Half fun, half stressful, and now I’m sick. I think I’ll blame the sickness on someone who will remain unnamed thinking it was a good idea to set the air on 70 causing me to freeze in my sleep; strange since that same someone was sharing the bed next to the a/c with me.

Saw some old friends, met some new ones, had a good time with God.

Best part of coming home: my own coffee, my own bed, oh and taking my contacts out! I forgot to bring my contact case or my glasses so I had to sleep with them in for 2 nights.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and at least took some time to remember why we really celebrate it.
Sure, you constantly hear people say “Jesus is the reason for the season,” and see plenty of church signs with the same statement, but is that really at the forefront of our minds this time of year. I admit I haven’t spent as much time focused on Christ or in the celebration of His birth as I should. It’s so easy to get caught up in earthly celebrations of gifts, food, and even that of family. Not that there’s anything wrong with celebrating family (or food, or how blessed we are to be able to give and receive gifts), but let us not forget what it’s all about. Celebrate and have joy in our Savior!

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Ocala to go to Holiday Youth Convention. I made a sort-of last minute decision to go; I’m getting to old for it and I figured if I didn’t go this year, I would definitely feel too old to go next year—not that there won’t be other older than I there, there definitely will be.
I’m bringing my laptop along in hopes that there will be free wireless in the hotel, but with the expectation that I won’t have much time to use it anyway.

The move to Wordpress is a major landmark in my experience of creating my presence on the internet; it is the first time in my 9 years of having my own site that I have paid for hosting. To mark the occasion I wanted to create a timeline to show the progression of the sites I’ve created, plus I’ve never cataloged this so I though it would be interesting for me if not for anyone else.

I want to say it began in 1998 when we first got the internet at home. We had aol and you could make your own website, I don’t really remember it.

From that I moved on to the free hosting site tripod.com. I never made a personal site there, instead I made a site to list the complete discographies of every band that I liked, with tracklistings. In the early 2000s I made the first ever (and as far as I know, still the only) fan site for Blake Hazard. You can get a very broken glimpse of it via the Way Back Machine archive take a look. Oh and then there was a site I made to educate people on the different ways “indie” music can be defined. I was quite the indie snob.

At the same time I started having a blog, I used livejournal, and xanga, and livejournal again, and again.

Which reminds me of something I’ve missed from livejournal and can do now… [...]

I’ve been meaning to do this post for about a month now, so here it goes while it’s on my mind.

A lot of good albums have already came out this year and these are my top picks, in no particular order:

St. Vincent – Marry Me: I found St. Vincent through a blog, and though I don’t remember what blog, I remember the author saying something to the effect of, “In three months everyone will be talking about St. Vincent.” Or “listening to,” I’m not sure. That statement, combined with the fact that she’s part of The Polyphonic Spree and has opened for Sufjan Stevens, got me to listen and I’m very glad I did. It’s cute where it needs to be, soulful where it needs to be, and has just the right amount of quirky, while still being some serious indie rock. And while the “everyone” thing hasn’t quite happened, she is getting some high praise across the internet.

The Dark Romantics – Some Midnight Kissin’: When I was thinking about going to Cornerstone FL I wanted to check out some of the bands that were going to be there that I wasn’t already a fan of, The Dark Romantics was one of them. I downloaded this album and the music quickly became one of my biggest motivators in going to Cornerstone. I bought the album there, and a t-shirt, and a button.

My Brightest Diamond – Tear It Down: I don’t usually care much for remix albums, but it’s My Brightest Diamond! Here, each song from Bring Me The Workhorse is in the hand of a different remixer, and most of them do a great job. This is nothing like the “mixed-up” songs you get on a lot of remix albums, it has awesome beats that make you turn up the volume and roll down the windows. My favorite track is “Freak Out (Gold Chains Panique mix)” which you can imagine being played in a club (not that I would care to actually hear it in a club, because I don’t care to go to a club). The only disappointment is that the album kind of mellows out through the second half.

Dustin Kensrue – Please Come Home: Dustin Kensrue is the lead singer of Thrice, this is nothing like Thrice. It’s acoustic, it’s folky, it’s bluesy, one thing in common with Thrice is that he sings from his heart. I haven’t listened to much Thrice, but I feel safe in saying, from what I’ve read in articles on him, the lyrics of Please Come Home are more spiritual and personal.

Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster – II: More great hard rock with a southern twist from Maylene. These guys were probably my favorite performance at Cornerstone, they know how to rock. Something else to keep an hear out for is lead singer, Dallas Taylor’s instrumental project with long-time friend Patrick Copeland, Everett.

The White Stripes – Icky Thump: (You can tell I’m getting tired of sitting here as the entries are getting shorter, but this is the last so it’s all good) What can you say about The White Stripes? You either love them or hate them, or maybe you just don’t get them. I love them, and Icky Thump has potential of being my favorite album from them so far.

A few more albums worth checking out from the first half of this year:
Air – Pocket Symphony
Haste The Day – Pressure The Hinges
Björk – Volta
Life In Your Way – Waking Giants

This is, of course, not it, there are still some albums I haven’t had the chance to give a good listen yet. Among that list is The Innocence Mission, Rocky Votolato, The Polyphonic Spree, Lovedrug, Ben & Vesper, Kids In The Way, Page France, and a tribute to Radiohead’s OK Computer.

Check out my list as it grows on Lists of Bests.

Well, I had been getting better about posting regularly, until this past week. But I have a good excuse, my cousin Jeff, his wife Andria, and the adorable Haylee were in town.

Update with pictures later, for now there’s a good article up on RelevantMagazine.com about the portrayal of religion in The Simpsons.

…even a Jewish Rabbi, Daniel Wolpe, has found the show (and book) helpful in his teachings. “The Simpsons occasionally makes fun of hypocrisy in religion, but not the ideals of religion,” Wolpe said. “Some of the episodes that I like best might be called, ‘Homer Learns a Lesson.’ Usually in those episodes, Homer winds up with new respect for religious values.”

(Read the full article)
The book mentioned is The Gospel According to the Simpsons by Mark Pinsky, which I definitely have to buy.