The Year in Music, I Suppose

Last.fm provides such a great service. For those of you unfamiliar with it, last.fm basically keeps track of what music you play on your computer, and compiles your top-played artists and songs into weekly, monthly, yearly, and overall charts. Sundays are always a joy for me: I bake bread in the morning, watch football in the afternoon and evening, and check my music charts before I head to bed, all the while completely avoiding and/or forgetting about the massive amounts of work I traditionally have due on Mondays, which of course I didn't get done on Saturday. My own charts are linked to in the sidebar on the right, though I guess I just linked to them earlier in this sentence too.

To close out the year, I was going to post my top 10 albums of the year, but then realized what a pointless exercise that'd be, seeing as how I've had the thing constantly updating on my RYM page for the entire year, so what's the point? Instead, here's the artists and songs that I listened to the most in 2006 according to last.fm, ignoring the entire month of December for whatever reason. Maybe I'll go back and update in a few days when we find ourselves in the new year.



Top Artists of 2006

1. Yo La Tengo - When people ask me what my favorite band is, YLT are usually my default answer, so it's no surprise that they top this list, especially since they released an excellent new album this year which I listened to quite a bit. The band has an incredible talent for being amazingly eclectic while somehow also keeping a consistent high level of quality; it's really hard to not like them. I'm not sure if they actually are my favorite band, but at least I know that I won't be embarrassed by that answer in a few months time, unlike...

2. Destroyer - ...who I recklessly proclaimed as, "...my favorite band of all-time..." (Shaw, 2006) in a hastily written WSRN review for Destroyer's Rubies, the new album released early this year. Really, there's no way that they're actually my Favorite Band of All Time. There's just no emotional resonance in Destroyer's music; it's all about the clever turns of phrases and general mischief, and though that works fairly often for me, sometimes it's really not enough. Granted, when I do get on a Destroyer kick, no other band in the world can match Mr. Bejar and his witticisms, hence the high play count, but I should know by now that the high won't last for very long, and next week I'll be completely embarrassed by the Destroyer-dedicated AIM/Facebook profile changes, over-exalted album reviews, and, uh, blog names. Hah. I'd feel pretty cheap if I changed the name of this thing just because of my mercurial tastes, so like it or not I think I'm stuck with it.

Those were the top two artists of the year for me by a very wide margin, so in a distant third are...



3. The Mountain Goats - just a consistently rewarding band that I always seem to come back to. 'Song for Mitch Williams' is not included in this count, and probably never will be, sadly.
4. Tom Waits - I'm not counting Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards on any of my year-end lists, since I really can't decide if I should categorize Orphans as a compilation or as a new release. I'm just going to play it safe and count it as a compilation. Anyways, most of this year's plays came from a Bone Machine and Closing Time kick over the summer, I've only been able to slog through the entirety of Orphans once or twice.
5. The Decemberists - At one point The Crane Wife was something like the 5th best album I'd heard this decade, you'd have to dig back into the blog's archives to find that post for me. In any case, that's definitely not true anymore, it's fallen pretty hard. This high play count is an artifact of that initial obsession with the album, and the subsequent revisiting of the band's back catalog.
6. Pas/Cal - The new Dear Sir EP was a little inconsistent, but I'm still in love with this band, and played their other two EPs in bunches. The forthcoming debut LP Citizen's Army Uniform is due to be released sometime next year, and so I'm sure this band will show up on this list again at the end of 2007.
7. The Replacements - If Last.fm could somehow include all the times I played Let it Be as I drove around over the summer, this would be much higher.
8. The Toms - I'm very pleased that this band showed up so high on the list. Probably the token ultra-obscure band that I'll be pimping from this list.
9. The Beatles - This will undoubtedly move up with the December update, so stay tuned. Is there anything else I need to say about this band "The Beatles" ?
10. Teenage Fanclub - I'll admit, as much as I love the Fannies, I'm kind of surprised that I played them this much. I only have three of their albums, one of which I don't particularly enjoy, and one of which I don't recall listening to at all this past year. So have I seriously listened to Songs From Northern Britain that much? Interesting. With the December update, I'm sure that Talking Heads will probably bump these guys down.

Not bad. Now...

