My year in Facebook

I have decided that from now on, I'm just going to read Sarah's blog and rip-off whatever she does.

This time, she's pointed out an app on Facebook that gathers a sample of your status updates from the past year. Looking back over the year's worth of Facebook ramblings I see that I spent a lot of time complimenting my wife's cooking and expressing a desire for more coffee or beer.

Here's a sample of what I had to say in 2009...

Hey Ya! It's Christmas again, Charlie Brown!

I first posted this on the blog three years ago. But a discussion today of Rolling Stone's list of the top 100 songs of the decade, where "Hey Ya" placed fourth, has prompted me to bring it back.

Enjoy...

iPod Inspection: Holiday edition

I've been wanting to do a Christmas version of the random 10, since I've loaded up so many holiday tunes. Time's running out. So here we go...

1. "Rock & Roll Christmas" - George Thorogood & the Destroyers
2. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" - Mannheim Steamroller
3. "Coventry Carol" - John Denver
4. "O Holy Night" - Jewel
5. "Must Be Santa" - Bob Dylan
6. "Linus and Lucy" - Vince Guaraldi Trio
7. "Santa Baby" - Eartha Kitt
8. "Angels We Have Heard on High" - Aretha Franklin
9. "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" - Elmo & Patsy
10. "Sleigh Ride" - The Ventures

There you go. I should note that I omitted duplicate artists. So for example, if a second Mannheim Steamroller song came up (I have a lot of their CDs) I skipped over it to whatever was next. There were also duplicates of John Denver and Jewel that got skipped.

What holiday music are you listening to?

Wonderful world of 'Wicked'

On Monday night I joined the tens of thousands of people who will see “Wicked” at Proctors Theatre this month.

It was an amazing show, which tells the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch of “The Wizard Oz.” It leaves you seeing the characters in a whole new light. Now I want to watch the movie again to see how well it all fits together.

As much as I liked the show, I don’t know if it quite rises to the level of “Phantom of the Opera.” I still think I liked that better.

Of course, maybe I would have enjoyed “Wicked” more had it not been for the family with giant heads sitting right and front of us and the dad who let his phone ring for about 30 seconds before finally shutting it off.

But it’s great to see shows like this come to Proctors and be successful. When “Wicked” first opened in Schenectady, WNYT reported that the theater had 82,000 seats available and had already sold 70,000 of them before the show’s run had even started. That’s impressive, and it’s great to see so many people enjoying downtown Schenectady.

Have you seen "Wicked" at Proctors? What did you think of it?

Festive funnies

These are perhaps my two all-time favorite "Saturday Night Live" Christmas skits. It turns out they feature the two men who have hosted the show more than anyone else -- Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

First up is Steve Martin's Holiday Wish...



Next is Alec Baldwin and the classic Schweddy Balls, including a new introduction recorded for this year's prime time "SNL" Christmas special...

'Iron Man 2' trailer rocks!

There's nothing like a geektastic super hero movie trailer to bring me back to the blog.

In this case, it's the long awaited first look at "Iron Man 2." The highlights for me were the quick glimpse of Samuel L. Jackson back as Col. Nick Fury (he made a cameo at the end of the first movie) and getting to see War Machine in action.

Enjoy!

Tweet addict

UPDATED:My initial score was only 54%. But one of the questions in the quiz asked how many tweets I author in a day. After counting today's tweets, I realized my initial estimate was way low.

So I took the quiz again, changing only that answer. Here's the new result...

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Joining iPod Nation

Although my birthday is still about a month away, I picked up an early gift over the weekend – a spiffy new iPod Nano (thanks mom and dad Chase).

I spent a good part of the day yesterday filling it up with music, and in the process rediscovering some CDs I forgot I owned.

The cool thing about the Nano, it also has a video camera and an FM radio that allows you to pause and rewind like a DVR.

Believe it or not, this is the first digital music player I’ve ever owned. The boys each have their own mp3 players, but I’ve never had one of my own before.

Anyway, this allows me to take part in a meme Sarah used to feature on her blog – the “Random 10.” I’ll shuffle the tunes and see what comes out. Here’s our first installment:

1.  “Everybody Has the Blues” – James Taylor
2. “Get Up Jack” – Hair of the Dog
3. “The Power of Love” – Huey Lewis & the News
4. “Spirit in the Sky” – Norman Greenbaum
5. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Paul Simon
6. “All or Nothing at All” – Frank Sinatra
7. “Shower the People” – James Taylor
8. “Pride (In the Name of Love)” – U2
9. “Not Even the Trees” – Hootie & the Blowfish
10. “Hannah Jane” – Hootie & the Blowfish

Surprised I got a couple of repeats with James Taylor and Hootie. I loaded up a ton of songs, so I thought my first Random 10 would be a little more…random.

I want my baby back ribs

Nolan's assignment in class was to write a persuasive argument. Here's what he came up with...

