I was here asking about your Top Three Records of 2004 recently, and didn’t post my own list becuase I didn’t actually listen to three new records made in 2004. Not until recently, and it seems kind of moot to have to put all of them on your list, because they’re the only ones you heard that year.

Anyway, here are my aforementioned Top Five of the 21st Century (including 2000). This is a subjective list of the five records made in the last five years that I bloody-well love the most.

1. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind
2. Radiohead – Kid A
3. Modest Mouse – Good News for People Who Love Bad News
4. Johnny Cash – American III: The Man Comes Around
5. Dandy Warhols – 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia

And I got a new cell phone this week that has more features that I wanted, and since it’s free after the rebate, I says, “What the hell?” It does voice-command dialing without having to preprogram — it just knows how to talk, basically. So here are the Top Five Names In My Contact List That You’d Think the Phone Would Have Trouble With But Doesn’t:

1. “Raul Chavez”
2. “Groschopf”
3. “Mike Konsmo”
4. “Schrubbe”
5. “Matt Reigle”

I think I’m gonna go to Waukesha over the weekend and make some beer with Joe, seeing as Mom and/or Dad won’t be ready to swap cars with me again until next weekend.

Have a good time debating your Top Five with me or with your loved ones.

I write you this blog while in the union, via handheld, using the tap-screen keyboard. I may have to stage a photo some time so as to

I walked out of my class this evening with my professor, Ron Rindo, and he asked me if I was still making with the blog, and of course I responded affirmatively. Since I’m here waiting to see if Kevin will get out of his class early and join me for coffee, there seemed to be no better time.

What has begun to trouble me more and more, though, is the mainstream appropriation of blogging — turning it into a trendy, simple, fun, easy, and understandable activity that any dufus with access to a computer can participate in and enjoy. And trust me, they are out there doing it in droves. What I’d really like, and what I communicated to Ron, is to come up with a new device that serves all the purposes of blogging without actually involving the act of blogging itself. I am nowhere near developing such a device, so this will, for the time being, have to suffice.

If you should ever happen across a blog in your Internet travels that TRULY sucks ass, please do me and the rest of the Western world a favor: email that blogger and request that they cease and dissist immediately. Your letter could be very simple, something like this:

“Hello INSERT NAME OF BLOGGER:

“I have read your blog. It is awful. It has absolutely no redeeming qualities, whether cultural, social or otherwise. Please stop.

“Thank you,
“INSERT YOUR NAME HERE”

You will be doing all of mankind a great service.

Of course I have considered that to offer such an opinion of blogging and bloggers in my own blog is to invite such harsh (but polite) criticism upon myself. Most likely this criticism will come from Wordell, Lorch, Schrubbe, or Kevin, and even if it should come from someplace outside, I am willing to stand up to it. For god’s sake, I could use some incentive to imagine the proverbial “metablog” into existence.

The simple truth is that no one should actually expect such an email as noted above to cause a blogger to stop his blogging. The only such email that might work is one that said, “If you don’t stop blogging, we are going to kill this box full of puppies. No kidding. We will do it,” and even then we would have to hope that the blogger in question likes puppies.

The best anyone can hope for is that the message gives the blogger pause, the next time he sits down at the terminal, to really consider what he is contributing to the annals of human history with this tiresome, self-fulfilling catalogue of minutiae whose only truly interested audience is himself.

To accomplish that, a spiral notebook is cheaper and, at least, biodegradeable.

I think one of the things I like doing with the blog is watching the “Activity” rating go up w/ more postings and viewings. I kind of wonder what the formula is to make that number change. But I only wonder long enough to type that sentence. I honestly don’t care anymore.

You *have* to hear about Bryan Siebers’s car wreck. It is a tale too unbelieveable to be relayed 3rd-person. I will just give you the vital, “stay calm” details: his shitty Saturn was totaled, no one involved in the accident was seriously hurt (ie, not even any trips to the hospital).

I have recently become involved in some serious number-crunching projects @ work. While they keep a man busy and can be interesting from an investigation-skills standpoint, it quickly gets tiring to stare at numbers on the screen. So frequent breaks are in order.

I put up a new banner on the soloshootsfirst homepage, but you might not be able to see the image too clearly on a shitty monitor (like the one I have at work). I can see it just fine at home, so…

So yeah. Lemme know if something exciting happens.

Totally forgot:

I want you to tell me what the Top Three records of 2004 were. I don’t even think I listened to 3 records that were made in 2004 this year. Well, I probably did, but I’d have to think about it. All I can tell you is my #1 is Modest Mouse – Good News for People Who Love Bad News. That record fucking rocks people’s socks off. I told Wordy it’s in my Top Five of the 21st century.

