I Ranked Watchmen

I won't get into a big thing here since I talked about the Watchmen so much earlier. What I will tell you is that I ranked Watchmen, and it is my 14th favorite book of all time. I looked for every reason I could think of to rank the book lower than that, and there are none. Watchmen is that good. I reccomend you read it even if you've never read a graphic novel before, even if you've never thought about it.

Also, with the points this book gained him Allan Moore is now my 11th favorite author of all time. Frank Miller was not a fluke, graphic novel authors CAN compete with regular writers.

This Music List is Giving me some problems

What you are about to read will make no sense, start reading at the #.

Mainly that I have a lot more songs than I thought I did. I estimated my total number of songs to rank to be somewhere around 13 hundred. While it may not sound like it this was a perfect number. I could put songs in groups of 12, combine four groups of 12 to make a group of 48, combine three groups of 48 into a group of 144, 3 groups of 144 into a group of 432, and three groups of 432 would be about 1300. But now that I've finished the first two grops of 432, and should only have about 430 left, I now see that I have almost 700 left, which would making the list almost 1600 songs long. Now although it seems like I could just break those 700 songs into two groups and combine 4 into the final list. But that won't work cause when I'm dealing with segments of the list that number in the hundreds I don't like to use more than three groups. Thus I DO need to make 2 more lists. But than once I have four giant lists. I'll need to combine two of them into one list and the other two into one list and than combine those two final lists.


# I just realized that this is going to make absolutely no sense to anyone. Hold on I'll go make a note of that. Okay well the point of this post is that my scheduled introduction of my massive (1,500) list of my favorite songs will be delayed. I lost my early momentum, and am running into problems. However, I am far enough in to say that it deffinately will get done. Hopefully you can expect it by the end of June.

Jobs Jobs Jobs

My guess is I'm looking at two job possibillities for this summer. One job I have already been offered. It involves displaying central air filtration systems to people who have signed up for a free demonstration. The key demographic would be for people with allergies, people having problems with pet dander, and companies that deal in hazzardous chemicals. I realize this sounds like a job that a lot of people would hate, but I think I would really love it. I take pride in my abilaty to throw myself 100 percent into whatever I'm doing, and something really appeals to me about diving head first into utter acceptance and support of a product as random as an air filtration system. Also the money would be good. Every week I'd work about 30 hours and show 7 air filtration systems. If I sold none I'd make 270 dollars. If I sold one 350. If I sold 2, 650. And I'd earn an additional 300 dollars for every unit I sold. Which would be pretty sweet.
Now the other job would be a little bit different. I'd be working one on one with mentally handicapped children and adults. I'd help the in two areas: working on teaching them life skills such as doing dishes, laundry, cooking meals, etc. And also working on their social skills to help them meet new people, make friends, and even just to get out of the house. I also think many people would hate this job, but that I would enjoy it. Not only do I think I would enjoy it but I'm sure I could learn a ton working with the mentally handicapped, and this experience would look great for a teaching interview. But the biggest thing is I feel with this job that I would really be making a difference, which is important to me. Both of these jobs appeal to me in very different ways. I don't have the job with the mentally handicapped yet, so I may not even have to choose. I'll let you know what happens.

Enjoying New Appartment

I got to tell you I'm really liking the new appartment. I just finished putting the last of my stuff away earlier today. It's really looking great. Now don't get me wrong I loved my last appartment, and wouldn't trade my two years there for anything in the world... but let me list you some advantages of the new one:
1. It is tolerabally clean
2. It doesn't shake every 90 minutes from trains driving by
3. It's within 5 blocks of a McDonalds, a Burger King, and a Taco Bell
4. It has a garage
5. I have access to 3 large closets instead of zero
6. The rug in the living room really ties the place together
7. I found a perfect spot to hang my b.b. gun on the wall (although to be fair the spot in my last appartment was perfect too).
8. My couch isn't broken
9. The chair in my living room isn't broken (well it isn't AS broken).
10. I have cable now

Also, I don't know that I can acctually list this as a benifit, but my appartment is within 6 blocks of 4 different sporting goods stores... who needs that many sporting goods in such a confined area? It's bizzare! Anyway, just thought I'd mention that.
But back to the important point... Rochester is great, I'm loving it.

