Top 10 CDs

As promised, here is the list of my top 10 favorite CDs. Keep in mind that this list fluctuates from time to time, especially in the order, but for the most part it is pretty much the same.

10. Boyz II Men - Evolution



This one was supposed to be a gimme. Since I kicked off the contest by saying how "A Song For Mama" is on one of my favorite CDs of all time, I expected everyone to get it. But unfortunately, not everyone did. Most people think "II" is the best Boyz album, and I do like that CD a lot II, but I personally prefer Evolution. "Human II" is one of the best songs made that was never released as a single, and the remake of "Can You Stand The Rain" is awesome. I love the words to that song. Also, you can definitely tell that Babyface had his influence on this album. Except maybe for R. Kelly, I can't think of any artist more musically gifted in singing/songwriting in the R&B world during the past 10-15 years than Babyface.

9. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time



It's hard to pick between her first and second album, cause they're both good. The tiebreaker is the fact that "You Drive Me Crazy" is on the first, which is by far the best song and video ever done by her. One reason it's not higher on my list is because of the song "Soda Pop", which is just piss poor. But the rest of it is quality sappy music. Something people may not know is that I haven't bought her third CD, "Britney". I guess I'm still a big fan of her, just not as obsessive as some people think. But I did get the McDonald's CD that came out a few years ago. And try to ignore the fact that I have stickers of her in my wallet.

8. Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie



Mellon Collie was more than a 2-CD set, it was a complete musical experience. Of course there are the many famous songs (1979, Tonight Tonight, thirty-three, Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, the list goes on). But there's plenty of good music besides those songs in this set. It came out of the era when their creativity overflowed far beyond what would fit on one disc, and the amazing thing is how smoothly the set is put together.

7. Pearl Jam - Ten



Even though I like Nirvana better overall than Pearl Jam, I think "Ten" is far better than "Nevermind". I like to think of the two bands in terms of their top 2 albums, and "Ten"-"Vs." is still slightly behind "In Utero"-"Nevermind". But of the four, I like "Ten" the best. "Black" is the best Pearl Jam song of all time, at least in my opinion, but it's far from being the only quality song on this album. A definite Top 10 CD fo shizzle.

6. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple



Long before Scott Weiland got too heroin-ed out, STP was the best band of all in my mind. "Big Empty" was a breakthrough song, and "Interstate Love Song" is my favorite of them all. Not to mention the hidden track "12 Gracious Melodies" sealing the deal, that song's hilarious. Sandwiched between the also good "Core" and "Tiny Music", "Purple" was pretty much the reason I started listening to alternative music in the first place, and it's one of the best CDs out of the time when alternative was in its prime.

5. Jars of Clay - Jars of Clay



As expected, nobody got this one, not even my sister. I've always thought of "Christian Rock" to be kind of a hokey term. But if you were to consider it a genre, this album pretty much defines that category. There's good heavy songs like "Liquid" and "Flood", while "Like a Child" and "Love Song for a Savior" make for softer but still great tracks which make this CD so well rounded. Then, "Worlds Apart" just blew me away and maybe because of that song alone, I can't leave it off my top 10 list.

4. Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle



In case you didn't know, I got the title for my blog ("It's a crazy mixed up world, it's a bloggy blog world") from the song "Doggy Dogg World". But that song is probably only the 5th or 6th best track off of "Doggystyle". This CD was revolutionary in the music world and it's stacked with awesome song after awesome song. There was a time in my life when I knew all the words to "Gin and Juice", "Lodi Dodi", and "Tha Shiznit", but not so much anymore. That's how I know I'm getting old, cause I'm forgetting Snoop lyrics.

3. Radiohead - OK Computer



It's amazing how an album can have almost zero hits but be so good. None of the songs on this CD really stick out from the rest, but they are all so good. Put together, it's easily top 5, arguably #1 even. Paranoid Android is one of the weirdest songs ever made, even by Radiohead standards, but it's also one of my favorites. Most people have heard "Karma Police" and of course it's a quality song too. It's a good CD to listen all the way through without ever having to touch the FWD button.

