Sad Salvation

Ten Best Albums 2001

2010-02-01T13:50:00.000-08:00

Diane Cluck - Macy's Day Bird
Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album
Ben Folds - Rockin' The Suburbs
Jeff Mangum - Live At Jittery Joe's
Beulah The Coast Is never Clear
The Frames - For The Birds
Microphones - Glow, Pt 2
I Am The World Trade Center - Out of the Loop
Ted Leo/Pharmacist - The Tyranny of Distance
White Strips - White Blood Cell

Honorably Mention
Josh Ritter - Golden age of Radio
M. Ward - End of Amnesia

EP
Apples in Stereo - Let's Go
Belle & Sebastian - Sing Jonathan David
Stillwater

Ten Best Albums 2000

2010-01-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

This list is in no order.

Belle & Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
Diane Cluck - Diane Cluck
Mates of States - My Solo Project
Harvey Danger - King James Version
Mirah - You Think It's Like This But You Really Like It
Neko Case - Furnace Room Lullaby
The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
Wolf Colonel - The Castle
Death Cab For Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
The Mountain Goats - The Coroner's Gambit

Honorable Mention
The Strokes - Is This It?
Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue Volume 2
Johnny Cash - American III - Solitary Man
Songs: Ohia - The Lioness
Josh Ritter - Josh Ritter
Radiohead - Kid A
Richard Ashcroft - Alone WIth Everybody
Robin Hitchcock - Robyn Sings
Songs: Ohia - Protection Spells
Wesley Wills - Rush Hour
Be Good Tanyas - Blue Horse
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP

EP
Belle & Sebastian - Legal Man
They Might Be Giants - Working Undercover for the Man

Best Albums of the Decade

2010-01-31T13:41:00.000-08:00

This is the plan. I am going to post my list of the ten best from year year of the decade. I am going to start with 2000 as the first year. I know there are technical reasons that decade starts in 2001, but I think decades also have social starts also. I am picking February 19, 2000 as the start of the decade. It is the day that George W. Bush beat John McCain in the South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary. I think that date opens the door for everything else that happens in the 2000s. That is besides the point.

After I make the top ten list every year, I am going to make my overall list for the 100 best albums of the decade. Yes, there are some albums that might be honorable mention one year, but beat out an album from another year. Let me know what you think.

Best Days of the Decade

2010-01-20T10:14:00.001-08:00

A few days ago I posted my best day of 2009. This got me to think about the best days of the '00s. Here is the list that is popping my head.

My wedding day
The Phillies Winning the World Series
My First date with Kate
When I went from A temp to a permanent Employee At TiVo
Eric hosting my 30th birthday Party
The TiVo Picnic-Open House
Asking Kate to marry me on the Burnside Bridge
My First Raise at TiVo
The Project Review of the 3.2 TiVo Software
The first baseball game Kate and I went to together
Finishing my First Nanowrimo novel
Going to Prague on my own.
Sailing Around San Francisco Bay with Bullwinkle
Kate meeting my parents
Me meeting Kate's parents
Going to the Site of the First Olympics with Sean and his family.
My first Phillies at Citizens Bank Park
When I insisted Kate move in with me
The first bonus I got at TiVo
Going to the Philadelphia Zoo with Ruth, Charlie, and Kathy
Getting the offer from VuDu
My Second Date with Abigail
Going to the SF Zoo for Kate's Birthday
My interview at SlingMedia
My Birthday At the Phillies Game/My Last Game at the VET.

Best Day of 2009

2010-01-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

A long time ago Jeremy told he tries to remember the best day of the year. He wants to note those things so he lives in the moment. I thought this was a good idea. Now I try to do the same thing

Best day of the year Nominations:

Giants Fan Photo Day

The last day at the Grand Lodge

The Day the Phillies won the NL Pennent

Christmas day

The day in San Diego we went to Hodad's

The day the Eagles Clinched a playoff birth

The Best Day of the year 2009: my wedding day.

