Remember, tomorrow is national wear blue day for colon cancer awareness. http://bit.ly/aVVzA2 /via @Swedish

And I thought, blue. For colon cancer, really, BLUE?

At least with breast cancer there’s a (possibly tenuous, and definitely 12-year-old-humour) link with its color. Pink = areola, so obvious.

But blue? For colon-cancer awareness?

Though we all know why they couldn’t choose the most obvious color, brown:

Everyone would spend the day being mistaken for UPS deliverypersons.

This is from my master playlist, which usually contains in the neighborhood of 3,000 songs based on the following general criteria.

• Genre contains none of the following: Opera; Classical; Operetta; Holiday
• Not skipped in the last 30 days
• Songs with higher play counts play less frequently—for example, if a song has been played 501-750 times, it can’t have been played in the last 3 days; if a song has been played 1500 times or more, it can’t have been played in the last 7 days
• Higher-rated songs play less frequently—3 stars can play no more often than every 3 days, 5-star songs no more often than every 5 days

With these qualifications, I regularly encounter songs and artists I had forgotten about or even had no idea were in my collection, along with a scattering of songs I recognize and a few I really love. Good way to cycle through the just shy of 16,000 songs that fit the genre limitations without getting sick of any of them.

Most recently played song listed first, Song name — Artist, Album.

1. Coral Gardens — Deuter, Sea & Silence
2. Bring the Peace — Mary McLaughlin, Celtic Voices: Women of Song
3. Tom Egan — Kate MacLeod, Kat Eggleston, Drawn From the Well
4. Black Star — Radiohead, The Bends
5. Time — Hootie & The Blowfish, Cracked Rear View
6. Only You — Harry Connick, Jr., Only You
7. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic — The Police, Every Breath You Take: the Classics
8. I Want It All — Queen, Classic Queen
9. Tweeter and the Monkey Man — The Traveling Wilburys, The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1
10. It’s All Right with Me — Tom Waits, Red Hot + Blue: a Tribute to Cole Porter
11. No Valentines — Elton John, Love Songs
12. Cigano (For the Gypsies) — Steve Winwood, About Time
13. Do It Again — Diana Krall, When I Look in Your Eyes
14. Shining Song — Steve Winwood, Roll with It
15. Frank & Lola — Jimmy Buffett, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads (Disc 2)
16. If I Turn You Away — Vicki Moss, St. Elmo’s Fire
17. The Stake — Steve Miller Band, Greatest Hits: Steve Miller Band 1974-78
18. New World — Leroy, 10 Things I Hate About You
19. She’s the Only One — Bread, Anthology
20. Sleep to Dream Her — Dave Matthews Band, Everyday
21. Heart of Glass — Blondie, Awesome ’80s
22. Everybody’s Talkin’ — Harry Nilsson, Singers & Songwriters, Vol. 1
23. Wounded — Third Eye Blind, Blue
24. Cry Like an Angel — Shawn Colvin, Steady On
25. Brian Wilson — Barenaked Ladies, Barenaked Ladies: All Their Greatest Hits 1991-2001
26. Miles Away — Marc Cohn, Marc Cohn
27. Don’t Fade Away — Dead Can Dance, Toward the Within
28. Stone Cold Crazy — Queen, Classic Queen
29. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite — R.E.M., Automatic for the People
30. One (Is the Loneliest Number) — The Tao of Groove Feat. Leslie King, Bliss: Essential Lounge Tracks
31. Heaven Is One Step Away — Eric Clapton, Crossroads (Disc 4)
32. Walking in Memphis — Marc Cohn, The Very Best of Marc Cohn
33. Lothlórien — Enya, Only Time: the Collection (Disc 2)
34. After the Fall — October Project, Falling Farther In
35. Walking On — Steve Winwood, About Time
36. The Part That Really Matters — The Proclaimers, This Is the Story
37. 6060-842 — The B-52’s, The B-52’s
38. Whenever God Shines His Light — Van Morrison, Best of van Morrison
39. Too Much Food — Jason Mraz, Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom
40. My Immortal — Evanescence, Fallen
