What Do I Like?

Off for the holidays, I have a bit of time to think about stuff that I enjoy.

I think the content I consume the most is podcasts. I think there are 60 podcast series on my phone right now (some of them are limited series or I'm not subscribed to). There on variety of subjects, but I've gotten away from the comedian-host interview podcasts. They get boring after a while.

So here's the list as it appears on my pod-catcher app.

1. This American Life
2. Planet Money
3. Canadaland
4. Canadaland Commons
5. Oppo
6. pop culture happy hour
7. Switched on Pop
8. Hit Parade
9. Cocaine & Rhinestones
10. Still Processing
11. The Watch
12. Channel 33
13. Molly's Sleazy Friends
14. Night Call
15. House of Carbs
16. Steve Dangle Podcast
17. The Hockey PDOcast
18. The Leafs Geeks Podcast
19. The Leafs Report
20. The Lowe Post
21. Jalen & Jacoby
22. How Did This Get Made?
23. Hello From The Magic Tavern
24. Mission to Zyxx
25. Not Another D&D Podcast
26. Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness
27. Hannibal Buress: Handsome Rambler
28. Anna Faris is Unqualified
29. Reply All
30. Darknet Diaries
31. Late Night Linux
32. Linux Action News
33. My Dad Wrote a Porno
34. Revisionist History
35. Yo, Is This Racist?
36. Who? Weekly
37. Cool Playlist
38. The Daily
39. The Rewatchables
40. The Rapcast by Raptors Republic
41. The Starters
42. The Ringer NBA Show
43. The Bill Simmons Podcast
44. 31 Thoughts
45. Borken Record
46. Thunder Bay
47. Serial 
48. Mystery Show
49. Wag the Doug
50. Critical Role

2 years later

I forgotten this blog existed. Might be time to retire it. I've had this blog since I was a teenager and while nothing on here is terribly embarrassing, everything from your youth is a little embarrassing.

Hell, I might have already written a version of that last paragraph before.

Anyway, a quick of hits:

• started a new job that takes up all my time
• going to fewer the movies
• running almost no outdoor events around the city
• for the most part stopped reading comic books
• exploring new restaurants across the city
• watching more sports - the local teams are suddenly good
• still finding good TV to watch, but being selective in what I watch. Current favourites
• Mr Robot
• Better Call Saul
• Killing Eve
• The Good Place
• Game of Thrones
• Atlanta
• Twin Peaks - The Return

A Love of Hip Hop

This evening, with my partner out with a friend who recently broke up with her boyfriend of ten years, I find myself trying to create a list of my favourite hip hop albums. I don't pretend to be an expert or even have good taste in hip hop music. I just listen to what's consider the best and see what I like. This being said, here's what I've decided are my favourite hip hop records

1. Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
2. The Roots - Things Fall Apart
3. Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
4. Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music
5. Madvillian - Madvilliany 
6. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d. city
7. Kanye West - The College Dropout

I could probably include Wu-Tang Clan, T.I., and some other stuff but these are the ones when I put them on I'm in love with them. 

We try and we fail

It's Sunday morning.

I'm at work updating desktops to Windows 10 after unsuccessful trying yesterday. Today it's been going much better. Half the computers will done by tomorrow morning, which is nice.

While the computers go through the automatic process, I'm updating my other website, writing some content. I'm trying to take control of my work and being able to market myself has an educator with skills that fit the current marketplace. My position at work is pretty stable at the moment, but I want to always be trying to get a little better.

Jump Around

Late night writing.

That's what blogs are for. 

In the mid-2000s (I started to write, "a decade ago" but couldn't bring myself to do that because it made me feel old), when I was seriously using this blog as a platform for expressing my thoughts into the void, I wrote primarily at night, after a day of doing "stuff". Since I've been working full-time, I've been going to bed earlier, not spending an hour or so trying to craft something worthwhile.

2015

What happened this year?

At the moment, all I can think of how spraining my ankle in the spring screwed up my summer, how taking advantage of short term job fucked me over, and how my partner's new job leaves her with little energy to do much else in the evening or on weekends. These are all negatives but they're what comes to mind first.

So, let's go through some positives.

I went on a trip this summer, which was nice, but I took other stresses (individual and work-related) with me so it wasn't as awesome as it could have been.

I wasn't as strap for money this summer as I thought I would be, which was nice.