My wedding day was the best day of the year. It is an easy call. I morning was calm, the day went well. That moment I saw Kate in her wedding dress for the first time was almost a perfect moment. The day was great. It took months to plan and it all paid off. I cannot think of a better day

Music stats 2009

2010-01-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Here are my music stats.

in 2009 I listened to 5861 songs. The total length of those songs 47 Days 13 Hours 27 Minutes 26 Seconds or 28.01 GB

I want to listen more different songs this year. I only listened to about 10% of my collection last year. I feel I need to open that up more.

Here are my updated music collection stats:

Number of Songs
1-Jan-04 --- 28206
1-Jan-05 --- 36026
1-Jan-06 --- 41585
1-Jan-07 --- 46470
1-Jan-10 --- 56853

Size in GB
1-Jan-04 --- 123.74
1-Jan-05 --- 158.99
1-Jan-06 --- 181.31
1-Jan-07 --- 203.95
1-Jan-10 --- 257.55

Size in time
1-Jan-04 --- 78:04:31:04
1-Jan-05 --- 99:01:07:31
1-Jan-06 --- 144:02:05:25
1-Jan-07 --- 156:19:33:52
1-Jan-10 --- 184:08:20:23

Day:Hour:Minute:Second

Best Photos of 2009

2010-01-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

According to Flickr, this is my most interesting photo of 2009

It is not hard to see why they say that.

The most interesting non-comic con photo is this one

Also easy to see, but I do not think this is because of my photographic skill

This photo might be because of my photographic skill.

I think this is my best photo of the year.

This is the photo I have on my iPod touch.

2010 Creative Project List

2010-01-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

1. Photo a day Project: I know that I have tired this before, but I am trying it again. Hopefully I will get through it this year. I want to really do a good job. Last year I stopped in February. Yes, the wedding planning did me in. This year I hope to get it done.

2. Add people to all my Flickr Photos: A while ago Flickr added a people feature, so you can add other Flickr users to your photos. I wanted to make sure I did this for all my photos. I added the tag needsflickrpeople too all the photos I posted before this feature was added. At this moment I have 9,245 photos with this tag. I want to make that number zero by the end of the year. I know that is a lot of photos to review in the next year, but I think I can do it.

3. Get a total of 3,542,374 flickr views: To get this many views I need to average 2000 views a day for the whole year. There was a good four month period that I got over 2000 views every day. I know I have little control over this. I need to go to Comic Con to get this done. More costume photos might also be a good idea. I know that more promotion using Facebook and Flickr is important. We will see if I can do this.

4. Best songs of 2009 mix: I have been making these mixes for years this is not the year to stop. I hope to have this done by the end of the month.

5. Best albums of the 2000s list: I have been working lists for each year. I also want to make an overall list. I want to have this done by the end of the month, but the end of February seems real realistic.

6. New Movie Review Blog with Kate: I set up the blog, Movie Reviews with My Spouse. We watch a lot of movies together. This will mostly be movies from Netflix. I think this will be fun. If you have a suggestion for a better name, let me know.

Happy New Years, 2010 the year that will be

2010-01-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

I feel like my life is pointing the right direction. I did a lot of work in 2009 on myself. I put into action a lot of plans that I have been working on. I think it is time to set some goals around this.

Resolutions:

Ride my bike more: I want to ride my bike at least 100 days this year. I was thinking at least 2 forty weeks this year. I will have to pick up the other 20 somewhere. I want to ride enough that I fell comfortable riding to other cities in Santa Clara County, that is without having to ride the Light Rail.

Exercise more: I want to accomplish 300 hours of moderate exercise. That is 6 hours a week for 50 weeks. I will give myself some time off for vacation. Even if it is just an hour of walking 6 days a week. I have started doing this, and it really helps.

Build my savings: I have a number in mind, but I am not going to share it with you.

Do more creative projects: I have a number of projects in mind that you will read about in another post. I want to accomplish more than half of them.

Read 12 books this year: I really do not read enough. I want to read more. 12 books is a modest number, it is a great increase over my last couple of years.

Make 100 Sad Salvation posts: I really do not want Sad Salvation to fade away. That is just too easy to do. It is simple to let Twitter and Facebook take over. I want my blog to last another year. Maybe it needs a redesign.