41. Golden Phone — Micachu & the Shapes, Jewellery
42. New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 — R.E.M., Automatic for the People
43. Abyss Crossed — Archetribe, Earthtones
44. Let It Ride — Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Cold Roses (Disc 2)
45. Me and My Medicine — Kate MacLeod, Trying to Get It Right
46. These Walls — Grey Eye Glances, Eventide
47. Evil — Derek and The Dominos, Crossroads (Disc 3)
48. Country Comfort — Elton John, To Be Continued... (Disc 1)
49. Dip or Dive — Handful of Luvin’, Land of Giants
50. This Nearly Was Mine — Lindsey Buckingham, Out of the Cradle
51. Come to Me — Vangelis, Reprise: 1990-1999
52. Witchcraft — Frank Sinatra, All the Best (Disc 2)
53. 10 in Fiction — Isis, Panopticon
54. Primitive — Beth Patterson, Take Some Fire
55. The Blue Sky — A-Ha, Hunting High and Low
56. Lord of the Street — Steve Winwood, Junction Seven
57. Days Gone By — Carbon Leaf, 5 Alive! (Live) (Disc 2)
58. ’deed I Do — Diana Krall, Live in Paris
59. Put on Your Dancing Shoes — Steve Winwood, Roll with It
60. This Doesn’t Have to Be Love — Wilson Phillips, Shadows & Light
61. It’s Probably Me — Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
62. Forgotten Years — Midnight Oil, Blue Sky Mining
63. Kevin’s Graduation — Randy Newman, Parenthood
64. My Brave Face — Paul McCartney, Flowers In the Dirt (Remastered)
65. Nadine — New London Fire, I Sing the Body Holographic
66. Melody of Love — Frank Sinatra, All the Best (Disc 1)
67. Blackbirds — Erin McKeown, Distillation
68. Hard to Say I’m Sorry/Get Away — Chicago, Greatest Hits: Chicago 1982-1989
69. The Power of Love — Céline Dion, All the Way... a Decade of Song
70. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out — Eric Clapton, Unplugged
71. La Serenissima — Loreena McKennitt, The Book of Secrets
72. In Caelum Fero — Karl Jenkins, Adiemus 1: Songs of Sanctuary
73. Falling — Mindy Smith, One Moment More
74. I Can’t Break It to My Heart — Delta Goodrem, Delta
75. Ain’t Love a Lot Like That — George Jones, Cold, Hard Truth
76. Dienda — Sting, All This Time
77. Infidel — Five For Fighting, The Battle for Everything
78. With or Without You — U2, The Joshua Tree
79. He’ll Be Back — Lee Ann Womack, Something Worth Leaving Behind
80. Let You Down — Dave Matthews Band, Crash
81. Wait for Me — Frank Sinatra, All the Best (Disc 1)
82. You Oughta Know (Alternate) — Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill
83. Common Pleasure — Jason Mraz, Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom
84. Message in a Bottle — The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Classics
85. Everything About It Is a Love Song — Paul Simon, Surprise
86. Blue Eyes — Elton John, Greatest Hits: Elton John, Vol. 3 (1979-1987)
87. Night And Day — U2, Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter
88. Connla’s Well — Karl Jenkins, Adiemus 4: the Eternal Knot
89. Strange Brew — Cream, Crossroads (Disc 1)
90. They Don’t Dance Like Carmen No More — Jimmy Buffett, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads (Disc 3)
91. For You — Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman
92. Golden Slumbers — The Beatles, Abbey Road
93. Real Deal — George Jones, Cold, Hard Truth
94. No Gringo — Vienna Teng, Inland Territory
95. A Case of You — Diana Krall, Live in Paris
96. Storms in Africa — Enya, Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya
97. Signe — Eric Clapton, Unplugged
98. High and Dry — Radiohead, The Bends
99. Underneath the Bunker — R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant
100. It Was Happiness — Steve Winwood, Talking Back to the Night
101. Vanilla Twilight — Owl City, Ocean Eyes
102. You Never Know — Hanson, This Time Around
103. Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You — Diana Krall, All for You: A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio
104. Big Time — Peter Gabriel, So
