the other room...