prepare yourself for a really long entry. see, i have been spending the past couple years creating mix cds of songs that meant a lot to me and recapped my previous year, and sent them to my friends. well after spending all the time on last year’s cd, i never got around to sending them out. so i’m doing something different this year.. i’m making my 2008 soundtrack cd a digital one. enjoy my 2008 recap. it was a rough one… so hang on.. here we go
01: dilate – ani difranco
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my 2008 started off rough, right from january 1st. a relationship that i thought was going well and strong, really wasn’t. at least for the other person in the relationship. i felt suddenly distant and alone while still in a relationship. suddenly my apartment felt so lonely and different.
02: lights on – the pierces
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january 4th marks the day i posted my first video on seesmic after getting an invite code from seesmic founder & CEO, loic. while i just thought “hey, this a cool little website”… it turned out to be much, MUCH more. throughout 2008 i have met and become close friends with many of the wonderful people i have met trough this “little website.” it also turned out to effect me in more ways than one. i traveled to two podcamps (boston and montréal) as well as a random weekend trip to NYC just to meet and hang out with these friends. this song was used in a great mashup video made by my friend hache in columbia.
03: give it 2 me – madonna
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february’s highlight was an extended weekend trip down to corpus christi to hang out and visit my birth mom and siblings. it was weird wearing flip-flops in february… but i had a blast (and i’m not even sure if this madonna song was out yet in february.. but it also relates to some videos i received later on in the year.. but it fits here as well, since i spent most of my nights while in corpus at my brother’s favorite gay bar, and they played a lot of madonna 
hah!)
04: fill the fields – the restoration project
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come march of 2008, while still working at my old job, had interviewed and got my current job. both jobs i was blessed with great coworkers and a job i loved… the new opportunity just offered a less stressful location (driving-wise), more creative “stuff”, and a bit of a pay raise. i started the new job on april fools day
05: broken – lifehouse
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fast forward to april 2008… where my relationship roller-coaster really gets going full speed. two days before our two year anniversary, the relationship is officially called off. (for the first time)
06: heartbeats – jose gonzález
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i turned 29, and put an offer on my first house
on the same day.
07: lovely day – bill withers
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for some reason this song reminds me of my shortest lived relationship in june. she was a great person… just not right for me. i got caught up in all the attention i was given…
08: into the nightlife – cyndi lauper
&
09: my heros (SUV) – the cliks
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in june i had the opportunity of seeing the true colors tour and meeting cyndi lauper. it was a great show and me and my ex had second row seats. i still can’t believe i payed so much money for those tickets, but it was worth it. the show was great. (and i even got some pictures & videos of the show… shhh Who Framed Roger Rabbit psp )
10: bala com bala – thievery corporation
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i used to attend summerfest all the time… but had gotten out of that habit lately because of a) cost (seriously, $8 for a wine cooler?) b) the insanely large (and many times very annoying) crowds of people and c) the parking nightmare. but was convinced by my friend jenn to make an exception this year. so we made the walk down to summerfest to catch the thievery corporation in concert (video here). and it was well worth it. what a great live show! even if i was standing on unstable benches and getting beer spilled on me.
11: grey – ani difranco
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“what kind of paradise am i looking for? i’ve got everything i want.. still i want more.” closing and moving into my first house was an amazing experience.. yet having a whole house completely to myself proved to amplify my feeling alone.
12: comatose – skillet
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after closing and moving into my house, i had about a day to settle in, and then was off to oshkosh, wi to take pictures at lifest. the highlight of the music festival for me was seeing skillet in concert for the first time. and not only that.. but having an all access pass for the festival and being able to see and photograph the show from ON the stage… was awesome.
13: rock lobster – the b-52′s
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still not having any time to unpack my boxes at my new house… the following weekend was my first podcamp. i flew to boston and had the chance to meet some of my amazing friends i’ve met through social media. rock lobster came on at one of the bars we were at on the last night together. fun times i tell you. (and the picture of orchid8 and rojopelo pounding on the bar floor during the song… priceless) the weekend was just what i needed.