105. Johnny — October Project, Falling Farther In
106. If That’s What It Takes — Céline Dion, Falling Into You
107. Stardust — Glenn Miller, The Essential Glenn Miller (Disc 1)
108. Hands Open — Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
109. Malted Milk — Eric Clapton, Unplugged
110. Black Sun — Dead Can Dance, Aion
111. Royal One — Carbon Leaf, Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat
112. I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford) — Elton John, Greatest Hits: Elton John, Vol. 2
113. Brand New Day — Sting, All This Time
114. I’m Gonna Miss You — Milli Vanilli, Girl You Know It’s True
115. Say Goodbye to Hollywood — Billy Joel, Greatest Hits: Billy Joel 1973-1985 (Disc 1)
116. Mean Old World — Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Crossroads (Disc 2)
117. Rosita De Pica — Los Hermanos de Los Andes, Los Hermanos de Los Andes
118. Baby I’m-A Want You — Bread, Anthology
119. Take on Me — A-Ha, Headlines and Deadlines
120. I’m Coming Through — Diana Krall, The Girl in the Other Room
121. Behind the Haystack / Blarney Pilgrim / Banish Misfortune — Glenn Morgan, Southwind
122. Welcome to Paradise — Green Day, Dookie
123. Emily — Elton John, The One
124. Life Less Ordinary — Carbon Leaf, Indian Summer
125. Lost in Your Eyes — Debbie Gibson, Awesome ’80s
126. Song for You — Michael Bublé, It’s Time
127. It’s Not My Fault (It’s My Fault) — Discovery, LP
128. Jamaica Farewell — Jimmy Buffett, Feeding Frenzy
129. Man! I Feel Like a Woman! — Shania Twain, Come On Over
130. Wake Up — Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill
131. Irresistible — The Corrs, The Best of the Corrs
132. Train of Thought — A-Ha, Hunting High and Low
133. Guadalupe — The Chieftains, Santiago
134. Kinesis (KSER) — Travis Hartnett, KSER Solo Acoustic Guitar
135. Palladio: Vivace — London Philharmonic Strings, Palladio: Diamond Music
136. The Last to Know — Céline Dion, Unison
137. Full Circle — Loreena McKennitt, The Mask and Mirror
138. F.O.D. — Green Day, Dookie
139. Too Bad — Eric Clapton, Crossroads (Disc 4)
140. One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) — Frank Sinatra, Classic Sinatra
141. War Child — The Cranberries, To the Faithful Departed
142. In the End — Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory
143. Sweat It Out — Elton John, The One
144. Those Sweet Words — Norah Jones, Feels Like Home
145. Locust — A-Ha, Memorial Beach
146. Steaming — Sarah McLachlan, Touch
147. Talk to Me — Lee Ann Womack, Something Worth Leaving Behind
148. Welcome to My Life — Simple Plan, iTunes New Music Sampler (Atlantic/Lava Edition)
149. Desperate for Love — Over the Rhine, The Trumpet Child
150. Center Stage — Indigo Girls, Indigo Girls
151. Let Me Love You Up — Sophie B. Hawkins, Whaler
152. How High — Madonna, Confessions on a Dance Floor
153. Day Job — Gin Blossoms, Congratulations... I’m Sorry
154. Town of Plenty — Elton John, Reg Strikes Back
155. Sad Birthday — Bombadil, Tarpits And Canyonlands
156. Another Place to Fall — KT Tunstall, Eye to the Telescope
157. Back Into My Heart — Chris Botti, A Thousand Kisses Deep
158. The Cool, Cool River — Paul Simon, The Rhythm of the Saints
159. Wait for Love — Matt White, Best Days
160. The Bitch Is Back — Elton John, Greatest Hits: Elton John, Vol. 2
161. I Know Why — Glenn Miller, The Essential Glenn Miller (Disc 2)
162. The Dream is Still Alive — Wilson Phillips, Wilson Phillips
163. The Way We Lived — Melissa Rapp, Sweet Revenge
164. Man Scared — The Fat Lady Sings, Twist
165. Bridge Over Troubled Water — Paul Simon, Concert in the Park (Disc 1)
166. She Moved Through the Fair — Maireid Sullivan, Celtic Voices: Women of Song
167. Play — Matt White, Best Days
168. Night Ride — Casadh An tSúgáin, Celtic Dance
169. Hello Seattle (Remix) — Owl City, Ocean Eyes
170. Back to You — Faith Hill, Cry
171. New Favorite — Alison Krauss & Union Station, New Favorite