Top Songs of 2006



1. The Pipettes - Pull Shapes
Oh my goodness. Completely embarassing. Just look at the band's picture. Does this band look like something I'd normally enjoy? I really wish my top song could've been some black metal band like Drastus; maybe I'll play nothing but one Drastus song for the rest of today and tomorrow to save my integrity in the December Update. But alas, for now at least, I'm stuck with these women wearing matching polka-dot outfits, singing songs about how much fun it is to dance with cute boys. I'll grudgingly admit for now that 'Pull Shapes' is one of the most perfect pop songs I've ever heard.

2. Voxtrot - Trouble
This probably got pushed close to the top just because of two consecutive nights when I had this song on repeat, you know how those nights go I'm sure. Anyways, I don't think I've listened to the song since then. I mean, I still don't think it's a bad song, but I probably wore it out on those two long, dark nights (as opposed to the short, sunlit nights of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, I guess).

3. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
Still a great song. Not quite a Study Abroad Anthem like the title would seem to imply, the lyrics are a little screwy, but the song's music is completely addicting to me. I just wish that I wouldn't get addicted to stuff that was so fey.

4. The Replacements - Alex Chilton
Songs released in 2006 dominated the top of these charts it seems, so here's the first 'oldie' on the chart, and a fine song it is, probably the only Replacements tune that everyone can agree on, a true stone-cold classic of the rock music canon.

5. Pas/Cal - C.A.U. (Sans Muscle)
Not my favorite song off the Dear Sir EP, but it was the one song I had in advance of its real release, and so I really played the heck out of it, way before the EP proper showed up in my mailbox.

6. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
I've decided that this is the best rock song ever. I consulted Pat and a few other trusted WSRN tastemakers past and present, and they all agreed. 'Another Girl, Another Planet' is the best song in the history of rock music, and that's no exaggeration.

7. Paul Westerberg - Love You in the Fall
This is off Westerberg's soundtrack to the animated film Open Season. I really like this song for some reason. It's really MOR and mindlessly fun, and somehow I haven't gotten sick and nauseous over the syrupy over-production yet. So I feel really guilty for liking this, but gosh guys, it's so good.

8. Pas/Cal - Little Red Radio
This is my favorite track off the EP, it's only below C.A.U. due to the aforementioned reasons.

9. Destroyer - European Oils
The 'fucking maniac' line and the subsequent rockout continue to slay me without fail, every time I hear this song. One of the best moments in music that I've heard in ages.

10. Teenage Fanclub - Speed of Light
Where did this come from? I guess I really have played Songs from Northern Britain a lot, but I would've expected a song like 'Mount Everest' to appear on these charts, not 'Speed of Light', one of the more average tunes on the record. I faintly recall one night where I played this song a lot, but this much? Not sure.



So that's what Last.fm sez were my favorite artists and songs of 2006. Outside of playcount, the master top albums list is still located at RYM. I also tried to compile a list of favorite movies, but I just realized that I really haven't seen any movies this year. Unless I'm missing something, I've only seen...three. Well, regardless of what else I see, I doubt anything will top The Departed, which continues to slay my mind. I really need to see it again.



I've got some other completely separate issues to address. First is my spelling. I've always been a great speller. Yet for some reason, this entire semester, I've been spelling the words 'separate' and 'correlate' incorrectly. With 'separate', I use an e in the place of the a, while with 'correlate' I can never remember if there's two r's or if there's two l's, or both. I never had trouble with the words before. Strange. I guess it's part of growing old, you know.

Second, I was reminiscing recently about the infamous Harvard Debate Trip of my junior year of high school. At the time, it was a really miserable experience, in hindsight the whole thing was completely absurd and hilarious, I love laughing about it, and it's one of my favorite memories of high school.

One thing I remember is that for a good period of that long walking tour in subzero temperatures, The Dismemberment Plan song 'The Ice of Boston' was stuck in my head, for fairly obvious reasons, and I'm pretty sure Bryson was groovin' to it too. The cover of The Ice of Boston EP features this shot of a building at night, and I always wondered whether or not it was some sort of Boston landmark, and I remember searching for it during our walking tour. I may have even found it, maybe in the Boston Commons area? But at that point I may have gone crazy from the cold, and I probably couldn't even lift my head anyways, haha. Anyways, I revisited the song just now, and man, it hasn't aged well. It's so awkward and emo! How did I not notice this at the time? Probably because I was in high school. Yeah, that'd explain a lot. Anyone recognize this building? It's probably not even in Boston, I'm sure.



