This journal entry is due by midnight, Sunday March 6.
One of my fondest memories in the world is the sound of the front door at a house where I lived many years ago. We often relate our memories to images and smells, but sounds can also be powerful experiences for us. In a 1-2 paragraph response, please answer the following questions: What is one of your favorite sounds in the world? What is one of your least favorite sounds? What images, feelings, memories do these sounds conjure up for you?
AND ... what one sound would you love to hear more than anything else but -- for whatever reason -- is not possible for you to experience?
The grinding crunch of gravel beneath my shoes is the greatest sound in the world. It's the sound that follows me throughout the entire summer and fall. Small towns don't have much for paved roads, and that is quite alright with me. On my daily jog I leave my iPod at home and listen to the road below me. Walking down to the high school football field on game day hundreds of fans cross the gravel parking lot. Hearing that crunch of rock and sand brings me back home every time.
The annoying bleeps from my alarm clock are the absolute worst sounds in the entire world. I would give anything to wake up to a baby bird chirping, but unfortunately, I am a hard sleeper. Even thinking about the obnoxious ring makes me dread the morning already. Each time I hear my alarm clock go off I think about how much work it is going to be to get ready for the day.
Given the chance, I would love to hear my late grandfather say, "How's it going today, Charlie?" Never in his lifetime did he call me Ashley. It was always Charlie, everyone was Charlie to him. Even as he grew old and his speech turned for the worse, he still called me Charlie and I'd give anything to hear it just one more time.
Once I started to think about it, so many of my favorite sounds are tied to fond memories. I can’t pick a favorite, but one sound I’ve always loved is the sound of a train horn. I seem to hear it most late at night off in the distance when I’m lying in bed. It reminds me of the first cross-country trip I took with my mom and my sister when I was 7 years old. We took a night train to Seattle to visit my aunts and cousins, and I can remember my sister and I being so excited to travel by train for two days through the mountains. Ever since then, I’ve always loved trains and the sounds they make.
One of my least favorite sounds would be anything having to do with fingernails. Whether it is the sound of scratching, clipping, tapping, or people picking at their nails, it sounds annoying to me and usually makes me shudder.
Finally, one sound I would love to hear is the sound of icebergs. I’ve read that they can make all sorts of eerie noises and can even sound like singing. It would be quite a surreal experience to be standing in the arctic, feeling like I am a world away, listening to icebergs.
One of my favorite sounds, that is also one not possible for me to hear, is the sizzle of bacon in the morning. This is obviously a great sound because bacon is delicious. A less obvious reason is the memories it brings back. It reminds me of breakfast with my family. My mom would almost always make bacon with breakfast.
My least favorite sound has to be an alarm in the morning. I love to sleep. This alarm signals the end of sleep and the start of the day. Mornings are the worst time and my alarm signals it.
A sound that I like when I was a finger softly snapping near the ear. Not a loud snap, but a soft snap. This sound reminds me of time passing, since it was a long time since I used to snap my fingers that way to create that sound.
Also, I like the way it sounds when the sound comes to both ears at the same time, in stereo.
One of my favorite sounds is the sound of the ocean. I don't get to hear it very often anymore, but the only time I was able to was when I was on vacation visiting my grandmother in Florida. I love this sound because it reminds me of calm and better times. It is hard for me to have anything like that here, I try to recreate the sound by sitting by the river, but it just isn't the same.
My least favorite sound is basically any yelling. No matter what about.
Right now I would love to hear my best friends voice again. It may be cliche, but I miss them a lot, and since they passed away, I won't be able to have the long conversations we once had as well as inside jokes, and just great times overall.
My favorite sound in the entire world is the sound of rain. Whether it's softly landing on the roof of my house, tapping on my bedroom window, or harshly falling against concrete pavement, it's a sound that reminds me of summer. I can picture the grass getting greener and the colorful array of flowers blooming. It's a sound that reminds me that everything is going to be okay. A noise that I absolutely despise is the one that is made when a person cracks their neck or back. It sounds so un-natural and forces me to cringe. Anytime I hear that awful noise, I can't help but imagine that person's body breaking. A sound that I would give anything to hear again is the sound of my dog, Penny, barking. She had the most unique bark and was extremely protective of my family and I. I miss her.
One of my favorite sounds is rain and storms. I hate being in the rain or walking through it but being indoors and hearing it fall on the windows and against the house is very relaxing. I love when it rains on a Saturday or Sunday morning. All you want to do is curl up with a warm blanket and watch movies all day. It is a day filled with nothing and every once and a while those are definitely needed.
One of my least favorite sounds is from alarms. When I wake up in the morning, it is to an alarm. It is a sound that I hear on a daily basis and a lot of times it is a sound that I wish would come back hours later. Having to get up early for class and work and hearing the same sound over and over gets old and on my nerves.
A sound that I would love to hear is a waterfall. I haven’t gone on a lot of vacations but I like the sound of water and I can only imagine that the sound of a waterfall is even more captivating.
Juno Reactor - Mona List Overdrive, Intro chorus. Don't know if sound effects from techno really count though, so I'd have to go with the wind. That really low, thundering, in your face sound. It reminds me of being up in the mountains, which is definately on of my favorite places; my dad and me took a lot of road trips out west there. As for a noise that I despise, I would have to say that whirring noise above our appartment. It only happens in short bursts once in a while, and I just cant seem to figure out what it is. I always get the image of a DVD player in my head, but it's too loud to be that.
And I sound that I would love to hear is that of waves crashing on a beach. I love the sound of water in nature, and nothing would be better than just chillin out in the middle of no where listen to waves. I'm just never presented with the opportunity to be anywhere near one unfortunately.