14: stuck – melissa ferrick
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settling back into reality… and back into the relationship roller-coaster. waiting for the shoe to drop..
15: ain’t no sunshine – bill withers
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not only was i addicted to listening to this song for a while this summer, but i also learned how to play and sing it.. and played it on seesmic. (which, for me is a big deal.. since i am very self conscious on my singing abilities [or lack-there-of]) “this house just ain’t no home”
16: el scorcho – weezer
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enter september… my first trip to montréal… my second podcamp… and one of the most amazing weekends of the year. another great weekend of meeting and hanging out with some of the greatest friends i’ve met through social media. are you seeing a trend in this year yet?
17: inside and out – feist
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i love this song. lyrics kinda sorta fit.. but not exactly. i still love the song. and i think i learned about it sometime around late summer/early fall. so there.
18: everything’s easy – girlyman
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this is actually a live recording from the girlyman show at UWM that i attended in october. girlyman has been one of my favorite bands ever since i was introduced to them a couple years ago. it was great to finally catch them live in concert and get to meet them.
19: heart beat – melissa ferrick
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melissa ferrick came to milwaukee in october. with all the new house expenses, i had cut my “live music” fund to almost nothing… so i ended up volunteering to help out at the show to get in for free. it was fun. i also got to take pictures there. as for this song, it’s my latest addiction. it also has a bit of a deeper meaning as well.. but i’m not sharing any more than that. hah!
20: athiest – the restoration project
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also in october i hosted my first house concert. tracy howe of the restoration project played a concert in my living room. it was great fun. i even started planning my second house concert for later in the year before the first house concert was even complete. one of my favorite things about owning a house is having the ability to do things like these house concerts and inviting my friends to come and enjoy my talented musician friends.
21: feel like makin’ love – marlena shaw &
22: untouchable face – ani difranco
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back to the emotional relationship roller-coaster soundtrack… that’s all.
23: music is my hot hot sex – CSS
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this band was introduced to me this year. and i have found it very fun and helpful to listen to CSS while coding CSS. music is always playing at my house while i’m here. music is my girlfriend.
24: alla this – ani difranco
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ani’s new album was released this year. and it’s full of happy music. this one is my favorite. “i am many things, made of everything, but i will not be your bank roll. i won’t idle in your drive-thru, i won’t watch your electric sideshow. i got way better places to go.” better places.. like flying to NYC to spend a weekend hanging out with some amazing friends and having an amazing time. oh, and it’s great to have elected a president that i will happily follow and serve. time to un-do all the crap that we’ve buried ourselves in this past 8 years…
25: black hole sun – steve lawson & lobelia
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welcome december and my second house concert… and the wonderful opportunity to meet two great friends (also met through social media… do you see the pattern *now*? i hope so) in person for the first time. what an amazing experience to have two of the most talented and lovely people in my house for a weekend of great music and even greater fun! this show was also recorded.. so check it out here
26: all around me – flyleaf
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it’s been quite a year. but i’m alive.
so not only can the internet be productive and allow me to buy a replacement lamp for my projector for cheaper than i would in the store.. but i can also find this…
i love you internet…
edit: credit for the awesome animated gif find-age is the one and only, the most awesome and stunning, orchid8.
i received this message from a friend of mine the other day. please read and reflect… this situation is not buy revia ok.
… As you may know, last Friday was the Day of Silence, a day that was created to make people aware that gay individuals have been silenced in our society.
Well, I had a full-time job a supplemental instructor in a local high school, tutoring individuals who needed support in their classes. One day, some students asked me if I am gay, and I informed them that I indeed am gay.
Now, my orientation was no choice of my own, but I am now thankful that for it. I am not ashamed of this.
However, the principal told me that I should not have told anyone because my orientation is no one’s business. Normally, that would be the case. However, in a society where my people are publicly persecuted and oppressed
, my personal life immediately becomes relevant to the public. For example, how could Martin Luther King’s message have had the same power if he couldn’t let anyone know that he was black himself? How could Esther plead for her people if she could not tell her husband that she, too, was an Israelite?