On another note, now that I'm home, I've finally got some time for reading, so I'm now working my way through Against the Day. I'm 80 pages in right now, and surprisingly, it's actually...readable? Coherent? Accessible, even?! I've been told that there's some impenetrable morass to come ahead, but so far, this isn't Pynchonian at all, it's quite a breezy and fun read, though some of the language is still distinctly Pynchonian, plus the occasional bursts into song and dance and such. Not sure if I like it so far, but we'll see, there's still a lot of pages left to be turned until we reach the end.

And finally, I'm reading my high school's newsletter right now, which just arrived in the mail, and I see that this year they held a Dark Ages Bazaar, to complement the Renaissance Faire later in the school year. A Dark Ages Bazaar?! The whole concept is incredible. I think they just called it 'Y1K' in past years, but I like 'Dark Ages Bazaar' a lot better.

Also, I just remembered that back in 10th grade when I was in the Renaissance Faire, I got to play the part of Machiavelli, of all people. Brilliant. I think I tricked the pope into giving me thousands of dollars and being my patron, after Lorenzo de Medici rejected me. I think I also stole some rare jewel from the English queen, and Lorenzo de Medici got beheaded just because he ratted me out, while I got off the hook without a scratch. Seriously brilliant.



I can see them getting along quite well, really.

On with the links, then:

• A biochemist claims that he's discovered the chemical basis behind the unique sound of a Stradivarius violin. Legit or not?
• Noka chocolate is the most expensive chocolate that you can buy, but is it worth the cash? This devastating expose by some chocolate-obsessed blogger is a great read.
• This Japanese arcade game tests how hard you can kick.
  
• Dean Karnazes just ran 50 marathons in 50 days. What.
• Rob Cockerham of Cockeyed.com discovers how different Omaha is from California. I love these travelogues, another great read, Cockeyed is just a great site in general, mad props.
• PC Magazine gives out its list of the Top 10 Wired Colleges. Hey, is that...Swarthmore checking in at number four? Funny that they don't mention our DC++ hub, yet they pimp the SCCS Video Pit, which has never even been used by anyone that I personally know.
• More people are posting their year-end mixes.
  
• I really enjoy Running From Camera

  The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can.

  
• That's pretty much it. I hope the past year has treated you all well, and that the coming year proves to be even more memorable for you. Good luck with things.
  

You Should've Been a Clerk

Man, this past week.

It wasn't really anything to do with finals. Granted, finals this semester were about 89 times tougher than any finals I've had before, but at least I saw that train wreck coming months ago, and there wasn't much I could do about it. Well, maybe there was, but I wasn't willing to do anything that early, haha.

It's more about the end of a semester, with the next semester being abroad, and the necessary good byes and good lucks. Friends I won't see for nine months, seniors I may never see ever again, professors to thank. Add in the unexpected arrival of a wonderful romance, and I've been walking around campus for a week with a bleeding heart, completely unlike my usual self. There were so many acquaintances who weren't aware that I was going abroad, and who told me to have a nice break, and I just didn't have any heart left to tell them I'd be away. So yeah, if anyone tried to talk with me in the past week about the Iverson trade to Denver, or that Silent Shout album on Pitchfork's list, and you got some noncommittal grunt or whimper, I apologize, and now you know why I've been in that state. We'll talk later.

Now I've settled in at home, and Swarthmore is beginning to recede into the back of my memory; I'm not really the type to really dwell on such things. For some reason, I immediately set up my workspace in the sunroom, an area of the house I've never used in my entire life. Maybe it's because the large windows and views of the woods remind me of Hallowell (I just noticed a Red-shouldered Hawk soaring above the pines, I thought I'd heard it screaming earlier...), but that never entered my conscious thought.

What I have noticed, however, is that for some reason, I feel like a completely different person on this return home. My old computer room seems totally unappealing; I don't think I've spent more than 10 seconds in that room, where I used to spend the vast majority of the day; a move to the sunroom made sense then, as a sort of really lame New Beginning. It would probably be a foolish mistake to try and pinpoint exactly why I feel differently, but it must be a culmination of everything that's happened in the past week, the past month, and/or the past semester. Best semester ever? You could certainly make the case. I had a blast.

