This one gets an honorable mention since it didn't really come out in 2008, but was recorded back in the mid 90s. But, it mixes two things I enjoy way too much: that distinctive Weezer sound with Brian Wilson's magical pop harmonies. I solidified to myself this year that Brian Wilson's pop songs might be the most perfect music ever created, and I've done what I can to seek out bands who build on those foundations.
In 2008, Rivers Cuomo stood on Brian Wilson's shoulders a couple of times to reach pop nirvana. One of them will occur later in the top 10, but here's the first one, my honorable mention for 2008.
Over the rest of the year, I'll be rolling out my top 10 songs of 2008. Here's my general rules (though I don't always follow them):
No more than one song per artist
The song had to come out in 2008
I made a couple of exceptions on my 2007 list for songs that leaked in 2007 that are really 2008 songs (Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend). There's a good chance that I'll repeat a couple from 2007 on my 2008 list because they were *that* good.
This year's list will lean heavily (again) towards the pop and indie rock. I didn't hear nearly as much hip hop this year as I normally do, so my top ten will lack some of the normal variety it has. But, they're still all good tunes that you should listen to.
And as always, your tastes probably vary from mine, so feel free to tell me what I'm missing and tell me why I'm dumb.
"Now I had to write something on the bat. At Memorial Stadium, the bat room was not too close to the clubhouse, so I wanted to write something that I could find immediately if I looked up and it was 4:44 and I had to get out there on the field a minute later and not be late. There were five big grocery carts full of bats in there and if I wrote my number 3, it could be too confusing. So I wrote 'F--k' Face on it."
So great. When my friends and I first found this card, we thought it was quite possibly the greatest thing ever. I think it was one of our most sought after baseball cards (along with the Ken Griffey Jr Upper Deck rookie card and the "Bo's Back" Bo Jackson card).
Of course, as with anything fun, Billy Ripken tries to ruin it:
"I can't believe the people at Fleer couldn't catch that. I mean, they certainly have to have enough proofreaders to see it. I think not only did they see it, they enhanced it. That writing on that bat is way too clear. I don't write that neat. I think they knew that once they saw it, they could use the card to create an awful lot of stir."
Whatever. Take credit for one of the defining moments of the late 80s.
I'm leaving my house this morning, packing up all my things, ready to face another Monday at the workplace. I've got my laptop packed. My gym bag packed. I throw on my winter coat and hat. I do the pocket check ...
Left pocket ... wallet ... CHECK Right pocked ... iPhone ... CHECK
Note: I'm an habitual (a habitual?) pocket checker. I freak out when I'm driving when I notice that my keys aren't in my pocked. You know, because they're in the ignition so the car will go Vroom Vroom.
All good. I lumber out the door, pull it shut behind me, and make it down two stairs when I reach for my keys.
They're not in my pocket.
Nope. They're on the table. Where I left them. Because I'm a huge dumbass.
Now this is a predicament. My landlord isn't around. I don't have a spare key. (Note to self: get spare key). My girlfriend is downtown, at a conference, phone-less.
Also, it's about 10 degrees out.
This is what is affectionately referred to as being boned.
So, I did what any normal male in this situation would do. I started looking for how to break into my own house.
First trip around the house:none of the easily reachable windows are unlocked (good job by me!). All doors are locked.
Second trip around the house:hey! That window might be unlocked! Except I can't reach it.
Third trip around the house:I'll stand on this wobbly trash can. I can reach it! Except the screen is locked in tight. Wait! Is that a screw I see on the ground. I can use this to pry open the screen .... MacGyver-style! Screen is off, windows is open .... hurdle through .... I'm in!
30 minutes, a rip in my jeans, and a bruised ego and I'm in my apartment.
Just in time to see someone walking by looking scared of the guy who just went through the window.
Fantastic.
I try to tell him I live there, but he feigns not being able to hear me and walks off. I call the police to explain what happened. They laugh and understand and wish me a better day. So kudos to the dispatcher. He was nice.
I grab my stuff. Again. Triple checking that I have my keys this time. Off to work ... except there goes a police van ... down my street ... oh poo. I circle around, but thankfully he was just driving by off to somewhere else, not coming to arrest me for breaking into my own apartment.
And that, my friends, is why you always make sure that you practice breaking into houses. You never know when it'll come in handy.
One thing I've tried to pay attention to for the past few months is my money. I've never really paid attention before, other than to make sure I had enough in my checking account to pay my bills. The rest just got dumped into savings, and that's about how much attention I paid.
Earlier this year, I started thinking about getting a condo and that forced me to think longer-term about my money. Could I be doing more with it? Could I do better with my bills in some way? Could I even afford a condo?
About that same time, Mint opened up. Putting aside my reservations about giving a site access to my finances, I decided to dive in and give it a shot. Surprisingly, it's been incredibly effective for me in helping me to manage and understand my money. It's been helpful for one simple reason: it let's me see my money and where it's going.
Maybe it's appropriate for some quick background:
I don't spend money frivolously. I spend too much money eating out lunch and dinner, but I don't spend much on clothes, or shoes, or video games. So while I don't watch every dollar that leaves my wallet, I also don't worry that I'm needlessly throwing money away.
Coming into this year I had three major debts: my car and two student loans.
The only real investment I had coming into this year was the 401k from a previous employer.
When looking at what I could do to make an immediate difference in my finances, I started with the easiest and most obvious one:
Don't keep money in your checking account.
My checking account earns very little interest. My savings account earns a little interest. A little > very little. Over the course of the year, you might make a few hundred to a few thousand dollars by having your money primarily in your savings account. The way I deal with that is logging in and moving money around once I get over my "safe zone." I basically have decided what it is I need to have in my checking account to pay my bills and cover my debit card usage. Whenever my checking account gets over that level I move the excess into my savings account.
