Stick Our Resolutions Together

For the first time that I can remember, I actually accomplished one of my New Years' Resolutions for 2012.  I don't remember any of my past resolutions before 2012, but I imagine they had to do with losing weight and eating right.  That seems to be a rather common theme this time of year.  Get ready to see a ton of Weight Watchers ads on TV, because they know how many people make the same type of resolution every year.

What's my resolution for 2013, you ask?  1080p.  No, no I kid, I kid. I do have resolutions for the new year because it just seems like such an easy time to commit to a change in lifestyle.  New year, new habits.  In 2012, I made a resolution to save more money and do better at cleaning the apartment.  As a (mostly) stay at home dad, I figured I should make a real effort to keep the apartment clean, because if I'm not going to go out and make more money with some job, I should at least keep the place tidy.  Well, it took some training on my part, but I learned in 2012 that the apartment isn't going to clean itself, and it's a lot easier to maintain a clean apartment than it is to clean a really messy one.  My resolution actually worked.  Well, half way.  I did save money in the savings account for a while there, but then some things came up, (as usual) and I ended up doing a terrible job of saving money.

Which leads me to be serious about what my New Years Resolution for 2013 will be.  I once again have two.  I could roll over my failed resolution from 2012, but I know me, I don't need to double resolve the money saving idea that ain't going to happen.  No, I'm going to go with a dietary resolution.  I know these never really work, but I just want to wear large sized t-shirts out of the house instead of an extra large, so I'm going to get back on the workout train, try to improve the way I look and feel.  I think it'll make me happy.  I know that in order to make it work, I have to focus on it and work really hard at it, and I'm going to try, but the last thing I want is to be one of these folks that work out all the time and talk about how much I work out, and when you see a picture of me, I look exactly the same as I always do.  I want dramatic change in my body appearance.  I'm not going to talk about my workouts on the blog or social media, because no one gives a shit.  Seriously.  I'm just going to do it, because I should, not to show off.

The other half of my resolution is to cook.  My family eats far too many prepackaged foods because it's easier and quicker than making meals.  We are not the best at planning meals and stuff, and I just think we'd all be happier and healthier if we cooked healthy meals.  This is especially important for my lovely daughter, because I don't like what we feed her sometimes, but it's just convenient.  So that's the most important thing.  The workout thing, yeah, I'm gonna do that, but I really feel it's important that I start cooking meals.  It's not just something to make me feel good, it's way more important for my family's health that I do this.  Plus I think it would be fun to experiment with different recipes and ingredients.  It seems like a world I want to be a part of.

So that's what I'm going to do in 2013.  Leave a comment here or perhaps on the bloggerated facebook page telling me what your resolution is.  I'd like to hear from you.  Together, we can make ourselves happier by sticking to whatever it is we feel we need to change in our lives.  I think there's something we all can assess and make a change for the better.  Let's make 2013 our bitch.  Let's work together and motivate each other.  Let's hold each other accountable for our actions so that we stick to it.  Stick together team.  We live together, or we die alone.  

My Favorite Music of 2012

So a few things are converging at the same time that I think is pretty cool.  The end of 2012 and me hitting 20,000 all-time page views.  They should happen around the same time, because they're both really close to happening.  So that's pretty cool.  20,000 times someone has visited my blog space.  I'm pretty sure that's a drop in the bucket for most websites, but for a blog that's only driving force is my own personal thoughts and feelings and experiences, that's pretty cool, if you ask me.  So thanks for stopping by 20,000 times.  Now...what if everyone clicked on an ad every time they visited?  I'd be rich!

Today I present you with my sort of annual My Favorite music post, and this time, we're covering the stuff that came out in 2012.  There was one clear cut winner for my favorite album, and the rest are all tied for second or last.  It's been a weird year for me, musically.  A lot of stuff got played and forgotten about faster than you can say Mumford and Sons.  Others stuck, but perhaps not like they used to, because I'm getting old and that's what happens.

I refuse to use the word "best" when talking about music because music quality is immeasurable.  No one can say what is bad and good.  It's all taste and mood.  There is no best and worst.  Train sucks, but that's just my opinion.  I believe I've written this post already...so I'll spare you, but if you're intersted in what I was interested in this year, continue reading.  If not, this is a good one to skip.

I think it would be appropriate to show you all just what I actually listened to the most this year.  So here's a snapshot of my listening stats for the past 12 months, which was tracked by Last.fm.