Song Lyrics

Haven't done this in awhile but I wanted to post some song lyrics here. I just got a new group of songs in and theres a ton of good ones, but I'll wait to talk about all of those untill I rank them. For now I just wanted to share the song "rich man's war" by Steve Earl. Some of the best lyrics I've heard in a very long time (probobly since I first heard "I Hung My Head" by Johnny Cash about 7-8 months ago.) Anyway here they are:

Jimmy joined the army ‘cause he had no place to go
There ain’t nobody hirin’ ‘round here since all the jobs went down to Mexico
Reckoned that he’d learn himself a trade maybe see the world
Move to the city someday and marry a black haired girl
Somebody somewhere had another plan
Now he’s got a rifle in his hand
Rollin’ into Baghdad wonderin’ how he got this far
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world
Been a year now and he’s still there
Chasin’ ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

When will we ever learn
When will we ever see
We stand up and take our turn
And keep tellin’ ourselves we’re free

Ali was the second son of a second son
Grew up in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks when the tanks would come
Ain’t nothin’ else to do around here just a game children play
Somethin’ ‘bout livin’ in fear all your life makes you hard that way
He answered when he got the call
Wrapped himself in death and praised Allah
A fat man in a new Mercedes drove him to the door
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

I absolutely love the song and its message. The last verse is particularlly unsettelling. It sends the message that theres not to much difference between the American soliders who volunteer and the middle-eastern terrorists who blow up buses and cafes. This is of chorse an assumption that most people would find offensive and reprehensible. However, whether I believe that or not, I certainly don't think I could go so far as to call this song a lie. It diffinately makes me think.

This song is a great argument for why the peole who argue that politics should be kept out of music are dead wrong. I don't care if a song is about politics, love, death, cloths, food, Elvis, or Taco Bell... if its a good song its a good song.

New Car! New Car!

I bought a new car the other day. It's awsome! It was also entirely neccessary considering that my old car is basically just a 800 pound rock on some wheels right now. But my new car is sweet. It's a dodge... just like Al Bundy used to own. And while I have no knowledge of cars I can say that it has power locks, windows, a compus, and it tells me the temperature. I love it. Oh, and funny story I bought it from a drunk guy. I didn't know he was drunk at the time. My dad and I just figured he was really goofy and kind of stupid. He started out our negotiations by saying that he desperately need to sell the car to buy a truck so he could haul the pontoon boat he just bought. This seemed like a poor stratagic bargainaing desicion, but I wrote it off as stupidity. However, it was odd that he mentioned it three times. Anyway we talked to him the next day and he reported that he had "had a few drinks with his fieance" Remind me never to do that if I'm selling trying to sell a 3,000 dollar car. And in case you are wondering, yes we did talk that drunk bastard down a few hundred dollars.

So I Guess I'm Pretty Much Done with School

Boy that's odd to think. I've spent more or less the past 17-18 years of my life going to school and now I'm done with it. That could easily be a quarter to a third of my life, even if I live a relatively long time. Now all I have left is student teaching and I'm done. I haven't really gotten to upset about school ending. I guess part of this is from moving around so much as a kid. I guess I just sort of have as my frame of reference that you are supposed to say somewhere for a while and than you leave, often never to see any of those people again. However, I think another part of it is that I'm ready to be done with college. This is not to say I didn't love college. The past four years, and the past year especially, have been probobly been one of the best times in my life. But I really do feel that I've accomplished all that I can in college. I'm ready to go out and try to do something productive with my life. And yeah, maybe I'll fail, but whats the fun in trying if theres no chance of failure? Theres a lot of changes coming up in my life... I'm buying a new car this week, moving to a new appartment in a new city next week, hopefully getting a new job that same week, and starting my new hopefully permanant carear in the fall. And to tell you the truth, yeah maybe I'm a little scared, but mostly I'm just excited. I'm coming off what is probobly the best year of my life, and hopefully things will just keep getting better.

