Joe Fearnley – uhhh, right

When I graduated college and first got a job , Rachel and I moved back to the student ghetto with Jason which would put life at 2005. He had me watch more comedy than I dared to stand and the Louis C.K. stand up became my favorite. I think this special is comedic gold. I had no idea who the guy was, but by the summer of 2006 he had his own show on HBO that included Jimmy Norton and Mike Hagerty.

2009 is down and we face another year in front of us. Not only is another year gone, but a decade as well. Looking at the big picture (the decade), a lot has happened. I graduated from high school, I accomplished more with the sport of hockey than I ever will, I graduated from college, I got married…..the list goes on and on. As far as the small picture (the last year) goes
I got to say, it was pretty lackluster. I hit none of my goals and just sort of floated. But not this year.

Physical

I’ve had plans to hit a physical regiment for the last few years. Last year I was on it. Hitting the bike two times a day, eating less than ever. But then the sun comes and I fall out. But not this year. Down with beer and up with healthy living. I am as big as I have ever been in my life and its only going to get harder. I’m waking up at six tomorrow mourning for a wake up call. Which will eventually lead to a tight ass and a new look on life.

Speaking of hockey, one resolution is to start playing some puck again. I got invited to a hockey tournament in march and I’ll be damned if I can’t hack it. I still have my wooden stick, so keep your head up.

Programming

I choose to write software as a profession and if anyone out there is in this world they know its a constant struggle to stay on top of the latest technology. I think struggle is the wrong word to use because that one of the great things about it. The thing is I attempted to learn python last summer, trying to better myself, learn the whitespace coming from a C-oriented background, but fell off the train a month and a half later. I was on it, learned a little bit, and now have to get back on.

I thought for a second I would hop on the ruby/rails/merb train. That still could be. I plan to explore it as well. But for now, my plan is to learn python and write a django app before summer. Word!

Music

The last on my list for this year, accomplishment speaking, is music. I have tried for the last three years to get something going musically and its really beginning to happen. With another band in the works I’m not sure how it’s going to happen calendermattically, but I’ll figure it out.

Conclusion

2010’s going to be a fast year and I’m excited. Also, I love this apple keyboard but I hate it when I get shocks every time I sit down to use it. Oh, and I need to stop saying “That’s one way to go about it.” Please punch me if you hear me say this.

I saw this ash tray in the boat club of Mona lake. In may of this year all bars in Michigan will go go smoke free. It’s going to kill my matchbook collection but I’d rather smell like cheap lotion than an ash tray any day.

For what it’s worth, here is the list of my favorite records for 2009. I didn’t include images because I didn’t feel like it.

Strike Anywhere – Iron Front

When I first heard Strike Anywhere, it was the early 2000’s and it made me do a head shake and remember why I love punk rock. Their lastest record wasn’t short of awesome. Dead FM was kind of there, but this one reassured my why this is one of my favorite bands.

Captain, We’re Sinking – It’s a Trap!

It’s only four songs, and I didn’t like their full-length too much, but this record is good. I’m jealous at how young these fuckers are. I just how they continue.

Polar Bear Club – Chasing Hamburg

i finally saw these guys live for the first time a couple of months ago. I didn’t like this record as much as their last one, or even their first, but after 20-25 listens, I couldn’t stop.

Strung Out – Agents of the Underground

What can I say. This is my favorite band in the world. Anything they put out I cherish. Including this record. Shred, emotion, speed…I can’t say more.

Rehasher – High Speed Access to the Brain

I never actually owned Rehasher’s first record, but used to listen to them all the time. I was going through some things when it first came out and it seemed to resignate with me. Regardless, I really like their latest. Again, not as good as the first to me, but I love to know that this style of music still is relevant.

Propaghandi – Supporting Caste

OK, Canada’s best punk band. Maybe the world’s best punk band. As far as I’m concerned this was their best since Empires. Rips.