As you can see, I listened to a shitload of Vacationer - Gone, and that, my friends, is my favorite album of 2012.  It's not close.  That's one of my all-time favorites now.  I'm not sure what else to say about it.  It's just really good, and I think you all need to go buy it.  Thanks

This list has a lot of artists who albums I spun the hell out of, but they were released before 2012.  For instance, Polar Bear Club.  Their album Crash Battle Guilt Pride was released last year.  So was City and Colour, Moving Mountains and Balance and Composure.  But those were artists I listened to a ton this year, even though they're disqualified from this post.

So I guess it comes down to these artists, which I guess because those artists that are tied for second place:

Uncle Skeleton - All Too Human
Say Anything - Anarchy, My Dear
Silversun Pickups - Neck of the Woods
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
Mumford and Sons - Babel
Metric - Synthetica
fun. - Some Nights
Low Fat Getting High - Live Moderately, Die Whenever
Good Old War - Come Back As Rain
Young Magic - Melt

And there were more, too, that I would probably include in the list but I never got around to listening to them properly, like Bad Books - II or Slingshot Dakota - Dark Hearts, which I'm pretty sure would be near the top.  But I don't know enough about them.

Listen, if I had to pick from those albums that are tied for second place to be the one I liked the most, I'd say Sleigh Bells, which every reviewer in existence took a shit on.  I really liked it, and that's why you can't trust people who tell you what'd "good music and bad music."  Third place would be maybe Silversun Pickups, I guess.  Yeah, probably.  I really want to say that I'd include fun. in my top three, but one sone, One Foot, makes that album almost off the list all together.  So unfortunate.

So there it is.  Listen to these albums and you'll be happier.  Congratulations to Kenny Vasoli and Vacationer. You are my favorite music in 2012. (see profile pic)  Now a good blogger would link you to iTunes or Amazon or Spotify of SOMETHING so you can easily listen to these albums, but you know, what, there's a reason I only have 20,000 page views all time,  I'm not a good blogger. I did, however, include a link to iTunes for the Vacationer album.  Click on it and buy that shit.  Here's the link again for those of you that are scroll illiterate HERE!!!

Have a good rest of the year and lets keep our fingers crossed that 2013 is the best year for music of our lives!!!

Shopping Was a Pleasure

Friday afternoon I went grocery shopping at Publix in the Bellevue area.  The Bellevue Publix is the best grocery store in the greater Nashville area (that I've found) simply because they sell Waffle Crisp in their "special requests" section.  I'll make that trip to that store as often as possible just for that reason.  I imagine I could make my own special request for Waffle Crisp at the Publix that I would usually shop at, but I happened to be in the area, so I chose that one.  I'm in that area enough these days visiting friends that I can justify stopping in and grabbing a box as often as I'd like without the need to make any crazy special requests of any other Publix stores. I was really surprised when we moved down here that I couldn't find any store that carried Waffle Crisp, which by the way is the greatest cereal of all time, in my opinion.  One time, my good friend Katie bought four boxes of it online and had them shipped to my house.  That is still one of the coolest things anyone has ever done for me.  Maybe she didn't buy them online, I don't remember, but I got a box in the mail with four boxes of breakfast gold delivered to my house.  Great day, that was.

Anyway, I was shopping at Publix in Bellevue when this guy working there came by and he was pushing a cart with chopped up pineapple and clementines, offering the shoppers free samples.  I love those fruits, but I know that clementines can be a real hit or miss situation, so I avoided that offering.  But I grabbed one of those fresh-looking, chopped pineapple chunks, and man, it was way good.  I know what pineapple tastes like, and I love it, and I didn't need a sample to remind me of that.  I hate hate hate it on pizza, but as a stand-alone fruit, it's one of my absolute favorites   But I wasn't going to buy any pineapple on Friday, however I totally bought some because that sample was delicious.  I even bought the pre-chunked ones they sell, which is more expensive than just buying a whole pineapple.  I wanted that experience again!

That dude totally sold me a pineapple.  Their scheme worked.  They got me to sample something I didn't need a sample of, and I bought in.  That's why they do it, man.  They're in the business of selling stuff.  Good job, Publix free fruit guy.  You sold that fruit to me.  I was happy to eat it later, and I was satisfied with my purchase.

Also, at that Publix, they sell 12 packs of Stroh's.  I have never seen Stroh's in Tennessee.  Not that I would by Stroh's beer, but they sell it!  They also sell Vernors, which makes my lovely wife happy.  Shopping sure is a pleasure at Publix.  

