Month: January 2011
January 11, 2011
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Thought
Not sure when @ebertchicago went from being inspirational to being the shopping channel, but I’m considering unfollowing.
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Skeptic At Work
I love this John Stossel segment with Michael Shermer. He presents a funny, articulate and relatively non-condescending world-view, arguing that reason, logic, and science will serve us better than superstition and the opinions of the famous.
January 10, 2011
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Thought
Three very different versions of “Jolene” on Hug Bunny tonight. I’m biased as to which I like best. http://hugbunny.com/
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Thought
How come no one told me how awesome @pattonoswalt is?
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Hypocrites
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Thought
Three Venn Diagrams for those looking to place blame in the Tucson Shootings: http://bit.ly/fdDzcQ
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+1 RT @randymatheson: can we all cut back on the …ageddon & …pocalypse stuff. It stopped being funny when CNN started using it.
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Happy Birthday You Wonderful Old Domain
I almost forgot to mention that today is the 15th anniversary of schafer.com.
I registered the domain for personal use back in 1996 and it’s had something on it pretty much ever since. It’s been a resume for me, a list of links, a corporate site for while I was self-employeed for many years, and since 2001 it’s had a blog attached to it (my first blog post was July 4th, 2001).
Interestingly enough, and entirely coincidentally, today is also my fourth anniversary on Twitter.
I wonder what the Internet will look like fifteen years from now?
When did you buy your first domain name and what did you do with it when you first started out online?
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Thought
What the what? It’s 1:00AM in this timezone. I should be in bed.
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Thought
“I and I am the lineman for the county” 🙂 RT @michaelthorner: Wicheta Lineman > a great version I heard recently: http://bit.ly/fiJB7O
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Finding “The Forbin Project” on the Net is the most meta thing I’ve done in ages:
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Thought
When I was young we spelled it “dude” and roads smell of licorice. RT @benlucier: that was 3 years before I was born dood. 🙂
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Not good, but interesting: Glen Campbell’s “Guess I’m Dumb” produced by Brian Wilson: http://bit.ly/hQLMqU
/cc @michaelthorner
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Thought
The “Bye Bye Birdie” ending to Family Guy tonight was awesome.
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Thought
Have you seen the 33 1/3 Art Show site?
January 9, 2011
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Thought
Coincidentally today’s also the fourth anniversary of my first tweet.
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Thought
Hey everybody, say Happy Birthday to my web site! http://schafer.com is 15 today. One more year until it starts driving.
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Thought
Let me nail the basics before I start friending. 🙂 RT @smack416: @benlucier @hdwilliams @kenschafer @remarkk is looking for #ps3 playmates.
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Thought
I’m having a blast posting my favourite music videos over at http://hugbunny.com. Check it out. Feedback welcome!
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I’m looking for a PS3 game that’s fun, mildly addictive and DOESN’T need lots of controller dexterity. Suggestions?
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Thought
Despite the fact that no one comments on blog posts anymore, I just upgraded http://hugbunny.com to use Disqus comments.
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Review
January 8, 2011
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Thought
“Treasure Of The Sierra Madre” ★★★★
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Thought
I’m watching “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” for the first time. Major oversight on my part.
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Thought
Damn the NRA and a lack of free mental health care if you want to look for external causes for today’s shootings.
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Thought
If patriotic zealots are to blame, then Marilyn Manson & Doom are to blame for Columbine. http://bit.ly/i66t53
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If the Tea Party is responsible for Loughner, then Hollywood is responsible for John Hinckley. http://bit.ly/eGGsnd.
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Thought
If Palin is responsible for Loughner, JD Salinger is responsible for John Lennon’s murder. http://bit.ly/hortFF
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Thought
Video games, rock music, comics and TV don’t create killers. Neither does the Tea Party. Mental illness does.
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My Top 30 Albums Of 2010
I’ll let you in on a secret: If you’re going to do a “Best of…” list, wait until the year is over so you can see what everybody else thought was the best and add to your own list.
This is not cheating. No one can keep up with all the music, books, movies and what-not that we clever mammals produce each year. I keep a running list of my favourite albums and add and delete from that list as the year goes on. But then I see other people’s end-of-year lists and realize that I missed a ton of great stuff. So, while I completely ignore retrospective news stories and generally turn my nose up at “what’s going to happen next year” commentary, I find “Best of…” for media a great way to grow and learn.
So, having digested a ton of other people’s lists and thought about my own favourites from 2010, here are my top 30 albums for the year.
Note these are in alphabetical order. I could never rank these absolutely — it would change daily.
- Good Things by Aloe Blacc
- The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
- Teen Dream by Beach House
- Belle & Sebastian Write About Love by Belle & Sebastian
- Crazy For You by Best Coast
- Brothers by The Black Keys
- The Way Out by The Books
- Broken Bells by Broken Bells
- Swim by Caribou
- The Lady Killer by Cee Lo Green
- Subiza by Delorean
- The Drums by The Drums
- Total Life Forever by Foals
- There Is Love In You by Four Tet
- Lucky Shiner by Gold Panda
- Plastic Beach by Gorillaz
- El Turista by Josh Rouse
- Harlem River Blues by Justin Townes Earle
- July Flame by Laura Veirs
- Gorilla Manor by Local Natives
- Twin-Hand Movement by Lower Dens
- Big Echo by The Morning Benders
- High Violet by The National
- goodbye, killer by Pernice Brothers
- Cling To A Scheme by The Radio Dept.
- How I Got Over by The Roots
- I Learned The Hard Way by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
- Volume Two by She & Him
- Five Ghosts by Stars
- Contra by Vampire Weekend
Well there you go. Lots of great music. I hope you take some time to really dig in and find some new tunes.
As an added bonus, here is my 8track mixtape featuring one of my favourite tracks from each of these favourite albums:
Let me know what you think! Leave a comment below and tell me what I got right, where I blew it, and suggest your own top albums.