I've said it before, but it can't be said enough, best Pizza in New Jersey, maybe the world, Vinny's. Granted, I haven't tried a slice from every pizza place in the Garden State, but I have eaten enough pizza of all sorts from all kinds of places to know that Vinny's is tops. Kendall Park is a small town, I suppose, it's been years since I've played Sim City, I don't remember the qualifications for town, city or megalopolis anymore. I grew up in Kendall Park. Vinny's was known as Dominick's back then. Apparently that was the name of the restaurant when Vinny took it over; he stuck with it. Some years after my family moved away, we returned for a visit and found the name was changed to Kendall Park Pizza and Subs. Vinny has since moved his operation across the street and has branded it with his own name. My parents were just down that way yesterday so they brought some pizza and subs back. They also brought back a bright, colorful, glossy take-out menu. I scanned it into the computer for history's sake. I will now share the cover with you (it has the phone number and adress). If you ever find yourself in Kendall Park, NJ looking for somewhere to eat, check out Vinny's, you won't regret it. Unless you are allergic to pizza or something. Which would be the saddest thing I can possibly think of.
The following list of ten songs is comprised of the most listened to songs (with accompanying music videos) for the year 2010, according to me. I am not making a list of the top songs of the year, according to music charts, YouTube views or any opinion other than mine. These songs are the top ten for me for this year. They aren’t even all from this year, so within the music industry or television entertainment industry many of the songs wouldn’t be eligible for such a title as “top of 2010.” I do not discriminate and subjugate songs, however, so I look beyond the year of copyright and release in order to find music I like. Although, many of these songs I did not have to look for; rather, I was found by them, via Muffin Man sending Facebook messages about them.
This is a top ten list, of sorts, but it has no other condition for acceptance to the list than that I am choosing it right now as I recollect the last twelve months in my music listening habits. As far as being a soundtrack to my year, it really isn’t. A soundtrack, if I were to define it (which I am in the process of doing) , would be a collection of music that correlates to the feelings and experiences of a person or group at any given moment. Somewhat like a score and somewhat like a musical narrative. I don’t know that any of the songs on this list will fit that definition, but I’ll still call it a soundtrack.
These songs are not tied to any one specific moment in the year. I don’t think any of them are tied to feelings I had about a situation or a person. I might suggest that the real soundtrack to my life, if one were to be had, would be the collection of the songs that I have personally written. Unfortunately, I haven’t written any songs this year. The ones I’ve been playing and working on were written last fall, possibly the last time I had any real inspiration for writing songs. I may have written a song or two, early in 2010, but I don’t recall at the moment. Regardless of whether I’ve written songs this year or not, none of them are recorded, and none of them have professionally produced music videos to go with them.
So here are ten songs that I listened to a lot, with or without music videos. But because this is a blog and you want to be visually entertained as well, I'm going to create a YouTube playlist to share with you. I could try to embed each video, but I don't know if this page will allow for that many embed codes. I could also include links for every song, but that would take a long time for both of us. I think the best option is a playlist, if I can figure out how to get one in here. We’ll see. I did it! here is the embed code:
And here is a list of the songs, in no particular order (you will also notice there are more than ten, I got carried away)…
Brick by Boring Brick – Paramore I Can’t Give You What I Haven’t Got – The Living End Winter Winds – Mumford and Sons I and Love and You – The Avett Brothers Uprising – Muse Justified – The Graduate Great Expectations – The Gaslight Anthem At Your Funeral – Saves the Day Degausser (live/acoustic) – Brand New Carry On – Bayside Ignorance - Paramore Playing God – Paramore Bella Donna – The Avett Brothers The Cave – Mumford and Sons The Ghost of St Valentine – Bayside Pull Me In (live, can't find a studio version) – The Graduate Luca – Brand New
Luca is a good one to listen to with the lights off and you just sit quietly and enjoy it. Really focusing in on Jesse's voice. It is the most important instrument in the mix.
Check it: why bother making resolutions you know you won't follow through with? How about just reviewing the things you did accomplish in the previous year. I will explain further. When you decide to do something, i.e. set a goal/resolution, you feel badly if you don't succeed. How do you feel when you do accomplish something? Goodly. That's right. Rather than start your year off with a list of things that you can't possibly accomplish, only to be continuously deflated every time you think about all the things you aren't accomplishing...I'm using an ellipsis to interrupt my improperly structured sentence...make a list of all of the things you did well in the last year and celebrate your accomplishments. Instead of periodically reviewing your goals throughout the year, review your past accomplishments. You will be happy and have more motivation because you are seeing your successes rather than your failures. Your new confidence will make you do more, essentially meeting all of the goals you would have set had you set any goals. This is all just theory, of course. I just came up with it in the course of typing. It sounds pretty sound though. I expect that if you were to really follow through with this theoretical process you would have a noticeable difference in the coming year. If anyone is interested in conducting a psychological study on motivation, comment me and maybe we can hash out a plan. I don't want to do the study, but it would be an easy one for someone to do. It just takes time. Maybe it wouldn't be so easy, I don't know. Figure it out. Track some people who don't set resolutions or review accomplishments, some who do set resolutions, and some who do the past accomplishment thing. I don't know how to gauge the results though. Some type of scales or something about self-worth feelings. When it comes right down to it, I don't set resolutions because I'm not big on making lists and reviewing them, so really, I'm not going to make a list of things I've done and look back on it. Even though I won't be doing it, I think it would be a more beneficial act to monitor accomplishments rather than to set unobtainable goals. That being said, if your resolutions are obtainable, good luck to you in your life. I'm trying to sync my contact list from my old cell phone with the new cell phone I just activated. It doesn't seem to be working. I guess I won't be calling anyone ever again. Peace out.