**** ** ******: ** **** ** ** **** * ***** * ****. (This has been redacted. Tell me if you have any guesses what it is)

Make more than $15 from Google AdSense: Yeah, I made a big $15 dollars from google this year. It was all in October on the Costume Checklist blog. I might need to start some more blogs to get it done, but I think it is doable. If you want to help me go click on some of the ads over there... If you want to find great places to find costumes.

Happy New Year, that was 2009

2010-01-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

Wow 2009 was a hell of a year. There is not much else I can say about it. It was just amazing. Everything went as planned, but it was so much better then I expected. The big point of the year was March, 21. My wedding day. The whole year up to that point seemed to be getting ready for the wedding. I will admit that getting ready for the wedding was stressful. I will say the first three months of the year was more stressful than the rest of the year combined. It was worth it.

The rest of the year after that was about learning how to be a married man. Kate and I lived together for about 16 months before being married. Lots of people ask if being married was different than not being married, for me it is. Things between Kate and myself became intense. It was like the stakes are higher. If I did something wrong, I felt worse about it. It was like the reality of being married hit me.

My God Father's Wife Janis gave us a piece of advice after the wedding. She told us that you need to work at you marriage everyday if you want it to be good. This seems true to me and I have been trying to live this idea. I try to work to be a better person for my wife. It is not always easy, but it is always worth it.

This year Kate and I went to Portland, Sacramento, Monterey, Comic Con, Baseball Games, and all over San Jose. This year has been about the two of us. We have spent a lot of time together, even both did National Novel Writing Month this year. We stayed home this Christmas so we could have our own Christmas Tree, It was really cool.

The best thing I did not related to getting married was getting my bike back on the road. I decided it was silly to drive to the gym, ride the bike at the gym to warm up, and drive back. That got my bike back into riding shape. It took a little more for me to get myself into riding shape.

Being married has been really good to me. I am losing weight, getting more exercise, and feeling better. I really feel this has been one of the best years of my life. It was definitely the best year of my adult life. I am hoping the trend continues. I know that I need to work at my life to keep that trend alive.

Below is my first photo from 2009

Travel 2009

2009-12-31T13:17:00.000-08:00

Places I have spent the night

Warminster, PA
San Jose, CA
Sacramento, CA
Ashland, OR
Forest Grove, OR
Crescent City, CA
Salinas, CA
Solana Beach, CA

States

PA
CA
OR

Airports

PHL
LAS
SJC

The BCS

2009-12-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

It is college bowl season once again and that means it is time to talk about the BCS. It works this way, 90% of sports writers and commentators talk about how the system is broken and how the fix is easy. The other 10% think that the system is just fine. I am in neither of those camps. I am in the camp that says that the system is broken and the fix is not easy.

The problem with the current college championship is that the field is not fair. There are so many teams, and so few games that can be played, and that is what keeps the from a real championship from being played. Most people say that there needs to be a "Plus One" Four team playoff or an eight team tournament.

Right now there are two official NCAA Division one subdivisions, The Championship Subdivision, Also known as the old division I-AA, and the Bowl Subdivision also known as old division I-A. The big schools like Florida, Penn State, Ohio State, USC, Cal and Stanford are all Division One Bowl Subdivision schools.

On top of that there is a second sub grouping within the Bowl Subdivision, The BCS conferences and the non BCS conferences. There are three different groups of teams for two different championships. That is kind of screwed up. The non-BCS have no reliable way to win the championship. Even if they are the only team that goes undefeated there is no guarantee they will get to play in a Championship. The problem is that even if a playoff is started, there is still no guarantee a non-BCS school will get the chance to play for the title.

I think that many of these issues can be handled. The question is how do you want to handle them and what your goals are. Is the point to find the best college football team in the land? Is the point to find the the team who had the best season? Is the point to be fair to all the teams who compete? It seems like the point of the current BCS is to keep the big schools happy.

If I was the king of College Football here is what I do would do.

Make 8 BCS conferences. I would keep the six that are already there and add the WAC and the Mountain West. All off the rest of the conferences would go down to the Championship Subdivision.

