I think iTunes is a fan of Braveheart.

While I'm working, I use iTunes to keep a steady stream of music flowing from my laptop's glorious stock speakers. Helps me concentrate. Trust me, I need all the help I can get.

Anyway, I have about 1700 songs on iTunes. 1,753 to be precise. Everything you can imagine, from Clannad to God Module. (And copious amounts of 30 Seconds to Mars...DUH.) I usually keep it on "shuffle" unless I'm in the mood for something specific...i.e., if I'm on an industrial rock kick, or just want to listen to Texas (thanks to Scarlett for getting me hooked on that band), or I'm writing one of those scenes(tm) and thus need to listen to my "Those Scenes(tm)" Playlist(tm). (Yes, I have a special playlist for that...I mean, c'mon, it's a bit of a buzzkill to be writing that kind of thing while being serenaded by "If I had $1,000,000" by the Barenaked Ladies or "Cats in the Kettle" by Weird Al.)

Anyway, throughout the course of listening to my mixture of musical mayhem, I've noticed a trend. Specifically, about every twelfth song that plays is off the Braveheart soundtrack. Seriously.

There are 18 songs on that soundtrack. There are 1,753 songs on my iTunes. Statistically, I should be hearing a song off that album roughly once per 100 songs. Apparently, iTunes - at least the copy on my computer - is a fan. Particularly of "The Battle of Stirling", which has played eleventy billion times.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I dislike this soundtrack. I wouldn't have paid $9.99 for it if I didn't like it. But, seriously...iTunes? Mix it up a bit, would you? That's the whole point of the "shuffle" function. Shuffle them randomly, don't stack the bloody deck so I keep hearing the same songs over and over and over and over.

It's not just the Braveheart soundtrack either. Evidently iTunes gets in certain "moods" sometimes and likes to listen to certain bands or genres. The other day, it was KMFDM almost constantly (interspersed with gems like "Gift of a Thistle" and "Braveheart - End Credits" from the aforementioned omnipresent soundtrack...which are strangely incongruous with such industrial hits as "Spit or Swallow" and "Bullets, Bombs, and Bigotry"). Then the next day, there's a country music theme....Tanya Tucker, Kenny Rogers, Braveheart, Toby Keith, Billy Currington, Braveheart, Garth Brooks, Brave- you get the idea.

Today, iTunes seems to be in the mood for some pop drivel and dance music. Which is fine, I like that stuff, particularly when I'm writing.

But, strangely, "Sons of Scotland" just doesn't work as a chaser to "Pokerface"...