So this is Christmas, and I have a sinus infection, or something. It is early on Christmas Eve and I am awake when I should be asleep. The inside of my face hurts, when it should be not hurting. The pain extends to my left ear, even. Prior to being awake I had been sleeping. While sleeping I had been dreaming that I was at college again. Only this time I had driven with some people who I don’t know, but must have known in the dream. I still had my backpack full of books and stuff from the previous semester, yet I did have my new class schedule taped to the front of my binder. I had to go to class and I had to go soon, but I didn’t have the correct books and I didn’t know which class I had. For some reason I couldn’t look at the schedule very well. I kept looking, but not seeing. I couldn’t figure out what to do with my old books, as I didn’t want to carry them around with me. I finally decided to leave them in the car with these guys, who I assume I rode with. They wouldn’t unlock the door though. Eventually they did and I left my books with them. I made off for class, but wasn’t sure what direction to head in. Then I saw one of my professors from before and I stopped to talk to him. That was it. Strange dreams aside, the inside of my face hurts.
Christmas cards are a waste of time and money. Time and money that could be better spent on sugar cookies and watching It's a Wonderful Life. I don't send Christmas cards, usually. I have in the past. Honestly, I have nothing against them, but for some reason when I take a satirical approach to things, people laugh, and I like to incite laughter. So if you are a fan of sending cards, I applaud your dedication to the all-but-forgotten tradition involving handwriting and postage stamps. If you are a fan of those stationary-based form letters, you are so far from the mark of Christmas cards and greetings that you aren't even part of this discussion. I actually do think those letters are bogus. It would be like me printing my blog and mailing it to everyone I've met for the last 10 years. The reason for a blog is to say the things that many of those letter writers say, without forcing it into some one's mailbox. If it is in a blog you can read it or not; a blog will never give you a paper cut. Back to the cards. My friend Christal wrote a little about cards on her blog. She speaks of the generic predictability of cards and her effort to overcome that this year. It made me think about cards and how I react to them. When I get a Christmas card I read the message and appreciate the feeling and effort behind it. And then I stand it up on a shelf. After a while, it has either blown over and fallen behind something, never to be seen again, or I take it down and throw in in a drawer. That's the best case scenario for a card. I think more often than not the card finds its way into the garbage. Not even the recycling, just the garbage. I wonder if the recyclable materials have their own form of religion in which they view recycling as heaven (eventual reincarnation) garbage as hell (slow, suffering, decomposition into oblivion). Anyhow, cards are nice, but an e-card would be more efficient in my book. I could look at it, read it, put it on my "desktop." I could save it for a lot longer without losing it. That is, if I wanted to. Think of all of the "Forever" stamps you'd save, as well as preventing hand cramps. Just type it up and send it off. But then again, it is the thought that counts. Maybe there is more thought behind a physical card than an e-card. Maybe not. I'm done with this thought, I'd rather think more about the recyclable item religion. It's impossible though, how would the recyclables communicate with each other. For the stuff that goes to a landfill there would be no way for them to learn about recycling. For the stuff that gets recycled, they might be able to tell of the glory of recycling, but they still wouldn't know about the landfill. The only way it could possibly work for them is if they understand human language, but that is simply preposterous. Merry Christmas from Ajax!
I've said it before, but it can't be said enough, best Pizza in New Jersey, maybe the world, Vinny's. Granted, I haven't tried a slice from every pizza place in the Garden State, but I have eaten enough pizza of all sorts from all kinds of places to know that Vinny's is tops. Kendall Park is a small town, I suppose, it's been years since I've played Sim City, I don't remember the qualifications for town, city or megalopolis anymore. I grew up in Kendall Park. Vinny's was known as Dominick's back then. Apparently that was the name of the restaurant when Vinny took it over; he stuck with it. Some years after my family moved away, we returned for a visit and found the name was changed to Kendall Park Pizza and Subs. Vinny has since moved his operation across the street and has branded it with his own name. My parents were just down that way yesterday so they brought some pizza and subs back. They also brought back a bright, colorful, glossy take-out menu. I scanned it into the computer for history's sake. I will now share the cover with you (it has the phone number and adress). If you ever find yourself in Kendall Park, NJ looking for somewhere to eat, check out Vinny's, you won't regret it. Unless you are allergic to pizza or something. Which would be the saddest thing I can possibly think of.