So yeah, either comment on this post with your Top Three, or email em to me…

So the other day I sat down to watch the extended edition of Return of the King (final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in case you need to know).

The movie was ungodly long to begin with, then they added enough additional footage to make it The Longest Movie of All Time Anywhere In Movie-Seeing? World. Two people could sit down, one to watch ROTK, the other to watch the Back to the Future trilogy, and the first person could join the second mid-way through the second person’s last movie. I mean the mother is long. Four hours of long.

I watched the last Lord of the Rings flick the least of all of them. I saw it once in the theater, once when it first hit DVD, and this was the third time. Compare that to the 5 times and 4 times I saw Fellowship and Two Towers IN THE THEATER, respectively.

I have to admit it. I have watched ROTK three times now, and never seen it all the way through. I dozed for 15-20 minutes the first two times, and I napped for like, I dunno, 30 or so this latest time. Some of you will think that makes me a bad person. Some of you really… won’t care.

This really doesn’t fall into the “confession” category, but here’s the facts, Jack:
I am down to the wire, finding-a-date-for-Jen-and-Joe’s-wedding-wise. It’s like…. 3 months and a week away. I figure you need to be dating a girl for a good two months before you ask her to go to a wedding with you which all your relatives are attending. Three would be better. But anyway.
I meet like, 0 women a year. The women I meet are my friends’ girlfriends and people at work. Difficult to date at best.
I may have to resort to some unorthodox methods to find a potential mate. That’s right — I’m talking internet. *sighs* I’m kind of at a loss.

OK, other things to do…

Hey check this out, eh? Back in full tiki effect.

Thanks to a visit from Joe Mundschau on Saturday, the groupware version of soloshootsfirst is totally operational again. That means you can see all the stuff in the archives, you can look at pictures, and I can blog easier. All these things good in my book.

And hey — you registered folk can post comments as well.

Today Joe and I took a ride to his sister’s place in Stevens Point to pick up a trailer and some furniture and stuff. It was a pretty painless trip, and now I’m watching this defensive struggle in Foxboro.

Last evening, we went out to dinner at Mario’s with the Poquettes and Karla. Karla’s birthday is today, so she, Joe, Knitt, and I went out to Peabody’s later on as well. We drank em out of Guinness and Knitt drank a ton of O.J. We had a good time overall.

Yee-hah, got the day off tomorrow, so I’m probably gonna end up doing laundry and some other ’round the house crap.

OK, off to put up some new pictures in the digital gallery…

Wednesday night, Knitt was due to come over for Alias. For those of you who may have fallen behind, I recently watched the three previous seasons and the 4th just started on ABC.

So, it’s 8 PM Central on Wednesday night, and first off, lemme say that I could run with a tangent about how the networks are running shows now a bit off the hour schedules, like Alias actually started at something like 8:03 or whatever, and that pisses me off, but I sit down to watch the show, and still no Knitt, so I started the computer to tape it as well.

First commercial break comes and goes, still no Joe, and I’m watchin, and then the door buzzes, so I dash down the stairs to get him, and I’ll all, “What the hell are you doing? You’re late!” And he’s like, “I know!” and so we run back up the stairs, and goddammit all to hell, I locked myself out of the farking apartment.

First thing that crosses my mind: well we’re gonna miss the show. Not “how I am gonna get back in the apartment?” I was concerned first and foremost with Alias.

But anyway, after a trip back to Joe’s place and then to my building again, I knocked on the door of my neighbors John and Steph, since I figured they would have A) a phone, and B) the number of the emergency contact guy, which John reminded me was stenciled on the door. So I left the guy a message and then Knitt and I sat in their place for like nearly an hour waiting for someone to call back. John and Steph were watching the third season of the Sopranos. I drank a can of High Life Light.

So finally, it’s like 10 after 10 or so, and the scruffy lookin key guy shows up. Joe and I are standing there with him while he monkeys with the door, and he’s tryin all these keys, and stick-n-no-turn, and stick-n-crank, and no turn, and try another one, and then finally he says to me, after like 10 minutes of this “Uh, they gave me the wrong keys, I’m gonna have to wait for the guy to bring me the right set.”

Awesome.

So the guy goes back downstairs or whatever, now Joe and I are just sitting around next to my door waiting, and we noticed that Key Guy busted one off in the deadbolt of my door, so that was cool, and finally it’s about quarter to 11 and we get let back in. Fan. Tastic.