2. Janet Jackson - Velvet Rope



I'm at least a little surprised nobody mentioned this one. I think this album is just awesome, the best Janet CD among a lot of other good ones by her. There's 22 total tracks, which is nuts, even though 7 of them are short interludes. Even more impressive is how many of these songs are big hits. Pretty much all of my favorite Janet Jackson songs are on here, such as "Go Deep", "I Get Lonely", and "Everytime". Then there's Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell on track 4 "Got Til It's Gone", her remake of Rod Stewart's "Tonight's The Night", and "Together Again", the best live song I heard at her concert last year. It's too bad she peaked with this album and her later stuff after it isn't nearly as good.

1. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream



From the beginning to end, this is the CD that defines Smashing Pumpkins and showed me why they were such an elite band. I love the opening drums of "Cherub Rock," the opening guitar of "Today", and the solos in almost all of the songs. I mentioned earlier how Boyz II Men's "Human II" was among the best unreleased songs, well "Mayonaise" probably has to be the tops on that list. This is the purest albums I can think of in terms of its sound, its lyrics, and how it spoke to and for our generation. Not to mention that they are the pride of Chicago.

Honorable Mentions

Nirvana - Nevermind
Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming
DMX - It's Dark and Hell is Hot
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Fugees - The Score

The Winner

And yes, the moment all three of you who entered have been waiting for. The winner of this contest is.... Piya. Congrats goes to him for naming 7 of my top 10. You will receive your reward soon.

Close behind was my sister, who got 6 of the 10. Definitely a good effort. She told me that after she entered her contest, she had a nightmare about losing to Piya. How prophetic. Hope you aren't crying now, meh.

Finally, Vira came in third with a respectable 5 correct. I was very impressed, I didn't think someone who I've only known for a few months would be able to get that many. I'll try to think of a consolation prize for you. Also, she listed the Aladdin Soundtrack, which had me laughing to myself all day. The one bad thing was, she missed Boyz II Men "Evolution". That was supposed to be a gimme, Vira... but it's ok. Didn't end up being too costly of a mistake.

There will be more contests in the future. I'll try to think of better prizes and a topic that more people would participate in next time.

Currently playing on my Winamp - Bombs over Baghdad

Baseball is so close I can breath it. And fantasy baseball is already alive and kicking. That leaves me too excited to write a new blog. So I will dig into my reserves and release the first of my promised political blogs. Assuming I don't get stoned for expressing my opinion, I'll probably eventually release the others.

Political Blog #1 - War on Iraq?

For months now, the top debate in this country (and maybe the world) has been the issue of "disarming" Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destructions. We've seen UN Resolutions, we've seen weapons inspectors sent, Bush's State of the Union speech and plenty of rhetoric in regards to the question of whether or not we need to use military force on Iraq. A few weeks ago, "chemical warheads" were found, and the world braced for war. Not too long after that, Saddam Hussein vowed to "break the neck" of America if war were to occur. Not too long ago, Colin Powell presented the UN with intelligence showing how Iraqi officials have been grossly misleading and deceiving UN inspectors. President Bush has given Saddam "one last chance", the UN has given "one last chance", and now the EU has given "one last chance".

And after all this, what? Absolutely nothing has happened. Every day, I read and watch the news, and it's the same thing. United States and Great Britain trying to prove that Iraq is not disarming and force is necessary, the other major countries reluctant to follow. The Iraqi UN Ambassador claiming that George Bush and Tony Blair are lying, that Iraq has disarmed and has no weapons of mass destruction. The American people being polled and saying they would only support war if the UN backed it.

Now, I should mention that I work at a large defense contractor which is (supposedly) in a position to benefit from this potential war. Maybe this is a fact that would sway my opinion. But, in all honesty, I am writing this with as little bias as I can imagine. In reality, Northrop Grumman does not gain in direct relation to what happens in Iraq; its fate lies in the hands of existing contracts and the federal defense budget in coming years. Even if it did, the effect that such a gain would have on me as an individual is rather minimal. So everything that I am writing is based on how I feel and have felt anyways, independent of where I'm working.

So how do I feel about war on Iraq? Well, first of all, let's not kid ourselves here - this whole thing is not all about removing weapons of mass destruction or saving the Iraqi people from the oppression from evil Saddam. There's plenty of countries in this world that are developing these weapons, and there's plenty of evil rulers out there besides Saddam. North Korea is only the most recently available example. If there was anything worth fighting for in North Korea, believe me, we would've hit those fools a long time ago. But all they have is an evil leader, a lot of starving and suffering people, and a bunch of missiles aimed at the South. That's about it, and sadly it's not enough to make that situation a priority.