Wow, I got really serious there didn't I? I'll try to come back in a couple hours and post some movie rankings or something about graphic novels or something.

The Stockdale 25 Is No More

Bad news friends and faithfull readers. I purchesed the computer I was renting from my University this week. This is not specifically bad news as it cost me only 25 dollars, however this purchase came at a price greater than dollars charged. They reimaged my computer to take away campus software. This completely wiped away everything on my C drive. I did not feel this was a big deal because I felt that everything on my computer that was worth saving was on my D drive. However, the wiping the C Drive reset my windows media player. Thus, all my songs are listed as now having zero plays. So there will be no Stockdale 25. I will be waiting at least a couple of weeks to bring it back so that the top song has more than 3-4 plays. Well, untill than, guess I'll see you when I see you.

The Stockdale Top 25

Better Late than Never I Suppose. Let's see if the extra two days of playing time will result in more changes.

1. Beer for Breakfast, The Replacements (30 plays/+3) LW (1)
2. Cattle and the Creeping Things, The Hold Steady (27 plays/+1) LW (2)
3. Another Traveling Song, Bright Eyes (23 plays/+4) LW (3)
4. Common People, William Shatner (22 plays/+4) LW (4)
5. Screen Door, Uncle Tupelo (21 plays/+3) LW (4)
6. World Destruction, Pyblic Image Limited (20 plays/+4) LW (10)
7. People Who Died, Jim Carroll Band (19 plays/+2) LW (6)
8. Warren Zevon's Gonna Die, Too Hip For The Room (19 plays/+3) LW (12)
9. Rock and Roll McDonalds, Wesley Willis (19 plays) NEW
10. The Factory (Live at Wolfgangs), Warren Zevon (18 plays/+1) LW (7)
11. Rock Island Line, Hohnny Cash (18 plays/+2) LW (9)
12. Corpus Christi Bay, Robert Earl Keen (18 plays/+4) LW (14)
13. Up on the Hill, Ween (18 plays/+4) LW (18)
14. Growing Up (Accustic Demo), Bruce Springsteen (18 plays/+5) LW (25)
15. That's the Way that the World Goes Round, John Prine (18 plays) NEW
16. Breed, Steve Earl (17 plays/+1) LW (8)
17. Ain't That Pretty at All, Warren Zevon (17 plays/+1) LW (11)
18. I Hung My Head, Johnny Cash (17 plays/+3) LW (16)
19. Quiet Man, John Prine (17 plays/+3) LW (19)
20. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Warren Zevon (17 plays/+3) LW (23)
21. Indifferenece of Heaven (Live), Warren Zevon (17 plays/+3) LW (24)
22. Fighting Texas Aggie, Robert Earl Kean (16 plays/+1) LW (13)
23. At the Bottom of Everything, Bright Eyes (16 plays/+2) LW (17)
24. Numb as a Statue, Warren Zevon (16 plays) NEW
25. Push the Little Daisies, Ween (16 plays) NEW

Out from the list this week:
Who Rocks the Party, Les Savy Fav
Feeling Good Again, Robert Earl Keen
Shut Up and Get on the Plane, Drive-By-Truckers
Stevie Nix, The Hold Steady

New Obsession: Guitar Hero

I learned of this game friday, I bought it Sunday, I've played it all day to spite my numerous exams towmorrow. If you haven't heard of it the premis is this: your controller is a big guitar. There is a scrolling screen and you must play the correct chord as it scrolls by on the screen. It sounds dumb... it is unspeakabally fun. I'm half way through on medium. If you have 70 dollars and a PS2 stop reading this and go buy it.
The one area in which it could improve is song selection. Now don't get me wrong... it has good songs... but there could be so much more. What I've included on the bottom is my "Ultimate Guitar Sons Wish List" for Guitar Hero 2 (November). I have included two sections, A "maybe if I'm lucky" and a "I know I'm dreaming but wouldn't it be awesome?" They are listed in alphebetical order.