I would make all conferences have 14 teams. They would all have two divisions. This would reduce the number of teams that would be demoted to to the Championship Subdivision.

BCS teams could only play other BCS teams. No more playing the Smaller Schools for extra home games. I think using games to play teams like Troy, Western Michigan or Florida International. I would add challenge series where the teams of the same level in other conferences. Like the third place team in the Big East will play the third place team of the PAC 10

All conferences would have a conference title game. If a team does not win their title game, they cannot get into the playoffs. Even if every other team has two losses and you have only one loss that is your conference title game, you lost the wrong game. You will not have a title.

At the end of the year have an eight team tournament and bowl games.

I know all of this is crazy, but it would really fix what is wrong with college football. I think it would make for better college football in the long run. There would still be more things to fix, but it is a good start.

10 Most Important Music technologies of this decade

2009-12-28T15:49:00.000-08:00

How did you get your music this decade? How did you discover music this decade? How did you consume music this decade? My guess is that these questions are different this decade that they were last decade. This decade really changed the way people thought about much. The music industry was not ready for the chances. Here is the list of the most important technologies in my mind. Let me know if I am missing any. The Tech does not need to be new, just to have an impact.

Peer to Peer Networks (Napster, Bittorrent)
MP3s
MP3 Players (iPod)
DRM
iTunes
iTunes Music Store
Myspace
YouTube
Blogs
PodCasts
Pandora

2009 Mayfly

2009-12-22T22:12:00.000-08:00

Mayfly 2009

I got married, yes that amazed me and it was cool. It still surprises me I am married. It defined my year. She's great.

Past Mayflies

2008, Mayflys: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2002, 2001,

1000 photo of me on flickr

2009-12-19T09:22:00.000-08:00

There are more then one thousand photos of me on flickr, but there are currently 1000 photos of me tagged on flickr. Of these 1000 photos 535 are in my photo stream. That means other people take a lot of pictures of me too.

Since Flickr added the People in Photos feature back in October, I have been obsessed with it. It has been my main flickr obsession. You can see how many people I have been tagging in my photostream. So you don't have to count it is 113 people in 2206 photos. I don't know how many photos that is, but I can live with not knowing.

I am going through all my photos to make sure they are tagged. You can get out the tags Needsflickrpeople to add people, if you think it is fun. This is the tag I added to every photo in my photostream to make sure I review them all. There are still 9800 photos for me to go through here. You can also check out Unknownperson if you want to help me identify people I don't know.

If you have a flickr account and I don't know it, I would label you as nonflickrperson. You can always add yourself.

I am hoping to have all my photos with people added to them by the end of the year.

the twelfth of the big 10

2009-12-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

The question is, should the Big Ten add another team. I think the Big Ten has to add another team. I think if they want to be a top football conference in the BCS. Right now the Big Ten is in the second tear of the football conference. I think they need a twelfth to keep up with the SEC and Big 12.

Yes I am a Big Ten fan. I have been a Big Ten fan since Penn State Joined the Big Ten. I was a Penn State fan because my mom went to Penn State. So that frames everything I want to say about a twelfth school joining the Big Ten. I think that Penn State lacks a natural rival in the Big Ten. I thinking Penn State having a natural rival would be great for the Big Ten.

Of course everyone thinks Noter Dame, but it will not happen. Noter Dame does not realize it will never be a power again without a conference. They will not join a conference until they realize that.

Here are my top five schools to join.

5. Syracuse

This is an easy choice. Yes moving from the Big East to the Big 10 would be an upgrade. It would also make it easier on their basketball team.

4. Rutgers

Also the easy choice. It moves the big 10 into the New York City Media market.

3. Pitt

This is the once everyone thinks is Oblivious. I think it would be good for the Big 10, but might hurt Penn State.

2. West Virgina

This would hurt the Big East as a football conference and help the Big Ten. It could make the Mountaineers a national power.

1. Maryland

I think this would help the Big Ten the most. It would give it a bigger spotlight in the south and move Maryland back into better football competition.

Best of the decade

2009-12-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the e-music best of the decade list. I know this list is to sell albums. That means anything not on eMusic will not be on the list. I am not sure how The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts did not make this list, It is one of my top of the decade.