I don't know. I guess 2015 wasn't my best year, which is fine. I just need to learn from it and work on getting my head in the right space to be a better version of myself.

Good Stuff

• Ms. Marvel (comics)
• Lazarus (comics)
• Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (music)
• Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (music)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (movies)
• Pitch Perfect 2 (movies)
• Spy (movies)
• Creed (movies)
• Star Wars - The Force Awakens (movies)

Listening to Records

First day of my unofficial month long vacation. I'm currently listening to The Smiths' The Queen is Dead (it's great). This is one of the records I've had sitting in my apartment for a year and haven't listened to yet. I'm going through them (there are hundreds) and deciding which should be kept, which I should give away, and sell/donate the rest.

The headphones I'm using only work if they stay in one spot. I borrowed my father's soldering gun to fix it but haven't gotten my act together to get the electronic store to pick up a new 1/8" connector.

I moved my old recorder player to my desk so I could listening to records while I "work".

During this month off, I will apply to jobs, apply for graduate school, and finish writing up for my flashy new "professional" website.

End of an Era

So I think this blog is done. For a while this was my main creative outlet. I don't think this is the first time I've written that. I think I'm going to a final statement a bit later to sum everything up.

UPDATE (1/13/2016): Seems like it isn't dead yet. It's a good way to write things that are semi-private (but not really at all).

Reflections on a Cold Winter's Day

I've just gone and updated a bunch of little things on this site. Seems like I had been lazy. No posts since October. Oops. It's -25 right now and I wish I was back in Las Vegas (or California). We had a good time but Vegas is a little too expensive for my tastes. Most likely go back.

 Not as impressive with Christmas music

 All over the hotel was stuff like this. Too much black and purple.

 Driving in the desert 

 Made it all the way to the Pacific

 Have no clue what this is

 Pinball Hall of Fame was one of the highlights of the trip for me

Need at least one picture of Old Vegas

Identity

If you were to ask me what my interests were a decade ago I could easily list them. If you asked today, my first instinct would be rely on that old list; a list that was carefully crafted by twenty-something me to fully encapsulate who I was in short eight to ten point list. But I'm not so sure it would be a good reflection of me today.

So I think I should make a new list. Why? Simply as an exercise in self-reflection. I figure that the list was more important when I was single and dating because you're meeting tons of new people and you're trying to seem as attractive and interesting as possible. I don't have that issues anymore but I think it's still a good idea to reflect on who you are as now rather than relying on previous creating personas.

Here are the main three points from the old list (mid-twenties):

• Reading. I used to read lots of novels and non-fiction books. Today, not so much. I read probably just as much but it's online articles, opinion pieces, and such. Still read comic books, but don't spend hours or days just re-reading them (I've actually been thinking about what to do with my collection since it seems to be just sitting there. There's no real monetary value in them). I will say I'm probably more informed about current events than I was previously, but that's probably because of the Internet. 
• Music. I was OBSESSED with popular music. I still have opinions and like/dislike things but I don't spend nearly as much time listening to music. Two main causes - podcasts and communing. My listening habits have shifted to podcasts instead of music. Making dinner, doing laundry, etc now have a soundtrack of people talking rather musical instruments. Also I don't a long commune anymore so the 1-2 hours a day I'd spend in transit don't happen anymore. Also my job isn't headphone friendly (meaning I don't have hours in front of screen doing work that I can put background music on for). Add to the fact I don't spend all my free time seeking out new music means it's less of a factor in my life now. 
• Camping. I don't camp as much as I used to but I'm spending more time outdoors these days. Thought I was an indoor kid (re-writing personal history to delete all the time I spent outside in my childhood) but it seems I'm a hybrid indoor/outdoor kid. While in school (high school & university), I spent a lot of time camping. After that it was less and less. 
• Education. It was all I had known. Didn't have a career so academic status and culture were very important to me. Saw education as a sign of intelligence. Now, I know it isn't that. 

Ok, enough with the past. Let's see what my new list would look like.

1. Using Technology
2. Exploration (trying new foods, visiting new places, seeing what's around the corner)
3. Comic Book Culture (not general nerd culture; I'm focused on comic-related stuff)
4. Sharing Interests (telling stories, explaining a topic/subject)

I'm going to leave this as is right now. I'm need some more time to consider exactly what I'm saying with these points.