welcome, 2009

Man, have I neglected this thing. Every once in a while I feel the urge to write, but something inevitably comes up. But since our system is down at work, I have absolutely no excuse.

My holiday season was a good one. I have tons of pics that I took with my new Sony digital camera (10 MP, which seems good to me!) that I will post later. Cool thing: this camera has a feature that will stretch someone's mouth into a smile if they were not, in fact, smiling. It is kind of creepy, but also hilarious.

The diet was put on halt, as there was no way I could possibly keep up with it what with the visits to grandparents and other various friends/family. I mean, good food was raining down from the heavens for two straight weeks. But now I'm trying to get back into the swing of healthy eating/exercise. Not exactly easy.

I have also cleaned my apartment and it feels good. I went to an auction with my parents on Saturday to buy things to accompany my newly clean apartment and found a huge clock, a shelf, and a lamp to hang on the wall. It was really great.

Also at that auction, I met my mom's gay friend Nathan. Knowing my mom (and especially my dad), it's pretty funny that she has a gay friend. He seemed really nice, though, and helped my mom buy some facial cream. He also was telling her about botox, which I'd rather her not do. Don't need a fake mother running around, no matter how "fabulous" she would look.

But something else I've been considering is: moving. Not far away or anything, but actually just down the street. This guy I know is buying a house, and his current house is going up for rent at only $50 more than what I'm paying right now. It would be nice to have a house rather than an apartment that requires climbing 2,000 stairs (and braving the alley-cats behind my house). I'm putting the numbers together to see if it will work out.

Well our computers are back up and running, so I will leave you with my latest musical favorite.

That's right. It's Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreak". Before you nay-say, it's really quite good. Kanye has been through a tough year, and this is his release. If you liked him before but got tired of the cockiness (as I did), you'll enjoy this. Try it out.

hysteria

I have never thought of myself as weak, but I really want some chocolate.

I've been eating mostly fiber-based foods as of the last 3 days. Water and occasionally tea has been all I've drank. I like the food I'm eating. The Kashi Lean cereal I'm having in the morning is good, as is my daily pear. Lunch is pretty good, with the whole wheat pita bread and turkey and assorted nuts and berries. But I would kill someone for chocolate.

Perhaps I chose the wrong month for dieting. Maybe? But I do feel more alert and happy now that I have better stuff in my system. Still...chocolate.

Anyway, onto other things. I have recently discovered last.fm. If you don't know, it's a music site where you choose your favorite bands/artists and it plays their songs for you. It's nice to have going at work and, if I had internet at home, it would play constantly. You should check it out.

Also, speaking of music, the Raveonettes have put out a Christmas EP called "Wishing You a Rave Christmas". It's really good, if you like foreign garage rock.

Other great Christmas albums: James Taylor put one out a year or so ago, as has Relient K. Depending on your tastes, I'd check 'em out.

Alright well I have to get back to work and NOT eating chocolate. And tomorrow...weigh in.

a suggestion to music blogs

The albums above are current (and older) favorites of mine. On all of them, there are catchy melodies and interesting lyrics. Not world-/life-changing stuff, but enjoyable music that makes me happy. All (in some form or another) harshly criticized.

I'm not so happy when I read certain music blogs. I was angered recently by a review of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals new album "Cardinology" when a reviewer panned a few songs for being "radio-friendly". Okay, what's wrong with writing a song that doesn't alienate people? One song in question is called "Magick" and it's a pretty good song. It has chord changes and a catchy chorus. I tend to think that if you can write a song that will make people happy, then you've done something kind of good.

Not so with music sites such as Pitchfork (who overanalyze everything) and It's Hard to Find a Friend (who I generally love...save for this ignorant statement about Adams). IHTFAF even mentioned that Adams' album "Rock n Roll" was horrible. Not true. It was an artist who is normally in the alt-country genre branching out and making really good sounding classic rock. What's wrong with that picture? Nothing, except for the reviewer's inability to listen to these songs while at a stop light with his windows down and be seen by others as so much "cooler" and "different" for not liking what they like.

Am I saying that I don't want to be different? No. I'm not saying I do, either. I just want to like what I like. Why do we have to harshly criticize music (or anything personal) just because it is or isn't the way we see that it should be? In the case of music, let's just let it be. If you like it, good. If not, that's fine. But please stop being so pretentious. It's not cool. It's annoying.

an early November update

It has been quite a week so far. New president-elect, and because of that there's nothing to watch on TV. But I'm wondering...when are all these people moving to Canada/Australia?

And I really don't want to get into the election stuff. I could talk about it all day, but for what purpose? Speculation? I don't know what the next 4-8 years will bring. I will just say that regardless of our leader, we need to pray for God's will to be done. Same for Obama as it would have been for McCain. And let's stop with the hate speech, Christians. Some of you are so worried about the anti-Christ...well the Bible speaks of many anti-Christs. Think of what that means. Against Christ. The opposite of Christ. And who exactly does that apply to? Everyone who says that Christ is not who He says He is. All liars and slanderers of His name. So...let's think, people. Don't become an anti-Christ. Pray, be diligent, and trust God. You know your Savior...let Him continue to be that.

On a lighter subject, I really got a kick out of this: an older man (83 years old) came in and did a loan today and I had the privilege of talking with him. This guy was hilarious. He wasn't the crotchety old man who's mad at the world, nor was he the super sweet old guy who all the women say "He's so cute" about...he was just an older guy who, while a little senile, has seemingly stayed relevant his whole life. Among his words of wisdom ("you shouldn't have kids if you're not willing to take care of them even when they're in their sixties...", "I think we should give Obama a fair chance before we throw him out..."), he also said lots of old guy stuff ("...it's really hard to write with this arthritis in my hands. It's also in my feet....blah blah blah...").

But one of the funniest things he said was when he was talking about his sons. He said, "I raised my sons right. I took them to church and made them sit beside me. I know they were saved. I lost one of my sons, too. He was about your age." At this point there was a long pause and I started feeling some sympathy for him. To lose a son at 25 had to be hard. Then he said, "Well, I don't know. He was 52. How old are you?" I almost laughed. I said, "25." Then we both laughed for a long time.

As far as my kidney stones, I think this round is over! I've passed 2 of them in the past 2 weeks. I'm still sore and I still haven't gotten into my routine of exercising again, but I'm positive that I can very soon.

Oh yeah...I'm exercising to get in better shape both for myself and for my upcoming ski trip in March. Speaking of which, my cousin backed out of the trip...so it will be me with my aunt and uncle and two family friends. All cool people, trust me, but still...it would have been nice to have another young person going. So if you want to go to beautiful Breckinridge/Keystone, Colorado in March (or know someone who does), please let me know! There's time to work out details. And it would be awesome.

To wrap up, I'm gonna post album covers of some of the most listened tunes on my iPod here lately. I encourage you to check them out. I'll write a little about them, and then it's back to work.

More brilliance from Adams and his full band. Alt-country with a contemplative swagger. My picks: "Go Easy", "Magick", "Let Us Down Easy", "Natural Ghost".

The Strokes' guitarist's second solo album, it's full of catchy riffs and songs that just stick in your head. My picks: "GfC", "Lisa", "You Won't Be Fooled By This".

Ex-Pedro the Lion frontman prepares for his full length solo album with an EP released last year ("Fewer Moving Parts") and this two-song single released this past Tuesday. Both songs are great. "American Flags" and "Please, Baby, Please (Demo)".