Maybe If I'm Lucky:
1. You Shook Me All Night Long, AC/DC
2. Again, Alice in Chains
3. Smooth Criminal, Alien Ant Farm
4. She Is Beautiful, Andrew WK
5. Hard to Handle, The Black Crows
6. Paranoid, Black Sabbath
7. Damnit, Blink 182
8. One Way or Another, Blondie
9. Train in Vain, The Clash
10. Sultans of Swing, Dire Straits
11. Do You, Electric Light Orchestra
12. Go Away, Godsmack
13. Welcome to the Jungle, Guns and Roses
14. Lust For Life, Iggy Pop
15. Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash
16. Somebody Told Me, The Killers
17. Freebird, Lynyrd Skynyrd
18. Hair of the Dog, Nazereth
19. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana
20. Bad Habbit, Offspring
21. Bulls on Parade, Rage Against the Machine
22. Black Betty, Ram Jam
23. Paint it Black, Rolling Stones
24. Tom Sawyer, Rush
25. Rock me Like a Hurricane, The Scorpions
26. Rock This Town, Stray Cats
27. Last Night, The Strokes
28. Fox on the Run, Sweet
29. Cat Scratch Fever, Ted Nugent
30. We're Not Gonna Take It, Twisted Sister
31. Dirty Little Thing, Velvet Revolver
32. Blister in the Sun, Violent Femmes
33. Fell in Love With a Girl, White Stripes
34. My Generation, The Who

I Know I'm Dreaming But Wouldn't It Be Awesome?:
1. The Great White Buffalo, Amboy Dukes
2. Satan Gave Me a Taco, Beck
3. Sapceball, Bide Ou Blade
4. What do I Get?, The Buzzcocks
5. Holliday in Cambodia, Dead Kennedys
6. Last Train to Mars, The DethHolz
7. Anyway, Dynamite Hack
8. Danger High Voltage, Electric Six
9. I'll Stick Around, Foo Fighters
10. Squash That Fly, Fu Manchu
11. Ready Steady Go, Generation X
12. Cattle and the Creeping Thins, The Hold Steady
13. Eiffel Tower High, Husker Du
14. People Who Died, Jim Carroll Band
15. High, Jimmy's Chicken Shack
16. Awkward Age, Joe Jackson Band
17. Velvet Underground, Jonathan Richman
18. My Guitar, Jump Little Children
19. Hush, Kula Shaker
20. Who Rocks the Party, Les Savy Fav
21. Jonathan Winters Frankenstein, Man... or Astroman?
22. Stone Cold Crazy, Metallica
23. Last Caress, The Misfits
24. Loose, Primer 55
25. Beer for Breakfast, The Replacements
26. Alternative Ulster, Stiff Little Fingers
27. Warren Zevon's Gonna Die, Too Hip for the Room
28. Head Held High, Velvet Underground
29. Disorder in the House, Warren Zevon
30. Indifference of Heaven, Warren Zevon
31. Doctor Rock, Ween
32. Surf Wax America, Weezer
33. Common People, William Shatner
34. Hockey Monkey, The Zambonies

I decided not to include any bands that already had a song in the first game. I also decided not to let anyone have two songs on the list. However I do have two Warren Zevon songs... but I feel this is justified because Warren Zevon doesn't play the Guitar on "Disorder in the House", Bruce Springsteen does. This is why I was forced to leave the song "Glory Days" off the list. I know I didn't need to explain this to anyone, but at least now I feel better.