172. I’m Sorry — John Denver, The Best of John Denver
173. Thirteen — Ben Kweller, Ben Kweller
174. In the Still of the Night — Neville Brothers, Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter
175. Dialogue — Jason Mraz, Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom
176. Brown Eyed Girl — Van Morrison, Best of Van Morrison
177. Pax Deorum — Enya, Only Time: The Collection (Disc 3)
178. Blessing & a Curse — Harry Connick, Jr., Blue Light Red Light
179. Free in You — Indigo Girls, All That We Let In
180. Return to Me — October Project, October Project
181. Steamer — Jimmy Buffett, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads (Disc 1)
182. Well Did You Evah? — Frank Sinatra, All the Best (Disc 1)
183. Kesh Jig / Kid on a Mountain / Swallowtail Jig — Glenn Morgan, Southwind
184. SOS (Rescue Me) — Rihanna,
185. Always In My Heart — Glenn Miller, The Essential Glenn Miller (Disc 2)
186. Wrapping Paper — Cream, Crossroads (Disc 1)
187. Brian Boru — Alan Stivell, The Celtic Circle (Disc 2)
188. That I Would Be Good — Alanis Morissette, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
189. Sparkle — Live, The Distance to Here
190. Sick City — Elton John, Rare Masters (Disc 2)
191. Nice ’n Easy — Michael Bublé, Come Fly with Me
192. Jolene (featuring Dolly Parton) — Mindy Smith, One Moment More
193. Little Fists — David Berkeley, After the Wrecking Ships
194. Far — Grey Eye Glances, Painted Pictures
195. Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale — A-Ha, Hunting High and Low
196. The Walk — Hanson, The Walk
197. Father — Eastmountainsouth, Eastmountainsouth
198. Bartender — Dave Matthews Band, Busted Stuff
199. I’ve Got You Under My Skin — Frank Sinatra, Classic Sinatra
200. Heal Over — KT Tunstall, Eye to the Telescope
201. Say You Love Me — Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac
202. I Will Survive (1993 Phil Kelsey Classic 12in Mix) — Gloria Gaynor, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
203. The Boy from Ipanema — Diana Krall, The Boy from Ipanema - Single
204. The Lady Is a Tramp — Frank Sinatra, Classic Sinatra
205. I Can’t Stand It — Eric Clapton, Crossroads (Disc 4)
206. The One I Love — R.E.M., Document
207. Revelation — Kate MacLeod, Feel the Earth Spin
208. Crossroads (Live) — Derek and The Dominos, Crossroads (Disc 2)
209. Beautiful Girl — INXS, The Best of INXS
210. Money Back Guarantee — Jimmy Buffett, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads (Disc 2)
211. Cat Fever — Little Feat, Sailin’ Shoes
212. Lost Control — Unwritten Law, iTunes New Music Sampler (Atlantic/Lava Edition)
213. Forget Me Not — Céline Dion, One Heart
214. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart — Elton John, To Be Continued... (Disc 3)
215. Swan Swan H — R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant
216. Act of War — Elton John, To Be Continued... (Disc 4)
217. I’m Loving Every Moment with You — Céline Dion, Unison
218. Casadh an Tsúgáin — Casadh An tSúgáin, Celtic Dance
219. Tampico Trauma — Jimmy Buffett, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads (Disc 3)
220. Have You Ever Been in Love — Céline Dion, A New Day Has Come
221. Dead Already — Thomas Newman, American Beauty
222. Waly Waly — Maireid Sullivan, Celtic Voices: Women of Song
223. The Blues Don’t Tell It All — Little Feat,
224. It’s All Coming Back to Me Now — Céline Dion, Falling Into You
225. The Coast — Paul Simon, Concert in the Park (Disc 2)
226. Maybe Katie — Barenaked Ladies, Everything to Everyone
227. Son of a Preacher Man — Dusty Springfield, Pulp Fiction
228. We Are Family — Sister Sledge, Pure Disco, Vol. 2
229. Jungle Boogie — Kool & The Gang, Pulp Fiction
230. Do It in Luxury — Chris Botti, A Thousand Kisses Deep
231. Ricochet in Time — Shawn Colvin, Steady On
232. Rollin’ and Tumblin’ — Eric Clapton, Unplugged
233. Good Day — The Animators, How We Fight