But with that said, I still believe we need to support our president in this cause, however tainted his intentions may be. First of all, it's annoying to listen to some of the people talk about why we shouldn't to go to war. They're led by "celebrity activists", 95% of whom don't know jack about the real world. Inevitably, you end up hearing things like "this doesn't affect me" or "I don't see a 'smoking gun' that requires us to go to war".

People, it's been less than 2 years since we watched our own planes being flown into the tallest buildings in our largest city, causing mass chaos and killing thousands of American citizens within our very own country in which we are supposed to feel so safe in. It's been only 60 years since the world narrowly escaped being overrun by Nazis and Japanese imperialists while the American people sat around saying "this war doesn't have anything to do with me".

Is it going to take another 9/11, another Pearl Harbor to wake up this lazy and ignorant public consciousness? Let's face it, things that happen around the world do affect us, one way or another. Guys like Saddam having VX and nerve gas does matter. Why sit around waiting until things have built up beyond our control to do something? Certain disasters are preventable, but not by people standing by and looking the other way.

Now, it doesn't help that Saddam Hussein is one of the shadiest men on this planet right now. Whether or not he starves and tortures his own people, I don't know for sure. But from the Gulf War experience, we do know that the guy has no qualms about using chemical and biological weapons if he has them. We know that he was crazy enough to set his own oil fields on fire when defeat was imminent. Do you think we should sit around and wait for a guy like him to build up weapons of mass destruction? Removing a guy like him from power would be doing his people, and the world a giant favor anyways.

So while this potential war on Iraq might still be more oil-motivated than anything, it is not without other justifications. If you are against war, I urge you to stop and think for a moment, why? If it's because you think this subject doesn't affect you, think again. If it's reluctance to serve your country, shame on you. As for me, I may not agree wholeheartedly with this war, and I might not like everything the President is saying. But I strongly believe in supporting our leader in this situation, not undermining his authority. "United we stand, Divided we fall." Right now we see not only a nation, but a world divided, because of what? Because there's no overt "smoking gun"? Because he doesn't have nukes? Because he hasn't yet made any attacks on American soil?

Nobody likes to go to war. But we would not be sitting here, enjoying our freedoms, watching Joe Millionaire and the Bachelorette, were it not for brave souls who fought the Revolutionary War. We would probably still have slavery if the Civil War was never fought. No, war was not "necessary" in either case either, and yes, innocent people died in those wars. But it was for the greater good of mankind. This Iraq situation may not be as noble as fighting for liberty or to free slaves, but I believe it will improve the lives of many (including the Iraqis themselves) and provide greater security and stability in this world. I end with just the following quote, one of my favorites:

"All that is necessary for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke, English philosopher

Contest

Okay, I have zero entries for my contest and only 2 people have even expressed interest in entering. Maybe it's time to spice up the pot. Understandably, my prizes aren't that great. Anyone can buy you a drink, it's been done before in other contests anyways. So I thought, what can I offer that no one else can? Sad, but the best answer I could come up with was a kiss on the cheek from me.

Now, I know that very few people are gonna enter a contest just for the potential of a small peck on the cheek, but I can't really give anything more than that or Olivia will get mad.

Fortunately, today I got 2 new prize options which might lure more entries. Option #1 is a 2-baseball card set I picked up from the bottom of the box of Honeycomb that I've been eating since senior year, the days of Pact. The cards feature 2 of the best catchers in Major League Baseball of recent years: Mike Piazza and Jason Kendall. They are in mint condition, still in original plastic wrap.

The other is a Northrop Grumman little clock/calculator combo, which management gave all the engineers today in honor of N.E.W. (see post from 2 days ago). It's pretty snazzy actually, it folds up for compact convenient transport. There is a light button, alarm feature, stopwatch, plus the fashionable Northrop Gumman Electronic Systems Logo adorns the cover. A picture follows:



And yes, I am willling to part with either one of the above mentioned prizes. If you can name a good amount of my favorite CDs, you earned it. Looking at the list I have, it's tough, I doubt anyone reading this knows me well enough to name them all. But I encourage you all to try.

