Minesweeper

This is for any of you who frequently get bored at work or in school and try to fight that boredom by sweeping minefields.

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Pioneers

This commercial makes me want to buy Levi's Jeans.

Home for Christmas

So after my first crazy east coast Christmas snow disaster, I have miraculously made it home to Missouri for Christmas. For future reference, anyone who has their non-Southwest Airlines flight canceled due to weather should immediately get online and try to find a similar Southwest flight later in the day for cheaper than the price you paid for the original ticket a month or two before. But that ticket and refund your old ticket so you get to go home the same day instead of being forced to stay where you are for 3-7 days. That's the moral of the story of my yesterday.

Now that I'm here at home, I'm trying to occupy myself with productive activities because usually while I'm at home I just sit in front of the TV and do nothing and somehow regress in age back to however old and however mature I was in high school. I'm determined not to let that happen this time. Hence, I woke up around 9 this morning (quite early for someone on Christmas break) and decided to take care of all of my insurance stuff regarding my stolen laptop. I then did my laundry, finished How to be Good and got on the elliptical machine for about an hour while listening to This American Life. Now it is early afternoon, and before heading out to finish my Christmas shopping I'm going to engage in my next somewhat productive activity: Making a list of my most played albums of 2009. I figure lists like this will be good to have in the future when I decide to look back through my blog and see what I was listening to 5 or 10 years before. These are not necessarily albums that came out this year, they're just albums I listened to this year. So, here's my list. I recommend that you check out anything on this list that you haven't heard.

(500) Days of Summer Soundtrack
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Duffy - Rockferry
Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Health
Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
Jay-Z - Blueprint III
Jaydiohead - Jaydiohead
John Mayer - Continuum
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young
Kanye West - Graduation
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
The Low Anthem - Oh My God Charlie Darwin
M Ward - Hold Time
Matt and Kim - Grand
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Passion Pit - Manners
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Queen - Platinum Collection
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Simon and Garfunkel - Collected Works
The Strokes - This Is It
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
White Rabbits - It's Frightening
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz

By the way, (500) Days of Summer comes out on DVD on December 22nd. Someone should buy it for me for Christmas.

Done

One semester down. Hopefully many to go.

"...this is the only way in which men in our particular postal code are unreconstructed."

So, after getting rocked by a macro final this morning, and during a brief break from studying for my last final (tomorrow afternoon), I allowed myself to read a few pages from my current novel, How To Be Good by Nick Hornby. After seeing him read from his newest book a while back, a friend and I decided to read all his books by the end of the year. While I'm fairly certain I'm the only one actually trying to meet this goal (and I only decided yesterday that I would actually do it), I'm kind of upset that I'm doing it because when I'm done, there will be no Hornby books left for me to read. And since I hate rereading books, my life will be much less enjoyable next year. I only started reading his books this summer, and I will soon be finished. I'm currently simultaneously reading How To Be Good and one of the most interesting books I've ever found Songbook which is a collection of essays about Hornby's favorite songs (Any of you that are Hornby fans or have read the book or seen the movie High Fidelity know that he's a music junkie like myself so his song selections are quite a treat).

Anyways, back the reason for this post. As I was reading today, I came across a passage that reminded me why when I met Nick Hornby I told him he was my favorite author of all time. He just seems to understand me and my world better than I do myself. Hornby's books are not just entertaining, they seem to have the rare gift of helping me to see why I say certain things or act certain ways that to others (and sometimes to myself) may seem strange or just unexplainably weird. The best part is that he does this by having his characters say the same things or act in the same ways as I do, boosting my self-confidence by convincing me that I'm not alone. I think that's why I love Hornby so much. His books just feel so real to me. They're just about normal people, doing normal things, and those normal people are like me, so when I fall into the trap of thinking that I'm weird or socially awkward or when I feel insecure about myself and the way I am, I can at least take solace in the fact that not only do there exist people like me, but there exist people like me who occasionally have the same feelings of insecurity and awkwardness, and they suffer through them just as I do. I'm pretty much in awe of how Nick Hornby has been able to remain an insecure, awkward, music- and movie-loving nerd/author even with his immense success and popularity, and I thank him for it.

Anyways, enough Hornby praising. Here's the passage. I've probably way oversold it at this point, but I don't care. When I read it, it made me tingle all over, because it describes perfectly how I act when I'm in a situation where I'm very hurt by something someone has done to me. So criticize all you want, but this isn't about why you should love Nick Hornby, this is about why I love Nick Hornby: He knows me.

"You don't mean that"

I say this even though I know that he almost certainly does. He's that sort of man. Maybe when it comes down to it, this is the only way in which men in our particular postal district are unreconstructed. They know about changing nappies and talking about feelings and woman working and all the basics, but he would still rather close things off right now than admit any possibility of doubt or confusion or hurt, however much it costs him, however much he is eaten up by what I have done.

Landlady

I may not have the greatest apartment ever, but I do have the greatest landlady ever. She just came over and gave us all Shaw's giftcards for Christmas. I think all landlords should give their tenants Christmas presents now.

Taken By Trees - My Boys

I loved this cover of Animal Collective's My Girls. I hope you do to.