Ribs Not Turkey

By: NOLAN ROONEY

If you like turkey, this should be a bad story for you. If you like ribs, this should be a perfect story for you

First of all, ribs can have barbecue sauce (BBQ) and turkey doesn’t. Everything is good with barbecue sauce. That’s my first reason why you should have ribs not turkey.

Ribs are from pigs and pigs have really good food. So, try eating more pig not turkey, ok? If you check, pigs have more meat than turkey. Everyone loves meat. That’s my second reason why you should have ribs not turkey.

Ribs really taste good, and it’s even my favorite food. The secret is barbecue sauce (Explained in second paragraph). Another way to make them taste good is to cook them on the grill. That’s my third reason to have ribs not turkey.

A lot of people love turkey because it is traditional and healthy, but ribs are better.

Kris e-mailed this to me when he came home from school and I laughed out loud.

When I got home I told him he made a very good case...but we're still having turkey.

Mashup mania

Here's another from the Too Much Free Time Department.

I don't know what the point of this video is. I just know that it's AWESOME!

40 years of manipulative Muppets

We all grew up with "Sesame Street." Share your favorite socialist brainwashing tactic of theirs in comments below...

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Piling up the leaves

We raked a ton of leaves this weekend.

Ordinarily I hate, hate, HATE raking leaves. Honestly, I think I’d rather be shoveling snow than raking leaves (I know, be careful what you wish for). I’ll usually do whatever I can to avoid the job and make Kris do it (there, my secret is out).

But with Kris being a little under the weather this past weekend, I stepped up and tackled the yard. She was feeling a little better Sunday. So she did come out and help. I’d say we split the work together.

When it was all done, I could not believe the amount of leaves we moved.

We’re not done. There are still more leaves to fall. And the way it often goes, the snow won’t be far behind them.

Running around

With the encouragement of my coach – Kris – I’ve taken up running. Last weekend I did my first 5K.

Well, my first 5K in a long time. I ran one once before in 2002, but then I kind of gave up after that.

Kris and I started run-walking in September. She steadily increased my running/decreased my walking until I was eventually running a full 30 minutes. Then we started running a full 5K in anticipation of me running a race – the annual Alplaus Run-Around.

The good news is I ran a time that, while not setting the world on fire, was pretty good for me. I only did a full 5K with a Kris a couple of times before the race. Both times it took me about 40 minutes. But when I ran the race I improved to 38:04.

The bad news is I came in dead last – except for Kris, but she doesn’t count because she purposely held back to take my picture. For a while I was pretty grumpy about placing last, but eventually got over it. After all, my time was good for me and it was a small race. There were only about 30 runners and most of them were die hards.

Although I’m trying to get better, I tend to complain a lot while I’m running. I don’t really enjoy the act of running itself. But I do like the way I feel afterward. So I’m not giving up. I’ll keep plugging away at it and I think I will tackle another race one of these days.

'I'm Batman...or am I?'

I'm a couple of weeks behind on one of my favorite new shows, "Community."

I just watched the Halloween episode tonight and LOVED the impersonation Danny Pudi, as the wonderfully wacky Abed, did of Christian Bale's version of Batman...

Yankees win, thheeee Yankees win!

'We're going to have to leave it there'

Loved this segment on "The Daily Show" last night...

Blogger help needed

I've made a lot of alterations to my Blogger template over the years, but there is one that has always eluded me.

Does anyone out there have any clue how I can move the "Newer Posts - Home - Older Posts" links from the bottom of post pages to the top? Any enlightenment you can share would be GREATLY appreciated!

UPDATE: Big thanks to Vin "The Blog Doctor" who spotted my tweet on the subject and pointed me to the tip I needed. It was quick and easy to pull off!

Tape deck flashback

I fished out an old mix tape and popped it into the tape deck while driving home from work tonight. I made it in 1995. Here's what was on it:

• Blues Traveler: "Run-Around"
• Spin Doctors: "Jimmy Olsen's Blues"
• Sophie B. Hawkins: "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover"
• Counting Crows: "Mr. Jones"
• Hootie and the Blowfish: "Drowning"
• 10,000 Maniacs: "These Are Days"
• R.E.M.: "Man on the Moon"
• Genesis: "Driving the Last Spike"
• Jan Hammer: "Too Far"

That was side A. Side B had Queen's Greatest Hits.

That damn Rally Monkey

So the Yankees will face the Angels in the ALCS. I spotted SportsCenter promo on ESPN that I hope will prove prophetic for the series...



UPDATE: Nate Darling informs me on Facebook that this promo is two years old. I just saw for the first time today. I guess I'm not watching enough ESPN.

New look for 'Who'

When "Doctor Who" begins it's next regular season in 2010, there will be a new Doctor, a new companion, a new creative team behind the scenes -- and a new show logo.

The BBC unveiled the artwork this morning.

With the new logo, it's probably safe to assume there will be a whole new opening title sequence with a another new arrangement of the classic theme song (the current version of which is the ringtone on my phone -- yes, I know I'm a giant geek).

In the meantime, there are three more episodes to go for the current iteration of "Doctor Who." The next is due sometime next month with the final two set for Christmas Day and New Years Day.