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Thursday, December 31, 2009

So Long....uh, Decade and Goals For 2010.























I'm not sure what we call this past decade. The Ought's? That's my favorite. The Oh's? The Oh Oh's? I guess it doesn't matter. The decade is over, and while it had its share of ups (getting married, moving to Chicago, meeting my current set of friends) it also had its share of downs (getting diabetes, eight years of Bush, watching my wife almost die of a mysterious blood ailment). I always try to be a forward thinking individual, and with that in mind I bid these past ten years adieu while looking forward to 2010.

Goals For 2010

1) Write Twelve Short Stories. This averages out to one per month, and with a minimal amount of effort should be easy enough to attain. I want to keep these between 1,000 and 10,000 words, though a short story can double that. Notice I said nothing about publishing these stories. I will write them for myself, and will only share them with Angie. If I am particularly proud of one I may share it with close friends and family, but only if they are nice enough to me.

2) Cut Back on the Social Networking.
These past two years or so my Twitter and Facebook habit has gotten out of hand. A good chunk of my free time was spent checking Tweets, and updating statuses. Even my not-so-free time (like when Angie is talking to me) was spent on this nonsense. This doesn't mean I am quitting entirely, just cutting back, and hopefully keeping updates a little more meaningful. For example, I'll tweet to let everyone know this post is up. :)

3) Devote More Time To The Blog.
I've decided to make writing my habit, and this is going to be part of it. I think it is a more healthy pursuit than my aforementioned habit, and goes along nicely with my junk food addiction. I don't have a set number of posts for the year, so I'll let the reader decide if I've met this goal of "more" or not.

That's it. That's the list. Pretty simple, I think, and not once did the phrase "lose weight," rear its ugly head. I suppose my first post of 2011 will be to review these goals, and set new ones. In the meantime, I have a little work to do.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Decade In Music

I read that Billboard named Nickelback the band of the decade. This is tells us several things about the state of mainstream music, and none of them are good. This has been the worst decade for music by far, but there have been a few bright spots. Here are my top three bands of the decade:

3) System of A Down - Yes, a mainstream band, but still a good one. They actually started out in the 90s, but really hit their stride in 2001 with the album Toxicity. Follow ups Steal This Album, Mezmerize, and Hypnotize showed them tweaking their sound and separating themselves from the other nu-metal groups that were so prevalent at the start of the 2000s.



2) AFI
- I remember buying my first AFI album. I went into Atomic Records the day after I graduated high school, and bought the album Answer That And Stay Fashionable because the cover was a parody of the movie Reservoir Dogs. I've been a fan ever since. Their sound has gone from pop punk, to a Misfit clone, to their own unique style which now has them on the fringe of mainstream success.



1) Bad Religion
- This band is the same age as me, and they only get better and better. When The Process Of Belief came out I swore up and down it was their best album. Then I said the same thing about Empire Strikes First, and most recently about New Maps Of Hell. What more can you say about the greatest punk rock band of all time, and how do I pick one song to use as an example? I chose this one because I agree with the sentiment.



Just kidding. Here it is: