December 2005 Archives
iTunes songs left: 0!
I don't believe it! Nearly a year later, I am done with my quest to listen to every song in my iTunes library at least once. I must admit, it was tough there for a while, as I progressed through the most obscure reaches and dusty confines of my music collection, but I think I gave myself a real team effort, put in 110%, and came out with the win. If it seems anticlimactic to you, just rest in the knowledge that you won't see any more of those iTunes banners at the tops of entries. Meanwhile, I'll rest in the knowledge that I can actually say I've listened intently to every song I have, and through the course of all this, I've rediscovered a lot of great songs I'd all but forgotten about. And, of course, I can now pretty much listen to whatever I want again.
In honor of this great event, I have compiled for you a random review of the final 10 songs that remained unplayed.
1. Five For Fighting - The Last Great American. A pretty little song lamenting the loss of American values (as near as I can gather). A decent effort from the "America Town" album.
2. Tears For Fears - Break It Down Again. I can remember one of my buddies from GHA 1999 recommending this song to me in the weeks after we all returned to our houses. It's a shining example of what good 80's music can sound like when it's not annoying. Nice strings.
3. Everything - Hooch. The reason these guys aren't around anymore is because they chose the least memorable band name ever, I think. Every time I hear this song, I think high school radio. I also keep expecting to hear Mark McGrath's voice. I got it on a CD using my Pepsi Points, before CD burners were affordable. Who can resist the classic line, "Who got the hooch, baby?"
4. Train - Homesick. Another high-school era song. This was one of the first songs from Train's first album that got stuck in my head after I had finished listening to "Meet Virginia" dozens of times. It brings back memories of my hometown.
5. Live - Overcome. A relatively obscure piano piece from Live's poppy V album. It's also not bad musically, although many Live fans didn't like the keyboard-pop direction the band took with this album. The lyrics aren't anything special, though.
6. U2 - Miracle Drug. A new U2 classic from ...Atomic Bomb. It's probably not my favorite from the album, but it certainly rings true with The Edge's guitar work.
7. Paul Simon - Under African Skies. This is the story of how we begin to remember, you dig? I bought Graceland while driving around Albuquerque last summer, so any song from that album reminds me of the cool wind and desert scenery instead of Tennessee. I've always loved the bass work on these songs, too. Great stuff.
8. George Strait - One Night At A Time. A staple on country radio around home in late 1997. And for honest country, you can't go wrong with Strait.
9. Train - Heavy. Through luck of the draw, Train got two songs in the final ten. This bluesy, stripped-down song shows a little bit of the band's roots, pre-"Drops of Jupiter." For a current radio single comparison, check out Little Big Town's "Boondocks" in country-land.
10. Chris Thile - Sinai to Canaan, Part 1. And for the very last song, we get a superb instrumental from Chris Thile and friends. If I remember correctly from my liner notes, Chris's inspiration for this song was a long road trip he took with his family. It's easy to sit back and imagine the motions of traveling when you listen. It's also easy to imagine that you just listened to nearly 4000 songs over the course of a year, but that now you don't have to follow some silly self-imposed music rules anymore!
iTunes songs left: 15!
Well, my Christmas break is over. It sure was shorter than I remember it being last year. I wonder why that is? Oh well, with only two work days this week and another long weekend on the horizon, I think I can manage.
With a return to a somewhat normal schedule, I believe the blogging will re-commence on a regular basis, as well. You may notice that I have begun re-adding the links I used to have in the sidebars. I had tried once before, failed miserably, and thought it was going to take another full night to figure out where in the code to put them. As it turns out, it was remarkably easy to do at my parents' house. Maybe it's just always easier to do things there... or maybe I just was in a better frame of mind. Anyway, the blogroll is far from complete, since I had to go by memory at my parents' house, and I haven't had time to add in all the others yet. So never fear if you're not linked yet - I'm looking to expand the list as time goes on, as always.
As for Christmas itself, it was a good holiday for me. I loaded up on DVD seasons of my favorite TV shows, some clothes, and other miscellaneous things I wanted. The best part about it, as always, was spending time with the family, including some people that I haven't seen in over a year. The worst part about it, as always, was assorted family drama. I didn't let that get me down.