It adds up fast. It also gives you incentive to save money once you see that you can move larger and larger chunks into savings if you're thrifty.
It sounds stupid. It helps.
The next, rather obvious thing I learned was ...
Pay off your debts.
I had three debts coming into 2008. My car loan, my federal student load, and my private student loan. My car loan was scheduled to finish in April 2008. My federal loan in 2010. My private loan in 2010.
I started setting aside a little extra money such that I could make bigger dents in those loads. Hey, why pay interest on a loan when that money could earn me interest?
As of this morning, I've got no loans. I paid them down in chunks and got rid of my debt. Now rather than sending that money off to someone else, it's going to sit in my account where I can do something better with it.
Make your bills smaller.
This is the easiest one, and can be the most fulfilling. Got extra cable channels you don't watch? Call Comcast and move down a tier (and then rent those shows on DVD or watch them online). Better yet, tell Comcast you're going to move to FIOS and have them move you into a better deal. If that's not an option for you, just drop down a plan. There are a number of inexpensive, mostly legal ways to watch the shows you want. Figure out what you need and if Comcast won't meet it, drop services until you get down to your number.
Do you need a landline with your cell phone? No? Cancel it.
Do you need to have unlimited text messages on your cell? Could you get by with the next level down? Drop down.
Oil/electric/heating bill too expensive? Put your extra computers on standby when you're not using them. Install an electronic thermostat and drop the heat when you leave the house.
If you can drop your bills an aggregate of $100 a month, that's $1200 a year. Again, this is all common sense and sounds stupid, but it adds up.
Use Mint
Bite the bullet. Sign in, take the time to put in your accounts. Watch your money in aggregate to see if you notice anything you can do to help yourself.
None of this is rocket science or life changing. It's just simple stuff I've done to get a better handle on my finances, which is useful given what's going on in the economy. I know my weaknesses: I've got very little invested because I'm not strong on the markets or investments. I'd like to be, it's just not something I'm good at now. My 401k has taken a bath, but so has everyone else's. I'm trying to keep an eye on it to see if there are small things I can do to make improvements in the short-term to get through this downturn.
That's what I do. I'm sure I'm missing stuff, and I'm not a financial expert, so accord this advice as much value as you'd give any other free advice you'd get from a stranger. Or, if it makes you feel better, send me money and then you won't have to consider it free advice.
Actually not one of my favorite Ben Folds' shows, but it even a bad Ben show is pretty fun. He played his whole new album as his set (followed by an encore of solo and Ben Folds Five stuff), which would normally be ok, except the album hadn't come out yet.
Next up was the first Dear Leader show in a good while at TT the Bears.
I love me some Dear Leader. It'd been awhile since they'd played together, but it was just like old times.
I also was lucky enough to see Fleet Foxes play in Somerville. Such a great great sound.
Then, I got to go take advantage of my season tickets and see opening night of the Celtics, watching them raise the 17th NBA Championship banner. It was a moment that solidified to me that I've always been a bigger Cs fan than a Sox fan (though it's close). I loved being at opening day in 2005 when the Red Sox raised that first banner in 86 years. Being at the Garden and watching the Celtics raise the first banner in 22 years had a much more significant impact on me. Just the byproduct of growing up with the original Big Three, I guess.
Later, another one my favorite unknownish bands played *their* first show in a while. Stellastarr* rocked out at Great Scott and the gf and I got to watch from about 5 feet away.
Being 5 feet away left me with some temporary hearing issues, which thankfully went away the next night, where we went and saw The Decemberists at The Orpheum, and what might be my favorite show of the year.
A week or so later, we headed over to The Paradise to see an entirely different type of band, as Bang Camaro came and rocked our faces off.
Changing styles yet again, the gf surprised me and took me to see someone I consider quite possibly the greatest pop musician/performer of all time: Brian Wilson. While it's a bit depressing to see him perform these days, it's just such a monumental thing to be *seeing Brian Wilson.*
Finally, thanks again to my wonderful gf, we got some upgraded Celtics seats and rather than sitting in section 305 row 11, we sat in section 6 row 3.
And now I'm on vacation. So, expect to read some more from me.
Sparing the details, the last week of work (two weeks, really) have been hell. Pure, unrelenting, fire-and-brimstone hell. No sleep, working 'round the clock, fixing things that weren't broken 10 minutes before, hell.
I don't think I've ever quite been involved in a situation where as many things went south at the same time; many of which I had no control over. But there were things that I had control over (or at least nominal control over) that I didn't handle as adeptly as I could have or normally do. I've run through a whole range of emotions, lost sleep, lost weight, forgotten to eat meals (a couple of times I forgot to eat *all* day), and basically given up my life.
And in the end, I don't think it's worth it. I've basically missed out on 1/25th of my life this year working on this, and the payoff just isn't great enough for the stress.
I'm a startup type of guy, and I don't mind putting in the extra hours or the hard work. I like it, quite frankly. Because you're building something and you spend a bunch of time adding features and tweaking and improving and making something fun. This has been an exercise in replication, where I should only be involved peripherally in the work (but am far more involved for a variety of reasons), and the payoff isn't fun. It's rote and mundane.
Of course, this is my job, and it's not always this bad. It's just been this bad for a couple of weeks. But this is the sign I need to find a better work/life balance.
It's just too bad it took two weeks of no sleep, a loss of 10 pounds, and no life to figure it out.
Over the past week of work, I've left work prior to 10pm exactly once, stayed beyond midnight twice, and am now on about my 4th day in a row without getting more than 3 hours of consecutive sleep.
I'm not enjoying this very much.
I'm still at work at 2:45am. This is what it looks like:
My head is shiny. And for those of you keeping track at home, you can barely tell my nose is broken unless you take a close look.
