This weekend, I acquired a couple of nice cuts across my upper lip (I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out why). In addition, the right side of my mouth feels like it was smashed with a brick wrapped in a lemon. It’s quite a numb and tingling sensation.

But none of that is actually interesting. There’s some history-changing stuff going on in the world, so who cares about my rites of passage.

This isn’t history-changing so much as it’s history-erasing. On July 20th, 1969, Mr. Armstrong landed on the moon for the first time. His monumental achievement was recorded on the moon, and transferred to us Earthly denizens. A blurry black-and-white image of this said Armstrong climbed out of the Eagle Lunar Module. This moment was and still is a landmark in human history.

But wait! Wasn’t the video feed recorded? Surely with modern technology, people could enhance the video and give everybody a clearer picture of that historic day. Sure we could, just pass along the original tape, and we’re ready to -

What’s that? It’s missing?

A sad tale, but the original tapes of Armstrong’s first steps on the moon have been lost to time. I am not making this up. I have proof. Truly, ’tis a sad day. With the death of mankind’s first presence on moon, now is a good time to reflect upon the other important moments in history that have been lost.

-> The first person to tell a lie. We will never know who it was.

-> Henry Ford, the inventor of the five-day workweek. What would life be like without the five-day workweek?

-> George de Mestral, the man who brought us Velcro. Velcro. Think about it.

Thanks for reading this significantly boring post, and have a nice Monday.

Before you say anything about this particular discussion, I’m not intending to disrespect my own language, which is of course Bahasa Indonesia. I myself think Bahasa Indonesia is a quite a cool language in my own ears.

However, if I recollect my memories of childhood when I’m still in my early elementary and middle school studying this subject, I got to say that there are some subjects that I deem to be useless in my daily life. If I’m not mistaken, the purpose of learning Bahasa Indonesia is to enlighten youngster to use the correct Bahasa Indonesia in their daily life either formal or informal.

But it seems there are some information that are not very helping in the learning process of Bahasa Indonesia (Well, at least for me). Here are the top 10 subjects to be useless for me to study:

1. Homonym, Homophone, & Homograph

This the most subject that I think is worthless to be thought. In this subject you have to distinguish two words whether they are similar in linguistic pronunciation or spelling scheme.  Remember how the teacher gave you an example of a Homophone sentence and you give the answer “Bang Budi pergi ke bank”? That’s what I’m talking about. And what is the use of knowing these? Nothing as far as I know and you are completely oblivious to it.

2. Ethics in Telephone

I remember this being the most intrusive learning in my private life. What is their business telling us how to make a phone call? And they told me not to fling my arms during the phone call nor point the air since it is not necessary? Hey guess what? Nobody cares and nobody sees me so I’ll do whatever with my phone. Next time they will teach us to use appropriate attire to receive a call.

3. How to be a News Reporter

Ah, the lecture about news and to do the drama of a news reporter. They taught me that to be a news reporter you have to be succinct and without tone. Intonation is important as to deliver without emotion to avoid bias view. Well, I guess that teaching is not applicative anymore as more and more news channel abandon the out of style news delivery by the national TV broadcast, TVRI.

4. The meaning of supplement words in a word

Bahasa Indonesia as you know it has a lot of supplement words such as “melakukan”, which derived from the noun word “Laku” or in English, “Act”. The “me-” and “-kan” supplement words attach to the root word change the meaning of the word to a verb, “To do”. I appreciate the information about this but must we examine every word and its root word one at a time? Unless you are aiming for Literature degree, then this information is basically meaningless as long as you understand how to use these words in a sentence.

5. Types of Paragraph

Another thing you have to do to master Bahasa Indonesia is to identify the paragraph that you are reading. You are asked paragraph per paragraph whether it is an opinion or a fact. The thing is that when it reaches a paragraph about religion, God, or evolution, you will get confuse to distinguish these out of context paragraphs. I remember that I wrote “opinion” to the the origin of mankind which is described by God created the humans. I was wrong and my teacher said that that it is a fact as it came out of a bible. Duh.

6. Themes of Poem

Again the ability to distinguish certain literature, which in this case a poem. Guys, poem is abstract and it can be about anything. Granted that the poems in Indonesia (or at least that are taught in school) are pretty obvious. But what about those poem which is to me a plain gibberish such as “Puisi Beling”? Are there any point to that poem anyway? And isn’t it depends on the listener to grasp the meaning of the poem itself? If one say differently about the theme of poem, he will be considered at false an incomprehensible to understand poem? Ridiculous!