Other recent accomplishments include: installing the new power supply on my computer so it doesn't sound like a barking seal.
Man, that was a short list. I'll have to get on that.
iTunes songs left: 29!
Yes, I'm still having a wonderful Christmas time, but all the holiday cheer has kept me from really having time to write in the blog, or think about much else other than doing the shopping, spending time with everyone, and otherwise generally being busy with the hustle and bustle of it all. Tomorrow, I'm leaving to go home for a few days. I'll be posting from there, most likely.
Some things are different about this Christmas. First, more than any other year, it has come quickly, with nary a whimper in my normal everyday life. That is to say, until this week, it didn't even hit me that the holiday season was upon us (despite putting up the tree in our apartment). It was only after shopping and participating in Gina's family's Christmas traditions that it even started to set in. I didn't even load up all my Christmas music on my computer until a couple of days ago, which is certainly different from last year, when I was poring over different versions of every conceivable song for my Christmas CD compilation. It's not that I haven't been enjoying myself - from the holiday parties at work to exchanging gifts at Gina's last night, it's all been a blast - but I guess the fast-paced style of this year's holidays has just left me with very little time to reflect on anything. This weekend, though, I should be able to recharge and do just that, with family.
This is all assuming, of course, that Christmas isn't erased by political correctness and commercialism, right? Gina was telling me recently of a company who canceled a holiday-themed wall-decorating contest because it might have been offensive to employees who didn't want to participate. For those workplaces and organizations that get itchy even mentioning Christmas for fear of offending someone, I propose an opposite solution: include everyone. Have all kinds of holiday celebrations. Make everyone happy. Have everyone decorate walls in their own style. From Kwanzaa to Chanukkah and everything in between, have an area designated just for the people who celebrate that holiday. As for the atheists? Give them some coffee and let them leave their wall completely blank. I don't care; that would be fine with me.
I'm not sure how much I believe all this "Christmas is under fire" controversy going on around the land, but it seems like the very fact that people are making a big deal of it is causing it to become a big deal. It's nothing new, but as time goes on, the real world could actually succeed in sucking the fun and joyousness out of the occasion... but only if we let it.
Have a safe and happy Christmas, everyone. If you celebrate something else, have a safe and wonderful one of those, too.
All Christmas shopping done? Check. Frayed nerves from dealing with holiday traffic and other shoppers? Check. Fun times in the city? Check. Hanging out with old friends and my girlfriend? Check. Feeling like I'm running a holiday marathon? Check. Losing badly during one of the first poker nights at our apartment? Check. Getting into the Christmas spirit? Check.
Going to sleep now? Check.
iTunes songs left: 102
Before I get into the New York stuff, I just wanted to announce that today, for the first time, I not only finished the daily Express crossword puzzle, but I also completed the Hard-level Sudoku! Double-whammy! Game over, Express!
And now back to our regularly scheduled trip write-up:
It's hard to believe that tomorrow, it will already have been a week since Gerritt and I started out on our grand weekend trip to NYC. It's also been a week since the snowstorm blew in last Friday morning, which made it interesting trying to get to the train station. The Metrobus, which has never been reliable for me so far, was running about an hour behind schedule. I ended up walking halfway to the Metro stop, striking up conversations with other people waiting at bus stops a bit further down the road, and no one really seemed to know what was going on. I finally rested somewhere down Blake Lane, chatting with a woman who was late getting to work, when the bus arrived and trucked us on to the Metro.
Gerritt and I ended up probably breaking a lot of Amtrak rules during our train experiences. Our tickets were from Alexandria to the Big Apple, but by Friday morning, our train was running three hours late. We figured we'd give Union Station a shot. Maybe they'd have an earlier train. They didn't, but we managed to finagle our way on board at the station, with the help of some employees, rather than having to try getting back to Alexandria in time to catch it there. On our way back, instead of waiting for 30 minutes at Union Station, then riding to Alexandria to disembark, we sidled up the escalators while the train switched engines and other passengers took a smoke break. Nobody seemed to notice or care too much. Excellent.