But yeah, it's nice to be home. I look out these windows, and I know this yard like the back of my hand. It strikes me that I've always referred to the small creek that runs through the back as, simply, The Creek. I looked up the actual official name of the creek many years ago, but I never remembered it. It's always been The Creek to me, and it always will be. Meanwhile, my dad is either reading the newspaper, watching football, or watching incomprehensible kung fu movies, and my mom is either getting some work done, doing Sudoku puzzles, or getting emotional over Korean soap operas. Ah, home.

But now that I'm home, let's catch up on a few things.

First, the Iverson trade.



I don't think anyone can make a good argument in Philadelphia's favor here. You traded away a transcendent superstar, an icon of the city, a beloved rallying point for the fans. In exchange, let's see what you got.

Andre Miller, a perennially underachieving point guard who's jumped from team to team over the years, probably indicative of the fact that he's a clubhouse tumor that nobody wants to work with, talented or not.

I didn't even realize Joe Smith was still in the league. Was he really the top overall pick in the draft? He was fairly good in his prime, but these days, I'm sure he'll grab a few rebounds before heading to the bench with a bad back.

Two draft picks? Remember that a draft pick doesn't necessarily turn into a young stud superstar. The Sixers could use their pick on some like, say, Tyler Hansborough, as much as it pains me to say. The kid's good at the college level, but I can only envision him being completely bewildered at the professional level. He hasn't looked all that good this year anyways, while Brandan Wright has literally looked unstoppable. If I wanted to rely on someone in the post in crunch time, I'd goto Wright, not Hansborough at this point. Anyways, I just don't see how the Sixers can win with this trade. They'll botch the draft picks, and sign some decrepit veteran with their expiring contract money. For all that, they lost their transcendent superstar.

Meanwhile, a lot of ink has already been spilled on Iverson's role in Denver. Bijan Bayne wrote a nice article on the topic at nbadraft.net (best website of all time?), basically showing that it's extremely difficult to accommodate two superstars on one team. They either must have complementary roles (think Stockton and Malone) or they must both be unselfish team players (think Duncan and Robinson). I love how I can just prattle off last names, and every basketball fan knows exactly who I'm talking about, as if they're kings or gods of some sort, of basketball I suppose. In any case, it's difficult to create those situations, and more often than not, the experiment fails. That'll probably be the case here in Denver, as Iverson and Anthony play very similar scoring roles, and since they're competing for the same limited resources (the ball, shots, attention), both economic and ecological analysis will show that the two cannot successfully coexist.



Also, I'm watching the Falcons-Panthers game, and I can't stop laughing at the Panthers' strategy on third down. They're taking quarterback Chris Weinke completely off the field, and snapping the ball directly to runningback DeAngelo Williams. Why didn't we think of this earlier? Wienke has been the most incompetent quarterback that I have ever witnessed, and the Falcons have a horrendous run defense. How do the Falcons not see this coming? At this point, the Panthers have run the play 8 times, and picked up the first down 7 of those times. You know the Panthers are going to run, how do you not stop it. It's not like DeShaun Foster is actually any good, because he's not. Meanwhile, this has got to be so demoralizing for Weinke. Yeah, we don't even need you on the field for these critical plays, even though you're supposed to be the centerpiece of our offense. Why is he even on the field. If he's just going to hand the ball off, bring in Basanez to at least give some threat of the pass. I'm so sad that the Panthers have slowly crumbled into this lowly state.
Okay, the game just ended, and basically we won by taking time off the clock and relying on our defense. Wienke completed four passes, for 32 yards. Sorry, but we've gotta bench this kid. If we don't have any confidence in him, why even bother?



As for Silent Shout, why don't we leave that for another day.

Links for today:

• True Hoop takes a good look at the psyche of Allen Iverson, and what makes him tick as a basketball player. Great read.
• Another transcendent basketball superstar, Renaldo Balkman, has his own Myspace page. Endless lols.
• All the slingshots I made as a kid were way too flimsy, I'd love to have my hands on this pro Jack Spade Sling Shot.
• Someone accidentally put their baby through the airport's x-ray machine. Oops. Man, I can't even joke about this, what a terrible thing to have happen.
• Google has published their year-end Zeitgeist, featuring the most popular searches of the year and lot's of other cool stats.
• Not a link, but Steven Jackson just scored a game-winning touchdown in overtime, on a 21-yd run, giving him 250 total yards and two touchdowns on the game. Absolute monster. I still can't believe that I managed to trade away Cadillac Williams to get him in my fantasy league. Sorry, I'm just really pleased, and had to throw that out there.
• Here's a nice article on the most dangerous roads in the world. Unreal.
• I hope everyone has a great holiday season, keep in touch for realz, we gotta be trill. Missing everyone tons...
  