Apocalypse Now and Then

Okay, let us assume for a second that the Mayan calender isn't a fluke, and let's forget for a second that they didn't take into account leap years.  If we are to believe the news stories and all that about the Mayans and their calender, that means that we all have one week to live.  One week until the apocalypse.  Better make it a damn good week.

Okay, but seriously, we all know that the world isn't going to end next Friday, but what if it was?  Would it hurt to live this week as if it were?  I think it would be pretty cool if we all lived one week as if it were our last.  That guy Tim McGraw has it right, man.  Living like you were dying would be pretty cool. 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu. I think it's important to know that tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and we need to seize the moment now!  So I say let's pretend that the world is ending next Friday.  This would be the best week of our lives!  When it doesn't end, that's great, and life could just go on, and we'll continue on with whatever we were doing before this week started.

The problem, now that I think about it, is that if you were to live like there was no next week, and then there was actually a next week, you would probably do some shit you would regret.   I mean, the appeal of living like there will be no next week is that there is no consequences for your actions, right?  So if you decide to try to bang a bunch of chicks, do a bunch of blow and steal a bunch of money, if there was no next week, you wouldn't have to answer to those actions.  But the reality is, there will be a next week, and you would probably get sent to jail for some of that stuff, so probably don't do that.

But maybe this is a chance to do something daring, something that you would only do if there was no repercussions?  But maybe when you decide to do something weird, just know that there will be a next week, and you may have to answer to someone about it.  But choose somehthing that's a little scary, and have a blast while doing it.  I refuse to say "you only live once," but I mean...it's sort of true, no?

Let me know how you spend your Apocalypse week!  Have a good last week on Earth!!!

The 13th Birthday Party

I come to you today with a fuzzy story that had been long forgotten.  It easily could have been a story of wild and crazy youths doing wild and crazy things, but it's not.  It's a story of one weird yet pretty cool night. Well, as cool as it gets at the age of 13.

I'm actually pretty amazed I remember so much, considering I had forgotten about the whole thing for so many years.  What I remember is that it was my 13th birthday party.  My mom had set it up to have me and two friends stay at a Ramada Inn suite for a night by ourselves, a night with video games and probably pizza.  I remember that it was actually a week before my birthday, for whatever reason, and that just happened to be my good friend Mark Celeskey's birthday, who was one of the two friends I chose to have at my party.  The other was Nick Whitford.  I don't remember too much about the early part of the party, except that I had brought my Sega Genesis to the room so we could play NCAA College Slam, which I had rented for the weekend.  I remember my mom leaving, and I'm pretty sure I remember smoking cigarettes in the room.  This might not be true, but I know Nick would not have been a fan of that.  If that actually happened, I don't remember, but Mark and I were known to smoke at that young age.  In fact, that was pretty much the basis of our friendship.  Smoking cigarettes in various hidden places around Negaunee.

What makes this night special is that earlier in the evening, we were in the hotel's pool, swimming, minding our own business, when there were suddenly about 15 girls about our age also in the pool.  They were attending a separate birthday party at the same area of the hotel, just across on the other side of the pool.  Of course, this send a lot of...feelings into my 13 year old brain.  I can assume this was the case for my friends, as well.  Well after my mom had left, we managed to contact the girls' room, and I don't remember what was said or who did the talking, but some of the girls ended up in our hotel room.  Like, 4 or 5, I'd say.  I really don't remember.  I don't remember what their names were, what they looked like, or really anything about the girls, except they were from Ishpeming, (the next town over from ours) and I didn't know any of them previously.

Now, I mentioned in the above paragraph that I don't know who did the talking to get these girls into our hotel suite, but I am 100% confidant that it was not me.  I couldn't talk to girls.  I still wouldn't be the one to talk girls into coming to my party.  But there they were, and I didn't know what to do.

Later in the evening, a couple of the girls told us guys that there was something or other going on over in the reception hall area, and there was dancing.  They suggested we go dancing with them.  So, we did.  I don't know why there was dancing, but I remember that there was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that we had to sit through.  I remember people having their chips for sobriety.  I remember asking the girls if it was really okay for us to be there, and the girls assuring us that it was fine.  And I remember dancing.  I don't really understand why there was dancing at an AA meeting.  I'm thinking I'm mixing something up, because that doesn't make any sense.  I do remember that us kids were the only ones dancing.  I haven't been to an AA meeting since.