7. Idiom

This is another pointless lecture that I never utilize it in my daily conversation. Not that I don’t want to, but Indonesian’s idiom is just to weird to be included in the conversation. Unlike English idioms such as “water under the bridge” or “pulling my leg” which a normal style of language, Indonesian idioms date back to the prehistoric speaking. They used “bagai” or “bagaikan” which a language deserved for the royalty and all the cheesy monarch conversation (Watch Angling Darma and you’ll get what I mean). Bottom line is, it is just not fitting to include idiomatic in our daily conversation. Not even in the office.

8. The A.B.A.B Poetry

Next stop is the short poetry or people in my country call them “Pantun”. It’s a very fascinating literature and it’s kinda funny when you make one. However, I disagree on the task that force you to make an AB AB rhyme in the short poetry. And you just this short poetry by what? The rhyme? It’s art, man. And it’s subjective.

9. The SPOK

Or in other words, how you identify subject, predicate, object, and adverb in a sentence. Then again this thing appalls me with the ludicrous teaching. I believe that this is a good information in the extent of a formal textual sentence. Other than that, it’s just automatic right?

10. Intonation

This is another anomaly. I thought learning intonation in Bahasa Indonesia is like you learning how delivered a good news or a bad news in a right or proper intonation. Instead, they play with a sentence in rape it with different intonation, saying that it might change the meaning if you change the intonation. Remember “Kucing makan tikus mati”? If you change the intonation you will get a different meaning.

se ştie că sunt oarecum obsedat de astrologie şi că sunt într-o căutare continuă a unei explicaţii pentru firea şi defectele mele. zilele astea am găsit un zodiac extrem de complex care, conform orei, poziţiei, condiţiilor în care te-ai născut ( plus multor alte aspecte), îţi oferă practic o descriere fidelă a propriei firi. am citit multe zodiace… dar de data asta chiar am rămas cu gura căscată. iată ce mi-a spus despre mine (mă regăsesc 100%):

Sun in Taurus, Moon in Aquarius

You were born with the Sun in Taurus and the Moon in Aquarius. Because of this position of the Sun, you are equipped for a successful life (o daaa). Outwardly you seem unusual, original, and often unorthodox in your life views (mda, un om ciudat în concepţie, multă lume mi-a spus asta…). Your growth has been toward a humanitarian concern for the world at large, but your sometimes radical measures can be offensive to others. You have developed concern for others but your essential nature is primarily concerned with self (egoismul…). The sign of Taurus gives vast amount of power, self-determination, self-reliance, and fixity of purpose (hotărârea atunci când îmi propun ceva, dorinţa nebună de a reuşi). You have channeled these qualities toward universal ends. The fixity of Taurus is apparent in your stubborn clinging to ideas (încăpăţânat, întotdeauna am dreptate). Internally, you are amorous and warm-hearted. But it is very possible that you may be led into complicated, sometimes unhealthy emotional adventures (cerul mi-e martor că numai aşa nimeresc). Often this tendency can frustrate your ambitions, because you aspire to a high position in life. Although magnanimous and liberal, you are not entirely comfortable in your personality role, because your real nature if different (cele 1000 de măşti pe care le schimb atâââât de bine). What others appreciate most in you is your sociability and sympathy. If you are not at ease in your role and are therefore undergoing a psychological struggle, play up the Taurean aspects of your character.

Ascendant in Aquarius, Uranus in the Eleventh House

At the time of your birth the zodiacal sign of Aquarius was ascending in the horizon. Its ruler Uranus is located in the eleventh house. You were born with a natural disposition to be humane, sympathetic, original and refined in your dealings with others. Among your features is the ability to understand human nature in a sympathetic manner (da, mă pricep la oameni). Unfortunately, you do not always act upon your intuitions and may become rationalistic at times when swift and prompt determination is required (dar uneori mai sunt şi idiot, na). The common Aquarian is good and kindly, but usually led astray by eccentric and bizarre companions (mă atrag firile bizare, da). Your tastes are refined and your discrimination keen (discriminareeee, daaaa). You have a natural inclination toward the esoteric and mystical side of life and you could develop some clairvoyant abilities (cei care mă cunosc bine ştiu de pasiunile mele trecute, spiritualitatea, mă rog). Basically you are a lover of freedom; in the realization of this desire you may go to extremes. Although changeable in appearance, your life is guided by very definite and fixed principles, one of which is a constant demand for personal freedom (nimic nu e mai frumos decât să nu fii constrâns de nimeni şi nimic!). In love you are a strange character. You can easily be emotionally attracted to one person and yet unpredictably terminate relationships (mda. aici no comment). As an inventor you have no rival; your problem is that sometimes you lack the practical ability to implement your creations. Professionally you will be successful in any of the following fields of activity: modern science, electrical work, photography, archaeology, astrology, radio etc. This is an indication that your existence will be centered around developing friendships and that the most decisive events will evolve through them. You are a fortunate individual: you always seem to win at bingo, sweepstakes, lotteries, etc (cineva acolo sus mă iubeşte, ştiam asta). Your friendships will be rather unusual and dual-aspected in the sense that a great many of them will benefit you but still present you with considerable difficulty.