Currently playing on my Winamp: 50 Cent & Nate Dogg - 21 Questions
Nate Dogg is awesome, but only when he's doing someone else's song. I don't think I know any solo Nate Dogg songs.

***

Ok, this was a cheap blog, so I will release the following short story I've written. Once again, it involves Starcraft, but written in a different style. It's kind of long. I don't know how well people will like my writing, but I have a couple other stories and maybe I will post those if this one is popular. Don't want people to think I'm too big of a nerd than they already do though.

Broodwar Adventures - Episode 1

It was a dark time in the land of Pittszergh. Minerals were scarce, Vespene Gas was nowhere to be found, and the few overlords that remained were weak and dying.

But to Harry Hydralisk, life was grand. His friends would always wonder how Harry could stay upbeat in such a bleak environment. Harry's father had skipped town when he was yet an egg, leaving his mother and older sister to raise young Harry and struggle to make ends meet.

It was a wonder that their family had made it this far, but even now they had to constantly worry about their next meal and fight for survival. In all practicality, Lurker College was gonna be out of the question for Harry, and he would likely end up being a normal patrol-lisk or worse yet, a front line Hydra in battle.

Still, none of this ever seemed to bother Harry, a strapping lad now in his mid-teens and feeling quite invincible. "Hakuna Matata", he'd always say. "It means no worries, for the rest of your days. It's a problem free... philosophy.... Hakuna Matata".

For though he was still young, he understood that to be alive was to be lucky. Every day he'd see the starving, undeveloped larvae outside the hatcheries, and felt fortunate himself for what little that he had. Compared to them, he thought, what he had was a lot indeed.

Early one morning, Harry woke up and got ready for school. Today was a day he'd been waiting for weeks to arrive, because they were finally gonna learn how to burrow. He ate his breakfast quickly and headed out with his normal exuberant step.

"Make sure you bring your umbrella," said his mother, "weather.com says there's a chance of Psi Storm today."

"Oooo-kayyy", said Harry, who was already halfway out the Den. As much as he hated being babied by his mama, she was just looking out for him, and she was usually right. After all, she was older, wiser, and could still give him a solid whoopin if called for.

So Harry, with umbrella in hand, went on his way to school. The walk to Kerrigan High was about a 20 minute hike. Distance wise, it wasn't all that far, but it was a winding path filled with hills and curves. There was, however, a shortcut that could get him there in 10. The only problem was, that path would take him through a part of Protoss territory. His mother always warned him never to wander that way, which was indeed rather dangerous, although Harry knew of many schoolmates who took that route regularly without any trouble.

But this time, Harry wanted to be first to class and be in the front for burrow training, and, perhaps feeling a little extra spicy that day, he decided to ignore his mother's admonitions and take the shortcut anyways.

He was hardly a few steps into Protoss territory when a patrolling zealot spotted him and began to approach.

"Son of a Broodling!" he shouted, and immediately began to flee. He'd run his way through Protoss land to safety back in Pittszergh and its friendly sunken colonies yet. But the zealot gained all too rapidly, much to Harry's chagrin; this one had obviously undergone the leg upgrade.

In no time, Harry was overtaken and he would be forced to fight for his own survival. As a young healthy Hydralisk, Harry still had a chance of defeating the zealot, if he was lucky.

Unfortunately, by choosing to run first instead of fight, he had already forfeited what was perhaps his only advantage over the powerful zealot: range. Nevertheless, Harry quickly unleashed a fury of spines at the zealot, who was momentarily stunned by the onslaught but shrugged them off and began an assualt of his own.

The struggle continued for what seemed like hours, which were actually only mere seconds in battle. Harry's barrage of spines were gradually wearing down his opponent's plasma shields, but he was taking significant damage himself from the devastating psi blades. It soon became apparent that he was going to lose this battle if things continued the way they were going.

Suddenly, an thought struck: "use the umbrella, Harry!" said a voice, as if Obi-Wan Kenobi himself were in his head. Quickly, Harry unsheathed his umbrella and began using it to parry the Psi blades while continuing to spit his spines as before. Surprisingly, the umbrella withstood and absorbed the blows of the Psi blades easily, rendering them rather worthless.