234. Everyday — Dave Matthews Band, Everyday
235. Over and Done With — The Proclaimers, This is the Story
236. Interlude — Red Hot + Rio, Red Hot + Rio: Pure Listening Pleasure
237. Conquest of Paradise — Vangelis, Reprise: 1990-1999
238. Technicolor — Nurses, Apple’s Acre
239. Angel — Sarah McLachlan, The Celtic Circle (Disc 1)
240. Imaginary — Evanescence, Fallen
241. The Tracks of My Tears — Smokey Robinson, The Big Chill
242. Every Night, Every Day — Traffic, Far From Home
243. Tobias — Brian Webb, Brian Webb Live
244. Sí Bheag, Sí Mhor — Glenn Morgan, Southwind
245. Tiny Dancer — Elton John, Greatest Hits: Elton John, Vol. 2
246. The Very Thought of You — Harry Connick, Jr., Only You
247. Ceridwen’s Curse — Karl Jenkins, Adiemus 4: The Eternal Knot
248. Unfinished — Barenaked Ladies, Everything to Everyone
249. Ombra — Cirque du Soleil, Dralion
250. Over You — Sheryl Crow, C’mon, C’mon
251. Save the Life of My Child — Simon & Garfunkel, Bookends
252. Choices — George Jones, Cold, Hard Truth
253. The Things We’ve Handed Down — Marc Cohn, The Very Best of Marc Cohn
254. Rent — Pet Shop Boys, Discography: The Complete Singles Collection
255. I Hear You — Wilson Phillips, Shadows & Light
256. Love Is on the Way — Céline Dion, Let’s Talk About Love
257. How Sweet It Is — Michael Bublé, It’s Time
258. Chasing Cars — Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
259. Temptation — Diana Krall, The Girl in the Other Room
260. Your Song — Elton John, To Be Continued... (Disc 1)
261. Pledge — Melissa Rapp, Sweet Revenge
262. The Ballad of Jenny Rae — BoDeans, Best of The BoDeans: Slash & Burn
263. (Love Is) The Tender Trap — Frank Sinatra, All the Best (Disc 1)
264. I Saw Your Light — Lee Ann Womack, Something Worth Leaving Behind
265. The Bitch Is Back — Elton John, To Be Continued... (Disc 2)
266. Set the Fire to the Third Bar — Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
267. Crocodile Rock — Elton John, To Be Continued... (Disc 2)
268. Piece for Solo Flute — Dead Can Dance, Toward the Within
269. Sierra Trail — Haunted House, The Lifted Brow 4
270. The Look of Love — Diana Krall, Live in Paris
271. The Gift — INXS, The Best of INXS
272. Tonight and the Rest of My Life — Nina Gordon, Tonight and the Rest of My Life
273. Sunday Bloody Sunday — U2, Best of 1980-1990
274. Pain — Elton John, Made in England
275. Carolan’s Concerto — The Chieftains, The Celtic Harp
276. Between — Vienna Teng, Waking Hour
277. Say si si (Para Vigo me Voy) — Glenn Miller, The Essential Glenn Miller (Disc 1)
278. Caribbean Blue — Enya, Only Time: The Collection (Disc 2)
279. Where the Streets Have No Name — U2, The Joshua Tree
280. Finest Worksong — R.E.M., Document
281. Tryin’ to Reason with Hurricane Season — Jimmy Buffett, Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads (Disc 1)
282. Cantara — Dead Can Dance, Toward the Within
283. Helen and Julie — Randy Newman, Parenthood
284. Marco Polo — Loreena McKennitt, The Book of Secrets
285. Beautiful Truth — The Proclaimers, This is the Story
286. Angels and Girlfriends — Five For Fighting, The Battle for Everything
287. What If We Give It Away — R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant
288. All She Wants to Do Is Dance — Don Henley, Actual Miles
289. Donner Pour Donner — Elton John, To Be Continued... (Disc 3)
290. Nothing Happening — Ben Kweller, Ben Kweller
291. Lough Erin Shore — The Corrs, The Best of the Corrs
292. Sorry so Sorry — Howie Day, Australia
293. Something About the Way You Look Tonight — Elton John, The Big Picture
294. Room To Move — Ken Valdez, Approach
295. Immortality — Céline Dion, Let’s Talk About Love
296. Keening of the Three Marys — William Coulter, The Celtic Circle (Disc 1)
297. Manstrong — A House, I Want Too Much
298. A Reason to Believe — Wilson Phillips, Wilson Phillips
299. Life in a Northern Town — Dream Academy, Dream Academy
300. The Lament for Limerick — The Chieftains, The Celtic Harp