Secondly, I wanted to show students by my example that gay people are cool and respectable, and not abnormal, depraved, or predatory, etc. Many of them had never met someone who was gay. I was in a unique place to destroy ignorance.
Unfortunately, the principal fired me because of the truth. My witness at that school was silenced.
Do not feel sorry for me, but pray for my students who wander lost without their mentor, and pray for the man who perjures himself every morning when he affirms his commitment, before God, to the idea of “justice for all.”
discrimination like this is never ok. it is this type of behavior that encourages the undeserved violence and hatred towards LGBT individuals in schools, workplaces and in society.
i say it again…
this
is
not
ok!
well hello there. it’s nice to see you again, my dear blog. sorry for neglecting you for so long. please forgive me.
let me tell you a (really long) story of last weekend. there was this thing called podcamp boston 3, which took place in, yep, you guessed it, boston. i had made these plans to go to boston way back in april of this year, right after i saw sooooo many of my awesome seesmic friends all meeting up at podcamp new york. i will admit.. i became instantly jealous. so i set my sights on the next podcamp that i knew some of my friends would also be attending. so plans for boston were made.
after looking at the insanely expensive price of hotels in boston… i booked a 4 bed room at the YMCA‘s hostel. w00t. 
i had the wonderful pleasure of rooming with rayanne (@rlangdon), miranda (@ilovecpstyle), rick (@raweiss) and the most heavenly box fan. the most interesting thing about the housing arrangements, is that i had never met these three people in person. they drove all the way from toronto, canada.. and arrived in boston around 7am boston time.
i arrived in boston on thursday, and since i tweeted my whole journey… i got a direct message from @orchid8 
with instructions to come out for drinks with her and @philcampbell… which was simply awesome. sarah and phil were just as amazing in person as i knew them online. and btw… yes.. this was another two people i had never met before going to boston. they kept buying me drinks. that turned out to be dangerous. 
then friday started the pre-podcamp festivities. the canadian trio took a bit of a nap, after driving all night. my friend @nikkiana took a quick trip down to boston to hang out at a coffee shop with free wi-fi. the pre-podcamp meetup was at some sports bar right by fenway park. (lets just say that i probably wouldn’t have been in this bar if it weren’t for meeting up with some of my amazing seesmic/twitter friends. ) here started a very interesting phenomenon that continued throughout the weekend. the seesmic people instantly had a deeper bond than all the other attendees. 
it was almost like we had known each other for years… and not months.. or weeks. hugs were instantly exchanged. laughs were a plenty… and pretty much every moment was photographed, videoed, tweeted, plurked, dented or otherwise documented.
throughout the weekend, we attended sessions, seesmiced, chatted, hung out, chatted, seesmiced, laughed, partied, and acted like the best of friends. most of the sessions were filled with information we already knew. but the value of the weekend was in the networking. the human interaction. the “after parties”. the people.
since this is already painfully long, i won’t go into many other details of the events of saturday and sunday.. but i will just say that the podcamp planned parties ended up being horribly disappointing. not because of the people.. but the location. i don’t enjoy paying $20 for a single drink at a bar. i’m not a fan of the run of the mill “sports bar” either. the “seesmic crew” ended up leaving many of these parties and starting our own party. now those were the best moments.
now this leads me to more deeper (more deeper? what?) thoughts on this phenomenon. why did we instantly have this deep connection with people we had never met? there were lots of people at podcamp. some people who knew each other for a 
long time on the web. but there was something deeper about the connection between people who were friends on seesmic. first off.. for those who don’t know what seesmic is, it’s a video conversation engine. basically like a chat room or a message board.. but all video. there’s definitely a more personal connection with someone you can see and hear. you can see their eyes.. you can read their body language… you can hear their tone of voice… you can see them smile.. you can more easily understand their humor/sarcasm.. basically… they become more “real.”
so why did i go to boston? i went to see these people.
was it worth it? more
these are true friends.