Fine Feathered Friends

I seem to have stopped talking about birds here. Why, Roger. Birds are so awesome. So freaking awesome. They're really an inherent part of my life now; whenever I'm walking outside, between classes or running any number of errands, I'm unconsciously picking up distant songs and calls, and silhouettes of birds in flight. Though the birding has been slow, there's been enough moments to keep the flame alight this semester.

Northern Harriers soaring over campus, and a stunning adult male that I watched from a Kohlberg window during a break from class, the bird silently catching the wind towards parts unknown.

Crum Meadow exploding with thousands of sparrows, constantly calling from alarm or hunger or a simple need to socialize, flying everywhere and turning the meadow itself into a living, moving creature. I managed to pick out single Swamp, Chipping, and Field Sparrows from the fray of White-throated and Song Sparrows, but the spectacle alone was enough to floor me.

Surprised by a Brown Creeper climbing up a tree in front of Wharton, and watching it as the sun slowly set, until I realized that I was somehow 20 minutes late for tennis with Kira and Luis. Somehow, I still beat Luis to the courts.

Finding a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker working on a tree beside Mertz, and watching it drill its neat rows of holes around the tree, until I realized that I was somehow 30 minutes late for breadbaking. I hope they didn't mind.

The day my heart was broken from a friendship turned ugly, and the Winter Wren and the flock of juncos offering their solace at the end of the trail. Fortunately, things have been patched up since then.

Working on papers when a Sharp-shinned Hawk flew in for a visit, right outside my dorm room window. She sat and watched me, watching her, watching me. For ten minutes, no words were spoken as the boy and the bird watched each other, until she decided that she was hungry and had better things to do, and rushed off in a flurry of wings.


Too often when I'm birding, I find myself caught in a race to find as many species as possible in an hour, in a day, through a week, in a season. It's particularly true during migration when dozens of stunning neotropical species pass before my eyes, or when I'm visiting a new place filled with new birds (Australia, anyone?).

Finding that first Painted Bunting or Island Thrush is certainly an incredible adrenaline rush, but it's an unsustainable and unhealthy addiction. Finding small pleasures in the common everyday birds is the only way for me to keep my interest aloft, or to keep me alive, really.

Take that as an analogy for life, if you wish. Or, not. I wasn't thinking of it that way, to be honest. I just said it as more of a joke, but take from it what you will.



Links:

• The New York Times presents the Best Ideas of 2006. A long, but rewarding read.
• The man who created the Green Lantern and also helped with the design of the Pillsbury Dough Boy has passed away. Rest in peace, Mr. Nodell.
• A family in Pakistan carries a genetic trait which makes them immune to pain. As cool as that may sound at first, it turns out to be a useful lesson in evolutionary biology.
• Wikipedia article on the beauty of mathematics.
• An old telegram in which Buckminster Fuller explains Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
• Practicality at its best, a tiny cellphone which just makes calls. Hott. Needs to be produced.
• Those crazy Japanese have invented a machine to make toast, eggs, and coffee at the same time.
• Tech Geeks Only alert: Upgrade your wireless router's signal with just a simple downloadable firmware upgrade. If you've got Airport Express as well, even better.
• Regret The Error is known for posting typos and other goofs made by media outlets, here's a roundup of the year's highlights.
• Radar profiles the world's most extravagant dictators.
• The amazing lives of parasitic fungi. The video on the site is just mind-blowing.
• And finally, in the spirit of the season, you can use Google Earth to find Santa's workshop now! The Google team has also placed gifts around the world for you to find, clues to be found at the workshop. Good luck!
  

Pinups

As the year winds down to a close, thoughts inevitably turn to the year gone by and the year to come, and so like every music blog on the face of the planet, I've decided to indulge myself in the popular pastime of making retrospective lists and mixes. Over these next few weeks, in an extremely irregular manner, I'll be offering my own two cents on the past year and what it's had to offer.

To kick things off, I've made a mix.



I know, I know. Worst album art ever. But you can't fault me for trying, right? Actually, in this case, you probably should, haha.