My top selections from this list

96. For The Birds by The Frames
76. The Execution of All Things by Rilo Kiley
59. For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver
47. Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend
41. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? by of Montreal
38. The Glow Part 2 by The Microphones
30. Actor by St. Vincent
27. I Am A Bird Now by Antony and the Johnsons
23. The Moon & Antarctica by Modest Mouse
19. Destroyer's Rubies by Destroyer
1. Is This It by The Strokes

Joe Theismann moment

2009-12-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

We went to see The Blind side yesterday. I am a big sports movie nut and Kate liked the preview, so we were good to go. I was caught by surprise when the movie starts with the Joe Theismann injury. It took me about two seconds to realize that is what the video was. The movie takes a couple of minutes before they make clear the connection between the video and the shot.

I remember that Monday Night Game. I was watching in the living room. It was 13 years old when I saw it. At that time it did not effect me at all. I knew it was a hard hit, but I had seen hard hits before. I had seen people go off the field before. It did not mean much to me.

I also watched that video again back in 2000. At that time it seemed like just nasty video. I did not have an emotional attachment to me. I thought it was cool to see it again. This time I knew the result. I knew that Joe Theismann would not play another game, but he would have a good career as a play-by-play announcer.

Watching it again now, before the Blind Side I was really taken by surprise. I have no doubt that this is how the book the Blind Side starts. Having read Money Ball, this totally fits Michael Lewis' style.

This time watching the video, on the big screen, it really effected me. I saw the video in an emotional way that I never saw it before. It really made me think in a way I never thought before. It might be, this is the first time I have seen the video being older than Joe Theismann at the time. He was 36 when he got hit by Lawrence Taylor, I am now 37. I understand something about work and jobs that I never thought about before. The idea of one hit ending Joe Theismann career is something that I was not ready for before seeing a feel good sports movie.

I really felt like I took a shot to the stomach right at the start of the movie. It really did a lot to frame how I felt for the first 20 minutes of the movie. I thought it was a pretty interesting technique to set the tone for a movie.

The movie is pretty good, It does not crack my list of best sports, or best football movies. It might crack my list of best Sandra Bullock movies

Is it that time already?

2009-12-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

2009 is almost over. Is everyone working on there best of lists? What should I hear or view before the year is over? Just wondering what are those things I need to have as part of this year?

Power for Privacy

2009-12-02T22:27:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about Tiger Woods and his currently problems. It makes me think about power and privileged. Tiger is one of the most powerful men in Sports. He gets to have whatever he wants, except one thing privacy. No one says 'no' to Tiger Woods. I think having that kind of power changes a man. Of course you think the rules are different for you, because they are. In exchange for that power there are things you give up.

I know in the old days it was not this way. Athletes used to be able to hide their indiscretions from the public. It used to be the kind of thing that people did not report. Those days are long gone and there is no going back.

None of this would matter if all Tiger Woods did was play golf. If the only checks he cashed were from winning, he would be find. He could tell everyone to screw off, but playing golf is only half of what he does. They other thing he does is advertising. His image is important for selling video games, cars, and razors. Tiger, this is why family matters are public matters, sorry.

After National Novel Writing Month

2009-12-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

I have done National Novel Writing Month for seven years now. Every year it seems to be a different experience. I think this happens for two reasons. The first is that doing it once a year is not enough so you really have a predictable experience. You are not doing it often enough to learn efficiencies that make it that much easier.

I also think it happens because I am a different person every year. For example this is the first year I am doing NaNoWriMo as a married man. Yes being married makes it different then last year being engaged. This is the first year Kate did it with me. Yes she did complete 50,000 words also.

I made a tweet this year when I wrote "For me nanowrimo Kinda like a rowing machine gets you in shape but does not actually take you anywhere." I still feel that it was true for me this year. I know the idea of NaNoWriMo is to finish and have a first draft of a novel. That was not my case this year. I realized this about two weeks into NaNoWriMo, but I still finished. I have not written any fiction since NaNoWriMo last year and any fiction writing I can do Is helpful. Some times you just need to write.

