what does my blog title mean?

many of you have asked lately: "what the heck does 'happiness is beebs-shaped' mean?"

i have avoided this question for months, because i didn't really feel like explaining, and quite frankly, am embarrassed about where it came from. but, i'm tired of being asked, so i will put my embarrassment aside, and explain.

3 years ago, i was introduced to a website called songfight.org. on this site, there is a weekly theme "word". you have 1 week to compose and record an original song and post it, and then people vote on the best song. this particular week's theme word was "TROUBLEMAKER". i found out about the website at 10:30pm. The deadline to submit, was 12:00am. my sister and i were inspired, so we decided to join... even though we had 1.5 hours to write, compose and record a song, with NO recording equipment.

our solution? we took my laptop, which has a microphone the size of a PINHOLE, and a windows standard "voice record" utility... and we got started. my sister wrote the lyrics, about our troublemaker dog, Titus. i sat down at the piano and pounded out some chords in about 10 minutes. here is how it happened:

step 1: recorded me playing the piano... mostly improvised. placed laptop on top of the piano. sound quality is CRAP! oh well.

step 2: i looped the piano clip and busted out my violin, improvising a melody and recording over the piano.

step 3: hmm. still not enough. i then busted out my Yamaha recorder (leftover from 5th grade) and improvised some more, over the looped violin and piano clip.

step 4: looped the piano, violin, and recorder clip... while singing an improvised melody from the hastily written lyrics. i had to literally hold my laptop up to my face while singing.

step 5: painfully converted the file into an mp3 and uploaded it onto the site at 11:50pm. WHEW!! i put my "band name" as "HAPPINESS IS BEEBS-SHAPED".

*disclaimer -- the sound quality is absolutely hideous!! static all over, and i kept catching noises in the background... my dad slamming a door, my rustling clothes, and in MANY parts, me trying not to crack up while playing violin and the recorder. you can totally tell that i'm laughing.

1 week later, after all votes were in, i won!! much to the chagrin of all of the veteran songfighters, (some of whom were established artists!) i won, despite the crappy quality. they said i won because i played 3 instruments and sang and made the song in 1 hour.

if you really are brave enough -- here is the song.

now you all know, why this is my title. enjoy.