As last year wound down, I started compiling a list of things that made my year nice. These are not new things, necessarily. Rather, they are things either newly discovered (or re-discovered) by me. Things that I wholeheartedly recommend!

I should clarify that this is specifically a list of things. I have not included intangible, soul-feeding moments like seeing my children smiling on Christmas morning, or stepping in dog crap in the middle of the night. Barefoot. Which would, incidentally, not have made the list if I had extended it to include such things. It’s a paradox, and I mention it only to be confusing.

Without further ado, the list!

1. Left 4 Dead games on the xbox.

   I am, historically, a wimp. Despite my deep love for the concept of ZOMBIES, I have actively avoided experiencing them in any media format. Until now! One brave night, I tried the Left 4 Dead demo, despite heart palpitations and dizzying sweats, and I survived! Many many hours of glorious co-op later, I can say that this changed my life. Seriously. Scary is not really that scary.

2. Birdy Nam Nam by Birdy Nam Nam

   For weeks after downloading this, it was the only music played in our car. It is an epic vinyl collage that genre-hops as effortlessly (and nostalgically) as DJ Shadow’s seminal Endtroducing. You don’t have to buy the album, but you absolutely, positively must watch my no-contest hands-down favorite internet video of the year: BIRDY NAM NAM - THE PARACHUTE ENDING.

3. Dexter

   One of the best shows ever. You’ve probably already seen it. It might even convince you to consider cutting someone into pieces. Don’t do it.

4. Terrapin Rye Pale Ale

   Hey, what’s that unique hoppiness? It’s not hops, it’s rye! That is an imaginary conversation I had with myself. While this is not the only rye beer out there, it’s certainly one of the best and it’s probably relatively easy to find in your market. Another excellent rye beer for which to be on the lookout is French Broad Rye Hopper.

5. Pimento Cheese

   I’ve been eating pimento cheese sporadically for many years. (I should have started this blog post with that riveting sentence). Unfortunately for me and the cheese, our love was never spoken aloud, and we just didn’t hang out very much anymore. This year, boy howdy, did we hang out. I will boldly declare that without economic limits on pimento cheese access, it would kill me and I would love it. Best ways to eat it: A) on toasted ciabatta B) on GreenLife’s Southern Belle Panini. 3 cheers for pimento cheese!

6. Skitch

   Read about this great screencapture program on their site. I will just say this: once you get in the Skitch mindset, you will be amazed at how many problems throughout the day can be solved with a little image-grabbing.

   I just made and uploaded this image in seconds while I was sitting here!
   

   So that is my list. It is incomplete. Who cares!

I just started scrobbling itunes into my last.fm account, if anybody’s interested in seeing what i’m listening to….

I seem to be on a weird ’social networking’ bent here in the last couple of days. I guess that’s OK.

I feel silly, but I just signed up for twitter. Let me know if you’re on here so I can follow you.

I’m weblar

Every once in a while, I make an online purchase that I feel truly reflects me, the person.

It is with great joy that I report that my new HP 48G Series Users Guide is pristine.

Why did I go on for so long with a moldy copy?! Hurray for the internet! Hurray for reverse polish calculators!

I hope everybody is doing OK out there.

Sorry for the lack of content. Is anybody following my tumblr feed?

My wife got me a Korg Nanopad which should be here one of these days.. Expect some recordings this year!

As a blimp enthusiast (or something), it is my duty to post this link.

I gotta say: I really like this new name-your-own-price thing that’s going around.

Obviously you’ve already heard about the new Radiohead album, but maybe you are not aware of the new Trent Reznor-produced Saul Wlliams album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, which you can download for free or for $5 (you pick).

This morning I read about Paste magazine’s Name your own price for a 1-year subscription deal. Crazy. I don’t know if the magazine is any good, but it comes with a CD. I’m willing to gamble a buck.

Here’s a bizarre new approach to comment spam:

hello , my name is Richard and I know you get a lot of spammy comments ,
I can help you with this problem . I know a lot of spammers and I will ask them not to post on your site. It will reduce the volume of spam by 30-50% .In return Id like to ask you to put a link to my site on the index page of your site. The link will be small and your visitors will hardly notice it , its just done for higher rankings in search engines. Contact me icq 454528835 or write me tedirectory(at)yahoo.com , i will give you my site url and you will give me yours if you are interested. thank you

I’m trying to move from AIM to jabber, since the thought of not being tethered to AOL is pretty nice.

My jabber&email address is the same: .

Oh boy, that’s one dorky little picture, isn’t it.

Anyway, I’m logging into aim using a jabber gateway, so aim:kongbalong should continue to work, for those of you afraid to jump aboard the jabber-wagon.