Dear Landlord – Dream Homes

The epitome of ‘Org core. I love this style of music and listened to this record constantly while working on random web projects. Ta boot, this is (was?) a side project.

Anchor Down – Steel to Dust

This was one of two records that filled my 30 minute commute over the course of the summer. Gruffy vocals, catchy melodies, all the things that sucker me in. Then the band broke up. Oh well, it’s a good reminder of the cornfields of southwest Michigan.

Let Me Run – Meet Me at the Bottom

The second of my two summer records. Every song is so catchy. I kind of look at this as a guilty pleasure because I think some of these songs could have been written by a teeny rocker pop punk band. But they weren’t. Which saves any sort of cred I had.

And some honorable mentions:

The Lawrence Arms – Buttsweat and Tears

I didn’t get this record until the latter part of the year. A few weeks ago to be exact. I had my doubts, and it’s kind of regurgitated Larry Arms stuff, but I really like it. Way better than anything they put out in the first five years of the decade.

Iron Chic – Shitty Rambo

Loved the demo, this one maybe. I’m still listening. Only because I can’t stop listening to Iron Front.

The first episode of the wire I saw was the scene where snoop walks into the hardware store and buys a nail gun. The rest was down hill for me. I didn’t miss an episode after that and have since caught up on every one prior. This clip will never do justice in the realm of the shows entirety, but for newcomers, it does its best.

Happy Thanksgiving

I went to the intersection the other night to catch a rock show. The polar bear club specifically. I’ve been listening to these guys for over a year and ever since I heard Our Ballads the first time, I’ve been hooked. They’ve come around the region about four times since then and I finally got to see them. They were everything I thought they would be, plus some. I even asked if they would play a request and they did. The power of social networking I suppose.

As the music industry dies off and the idea of a rock star goes with it, the relationship between artist and fan get closer. I am probably older than most of the guys in PBC which makes this a little weird. Oh well, I had fun.

As for the other bands, Dear Hunter and Thrice, it just wasn’t for me. Three keyboards, two guitars, drums, a bass player and all members singing is a little much for me. As for Thrice, well, they still are playing telecasters and semi-hollow body axes. I was fairly drunk by the time they started so all I can say it at least they dropped the keyboards. All in all, I wished the polar bear club played ten more songs, but it was a good time.

Over the past two months, in my spare time I have been rewriting this little project jeff and I cooked up. In the midst of it, I have begun the search for the perfect editor on a mac. Come to find out there is no such thing as perfect.

We’ve all got our flaws. The first choice from the mac community is TextMate. Even xeeton suggested this with his own built in theme. I guess I am too much of a cheap ass to move ahead with it, but for some reason I refuse to pay for something like this. Same thing with coda. Its no free and shit, I’m jaded.

I use Eclipse as my main editor at work, so I thought I would see if it had any potential with php. Turns out it does. But the fact that it’s so bloated just makes everything annoying. Same deal with Aptana. Which I was hooked on for a while, but after not using it for a couple of weeks, it updated itself and something broke. I guess it just wasn’t worth it in the end.

Then I started using MacVim for a while. Besides Crimson Editor on windows, I use gVim and Vim for all my basic editing needs. I also use Vim on server related stuff and have grown to love it. I gave MacVim a good go and even with plugins such as nerdTree, it still leaves a lot to be desired.

Then I found out that you can run gedit on OS X. Like crimson editor or gVim on windows, gedit is my go to guy on linux. I thought “Perfect! A match made in heaven!” No so fast cowboy, some things don’t quite work. Firstly, it doesn’t restore my previous session when I close it. Maybe I should never close it. Haha! I guess that’s one option (god, I find myself saying that a lot lately). Then the fact that the cursor breaks after saving a file sometimes and it doesn’t have a terminal plugin drives me nuts. Especially when trying to develop on a 13″ screen.

My conclusion is I will, for now, stick with gedit. At least until the first phase of this app is done. My trial expired with TextMate and Aptana pissed me off. Maybe the new version is better? Stay tuned.