As for New York itself, I want to thank Daryl for hosting us and being our tour guide one more time. (I'll be waiting for your Misinformation Guide to be published, and I'll be sure to buy a copy.) During our stay, we checked out a couple of restaurants around Daryl's Park Slope neighborhood, went shopping in SoHo, visited the Museum of the City of New York (which had a very informative movie detailing the city's history), saw a laser show at Grand Central Station, and went to a service at Daryl's church (where we saw a traditional ceremony involving Santa Lucia and singing in Swedish - I'd explain it, but it's best that you check it out for yourselves). And, of course, the centerpiece of Saturday night was the DMB show at Madison Square Garden, which featured an excellent set and Robert Randolph as a guest on the fiery steel guitar. It may have been the best Dave show I've seen, and as you might know, I've been to quite a few. All of the shindigs involved a lot of walking, of course, but it was an action-packed weekend, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Other firsts from the weekend included eating in the Amtrak dining car and dodging Daryl's deadly tie-catching paper shredder. Check out the pictorial!
iTunes songs left: 142
In a surprise move, Gina came back from Tech tonight! So, I've been helping her unpack up in Maryland. Thus, all I have time to write about tonight is the fact that I discovered what the problem was in the archive and comment templates. When you now view an entry's comments, they'll look sexy and in their own section and everything. It's amazing what a couple of left-out letters will do! The problem extended to the archives, as well, so now everything will look as it's supposed to when you're browsing the site's history. Nifty. I customized a few other things, as well, as I learn my way around the newest tags in MT.
The week is flying by, and there's another snowstorm moving in. Cross your fingers for just enough snow to shut things down!
My goodness, I feel like I've been up and down the Eastern seaboard twice over the last five days. And that's because I have. I just rolled in from a business trip in New Jersey, and before that was my trip to NYC with Gerritt. I'll give that trip the write-up it deserves later on this week. For now, I'll just leave you all with some conventional wisdom I gained from the Garden State yesterday and today:
- The people there are not stereotypically rude, but their driving sure is. Be prepared to fight for your life... I mean, lane. Or both.
- New Jersey has an aversion to left turns. Be prepared to never ever exit a main road, or look closely for the right-turn sign that will also allow you to do a left turn or U-turn.
- Something I knew previously, which a lot of you probably know, too: you don't pump your own gas in NJ, so be prepared to guess how much gas you need. Quick math skills help.
- I think Jersey made me sick, because I progressively started sneezing more and more as I started to drive back today. Be cautious when making stops there.
Any other Jerseyisms?
Tomorrow, Gerritt and I will begin our magical weekend mystery tour to New York. We'll be staying with the infamous Daryl (of the former D103 blog), catching up with him, hanging out in the city, and seeing DMB at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Yes, another Dave concert for me - I wonder if James Brown will make an appearance like he did the last time we were at the Square? I can't guarantee that, but I bet there will still be a few surprises from all corners. I'm really looking forward to this return visit.
The real story of our trip will probably be the snowstorm that's set to douse our area in ice and snow through tomorrow morning. Gerritt tells me our train is already a few hours delayed in Florida, so we may be spending most of our time twiddling our thumbs in Alexandria. This is all conjecture at this point, though. We'll see how the situation is tomorrow. I don't know if I'll be posting much this weekend, but look for a decent write-up, pictures, and so-on when I return.
Northward!
(If I'm not able to check my blog very often while I'm gone, your comments may not appear until I come back to approve them. But please, feel free to leave them anyway, and I'll publish them when I get back!)
iTunes songs left: 165
In case you're a Hokie that's scattered across the country and haven't heard the news yet, there's some exciting stuff going on down in the 'burg: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has hit the town.
It all started last Tuesday, when Gina was helping out at the front desk at the new Inn at Virginia Tech for her class. While on her shift, she helped to check in part of the film crew and behind-the-scenes people. At that point, we didn't know when or where they would be filming...
...but now we do. Virginia Tech's website is now full of links and news pertaining to the show. It seems that the program's execs selected Caroline Crawford-Smith, founder of The Dance Studio in Blacksburg, to receive the benefits of a brand new house. She has been diagnosed with MS and, over the last few years, has found it harder and harder to make it around her home and to the studio she founded. So, if you're not familiar with the show at all, ABC will be working around the clock to completely rebuild her home from the ground up, all over the course of this week. I've never actually caught an episode of the show before now, but I can guarantee that I'll be watching this one.
