I’m skipping a few of these, as I don’t feel like writing a letter (13) or digging around Facebook for a picture of me and my family (14). Today’s prompt is “Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play.” This is a good one because I just got an iPod, so I have an excuse to keep playing with it.

1. Spitz – Indigo Chiheisen — Back in the glory days of filesharing, my friend Don discovered a Japanese pop singer named Ayumi Hamasaki. Check her out, she’s amazing. Anyway, I started going nuts looking for other good music from Japan, and wound up with a song by Spitz called “Yume Oi Mushi”, which is still one of my favorite songs.

2. Spitz – Nana eno Kimochi — Seriously, same band twice in a row? Gonna complain about the randomizer if there is a third…

3. Anberlin – A Heavy Hearted Work of Staggering Genius — This is a short instrumental interlude before the last song on their second album, i.e. not the sort of thing I would seek out. Shuffle is fun!

4. Daft Punk – Flynn Lives — Tron: Legacy was a freaking amazing movie, in no small part due to the brilliant soundtrack crafted by Daft Punk. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It was an experience that made me go home and start screwing around with synthesizer sounds.

5. Spitz – Hatsukoi Crazy — Okay, seriously? I have way more Muse, way more Anberlin, and way more Thrice than I have of Spitz, and yet here we are. It’s cool, though, I like Spitz.

6. Ayumi Hamasaki – We Wish (Ramon Zenker Remix) — The Ayu Trance albums are great for listening to at work. They pass the time quite nicely.

7. Anberlin – Change the World — Not one of their best. It’s not bad, it’s just kinda… blah. Unremarkable.

8. Paramore – Feeling Sorry — I still think Riot is their best album, but Brand New Eyes has some good stuff. I’m curious as to how they’ll fare without the Farro brothers, since they were the backbone of the Paramore sound.

9. House of Heroes – Drown — I vaguely recognize this song. I guess I always tune out when I’m listening to the album. Huh.

10. Muse – Butterflies & Hurricanes — This song is fantastic.

Many years ago, two of my friends had accounts at diaryland.com, so I decided to join the crowd and created one of my own. I liked the idea of being able to write about personal stuff and easily share it with a couple of close friends. The site had a pretty minimal social feature, but I fumbled my way into following a couple of strangers. The idea of being able to write stuff for “people” was intriguing, but I wanted to keep diaryland under wraps — too personal for general consumption.

Then I stumbled upon livejournal. It had a better social element and random online friends of mine were already using it, so it was pretty easy to jump in. It was great because it gave me an outlet for whatever stuff I felt like sharing with my friends, plus the ability to interact with them. Eventually the platform started to feel stale, so I moved to blogger, and eventually to a self-hosted wordpress blog (this site), which I’m pretty happy with.

I got to be Earth Daler

Another one from my wedding. We’re recreating the video for “Tunak Tunak Tun”.

This prompt called for “Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad.” Here goes:

Happy – Black Mages – “Those Who Fight Further”; Tobuscus – “Literal Skyrim Trailer”

Sad – Metric – “Gimme Sympathy”; Gackt – “Mizerable”

Bored – Foo Fighters – “Bridge Burning”; Mastodon – “Oblivion”

Hyped – Chevelle – “Jars”; Fono – “Sunlight Silence”

Mad – Thrice – “Firebreather”; Further Seems Forever – “The Bradley”

I have been exercising consistently for the last week. I’m pretty freaking proud of that.

It’s not a New Year’s resolution thing. I’ve been trying to get the ball rolling since November,  but the holiday insanity kept interrupting me. Now that the holidays are over, it’s easier to focus, so BAM! A new habit.

Goal: One piece of music.
Why: I’m trying to beef up various music skills, and the best way to do it is to keep making music.

Goal: Pretty up the website
Why: Cuz it ugly.

Goal: 500 minutes of exercise.
Why: Because SparkPeople is giving away an iPad! Also, health and stuff.

Goal: Maybe get to a doctor.
Why: Because my wrist hurts and I have new insurance that doesn’t force me to always go to the same doctor who isn’t taking appointments and tells me to call back every morning at 8 and maybe they can squeeze me in.

This is the sort of topic that makes me freak out a little. I know which people might see this post, so I feel like I need to cater to them. For example, the thought of someone in my family seeing this makes me want to reach for an old family photo; coming from an Evangelical Christian background, I’m terrified that if I don’t put a picture of a Bible or Euro-Jesus that people will leave passive-aggressive messages about how I’m not a very good Christian. I talk a huge game about how much I loooove music, so I feel like maybe a guitar or a stack of sheet music should show up or people will think maybe I don’t really like it all that much.

Thankfully, I found a picture on Facebook that illustrates the thing that impacts me most:

One of us is afraid of heights, as well as most things.

Peer pressure.

Don’t get me wrong, I totally wanted to jump on that trampoline, but when there are two other people also jumping and you’re afraid of heights and the photographer is telling you all to hold hands and jump at the same time…

Anyway, the point is that the terror on my face contrasted with the excitement on Mike and Kevin’s is the perfect illustration of how I roll in many situations.

I don’t have friends that actively pressure me to do anything. Seriously, no one gets on my case to do stuff I don’t want to do. However, I create a lot of pressure in my mind and end up doing things that I don’t really want to do because I think my friends will look down on me if I don’t. For example, I’ve blown off plans to spend an entire Saturday writing music because a friend kindly asked if I wanted in on some game, and I didn’t feel comfortable saying “No thanks! Maybe later/tomorrow.” I think I’m getting better, though.

Look, I just started playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, so the Jedi are on my mind and it’s really tempting to just pick one and call this entry finished.

Buuuut… Fine, I’ll put some effort into it.

I’ve always really liked Spider Man. I have the most ridiculous fear of heights possible, so when I see pictures or play games that involve a masked hero swinging from buildings like it’s no big deal, I can’t help but imagine that it’s me, that I’m that high up and moving that fast, and that I’m not afraid.

Also, the spider-sense is frickin sweet.

Thank you, Google image search.

This is Mackinac Island, MI. It’s great because there are no cars and approximately 70% of the buildings on the island sell fudge or taffy. Also, historical stuff.

It’s been months since I last bit my nails, so I have to actually think hard about this one. Hmm…

Well, I fell off the coffee wagon recently. Or jumped on the bandwagon? Whatever. I hate caffeine dependence because I hate caffeine withdrawal headaches on weekends. It’s just hard to maintain the same sleep schedule in the winter when Mr. Sun is slacking off, so 7am starts feeling like 4am and everything falls to pieces.