Well, good thing I was taping the show, and I asked Joe if he wanted to stay and watch it right away, we agreed we’d just watch the next night instead. Before I went to bed, though, I wanted to at least check out the recording I’d done, and I was quite pissed to see that I TAPED THE WRONG DAMNED CHANNEL.

I dunno what happened, cuz I flipped it on the ‘puter, but maybe I forgot to hit ‘enter’ after the number or something, but either way, instead of Alias, I had almost 3 hours of high school basketball.

All I wanted to do was watch Alias.

So thank god for the internet, because I was able to go online and download the episode, and by the time it was morning, I had it, and Joe and I successfully watched the show on Thursday night without commericals or anything. We had weinie wraps and beans for dinner. No harm no foul I guess, but after this fiasco, I am putting three people in addition to myself in possession of my keys.

Sorry for not getting back early in the week here, but as I said: I was watching Alias. I’m finished now. Completely. I’m all caught up. Eagerly ready to watch this week’s ep.

If you saw the Packers game on Sunday, you didn’t need to. It was over in the first ten minutes and they deserve what they got, y’ask me. Some things need to change around the organization to get them back to an elite standing in the NFL. They’ve been living and dying by Brett’s arm since the last time they went to the Super Bowl, so what does that say about the rest of the team? That’s all I’ll say about that for a while.

My jazz station is down today, kind of a bummer. I’m listening to movie scores instead, and this station is all about John Williams.

Car didn’t want to start again on Monday morning, and hasn’t since. And I just realized it’s only Tuesday. That’s fabulous.

I some more room in my work area again (I think I’ve mentioned this?) so I should bring some stuff in to hang up again.

This is a fairly unexciting day. Please consult other areas of the Internet for interesting topics and email me with your opinions.

For those of you who have been held in suspense since earlier in the day, the car started in the work parking lot today, both at lunch and after work.

I’m impressed with myself for finishing the majority of my daily lists while I’m at work or at home. Today I wiped out 4 of 6 items. I am having a problem at home, though: it’s called Alias.

Knitt lent me the first two seasons of the show just before Christmas, cuz it seems like I should enjoy it, and the 4th season just started this week on ABC — I wanted to “catch up” and watch this year. I still have quite a way to go, but if I keep up on this rate of six episodes a night, I should be there pretty soon. But, y’know, there’s four and half hours right there, so I’m not getting a lot done in the evenings at home at this point.

I would write more or start making some sense, but, to be honest, I’m watchin Alias, so…

OK, so the holidays are over. In my book, that means it’s time for the snow to melt, the sun to stay up, and spring to begin.

Yes, I’m aware that it’s the 4th of January.

I enjoy winter for 4 weeks every year — the 4 weeks of December — and then I’m pretty much done. My WPS bill was a hundred bucks last month, so I say “to hell with cold.” I’m going to be turning down the heat again, after a Christmas-timey treat of 66 degrees for something like 15 days, so if you’re coming over, bring a sweater. And a hat. And don’t take your shoes off. Don’t worry, I do have plenty of blankets.

Lorch and I laughed the other day when he was playing with my PDA and noticed that all of the tasks on my To-Do? list are overdue. I’ll have to push back those dates a little.

Many thanks to those who attended the Global New Year’s Extraveganza — it was a good time, as usual. Nice to see everybody, hang out, etc. Mark your calendars for 12/31/05, we’ll do it all again.

The Priceless Quote of The New Year’s Festivities is from the mouth of Nick Petters:
“I remember when I decided to grow my hair long. I was hiiii-igh as SHIT.”

I just jotted down my list of things to do today. It is quite reminicent of my summer lists, with lots of little things on it to make me feel like I’m accomplishing stuff.

My car sort of broke down the other day as I was on my way out of a movie, it just wouldn’t start. Like, electrically it wouldn’t start, as in, no cranking, good battery, turn key nothing happens. I paid to have it towed to my house and then it started right up. So I need to have it looked at for sure, I’m going to look for some diagrams or repair docs or something that might help me find the problem. I walked to work this morning, and it was cold but not unbearable. The car started this morning, too, but I don’t want to chance driving it around unless it’s going to stay running the whole time.

Oh, and the NFL Playoffs are upon us. Man, I was cheering SOOO HARD for Minnesota to get eliminated, because I thought it would be hilarious, but as it turns out, they’re in and they’re coming back to Green Bay again. I don’t know that the Packers can beat the Queens 3 times in one year. It will likely be quite a contest.

Come on over for the game if you want, I have a lot of beer left over. Just bring a sweater.