It’s end-of-the-year time. As has been tradition here over the last couple years, I’m going to make a list of things I’d like to do/achieve in the coming year.

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Tags: health, iPhone, life, music
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I had an opportunity to capture this video while I was out for a walk yesterday:

We had fun when we took the train to Monterey. I hope we get to take another train trip sometime in 2011. I do miss being in an area with commuter trains like the ones in the Chicago. Trains in this part of California are for long trips only. No commuter trains here.

My friend Stephanie is on a train right now, on her way to Bakersfield. I hope she’s having an OK time. I said I’d walk down to the level crossing (the one seen in the video above) and wave at her train as she passes through San Luis Obispo. I’m not sure when her train comes through. I do know it’ll be going the opposite direction of the train in the video.

My friends Erk and Squeak are train drivers in Australia. I think that’s pretty cool. Also, my friends Woosang and Drue control the trains in Australia and tell them where to go. That’s cool, too.

This concludes today’s bit of train-inspired randomness. I need to get some sleep.

Tags: Amtrak, California, Flickr, San Luis Obispo
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It’s the end of the year. As such, many of the music blogs I read have been posting their end-of-year lists. I find a lot of stuff on these lists that I’ve never heard. I’ve been giving some thought as to why that is. I have a few ideas.

1.) Since leaving the orbit of a major metropolis and moving to relatively-small San Luis Obispo, I’ve lost certain connections with mainstream media. I used to listen to WXRT a lot, and while the station’s legend grows ever-more blighted in these modern times, it was (and probably still is) one of Chicago’s best sources for new music. I don’t actively listen to the radio much these days, and even if I did, the closest approximation to ‘XRT in my area would be the local college radio station. Most of the time, my stereo receiver can’t even pick up the college station’s low-power signal, and because it’s a college radio station it’s very… college radio-y. It’s not really the same thing as WXRT.

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Tags: California, Chicago, Illinois, Jim DeRogatis, music, Pomplamoose, San Luis Obispo, Vampire Weekend, YouTube
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Me and Jen put together this special Christmas medley song and video in honor of this fine holiday season. Download the mp3 and share it with the loved ones.

(Comments welcome here.)

Tags: Christmas, GeminiDragon, YouTube
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Earlier this year, I purchased a new computer monitor. The monitor was set up on my desk like this:

Nice ghetto monitor stand there.

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Tags: health, Optic Atrophy
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Spent some time today shopping. In the rain. My mom got a ride down from Atascadero to my place. We rode the bus together to the other end of town. The rainy season has arrived here on the central coast. It’s been raining since late Thursday night. I know I complain a lot about our lack of rain. I guess the atmosphere reads my blog.

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Tags: California, Flickr, rain, San Luis Obispo, SLO RTA, SLO Transit
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With 2011 fast approaching, I’ve been giving some thought to an idea I had earlier this year. I haven’t covered this idea before because, well, there hasn’t been much to say. Those of you who’ve followed my Internet exploits for awhile know that my websites have moved around a bit. And indeed, I had been contemplating another move. I did some prospecting of potential domain names. I even found one I kinda liked. I was thinking that what I’d really like to do would be to move away from a traditional blog-style site. I was even thinking of starting a wiki that would contain all of my photos and various audio bits and videos and anything else. A singular place that would hold all of my stuff and would also allow outside users to expand on whatever was there. An interesting idea, perhaps. But what’s the point? I guess that’s the ultimate question.

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Tags: blogging, podcast, Shawnogram
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I’ve been sick. It’s the usual November/December sinus/lung/whatever garbage. I went through the absolute worst of it over the weekend before last. I think I’m on the mend now for real, and hopefully I’ll be over it in a few days.

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Tags: health, life, World of Warcraft
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