Anyways, this is a mix of some of my favorite rock songs of the past year. Click on the title for a download link.


Even Destroyers Have a Price Best of 2006, Vol. 1 - Pinups:

1. I'm From Barcelona - Oversleeping
2. Phoenix - Consolation Prizes
3. Golden Smog - 5-22-02
4. The Music Lovers - You Have the City
5. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
6. The Essex Green - Cardinal Points
7. Neko Case - Star Witness
8. Pas/Cal - Little Red Radio
9. The Bicycles - B-B-Bicycles
10. Sloan - Right or Wrong
11. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - So Divided
12. Paul Westerberg - Love You in the Fall
13. Keene Brothers - Death of the Party
14. Cat Power - Lived in Bars
15. Grizzly Bear - Knife
16. Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco
17. Voxtrot - Trouble
18. The Mountain Goats - Ox Baker Triumphant
19. Destroyer - European Oils
20. Yo La Tengo - Sometimes I Don't Get You

A lot of you have probably heard most of these songs before, but I think I've done a good job sequencing them, and I hope that all of you at least find something new in here.

Note that these are my favorite songs, not representatives of my favorite albums. In fact, most of my favorite albums of the year aren't even represented on this list. This mix is meant as a showcase of independent song, leading to the unavoidable topic of whether the single or the album is the preferred scale of operation in pop music, but that's a different topic entirely.

You'll also note that this is Volume 1. I may decide to create future installments as well, trying my hand at non-rock songs, and the best of the rest. Of course, that would be incredibly elitist of me, and my tastes are certainly undeserving of any sort of elitism. I don't expect this mix to blow up the blogosphere, literally or figuratively, it's really quite pedestrian, so just think of this as my fun little side project to indulge myself with for a few days.

Let me know what you think! Make your own mixes, and share them with the world! Be merry!

John Darnielle on Halloween. Best dude.


And as I've been working on this, there's been a backlog of links:

• An extensive compilation of respective Best Of 2006 lists from throughout the world wide web. I could browse this for hours.
  
• What happens when you try and install 200 Firefox extensions at the same time?
• Donate money to charities every time you simply do an internet search. How nice.
• 50 works of art to see before you die. This was my introduction to the Angel of the North, which I've now added to my list of must-see landmarks.
• More lists! The Economist unveils their books of the year, 2006 edition. This was my introduction to The Cloudspotter's Guide, which I've now added to my list of must-read books.
• The Economist also brings us an interesting article on organic farming, and whether or not it's actually good for the environment.
• Photos from inside the new Airbus A380 superjumbo. Qantas needs to get one of these for my flight to Australia, thx. I love how there's like this pimped-out butler smugly standing in the background. Yeah, you have the best job in the world.
  
• Let's say you happen to be a devout Muslim, and you happen to be orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station. Okay, check. Where do you face if you need to pray towards Mecca?
• Darius Johnson has rushed for over 1,000 yards as the runningback for his Kansas high school's football team. Quite impressive. What's even more impressive is the fact that he has no field vision whatsoever, because, uh, he's legally blind.
• Donald Rumsfeld's replacement as Defense Secretary, Mr. Robert Gates, has a history of posting on football message boards. I like this guy already, and pretty much for this reason only.
• Airport security didn't let Troy Smith take his Heisman trophy on the plane.
  
• So far, the two best soccer goals of the year in the English Premiership have probably been Robin van Persie's rocket volley, and Xabi Alonso's stunning shot from distance. Let's add Matt Taylor's volley to that list, for sure.
• A subtle and inconspicuous way to cheat at Minesweeper.
• Good overview of the coming Windows Vista, and why you should think about upgrading if you're an XP owner. Or, you can follow my lead and get a Mac. I know, surprising. I'm not sure if I'm making the right call here, but we'll find out soon enough.
• Find out what happens when you drill a hole through a laptop screen that's turned on. Remarkably beautiful, actually.
  
• Playstation 1 can easily be used as an audiophile-quality CD player. Unbelievable, if I wasn't so busy with finals I'd be all over eBay right now.
• Speaking of finals, indispensable tips on how to successfully pull an all-nighter.
• Twenty things that students can do with Post-it Notes.
• Five interesting uses for your cellphone.
• Get a digital hourglass. Wiat, what?
• Or, get an ice-skating treadmill. Wiat, what?
• The unnoticed societal benefits of height, with possible evolutionary explanations.