One of my favorite sounds is the sound of roosters crowing in the morning. Back in Thailand, there were lots of roosters and hens nearby my house. In the morning around 5 or 6 am, the roosters would stand on a branch of a tree and crowing to welcome the sun. The crowing sound was the sign of letting people know that the day has started. Old and young people would wake up and prepare themselves for the day. The reason that the crowing of roosters is my favorite sound is that it shows and represents the new beginning of a day.
One of my least favorite sounds is also the sound that showing the starting of the day, which is the beeping sound of my alarm clock. The beeping sound of it just makes me feel like someone is yelling at me to wake up. Sometime I feel I just went to sleep for like a minute and then it already yell at me to make wake. That is why it is my least favorite sound.
Last but not least, the sound that I would love to hear more than anything else but is not possible is the sound of the rain hitting the aluminum house’s root. It is similar to the sound that when you hold an umbrella above you in the rain. That sound makes me more calm, focus, and relaxes. In United States, I cannot hear that sound anymore. In fact when I am in a house, I do not even know that it is raining outside. The material made for a house is different here, that is why it not possible for me to hear it.
One of my most favorite sounds is the sound of rain on a tin roof. It may sound strange but when i was younger I would always hear this sound whenever it rained on my grandparents farm. This sounds conjures up images of me and my grandparents sitting around the living room doing nothing but reading, playing,or just enjoying the lazy day. This always makes me feel both safe, warm, and relaxed. My least favorite sound is that of anybody handling any kind of styrofoam. I don't know why but the sound of styrofoam is like nails to a chalkboard for me. I am unable to handle it, it makes me cringe and gives me goosebumps.
One sound that I would like to hear often but do not get to anymore is that of a rooster in the morning. While on my grandparents farm I always woke up to the sound of the rooster. And it was always the same rooster to wake me up. Any other one and it would sound different. I am unable to experience it because the rooster died a while back.
My favorite sound is actually the sound of nothing. Times when it is totally quiet and near silent. I think it's because since we are so constantly surrounded by sound that when there isn't any for once, it really stands out. I love just going to a really isolated area and just sitting or laying down and not listening to anything.
One of my least favorite sounds is that of toenail clippers. Something about it really bothers me and I hate when people do it in the same room as me. Although I don't mind it when I use them myself, so part of it may just be the idea of someone else grooming their toenails in general.
One sound I would love to hear but can't is the sound of the old clothesline in the backyard of my house. It had the crank you would use to move rope back and forth, and it always made this cool squeaky noise when you turned it. We got rid of it though, so I can't hear it anymore.
I like the chirrup of singing cicada far in the distance. I can imagine I am lying on the floor in my house on a quiet summer day. Air is hot and humid but wind is breezy, nothing is disturbing me. Even though it is a summer day, I feel cool and soothing because of the sound of cicada. And my least favorite sound is the sound of scratching the blackboard with finger nails. Sometimes teachers in my high school accidentally made such sound, which made me very painful.
Sometimes I want to hear the sound of snow. I know there is no sound - since snow is well-known for its silence. But when I can't hear the snow, I feel as if I am just missing the moment of snowing. So I want to hear the sound of snow some time, if it's possible.
I think one of the best sounds in the world is the crackle when you drop the needle on to a record. When I was 12 or 13 I found a portable record player at a thrift store, and used it as an entry point to a whole new world of music. After visiting the only record store in my hometown, I picked out a handful of records, based mostly on cover art and the recommendations of the staff, and took them home. I'd wound up with a Propaghandi 7", the Minutemen's first ep, a live Descendents record and a flyer to some local punk show. My life was forever altered. In an era when no one could even comprehend the idea of a personal cd burner, and home recording was done and distributed on cassette tape, the vinyl 7" was the pinnacle of recorded merchandise. As I continued to frequent shows and my local record store, my record collection grew, and my portable record player was upgraded to a hand-me-down Technics turntable, but the initial pop and hiss as the needle finds the groove still fills me with the same wonderful idea that anything is possible.
Keeping with the theme, one of the worst sounds I know of is when the needle jumps the locked groove at the end of a record and goes skipping across the center label. At high volume, it sounds like a robot malfunctioning while imitating a snake, and leaves you one step closer to having to shell out for that new, insanely expensive stylus you've been putting off buying.
As far as a sound I would like to hear but can't, I bet dinosaurs sounded pretty cool and/or pants-shittingly terrifying, depending on your proximity. I wouldn't mind hearing one of 'em growl or yell or hiss, or whatever it was dinosaurs did.
The sound I love most is waves on an ocean. This makes me think of relaxation and a life free of stress. I have memories of traveling to the ocean as a kid with my family. When I hear the sounds of waves it brings me back to these times. One sound that I don't ever want to hear again is chalk on a chalk-board. Besides the sound just sending chills up the spine it actually reminds me of sitting in school as a child, which isn't always the best memories.
If I could I would like to hear what it sounds like to break the speed of sound. I'm not sure if these is a sound for this or not, but I have heard of a sonic boom.
The sound I love the most is the sound of birds chirping in the spring time. When the weather stars to warm up, there is nothing better than walking outside on a cool, fresh, sunny morning to the sound of birds chirping away. The sound reminds me of spring (my favorite season) and when everything is starting to come back to life, all green and vibrant.
My least favorite sound is the sound of nails on a chalk board. This sound makes me cringe and gives me shivers up and down my spine, I hate it. The scratchy sound is so unnatural and it hurts my ears!
The sound I would love to hear more than anything is the sound a space shuttle makes from inside the shuttle as a passanger. I think it would be awesome to go into space and taking off in a space shuttle would be an incredible experience.