The zealot, taken aback by the turn of events, saw that he was now outmatched and retreated from the fight. Harry, meanwhile, breathed a deep sigh of relief and wasted no time in taking the opportunity to run to school. Surely the zealot would soon return with more of its kind, and Harry wanted no part of that fight.

By the time he reached school, he was out of breath, though at least his battle wounds were all but healed. He looked at his watch: still 5 minutes early!

As Harry found a seat at the front, he glanced at the umbrella that saved his life and managed to crack a weak smile to himself at his little adventure. But some hard lessons had been learned that morning that he would never forget. Never wander through Protoss territory, always bring an umbrella, and above all else, listen to your mama!

Thoughts By Joe Thousandaire (me)

Like 40 miillion other suckers in this country, I watched the end of Joe Millionaire last night. What a sweet ending. Couldn't have been gayer even if Richard Simmons was Joe Millionaire.

Anyways, I was thinking about the whole thing. Would I want $50 million, or $1 million, for that matter, if it were just handed to me? At first the answer seems obvious. You gotta be stupid not to take it.

But other than blowing it on Ferraris, a nice crib, and premium heroin, how fulfilling is it to just have all that money fall in your lap? Do I really want to go through life just living off of someone's gift?

Okay, so I'd still take the money, of course. You know what though, it's a waste of your existence to go through life and not accomplish anything meaningful before you die. That's why I don't play the lottery, cause it's such a sad concept to me. That, and it's a waste of a dollar.

Even though my bank account is pretty modest right now, it's still rewarding to see it go up by however little it does each week. Why? Because I worked for it, because I earned it. One day in the future I am confident that I will make millions on my own, by working hard to reach my goals. I don't need no stupid show for that. For now, I'm just little Joe Thousandaire Systems Engineer.

Currently playing on my Winamp: Britney Spears - Email My Heart

Contest is still going. So far, as expected, I have 0 entries. It's a tough contest, I'll admit, I doubt anyone reading this blog will be able to get anything close to all 10. But if you happen to be the only one who enters, you automatically win. Well, I'm gonna throw in a clause: if you choose retarded CDs like Enrique Iglesias, then you are disqualified. I ain't buyin no drink for any Enrique lovers. I especially ain't kissin no Enrique lover's cheek.

Also, don't know if this applies to anyone, but I am sorry if anyone has tried to comment in the past few days. It's been acting funny lately, but I think it's ok now.

National Engineers Week

Unless you live under a giant rock somewhere in Ethiopia, you probably know that today was the start of National Engineers Week. It's the week out of the year when we as a country celebrate the innovation, ingenuity, and dashing good looks that have become characteristic of engineers. America already loves us, that's why we get such friendly terms coined for us like "enginerds", but this week especially we should all take time to recognize how awesome engineers are.

A great way to kick off the weeklong celebration is by working on on a national holiday. What better demonstration of engineers' coolness than showing up at your job on President's Day, when everyone else is at home? We don't need to "sleep" or "go to the Auto Show", that stuff's for losers.

Since I can't possibly fit in all the cool info about N.E.W. in this blog, I'll just refer you all to the following website: http://www.eweek.org, note the feature "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Pledge Roster" or "ASME Engineers Introduce Girls To Engineering". I wonder if there are programs like that in other professions, when there aren't enough people of a certain group represented. Like "Introduce a Chinese guy to NBA Basketball" or "Introduce a white guy to rapping".

Which also makes me wonder, do white people like Eminem for the same reason Asians like Yao Ming? I mean, they are both good at what they do, but you don't see all the Chinese people in Chicago go to the United Center to watch Tracy McGrady when he comes to town, you know? It's like each of those guys is idolized because they are proof that you can be Chinese and be a baller, or you can be white and rap. So it's someone the respective races can identify with and look up to.

I just spent like half an hour updating my computer with software patches and stuff. Interesting how I don't do it when the news tells me that my computer's security is at risk if I don't download a patch. But I make sure to upgrade right away when ESPN.com has new features that take advantage of newer Windows Service Packs and stuff.

Currently playing on my Winamp: Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
In honor of all the great publicity Michael has been receiving lately. Can his popularity soar any higher?

Oh, and the contest is still going on. Pick my top 10 favorite albums and you get a kiss on the cheek or a free drink.