Over the last week of so I thought about what I learned this year. I came up with a couple thinks I think I need to work on, after being on the rowing machine for a month.

I Need to Write More Fiction. In the past year I have not taken much time to write. It seems like there is always something more important to do. I need to find the right way to carve out time to write. When I find that time I need to write and not spend my time messing around on the internet. It is just too easy to waste time.

I Need to Write More Blog Entries. I have been lazy like lots of bloggers and let Twitter say everything for me. I know that writing blog entries really makes me think about my ideas and how to construct them on the page. I find that even helps when I am working on fiction.

I Need to Read More Novels. I know I do not read enough. Lately I have not read much at all. Some of the problems I am having writing comes because I spend all my time reading websites. I know that I can get better at expressing my story ideas if I read more. I just need to make myself do it

I Need to Read More Short Fiction. There is some short fiction, but I have to put a lot more effort into finding it. To become a better writer I think I need to work on writing shorter fiction. If I want to write it, I need to read it. It is a simple idea.

I Need to Watch Lets TV. I love Television, but it is easy to let it suck away too much time. It is easy to watch television mindlessly. I need to turn off the TV if I want to spend time writing. I cannot write and keep the TV on. It just does not work.

I Need to Manage My Internet Time Better. The internet is the greatest distraction in the world. I can sit down to write and find myself watching YouTube two hours later. This is a really easy thing to do. I know this is where a lot of my time goes.

I Need to Set Creative Goals. I know the only way to measure myself is to set goals. Setting Goals includes thinking of creative projects, being clear about what I want to do, and setting aside to accomplishing the goal.

Barack Obama and Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

Like just about everyone else, including Barack Obama, I was surprised that Barack Obama won the Nobel Price Prize. I am not sure anyone really expected this. I did not even know that he was nominated for it.

My second reaction to Barack Obama winning was to think back to January when he was sworn in as president. It made sense to me if it was a reference to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. winning in 1964. When I watched Barack Obama being sworn in I did think of the Civil Rights March on Washington and the I Have a Dream Speech. I have the feeling if this prize was given out to in February or March of this year, the reaction would be very different. I think more people would have seen it better. It would have said something about civil rights in the US.

Now, I am on to my third reaction. My reaction now is that the Prize committee made a mistake. If you looks at Barack Obama's time as president you cannot see anything that makes this a good choice. Right now we are still in the potential part of his Presidency. He has not signed any new treaties, brokered any cease fires, or ended any long standing arguments. The truth is he might never do these things as President.

Maybe the pressure will be on now. Maybe winning the award will change the way Barack Obama approaches Afghanistan or Iraq. I am not sure that is the right way to effect change.

My biggest disappointment is that it might effect the image of the Nobel Peace Prize. I really believe in the Nobel Prizes. I think the price has added legitimacy to causes in the past. An act like giving it to Barack Obama hurts that legitimacy for the future.

I suggest every look at the list of past winners. You will see some other mistakes here, but not too many.

Phillies Playoff blog Rundown

2009-10-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

The 700 Level

The 700 level is a great site for everything Philadelphia sports. They are funny and they love Philadelphia. They even have a Flickr Group.

Macho Row

What says Phillies more then a blog named after the core of the 93 Phillies. They do very good summaries of the games and good info before the game.

The Fightins

The Fightins is a blog that really feels like a Philadelphia sports fan. These are the kind of folks I used to hand out with in the Greater Northeast and play fantasy football in their basement.

Philly Sports Cast

I really love the Philly Sports Cast podcast. These guys are real fans. I feel like I know them without knowing them.

Phillies Nations

Good info and good writing about the Phillies

Flickr Broken

2009-09-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

I am obsessed with flickr lately. I am uploading archived photos, tagging photos, and posting costume to my costume blog. I am heart broken that flickr is not working right now. Ahhhhhhh

Views on Flickr 2009: Twenty view photo

2009-09-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

This is a photo that should have more than 20 views. It might get more if I remember the name of the artwork or the artist.

Uploaded on June 6, 2006
Taken on June 4, 2006
Viewed 20 times