Moon in the First House

The Moon is in the first house. This position indicates that you are strongly influenced by your feelings and moods. Your awareness of yourself is influenced by your momentary feelings, and this perception is subject to rapid changes of mood and emotion (schimbător, schimbător şi plin de contradicţii). In time, you will learn to understand why you react as you do to various situations, and then you can begin to change your response patterns and take more control of your life. Others sense your lack of emotional self-sufficiency and tend to get involved in your personal affairs, even if you try to prevent it (spaţiul vital nu trebuie încălcat). You express your sensitivity through an emotional need to nurture and be nurtured by others. While you would like to have guidance and supervision concerning your goals and objectives, it would be better to achieve your aims independently so that you will not feel obligated to others(mai bine mă chinui singur decât să fiu dator cuiva). The advantage of this position lies in your ability to sense other people’s needs and desires. In fact, you have a calming effect on people who are under stress, and this makes you ideally suited for working with the public (priceput la vorbe şi abureli, nimeni ca mine).

Venus in the Second House

Venus is found in the second house at the time of your birth. Intrinsically, this is an ideal astrological position as it promises easy means of livelihood. Money will stream in regularly and readily without excessive effort or preoccupation.

Sun in the Third House

The Sun appears in the third house at the time of your birth. Your individuality as ruled by the Sun must pass several karmic tests of a mental character in order to return to its spiritual abode with a richer knowledge in this state of consciousness. Your mind strives for glory, social success, honors, power and magnanimous elevation by means of intellectual understanding (poate cea mai adevărată propoziţie din toată descrierea). The path for the realization of fame, honor, nobility and advancement lies through study, communication and self-expression. Your views about life are optimistic, self-assured, kind and generous. The liabilities of your mind are a lack of interest in detail or occupations and matters that you regard as being below your dignity (întotdeauna m-am considerat superior şi am fost oarecum scârbit de anumite chestii atât de comune pentru alţii).

Saturn in the Twelfth House

Saturn was in the twelfth house at the time of birth. This planet may place many unpleasant and annoying obstacles in your life, and intensify the feelings you have about the limitations of your environment (nemulţumirea necontenită…). Your professional honor affects your feelings very much and you are well satisfied when things go well. Destiny may have to teach you to tell the difference between fact and fantasy more clearly (peregrinarea între vise şi realitate…). Certain complexes nest in your subconscious and show up in your mind as hypersensitivity, wanting to be alone and to do things by yourself so no one will know how you feel (trist, şi totuşi admit). You need a bit of humor and self-confidence. 

I’m not sure but I think I may have got this picture from the always-wonderful Age of Uncertainty, the blog of a dry, observant bookselling type.

So Borders is in administration, in closing-down sales, in history, baby. Where did it all go wrong? It ate the indie bookshops. Now it’s been eaten by Amazon. Even the death of the Net Book Agreement wasn’t enough to keep it going.I don\’t think I can go to the sales this time. For one thing I’ve just had a week off with flu, unpaid. For another, I’ve been – not knowing I was about to have a week off unpaid – on an Abe-spree, buying books on and by James, Wilde and their ilk. And thirdly I spent £90 in the last borders closing-down sale, and that may be my lot. They’ve saturated my market, as the actress said to the bishop…

But I do have a couple of questions about the death of the Net Book Agreement, if it isn’t too late to ask them now. I mean, it ended in 1994 or something. But, as with the right-to-buy of council houses ten years before that, everything the doomsayers predicted has come true. Yet here we are, and we’re going, “ohmigosh, it’ll be Amazon,” but we’re forgetting what made the whole clambake possible in the first place. Because I well remember a time when a book cost what it cost, and you either paid it or you didn’t. Somehow, unbelievably, we all had enough to read back then. We splurged on the odd hardback, waited for the rest to come into paper, and stocked up on second-hand. Weird, huh. (It’s like, how did clothes even fit people before lycra? Ever think of that?)