I also remember at one point trying to climb over a railing, and having a hard time getting my fat, 13 year old body over it.  So Mark, always wiling to lend a hand, grabbed my leg and pulled me over the rest of the way, rolling my nuts on the rail, causing me great pain and embarrassment due to the laughing girls.  You never forget hurting your nuts while trying to impress girls.

But that's the thing, I don't think I tried to impress any girls.  I just didn't have it in me.  If I'm not mistaken, Mark ended up with a "girlfriend" out of the night, but none of the girls wanted anything to do with me.  I bet if I knew what I was doing, that could have been different.  It just wasn't in my nature, and really, it still isn't.  I'm lucky I got one to say yes to me, and once she did, I've not let her go for almost 12 years now.    

So that's my story of my 13th birthday party.  Played some Sega, ate some pizza, danced with some girls at an AA meeting and crushed my balls on a railing.  Pretty good night, I'd say.  I had totally forgotten about that until yesterday. 13 years later, I had my wedding reception in that very room where we went danced. I wonder if those guys remember?  What I really wonder is, who were those girls from that other party?  If you are reading this and you were from Ishpeming and went to a birthday party at the Ramada Inn in Marquette on March 23/24, 1996, get at me. Hey, I know chances are slim, but it was a long time ago, maybe we met again later in life? Maybe you remember some of this?  That would be pretty awesome.

Have a nice day!

How I Met Your Expectations

I lump all CBS shows into one category.  Total shit.  Yeah, I mean except like, the Price is Right and Letterman, and even Letterman has gone way downhill in the past couple years.  And let me be fair, that's a pretty bold statement to kick off this post, I just haven't found many CBS shows to be entertaining or enjoyable at all for the past, oh I don't know, 10 years or so.  Total shit?  Maybe not, but not my kind of shows to watch? Absolutely.

So when someone tells me to watch a CBS comedy (which usually always suck) that has canned laughter (what is this, the 80's and 90's?  What is this TGIF?!?!) I'm not going to be very receptive to the idea.  I like shows like Community, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, or Modern Family.  Those shows are all shot in a unique way for a TV comedy. They're different and they are hilarious.  But this isn't a post about what shows I like and what shows I don't like, this is about shattering expectations, and learning to give things a chance before dismissing them, even if you doubt you'll be swayed.

The inspiration here is a little show called How I Met Your Mother.  Canned laughter comedy on CBS, no chance I'll enjoy it.  In fact, I gave it a shot one night, right here on my couch, with the removal of all preconceived notions.  I still didn't like it.  It wasn't funny.  It wasn't groundbreaking, or even interesting.

But I didn't stop watching.  It wasn't bad enough for me to say "never again," like I have with several other horrible TV shows.  No, I came back.  I was convinced by the convictions of the fans that it is a good show, and that it is funny.  My roommate and sister-in-law has been watching every episode from the beginning here, whenever she has a chance, and every once in a while, I'm here to watch while she does.  I gotta tell you, I just watched three episodes in a row from season 4, and they were really funny.  Every time I watch this show, it gets funnier.

So there you go, I don't hate this show, even though everything indicates that I would.  I guess you can't just say you don't like something without trying it.  I've heard that statement my whole life, and it's been proven many times over.  This just further cements that thought into my head.  

Christmas Tree

So let me get this straight.  We put an evergreen, a conifer, in our house?  Ever think about that?  Isn't it weird that we chop down a pine tree and put it in our house, then decorate it with lights and ornaments?

I guess it dates back to a time when things of this nature were used to ward of evil spirits, as one would expect from people in the olden days.  They'd do just about anything to ward off evil spirits, wouldn't they?  I totally get the symbolism of having an evergreen as a thing to celebrate, because it symbolized eternal life, right?  It doesn't lose all it's leaves and look dead in the winter.  We can place this tradition on the Germans, who started putting trees in places and decorating them with apples to represent the forbidden fruit.  Later, they changed the apples to red bulbs.  That makes sense.

This is just one of those things that I think about and realize that it's a strange thing to do, yet we all do it every year.  Unlike other traditions on this and other holidays, we don't ever really question the Christmas tree and it's symbolism like we do with the Easter bunny or Easter eggs, or Santa Claus.  We just accept the tree in the house as totally normal, regardless of what it means.

Anyway, just something I thought of while looking at the tree.  Merry Christmas.  

iPhone 4S, iTunes and what is "Other?"

