2008 lyric choices

Here's a list of songs I pulled lines from:

the big star is falling, through the static and distance = Magnolia Electric Co, Farewell Transmission

you should follow me down. there's no color and no sound in a black and white town

= Doves, Black and White Town

with two cats in the yard life used to be so hard

= Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Our House

what begins as an unguarded train of thoughts slowly can become an addition to slumber

= School of Seven Bells, Half Asleep

the hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new land to fight the horde, and sing and cry: Valhalla I am coming! = Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song

oh baby you, you've got what I need, but you say he's just a friend = Biz Markie, Just a Friend

don't leave a key underneath that mat for me
= The Postmarks, Goodbye

but she didn't know how fortune swings, the price you pay when disaster sings = Firekites, Same Suburb Different Park

we burnt to the ground left a grave to admire = Beirut, Sunday Smile

patience is a virtue until its silence burns you = TV on the Radio, Love Dog

and then they show me a world where I can be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical = Supertramp, The Logical Song

he can't believe the love I give is not enough to end your fears = Phoenix, Too Young

hand let go of his with ease n' grace, don't let him bleed under your nails

= Emiliana Torrini, Hold Heart

I was good with names, I had a way with faces

= Destroyer, European Oils

snowshoes and hunters carried the curtail for you

= Midlake, Young Bride

and if you really want to shake it off, you've got to re-arrange us = Mates of State, The Re-arranger

no escape from the circling place

= The Notwist, Where in this World

and ricochet on how I need you

= Sea and Cake, Crossing Line

forgot to carry the zero

= Built to Spill, Carry the Zero

they are intelligent; they are smarter than the most up-to-date supercomputers, we cannot underestimate them = Man or Astroman, Theme from Eeviac

Animal Crossing: City Folk: with two cats in the yard life used to be so hard

Time to make the donuts. Already made the donuts.

Nintendo's newest release Animal Crossing: City Folk is just the game to teach little Billy how the grip of the real world can trudge on with no real end in sight to only be taunted with an inflated overpriced economy and large communication problems with neighbors. Ok it's not that bad but if you were to play it non-stop for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, most of the year it would feel like that.

I myself did not purchase or have any intention of playing this game whatsoever but alas a wife that loved the original Gamecube version was almost destined to buy a sequel. The only real great reason and reward for playing the old Gamecube version was the ability to play classic Nintendo games such as Balloon Fight and Super Mario Bros as they could be collected as items to place in your character's house. Not doing any research or reviewing prior to buying AC:CF was probably a large mistake on both of our parts. What makes a sequel good for a franchise is more of the same with new innovations (Fallout, Call of Duty). AC:CF has barely anything new to it when compared to the original and in the end feels like the old grind of collecting, fishing, and conversing that was great the first time but leaves a bad aftertaste to have to do it all again without any new types of experiences.

Very few games that are not MMO in nature utilize the time system employed in the Animal Crossing series. It's a great long term experience to witness the real time changes, events, and environment evolution dependant on the time of day or year as long as it was only done in small snippets every few weeks. There are holiday events, birthdays, bugs to collect that only appear at night, etc and all of this could be experienced in the short term if you were smart enough to mess with the console's time clock to pull an 88mph fast one.

The largest goal (if there really even is one) was furnishing your house with lots of random quirky items some of which were so rare that people would gloat and tout their findings on forums and phone calls alike till you became so disgusted with the game that a running microwave oven seemed like a good home for the disc. A new feature to AC:CF is the ability to travel to other player towns via Internet connectivity and even go to an auction house setting where collected items can be bid on or sold between players.

Overall AC:CF is great for those that have never played an Animal Crossing game before but for those that have, I'd suggest skipping this one entirely. Instead go spend your cash on something more worthy like a new suit and tie so you can go out an get a real job like your parents did. The bums lost Nintendo!

Logitech Squeezebox: what begins as an unguarded train of thoughts slowly can become an addition to slumber

Much to the hatred of those that attribute the whole idea of a portable personal music device solely to Apple's iPod invention, portability in music can been seen more now than any decade before it even though I have the distinct reoccurring memory of you wearing knee-high tube socks, roller skates, black wife-beater, and a TPS-L2 Walkman cassette player back when you dated that girl that only listened to ABBA.

Some things that have spawned from the last five years in portability and wireless capability with music players are nice gadgets such as these handy ones from Logitech. Named after that thing that your momma plays on when daddy comes home never letting him get no rest, the Squeezebox Duet and Boom are two great additions to those that have and love to play music all night in their homes.

Not focused on the idea of portability, these devices use wi-fi and ethernet connections to allow for an all-in-one listening station. If you are like me and have digital music contained within multiple devices or want to pull music from Internet based services such as Sirius, Rhapsody, Pandora, or podcasts and free Internet radio these babies can and willingly give in to your hearing desires. Along with these is one of the more unique services Live Music Archive which contains a lot of high bit rate recordings of various musicians. Both devices have some of the best compatibility around and also do not mess with default settings of any computer that they connect to (make this your default player?, guess the right answer to click to continue...).

The biggest difference between the two is that the Duet (below) hooks to your home stereo system to output the music where the Boom (Above) is well, a self contained stereo. The Boom and is great for someone that doesn't own an expensive home stereo unit but if you are one of the lucky ones that has come into owning a good system, the Duet is a better choice.


The Duet's biggest selling point is that it comes with a great remote that controls much like the iPod (there are you happy now that I used the iPod as a standard for comparative purposes?). Its display is as good as an iPod and can be used at quite a distance away from the receiver box.

Being one of the better external hardware companies that focuses on computer based products, Logitech offers this gadget at one of the most affordable prices coming in at $270-400 for either choice. It seems like a steep amount but the next step above it is Sono's at $1000 and things go upward from there in price. Well either that or some very cheap piece of technology that's more of a hassle than just putting your computer next to your TV and stereo on some cement bricks and old stacks of vinyl like the Trashmen.

A downside to these systems are that they are really only for people that wish play their music in a different room of their home than their music holding device is located. If you happen to have a good set of computer speakers within the same room that you do most of your entertaining then this is even more of a luxury than you'd want to admit.

Hey I know damn well you would love to hear Kate Perry blasting out of your $5000 speakers while you cook some creme brulle in the kitchen and then move into the bathroom for some more intimate grooming and need to switch it right away to Kellie Pickler for the occasion, so rally up some coin and buy yourself a squeezebox to Git R' Dun.

CNet's Reviews:
Logitech Squeezebox Boom
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
PCWorld's Review:
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
Googled Reviews:
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
Logitech Squeezebox Boom

Oh and for those of you thinking about what to get your loved one for Christmas and the Logitech Squeezebox can't be found in your checkbook, then you might want to consider this instead.