First, here’s Tom Sutcliffe, in a local indie bookshop, in the Independent:

I noticed that Richard Dawkins had published a new book and then noticed that the hardback price was £20 and hesitated. And then I went home and discovered that Amazon would deliver it to my door for £9.99. No wonder, really, that Amazon’s share price recently topped what it was during the dotcom boom and that Borders was yesterday reported to be struggling for survival as a company. And if even a chain operation can’t compete with Amazon’s economies of scale what possible hope can there be for a small independent? How long before they require charitable status to operate at all?

Since then I’ve found myself wondering exactly how much of a premium I’d pay to keep that small bookshop in business…

…£10.01 per volume seems quite a steep surcharge to pay for such virtues (automatically, of course, I take the heavily discounted price as the “true” one – and the RRP as a kind of con).

He’s right, you know. We begin to take it for granted and we think that it actually costs something like £7 a unit to produce a giant heavily-researched hardback biography with copious indexes, photographs, etc. And with all those discounted current bestsellers, who’s going to pay £10 for some dreary old Penguin, just because some mate of theirs told them it was a good book?

So here’s what the Independent was saying about the Net Book Agreement (decline of) in 1994:

Arguments for keeping the agreement are that supermarkets would otherwise sell large quantities of a narrow range of bestsellers (cheaper without the NBA), cutting bookshop profits and forcing them to reduce their range. Fewer titles would be published, small booksellers would be unable to compete in the discounting wars and go under, print runs would shorten and the price of less popular books would rise to compensate for lower profits on bestsellers.

The opposing camp claims the NBA widens the range of books published, of which much is rubbish. Without it, publishers would be more discriminating, customers would be offered cheaper books and would, therefore, buy more, and literary interest would be stimulated.

Bill McGrath, chief executive of Pentos, owner of the Dillons chain, is among them. He says in the US, which has no pricing restrictions, expenditure a head on books is three times higher.

I’m not sure what that means or if we can rely on it. Though I think the word “discriminating” may have turned out to mean something different from what those people thought. I looked and looked, on my bed of flu, and could not find the stats I was looking for on British book buyers (and readers). I know I’ve seen them, so if anyone can help me out, it’ll be much appreciated. (And it also occurs to me that we might want to stop for a moment and reconsider just what we mean when we use the word “book” – but wait, we were talking about the viability or otherwise of Borders.

But, so, okay, I know we’re all like Cher and we can’t turn back time. But, like, when people are allowed to sell things at different prices. You can sell a stretchy black skirt for different prices, and even a skirt made by the same manufacturer for different prices. But you can’t sell a Gap skirt for a different price. You don;t see copies of Vogue being flogged at massive discounts in WH Smiths, where the corner shop has them at full price. You just don’t see companies offering iPods for £50 just to shift units.

So my question is this. Why is this happening to the book trade? What is this insane level of competition all about? It’s a failed bacterium that kills its host and itself along with it.

Answers on the back of a closing-down sign please.

Topics running through my mind:

1. Motherhood
2. Writing
3. Blogging
4. Career
5. Job with contract company
6. Faith/religion/God
7. Lack of consistency/discipline
8. My personality–always desiring to be someone I’m not

My mind is all over the place so let’s cover all of these topics–though not necessarily in the order listed and definitely not all in this post. I ended up handwriting this post first (over the course of 2 hours) which amounted to about 22 pages on 7″ x 10.5″ paper. So this will end up being a series posted during the next couple of days.

Desiring to be someone who I’m not.

So I follow all these pastors, read their works, and am a HUGE fan, ie, Driscoll, Piper, and Packer. And sometimes I find myself wishing I could be a pastor. But it’s not a dream I can entertain myself with since I’m a woman and believe the Bible says only men are called to be pastors. (Yes, I know female pastors exist but I don’t agree with them.)

I find myself thinking, “Lord, why didn’t you make me a guy?” But then I realize guys don’t have it easy. My husband has to answer to God for the spiritual direction of our family. No, thank you. It’s hard enough being responsible for myself!

