I’m trying to put together a mix CD to give away at our wedding, a collection of songs that Melanie and I have really enjoyed together or have some kind of special meaning to us. It has proven to be a very difficult task because there is so much I want to put into it but there are a few problems:
1. There are some songs that were influential to us that we don’t particularly like anymore
2. I want there to be 6 MGMT songs
3. Some songs are particularly good when looked at from the perspective of the entire album they are on, not necessarily the single song.
4. There are just too many songs from too many artists that we want to represent.
So here is a list of what we have so far. This is very close to the final playlist, but the order will likely be different:
Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Arctic Monkeys – Teddy Picker
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – The Sun Ain’t Shining No More
The Beatles – Octopus’s Garden
David Bowie – Moonage Daydream
The Decemberists – The Legionnaire’s Lament
Five Iron Frenzy – On Distant Shores
Gogol Bordello – Ultimate
The Last Shadow Puppets – Meeting Place
MGMT – Electric Feel
The New Pornographers – Go Places
Pink Floyd – Us and Them (Symphonic)
Queen – You’re My Best Friend
The Raconteurs – The Switch and the Spur
Ratatat – Montanita
Sigur Ros – Staralfur
Super Furry Animals – Presidential Suite
Wolf Parade – Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
I sit here at 1:00 AM on New Years Eve, trying to sleep, when I suddenly feel like saying something. I wouldn’t say I get very lonely very often, but with my better half all the way across the country I suddenly feel it, or maybe I just really enjoy listening to Radiohead and I don’t want to stop.
So, I have a list of things that I want to change/do differently, not a new years resolution, just something interesting to think about.
In order of importance:
1. Read more. I honestly don’t think I have picked up and read an entire book in the past 2 years. My excuses include slow reading, time, and exhaustion(I get very tired when I read, even subtitles in movies make me sleepy).
2. Manage my time better. I sometimes wonder if when I get to Heaven I’ll be able to look at a tally of how much time I have spent doing things. How much time I spent watching TV, playing video games, sleeping, in class, sleeping in class, watching movies, being naked, pooping, on the internet, picking my nose, chewing, pretending to sleep, doing nothing, waiting in line, driving, drinking, talking on the phone, talking in person, chatting, stopped at red lights, looking at the stars, crying, smiling, holding hands. I have wasted precious time just writing all of these things out. I know for a fact that one thing I need to do less of is spend time on the internet. Sure it’s nice to know every daily internet sensation out there, but it obviously doesn’t matter in the long run. Youtube ruins time management, and in the time that I am writing this very section of the blogpost I have read three web comics, this one is funny:
3. Spend Less. This one is going to be difficult considering many things that I will not bore you with, but bills are high around the holiday season, and I’m not helping it.
4. Work Better. I personally feel that I am a very good worker and I try my best to be efficient, but sometimes when I am working I will sacrifice quality for speed. I would rather jury-rig something in 5 minutes than go through a dramatic sequence of steps and fix it properly in 4 hours. It’s not that I am lazy, I just want clients to see that I am efficient and I can get the job done quickly. Also the longer I am with a client, the more money they are spending. I believe that in most cases there is a middle ground between 5 minutes and 4 hours that I can take advantage of and I need to do so.
5. Be mindful and attentive. I HATE it when I am talking to someone and it seeps from their skin that they are not paying attention or have no interest in what I am saying, and the last thing I want to do is babble on to someone about something they don’t care about. On the other had I also want to make sure that I don’t come off as un-interested in what someone else is talking about. Maybe it comes down to how good of a conversationist(is this a real word?) I am. I know people who can hold a decent conversation with someone about the most trivial and meaningless things and from an outside perspective you would think that it was a serious and healthy conversation(this sentence has 3(4) “ands.” Oh wow, I am a poor writer.)
I could also listen to less podcasts, eat healthier, ride my bike, get Melanie flowers, and drive safer. Now I’m just talking crazy!
Ideal Tony is awesome. Current Tony is…meh.
And now for something completely different:
I have been extremely low on hard drive space on my laptop so I thought it was finally time to archive some old music. Some of the archived artists included:
311
AFI
Alien Ant Farm
Anti-Flag
Aphex Twin
Apocalyptica
Aqualung
Avenged Sevenfold
Bad Religion
Barenaked Ladies
Black Sabbath
Blind Guardian
Bon Jovi
Brian Eno
Bush
Cars
Chicago
Concrete Blonde
CCR
I think I’ll stop at “C” before I get to some really embarrassing artists.