What's cool about the show being local is not only that Gina and everyone else in town is getting the chance to see the house's progress as the week rolls on, but several architecture and building construction students are also getting to help, and a volunteer crew of workers comprised of students and townspeople has been braving the cold all week to help get the job done. ABC hired a Roanoke contractor to design and construct the house, which stretches the good press all up and down the New River Valley. The contractor, Bulding Specialists Inc., naturally has a few Hokie alums as employees, as well. And in a special guest appearance, my former senior design professor, Dr. Kleiner, is overseeing the safety aspects of the construction site. I remember Dr. Kleiner using this show multiple times as an example of how much can be accomplished with the proper project management, so I had to chuckle when I saw his name on the press release. From start to finish, it's going to be a family affair, and everyone comes out a winner - Crawford-Smith, Tech, Blacksburg, and ABC.
I'm a little bummed that I'm not going to be able to be on-campus while all the hubbub is going on, but at least I'll get a chance to drive by the house the next time I'm down there. Plus, Gina and the rest of my friends have been giving me updates. I'll keep checking with regard to when this episode will air, but it will most likely be in a few weeks, after the holiday rerun break.
Also, I finally remembered to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas on ABC tonight, something I hadn't done in years. I think this Christmas spirit thing may just hit me after all this year.
iTunes songs left: 224
It's been a tough weekend to be a Hokie. As if the football embarrassment last night wasn't enough, I just watched what could have been our first basketball upset of Duke in Durham, ever, be overturned by a last-second stunner. I mean, tonight's basketball game should at least let everyone know that we have, in fact, arrived in basketball (for the most part), but the sting and the shock comes too soon after the disaster in Jacksonville.
I'm going to try to negate it by pointing out a few positive things that are associated with being a Hokie, particularly a Hokie amongst a strong concentration of fellow alumni. Witness Saturday afternoon, when I went shopping wearing my new VT hoodie. It wasn't long before one elderly gentlemen gave a smile, a thumbs-up, and asked me if we were going to win later that night. I returned the thumbs-up and replied, "I sure hope so!" During the rest of my trip around Fairfax, I got a couple of manly nods from passing folks in orange and maroon, and one guy from Michigan struck up a random conversation with me in the lunch line. It reminded me more of being at the Sugar Bowl than being back in Blacksburg, really, because on-campus you expect a certain amount of camaraderie. Though it's not as concentrated here as it was in New Orleans, you still get that sense of brotherhood when you run across another Hokie.
My point in all this is that even though we sometimes have a lot of hard times to go through, with painful losses to freaking Florida State and Miami and the like, and even though our teams don't seem to know how to play in big games, we are still a tight group here in the Hokie Nation, and I am proud to be a part of it. Now, all we gotta do is avoid playing in Jacksonville against a team from Florida, and we'll be ok...
... oh wait, scratch half of that. Ah well, whatever.
iTunes songs left: 249
Some of the best evenings are totally unplanned. Take, for instance, Thursday - when Steve and I carpooled to work, but he ended up hanging out at our apartment. Gerritt came over, too, so the four of us resurrected a bit of the poker nights of yore, after heading over to Santini's for some grub. When Jeanette came by to pick up the episode of Lost we'd taped for her, we had an impromptu mini-party on our hands. It was cool having people over at our apartment again, after a few weeks of it being just me and Josh, then traveling on the weekends.
Last night, Josh and I repaid the favor of Gerritt driving all those times to visit us. We drove up to Columbia to hang out with him, Mel, and Mel's roommate, Rachel. We passed the time by playing a very fun game known as Ticket To Ride. Think of it as Risk, with trains, across just the U.S., and it doesn't last as long, and you'll start to get the idea of what Ticket to Ride is all about. I was hooked. In keeping with the theme of this entry, however, we didn't really plan anything beforehand.
Tonight, however, has been completely planned. We're scant hours away from the ACC Championship game. A bunch of us will be watching it out in Ashburn somewhere, surrounded by other Hokies. My only hope is that when the game is over, the Hokie Nation will be able to share in a nice, tall glass of ACC CHAMPIONSHIP!