I used to look at other women and wish I could be them–wish I could have their lives or attractive personalities. For example, my older cousin whom I love to pieces. I used to look up to her. In a lot of ways, I still do. She’s strong, she’s a leader, she’s independent, and she’s self-sufficient. But she’s not married and doesn’t have any good prospects in the wings (that I know of). Do I really want to trade my husband just so I can have all those awesome qualities I am so envious of?

Funny like one of my friends. I wish I was like that. I wish I was sweet and likable like my former co-worker. I wish I didn’t care what anyone thinks of me like my hairdresser. Who looks at me and gets envious? But I guess we can all find something to envy about each other, right?

Materialism.

I’m not incredibly materialistic but hoo boy am I definitely tied to the things of this world. Money–something I use, not necessarily for material possessions (although my current obsession is IKEA), but to make myself feel worth something.

Yes, I tie my worth to whether I make money. Problem is, I don’t know how to “untie” it.

When a month or two go by and I haven’t heard from the company I contract for regularly, I self-deprecate and get negative:

“What if they never call me again?”

“What if my work from last time was sloppy and they just don’t want me back?”

“I’m not earning any money so I’m worthless and useless and my life and existence is pointless.”

But when I work, I suddenly have worth again. I feel I can legitimately complain about how the government uses taxpayer money because 30 percent of what I make goes to state and federal taxes each quarter. (That’s what happens when you’re self-employed in the U.S.!)

But what will happen when my full-time job becomes mother? How will I assess my worth then? Will I be worthless as a citizen of the U.S. with a purposeful existence as a mother? Will I be more useful than I’ve ever been?

My husband argues that his money is my money. I don’t see it that way. I have access to his earnings and he can have access to mine (I make significantly less than he does so he rarely has any need to) but I treat our earnings separately. I tithe off of whatever I make and don’t ever touch his. I don’t feel right taking his money–that he worked 40+ hours during the week to earn–and acting like it’s mine. I didn’t earn it. I never showed up to code a software program; he did. It’s not mine. And buying a gift with his money just seems so lame; I’d rather buy nothing at all. I can inherit it if he dies–just like I inherit my mother’s house–but it’s not mine until then. I’ll use it with his permission but I’ll always feel indebted to him. (Out-of-context verse time!) The borrower is slave to the lender.

Motherhood.

I don’t like to publicly discuss this in detail since I never wanted kids before last year and still really wrestle with the prospect of being a responsible, mature mom. As a result, I’ll be brief: I’m impatient, I’m disappointed every time I find out I’m not expecting, and I wonder if motherhood is what God has for me.

Some of the more wild ideas for iPhone Apps.  Click here to read.

I read the Metro newspaper on pretty much, a daily basis. Before anyone reminds me I know it is a FREE paper so I shouldn’t complain about it, but it has annoyed me too much now and I feel I must rant!

The gaming and movie reviews SUCK!

I don’t mean the final scoring of a review, I pay little attention to this bit anyway. What I mean is; What a pile of gibberish, its like they copied a review from a pre-release one, that another gaming/movie website, already produced a month earlier. There is no indication the reviewer has even played the game or watched the movie and this does my nut!

Again, I know it is free but it would be a much better free paper if they either wrote a real review or just “cut the chuff” out of it altogether! Arrrrhhhhh.

Okay, rant over.

Well, I’m not really sure what tonight is.  But that doesn’t really matter.  Today was a very…lazy day for me.  I did a solid nothing all day.  In fact, right now I am doing the same thing I was doing earlier, watching TV.  I haven’t watched this much TV since before I had a girlfriend, but with her being grounded and all, I don’t really have anything else to do.  Okay so, lets see, what to talk about?

Did you ever wonder why people ask questions that they already know the answers to?  I got extremely irritated by that today.  Asking me what my plans were for tomorrow with my girlfriend, full well knowing that I am currently not allowed to see her.  This blows my mind, but like seriously?  Why even ask?  What is the point of that, I mean if you know the answer, especially to a sensitive question like that, why would you ask?  To irritate and remind someone of something that hurts them?  I don’t know why, but that is just plain stupid to do.  I just don’t get people sometimes…

In other news today I have made progress with the girlfriend’s situation.  I decided I would drop by her mothers house last night.  I did not get a chance to talk to her mom, but I feel that just by stopping by, I made some progress.  Right now, that is most important.  I then text’d her mom and asked when would be more convenient to talk.  That got me the info to give it a few days and she will let me know, her and her husband want to sit down with me at the same time.  This is not much progress, but it is something.  The more something I get the better is seems.  Maybe it was really no progress at all, but it at least makes me feel better about it.