301. Plenty Lovin’ — Steve Winwood, Junction Seven
302. NYC Weather Report — Five For Fighting, The Battle for Everything
303. Epilogue (Nothing ’Bout Me) — Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
304. Give Me a Reason — The Corrs, The Best of the Corrs
305. Turn to Gold — The Senate, These Cold Winds
306. Le Freak — Chic, Disco Fever (2003)
307. In My Arms — Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
308. Dark Horse — Amanda Marshall, Amanda Marshall
309. #41 — Dave Matthews Band, Crash
310. 2003 — Nina Gordon, Tonight and the Rest of My Life
311. Sitting On Top of the World — Amanda Marshall, Amanda Marshall
312. Who’ I Kiddin’ but Me — Over the Rhine, The Trumpet Child
313. Mellow Tone — Carbon Leaf, Echo Echo
314. Nobody’s Fool — Avril Lavigne, Let Go
315. Tout L’or Des Hommes — Céline Dion, 1 Fille & 4 Types
316. Never Stop (1986 E.P. Version) — Indigo Girls, Rarities
317. Red Dress — Maia Sharp, KMTT New Music Sampler 2005
318. Together Forever — Rick Astley, Whenever You Need Somebody
319. A Woman’s Worth (Live) — Alicia Keys, Unplugged
320. Kiss that Frog — Peter Gabriel, Us
321. A Sort of Homecoming — U2, The Unforgettable Fire
322. Sweetness Follows — R.E.M., Automatic for the People
323. The Song of the Sibyl — Dead Can Dance, Aion
324. All My Sorrows — Lindsey Buckingham, Out of the Cradle
325. Heartache All Over the World — Elton John, Greatest Hits: Elton John, Vol. 3 (1979-1987)
326. For You — Barenaked Ladies, Everything to Everyone
327. Are You Still Mad — Alanis Morissette, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
328. Unfold — Jason Mraz, Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom
329. Gypsies in the Palace — Jimmy Buffett, Feeding Frenzy
330. Best I Ever Had (Skeemix) — Drake feat. R. Kelly, Unreleased
331. Chump — Green Day, Dookie
332. Give It Up — Wilson Phillips, Shadows & Light
333. Come to Jesus — Mindy Smith, One Moment More
334. Smaointe... — Enya, Shepherd Moons
335. Chicago — David Berkeley, After the Wrecking Ships
336. Another Spin (Bonus Track) — Barenaked Ladies, Barenaked Ladies Are Me
337. Trouble Me (acoustic) — 10,000 Maniacs, MTV Unplugged
338. These Days — Jackson Browne, The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne
339. Crown On The Ground — Sleigh Bells, Demos
340. Much More Than That — Sharon Van Etten, Because I Was In Love
341. Epilogue (Nothing ’Bout Me) — Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
342. Give Me a Reason — The Corrs, The Best of the Corrs
343. Turn to Gold — The Senate, These Cold Winds
344. Le Freak — Chic, Disco Fever (2003)
345. In My Arms — Snow Patrol, Eyes Open
346. Dark Horse — Amanda Marshall, Amanda Marshall
347. #41 — Dave Matthews Band, Crash
348. 2003 — Nina Gordon, Tonight and the Rest of My Life
349. Sitting On Top of the World — Amanda Marshall, Amanda Marshall
350. Who’ I Kiddin’ but Me — Over the Rhine, The Trumpet Child
351. Mellow Tone — Carbon Leaf, Echo Echo
352. Nobody’s Fool — Avril Lavigne, Let Go
353. Tout L’or Des Hommes — Céline Dion, 1 Fille & 4 Types
354. Never Stop (1986 E.P. Version) — Indigo Girls, Rarities
355. Red Dress — Maia Sharp, KMTT New Music Sampler 2005
356. Together Forever — Rick Astley, Whenever You Need Somebody
357. A Woman’s Worth (Live) — Alicia Keys, Unplugged
358. Kiss that Frog — Peter Gabriel, Us
359. A Sort of Homecoming — U2, The Unforgettable Fire
360. Sweetness Follows — R.E.M., Automatic for the People
361. The Song of the Sibyl — Dead Can Dance, Aion
362. All My Sorrows — Lindsey Buckingham, Out of the Cradle
363. Heartache All Over the World — Elton John, Greatest Hits: Elton John, Vol. 3 (1979-1987)
364. For You — Barenaked Ladies, Everything to Everyone
365. Are You Still Mad — Alanis Morissette, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
366. Unfold — Jason Mraz, Tonight, Not Again: Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom
367. