New Years’ Resolution #27 is Wicked Cool!

That’s right. I’m making a list. I have never done this before. Only mental footnotes that somehow manage to get erased by mid January. I am writing this one up, with actual pen and paper. I have finalized the list. Color-coded it based on priority. Laminated. Framed. Snippets…

NYResolution #14: Cut one hour of average “Blogging time”

NYResolution #9: Read at least 21 non-academic books in 2006. Preferbly best-sellers as not to feel obsolete.

NYResolution #27: Incorporate the phrases “sweet!” and “wicked-cool” more often into daily language.

New semester starts in a few days and I am sick of the thought of classes. Thankfully I only have to about 2 or 3 times a week for a bit. Yup, but I’ll be stuck at home writing research papers; more time to blog! Oh no wait.

But how does one enjoy oneself in the few days before the last holiday for about a year comes to a crashing end? The beach, shopping malls or anything really that involves walking outside is pretty much out of the question in cold Toronto weather. Basically it’s a process which involves waking up and then finding random ways to kill time. Does anyone remember The Shining where the guy goes crazy and starts screaming: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Yeah, that’s me.

And it’s times like these I really wish I was in Amman. At least there the process of not doing anything is overshadowed by the preoccupation of doing anything. Like Seinfeld said: “I am so busy doing nothing that the idea of doing anythingâ?? which as you know, always leads to somethingâ?? cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.” That’s Amman in the winter (which I havenâ??t experienced since 2000-2001 sadly). A season where hot chocolate with marshmallows is replaced with hot Arabic coffee with unidentifiable objects floating in it. And you donâ??t have to wear layers of clothes that make you waddle instead of walk. Oh and the roasted chestnuts and clementines. I like winter in Amman more than summer for some reason.

Ah well. That’s my life. Maybe next year.

I’ve updated the Black Iris Radio to play whatever it is I am currently listening to. A few mellow songs and a few that are a bit more up beat. A lot of it is oldies material for me but a few people might be discovering something new here. For some reason I am into Kanye Wests’ “Heard’em Say” with Adam Levine from Maroon 5. Maybe all hope is not lost for hip hop.

Snow Patrol has a new album with some of their songs done live and acoustic. In that spirit I’ve been listening to “Run” and “How to be Dead”. Also from David Grey’s new album is “Slow Motion”

Chantel Kreviazuk, a Canadian with a hard to pronounce last name, has a nice song entitled “Time”, which I’m not sure if it got enough play time world wide.

A little older is “Under Water” for Vertical Horizon and “Return to Me” by Mathew Ryan. And while I do not particularly like A Perfect Circle I do love their song “3 Libras”. There is nothing better than acoustic guitar-led songs with orchestra backgrounds. There is also a live acoustic version of the song somewhere out there. Lastly, there’s one of my favorite Third Eye Blind tracks “Darkness” from the second album Blue.

So check’em out. There up on the radio for a week.