I really don’t have anything else to add to tonights entry, here is a YouTube video for your viewing pleasure.  Sorry I don’t have anything good for you tonight.  Look for something tomorrow morning.

Seriously, i finally bothered to make a blogger blog [kaorujin.blogspot.com] just to try out my Cbox account that ive had since 2000, which was disgustinly covered in spam and whatnot.

And it is so hard to use i wonder why i even had that blogger account if i wasnt going to use it.

Oh thats right, it was for following the history extension blog.

But blogspot is so bad, that even the history extension blog switched to wordpress.

And that’s saying something.

The first post of every blog is something damned to be seen only by the author herself/himself. So I am welcoming myself to this brand new blog. I wish myself happy time writing, interacting and doing everything a blogger is supposed to do.

~by infinitestory

As my interest in football increases, I’ve begun watching more TV.

And with more TV comes more commercials.

Two recent commercials have caught my eye. The first is the Red Baron Fire Baked Crust Pizza commercial, and the other is the Bud Light Condiment Gun.

I’ll start with the Red Baron commercial. First off, I’d like to note that this is the first and only ad I’ve ever seen for a single product in a food line.

But that’s not even the interesting part.

I’d embed the video for you to watch, but I can’t find it on Youtube. But what I can tell you is that it is epic on the order of Head-On. If you haven’t seen Head-On, I’ll embed that later on.

Back to business though. I’ll get straight to the point now. The advertisement uses the words “fire baked” 5 times and the word “pizzeria” 6 times, in the short span of about a minute.

If you don’t understand the gravity of those numbers, I’ll crunch them a bit. The commercial includes a good amount of silence, earning about 75 words. That means the word “pizzeria” was used in the commercial more commonly than the letter “a” in this sentence.

But it’s still beaten in repetitiveness by Spongebob.

The other one, the Condiment Gun commercial, actually has nothing to do with beer, Bud Light’s main product. Although it is more hilarious than any beer ad I’ve ever seen.

“Ever have trouble getting those condiments on your hot dog? Well I sure do!”

It makes me wonder what they do at tailgates if this is “tailgate approved.” The only tailgate I’ve been to was quite mild, hosted by my school.

And, as promised, Head-On. See if you can figure out what’s missing.

wkwkwwkwkkwkw… XD
Bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar untuk random updates itu apa yah? :p

banyak hal yang menarik belakangan ini tapi entah kenapa jadi nggak produktif nulis di blog.
salahkan microblogging? :p

tingkat kemalasan memuncak, dan banyak pekerjaan terbengkalai… maaf, >.<
oh, nambah list blogroll ah… baru baca gbt nya pak Budi, menarik!

Handphone ku rusak, dan tidak bisa diperbaiki di distributor BEC, bisa diganti, tapi harus dikirim ke Jakarta dan menunggu 3-4 bulan T__T
duh, error nya cukup melawak… tuh hp beberapa menit sekali suka restart sendiri. kecuali kalau walkman nya sedang aktif.
tapi masa' harus 24/7 setel lagu?
dan karena pas lagi telepon walkman nya mati. tentu saja dia akan restart ditengah pembicaraan.. :<

Hwaa… kangen sama the_curious_psycho… terakhir ketemu Agustus kemarin kalau ga salah :-\
beliau tampak makin sibuk belakangan ini, dan makin gape soal distributed computing tentunya XD
kangen mau ngoprek bareng lagi…

I have started a blog. I will post things here that are interesting to me and consequences be damned. Off the top of my head, some things that I find interesting and that might be covered in future entries include:

• Batman
• Buffy
• Video Games
• Cats
• Film
• Alternative histories in which Ronald Reagan is the first POTUS
• British Comedies

It’s time for my list. I will be working on it, because there are still some things(latest Swell Season, Devendra Banhart, Julie Doiron etc.) that I have to hear. Recommendations are very welcome! Also, some albums might have scored higher/lower than I reviewed them, simply because I listen to them so much. I’m gonna try to review them all. Anyway, some of my favourites:

Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice [9.5/10] [review]
I think this is my favourite album from this year. Cute, teddy-bear-ish-looking singer-songwriter from Canada. He makes you feel loved inside. Good, strong and dynamic songs, nice vocals, very good instrumental work, wonderful lyrics. The best indie pop album from this year. It’s unbelievable that he’s just 26(25?) (date-material! haha!). Dan’s a keeper and you should keep your eye on him! 