  In the last century, all but three U.S. presidential contests were won by the taller candidate. A survey of Fortune 500 CEOs shows that the average corporate titan is much taller than the national mean, roughly six feet to roughly five feet nine (nearly 60 percent of the executives top six feet, compared to 14.5 percent of the country at large).

• And finally, Cornell has just published its 2005-2006 report (pdf) concerning the search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas. Basically nothing definitive, just a few intriguing recordings, and some brief tantalizing glimpses of birds in flight. If the birds around, there can't be many of them, and they may have moved on from this part of Arkansas by now.
  

Finger-lickin' Fun

So I've been wondering lately. Why do some people lick their fingers before turning the pages of a book, or counting money? I've never done this, and I've never understood why people do this. I've heard some say the saliva makes it easier to turn the paper, but seriously, is it that hard to turn the page? Think about it. What's hard about turning the page. Tell me. You are turning a page of paper. Does this require any extra ritual or mechanical effort. In my book, the answer is no. So stop it. It's not that hard to turn a page of paper. I really can't emphasize how easy it is to do this. Why.

I wonder, however, if licking your finger decreases the possibility of a papercut, or maybe increases it. That could potentially make it worthwhile. Or not.



Another thing I've been wondering about is the phrase, "In my book..."
For example, "In my book, Fear of Music is the best Talking Heads album," or likewise, "Remain in Light is better than Fear of Music, in my book."

Right now, the phrase is obviously metaphorical; very few people have written books where they delineate their opinions on the Talking Heads canon. The cited book is completely metaphorical. I wonder, however, if that was always the case. I wonder if there were pretentious scholars somewhere stuffy like in Victorian England who were all like, "Well, in my book, Haydn's 101st symphony is far more substantive than his 79th," and they literally had that in their book on Haydn and other composers, and cited this book as such. That would be so bad-ass, being able to cite your own book on matters that come up in conversation.

"Well, in my book, Marth is definitely a far superior character to Pikachu in Super Smash Brothers Melee."
"Baja Fresh offers better tasting burritos than Chipotle, in my book."
"In my book, your face is ugly" (Shaw 379).
"Well, UNC will actually beat Duke next week, according to my book. See the footnote on page 198."

The possiblities are completely endless. Or has the term always been metaphorical like it is today? If that's the case, my day has been ruined.


Hopefully these links won't ruin your day though:

• For his historic run on Jeopardy!, the wizard Ken Jennings managed to get free ice cream from Baskin Robbins for an entire year, or at least something close.
• What policies can economists across the spectrum generally agree on?
• A sobering report on the state of Afghanistan's police force.
  
• The New York Times lists the 10 Best Books of 2006.
• So wait, how exactly does one drill a square hole? Using a Reuleaux Triangle, of course. More info can be found here as well.
• The Simple Dollar lists 30 essential pieces of Windows software that are free, and also open-source. Great list in my opinion. I'm getting a new laptop very soon, so this will be very crucial to its setup.
• And finally, I really like this photo of Michael Strahan chewing out some reporters, in an aesthetic sense. It's very well composed, and incredibly provocative. Despite the good effort last night, it was still abundantly clear that there is no discipline in the Giants locker room, and the team is on the verge of collapse.

By the way, let me address one more thing about the Zune. I feel like I'm playing devil's advocate with this thing, but I promise I'm not, this is my honest belief.

Some people have complained about how the Zune's navigation control looks like the iPod's touch-sensitive scroll wheel, but it's not. It's more like a directional pad like on a video game controller, so it's not touch-sensitive at all. And apparently that's confusing for some people.

I don't understand. If you press up, it scrolls up. Down is down. And so on with right and left. What's difficult about this. If anything, the iPod's scrolling is less intuitive than the Zune's. If you picked up an iPod for the very first time, how the hell are you supposed to know that rotating your thumb clockwise around a wheel will move things down? It really doesn't make any sense at all. If I want to scroll down, I'd rather just push down than keep rotating my thumb around this pad. I'll admit, the first day I had my Zune, I accidentally rotated my thumb maybe twice, but caught myself immediately. If you're having consistent issues with this, maybe you should consider taking logic courses at your local university. Also, destroy your iPod. But put Rockbox on it first.