The thing I love most about the iPhone is that they are easy to use and easy to understand.  Everything is pretty intuitive, and if you mess around with it for just a short period, most people get the hang of what is what, and what does what.  You understand what it's capable of doing, and what it isn't capable of doing.  But every once in a while, there's something that an iPhone does that I can't figure out.  I ran into one such problem this morning while trying to free up some space on my phone.

I have a 16 GB iPhone, so space is limited.  I have nearly 6 GB of apps on there, and I've removed some of the bigger apps that were taking up space and I didn't need on there anymore (like Spotify, which I don't pay for so the app is kind of useless except for the radio feature, which is pretty sweet, but not sweet enough to take up as much room as the app takes up.)  But there was a mystery that I cannot solve.  According to my iTunes, when I hook up my phone, there is around 2.8 GB of space being taken up by "other."  I can't figure out what "other" is, and it's sort of driving me crazy.  Like I said, my phone is only 16 GB, so having nearly three of those precious gigs being taken up by a mystery "other" makes me want to do something about it.  

I searched around the internet, and I didn't really find anything, except someone saying that it's "album artwork, app artwork, things like that."  Really, though?  Almost three GB of artwork?  I deleted every song off my phone and it didn't budge the "other" section all that much (though it did go down slightly).  The fact that it moved makes me believe that this does have something to do with what "other" is.  But how do I significantly reduce the amount of space "other" is taking up?  

My other theory was that it was the weird data from my phone streaming my music library from iTunes Match.  That was actually my first theory, but after turning off iTunes Match and syncing my phone, it didn't do anything to "other."  No change. iTunes Match used to download every song you played from iCloud to your phone, but that was with the old iOS.  Now it doesn't download the music, or at least as far as I can tell.  It's really unclear to me.  I stream music from iTunes Match all the time, and when I turn Match off, the music isn't downloaded to my phone like it used to do.  That's why I thought that perhaps the "other" was this half-downloaded music in limbo.  No, I don't think it is, but who really knows?  I would have thought that Apple would have bragged somewhere that with iTunes Match you can stream you iTunes library without using up your phones space, but they haven't.  That's why I thought there was something up.  I don't know, it's just weird.

I also thought it might be Podcasts.  I am using the new Podcasts app, and I have a few podcasts that are unplayed and a few are kinda big.  I thought, since it's not technically in the music app anymore, maybe iTunes doesn't know how to categorize it.  After a bunch of trial and error, and deleting shit left and right, it made no impact on "other."  In fact, I came to the conclusion that my Podcasts are, in fact, recognized within the "music" section of the phone's usage.  So no, that's not it either.

This is where the internet can continue to help me.  Do you know how to reduce how much space "other" is taking up?  I beg you, let me know how I can reduce this burden!  If there is something simple I can do, or perhaps something I can do in the future to reduce adding to the "other" problem, that would be swell.  

Bloggerated Lives + Grooveshark Player

Alright big news here at Bloggerated.  First off, I had my domain name, bloggerated.com expire this past week, and if I didn't renew it, I'd have lost everything, so I had to pay the man, and we're back in business. I really didn't want to have to start over.  So we'll be bloggin here at this ol' site for at least another year!

Secondly, I was jamming some Orange 9mm over on Grooveshark when I noticed that there was a "share song" option.  I was pretty excited, because I want to share music with you guys whenever possible.  Music is a passion of mine, so I'd like to be able to tell you what I like when I like it.  I was able to add an HTML gadget to the sidebar of ye old blog, in which I can add whatever song from Grooveshark I'd like.  So, now you can come here and listen to the "Hand Picked Song" whenever you wanna know what's good.  I'm the authority on good music...said no one ever.  But still, I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about.  I probably won't announce that I've replaced the song, and I won't know if you actually listened to the song or not, but hey, it's there for you if you'd like.  I imagine I'll continue to post songs and stuff from bandcamp when I feel like it.  Grooveshark's library is rather limited, so who knows if be able to post exactly what I want.  You won't know those details, however, because it doesn't matter.  So first off, I've posted a song by Polar Bear Club that I happen to think is real good.  It'll probably be there a little while until I remember to change it.  Remember when I had that sweet Lala.com player?  That was the best.  Well now I have this Grooveshark thing.  Enjoy some music!

So that's what's up here.  Nothing but business in this post.  Oh by the way, in case you hadn't noticed, it's somehow it's December already. That was fast, eh?

Well anyway, have a solid weekend.  I'll be around to blog some more real soon.  I've got thoughts rattling around up there, so hopefully I'll write them down before I forget them.