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast/Useless Creatures [9.5/10]

Again, a masterpiece made by Andrew Bird. It’s balanced, beautiful and unique. It’s pop, folk, it’s wonderful. I only miss the electric guitar a bit. Still, great lyrics, interesting, wonderful compositions and vocally pretty strong. Useless Creatures is the best instrumental CD I’ve ever heard, might have even listened more to that one than to Noble Beast. Simply beautiful. 

St. Vincent – Actor [9/10] [review]
Annie Clark manages to float above her instrumental chaos. Or at least, it looks like that. Her compositions are actually well made. Vocally, Clark is really strong. It’s a pretty unique CD that you’ll love or you’ll hate. I love it. (read the review I did) 

Jesca Hoop – Hunting My Dress [8.8/10]
To me, she’s live even stronger. Hoop mixes various styles and makes them her own. Great guitar work, great vocals. It might sound weird during your first listen, but it will grow. Especially ‘Murder of Birds’ is a wonderful track.

 
A.A. Bondy – When The Devil’s Loose[review]
I know I didn’t give A.A. Bondy such a high mark in my review. But the album did really grow on me. One of the best folk albums made this year. I listen to it a lot lately, so points for that! 
 

The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You [8/10]
This album is really a ‘grower’, after a while you like it more and more. The Avett Brothers sound really ‘natural’. It might not really be my genre of music, but I love this album. Titletrack ‘I and Love and You’ is a rare song, it’s extremely beautiful. You might have to get used to the(ir) voice(s), but it’s worth it. Overall a very nice album.

The Whitest Boy Alive – Rules[7.5/10]
Simple funky and happy. Don’t expect any musical obscurity from these guys. Erlend Øye got a great voice, some great lyrics and made some great music on this album. Strong bass lines, percussion and light guitar work. But after a while, it get’s a bit repetitive. Still a very nice album, best song to me is ‘1517′. 

Laura Gibson – Beasts of Seasons[7.5/10]
Dreamy folk songs. Gibson got a great voice. This album stands out for it’s simplicety. Her songs are pretty vocally driven, with often some light guitar work underneath it. But also you hear some piano notes every now and then. The perfect album for a sunny autumn day. 

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest[7/10]
Pretty interesting album, on moments to difficult for me to understand maybe. There are some ‘killer-tracks’ on it, but overall it’s just a pretty solid, nice, album that isn’t really my cup of tea at moments 

Regina Spektor – Far [7/10]
Not as strong as ‘Begin to Hope’, but again a very good album. Spektor goes from weird classical stuff to pop, not being afraid of sounding ’silly’. Vocally strong, but you have to love her voice. No complains about her instrumental stuff, but it’s not really ‘new’. (Best tracks of the album are ‘Laughing With’ and ‘Folding Chair’, these are perfect songs)

Wilco - Wilco(the album) [7/10]
Wilco delivered another good album. Still, it can’t beat Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but it’s a good try. It’s again the typical Wilco sound(that isn’t really my sound). But it’s a strong, balanced album. 

Franz Ferdinand – Tonight[6.5/10]
Surprising new album from Franz Ferdinand. They changed their sound a bit, having more electronics in it. It’s still not difficult to dance on. They didn’t lose their Franz sound. Points for that. 

Albums that I didn’t like that much, but were pretty great anyway:
Soap&Skin – Lovetune for Vacuum
It’s too dark and obscure for me. It feels pretty creepy. But still, pretty good. (yeah, I don’t know much more to say about this one)

Zee Avi – Zee Avi
Too light and too bubbly for me. Pretty good debut album from this singer-songwriter. She mixes light, bubbly pop with a bit of jazz. Think Jack Johnson if he was a girl and used a ukulele more.

Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanist
Good album, but I think it’s too ‘heavy’ for me. Though, I do like the poppy ‘Work All Day’, ‘People Say’ and ‘The Sun’. Recommended for everyone who’s ears can handle more noise than mine.

Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels [review]
A more upbeat album from Tony Dekker and company. It does work out, but I like their slow, acoustic stuff more. Still a great album if you like them and do like songs such as ‘Your Rocky Spine’.

M. Ward – Hold Time
For all M. Ward lovers: Hold Time is a typical M. Ward album. His strongest point is his voice, and he uses is good. To me, M. Ward is a bit boring, there’s not much happening in his music. But that’s the only critic I can think of, so I guess it’s a nice album.