In the same vein, I think I might list ten of my favorite bands of all time here in no particular order.
1. Radiohead
2. Sigur Ros
3. Super Furry Animals
4. Pink Floyd
5. The Beatles
6. Muse
7. Nine Inch Nails
8. Daft Punk
9. The Mars Volta
10. The New Pornographers
And some of my current faves:
1. Modest Mouse
2. Wilco
3. Neutral milk Hotel
4. Frightened Rabbit
5. M83
6. Hospital Ships
7. Crystal Castles
8. Matthew Dear
9. The Mountain Goats
10. Ratatat
All of these bands are worth checking out.
This is not the official video, but it is one of my all time favorite songs:
Wow, I just talked about myself a lot, well I guess it is my website, and it is called Tony Cordova, so what do you expect?! I wish I could be creative…
Oh, but there’s more.
Tonight I’ll be spending the evening without my beautiful girlfriend sitting next to me, which is kind of depressing, but she will be back soon and you won’t have to wade through posts like this(if you haven’t already forcibly drowned yourself.)
Work: I love my job. Maybe my interest in fixing other people’s computer problems will wear off eventually, but for right now I am loving it. Part of it must be that I have a great boss and I don’t have to deal with any of the corporate crap that I am somewhat used to. It is nice to be free from the man.
Unfortunately the last few days have been kind of hectic with problems that are more difficult to fix. Combine that with me being outrageously unprepared for these problems and you get unhappy clients with an even unhappier technician(me). Luckily I have a bit of vacation ahead of me so I can cool off and relax.
Church: Although it doesn’t take up a huge amount of my time, it is something I try to take very seriously. The group of people I am involved with in making this church happen are some of the best people I have ever met, and I am very thankful for them. If you live in the Fresno/Clovis area, let us wrap your Christmas gifts for free this Sunday. You can learn more about the church at http://www.sequoiafresno.org.
Girlfriend: You know how much I love you.
Russia: In May 2009 Melanie and I will be going to Russia on a service trip for a month. I know it is a long ways off but I need to prepare(considering I hardly know any Russian). Plus I have been putting together the website. See it at http://www.russianimpact.org.
Music: Listening to music has been great lately, and I have been listening to a lot of great stuff. From Classic Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, Beatles, and Daft Punk, to newer interesting stuff like M83, Sigur Ros, The Mountain Goats, The Raconteurs, Hospital Ships, and MGMT, I am never bored. Check out this AMAZING song from the newest Sigur Ros album:
For more of what I have been listening to, go to my last.fm page.
Video Games: I bought a Playstation 3 as a birthday present to myself and so far I am loving it. I already played through Metal Gear Solid 4 and right now I am completely engrossed in Little Big Planet and Wipeout HD. I had the pleasure of watching both Ratatouille and WALL-E on Blu Ray which was fantastic, I feel like I am finally getting the most out of my HDTV.
Podcasting: A brand new episode of Fruit Snacks and Fanny Packs is now available. We went on hiatus for a few months, but we’re back, stronger than never. Check us out: http://www.fruitsnacksandfannypacks.com. There is a special prize this week!
I hope everyone at least got through this blogpost, I almost didn’t.
I have reached another milestone when it comes to my music collection. Here are the current statistics:
240 Artists
800 Albums
10,028 Songs
28.5 Days
68.49 GB (Most songs are encoded at 320 kbps m4a)
The 800th album was Dream Theater: Systematic Chaos
Averages:
3.33 Albums per artist
12.535 Songs per album
6.99 MB per song
4:05 minutes per song
Noteworthy Collections:
Pink Floyd (Missing “Relics”)
Nine Inch Nails (Missing “Halo 12: Closure” [Closure is actually a VHS video that I don't think is even on DVD yet] “Halo 18: The Hand That feeds”, and “Halo 20: Only”)
Muse
At The Drive In
The Mars Volta
The Beatles (Missing “Yellow Submarine”)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The Cure
Dream Theater
David Bowie (Missing “The Buddha of Suburbia”)
Radiohead (Missing EPs)
Placebo