Alexi Murdoch – Time Without Consequence
The album kicks of great. I first thought that this would be a great album. But in the end, the songs are too long. Because of that, this album will sound repetive. Bad, it could have been much better.

Added a useless practice done by the Filipinos.

A practice that should be removed because altogether it increases costs, defeats its intended purpose, and just being used for other things that ought not be.

Background: author understands the construction business, understands basic traffic rules and regulation regarding said item, and concern for change.

Something happened to me today. I felt like it was interesting enough to be included on this blog, but I really didn’t want to have to type stuff up (like I’m doing now). So, I decided to try something new: YouTube! Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Mental Floss has a list of 10 Awesome Foods that should never have been discontinued. I mean, Gerber baby food for single people? How could that not be awesome? A chicken dinner candy bar? TOTALLY AWESOME. Extra caffeinated breakfast Pepsi? ZIPPY AWESOME. Celery Jell-o? Ok, that does sound nasty.

Since a couple of months I have been experiencing the useless Twitter messages on my Hyves homepage. The possibility to connect all social networks irritates me, especially when it results in having those nonsense making messages from Twitter displayed on my Hyves homepage. Seeing people using Twitter and publishing messages like ‘Waiting for my train to come’ and ‘Updating Twitter, because I could’ just makes me go nuts in thinking why the hell they should publish this.

To me using Twitter in such ways is just a waste of people’s time. The time that is spend on Twitter, which is for some people astonishingly a lot, could be used better. If they really feel like giving updates about themselves, why don’t they just call their friends or catch up. Then your time will be spend much more effectively with immediate response and interaction.

Secondly, after taking a look at the messages that people sent, I just have to feel sad for the twittering people. The messages are useless, simple and making no sense. What is it that people want to share this nonsense like ‘Eating my first Chicken Sensation’? Who cares? They should better give some qualitative messages if they insist on twittering, or better just quit with posting Tweets.

I think it is very clear what my opinion about Twitter is: It irritates me. I think it is useless and sad. And I am not even talking about the ridiculous large need for having much followers and being followed. I hope Twitter is just a hype and that the little blue bird will pass away soon.

~by infinitestory

I know in Britain they might call it ultimium, but in any case it’s Thanksgiving break, which invariably accompanies a sense of finality. Although the REAL end (finals) are a full two weeks after the break, the first week-long break is still something to look forward to.

It’s been a slow last day, though.

Don’t you just hate it when the traffic light turns green, but the line is so long that it’s red before you cross? Well, I do. Especially when it happens 3 times in a row on the way to school.

From then, I knew it was going to be a long day.

Often, my intuition is wrong. The day went by remarkably quickly (and uneventfully).

And so the end of the day came, with the much-anticipated two-month-late birthday party of my friend’s.

Remember how I felt that sense of finality at the start of the day? Well, it turned quite eerie when I found out the movie we were watching as a party was 2012.

On the whole, 2012 was just decent. I found I could not stop laughing throughout the first part, the second part was nice and dramatic, and the third part was too slow and made less than little sense.

Seriously though, how can you NOT laugh when you see a plane flying by a smoke cloud when suddenly a TRAIN flies out of the smoke cloud?

Now that I think about it, the movie’s second part may have been a little too dramatic. Literally every time a character conquered an obstacle, some alarm decides to go off and the line “You might want to take a look at this” is repeated in some variation.

And the entire third scene had impeccably flawed timing and scenario. First off, on a trillion-dollar megaship, a single drill manages to stop the turbine from spinning at all. A man and a woman survive underwater for two minutes. And last but not least, the second emergency flood control gate decides to close 10 times as slowly as the first one.

Finally, the movie was riddled with factual inaccuracies (although they did include some solidly researched details, such as neutrino detectors). A TV screen clearly shows the destruction of the earth interrupting the Olympics.

Wait. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21st. And the Olympics take place during August. Something doesn’t seem right here.

Perhaps 2012 really wasn’t too great after all. Or maybe I’m just being negative again.

I would also talk about the hilarious discussion and dinner that followed the movie, but I don’t remember any of it because the sheer amount of laughter damaged my memory. I sincerely apologize.

One last thing: Now that baseball season’s over, I’ve started watching football. It’s much less complex than I thought it was, which is good. Although in 4 games I’ve watched, I’ve seen 2 ridiculously bad decisions made, and that makes me sad.

And that’s it.

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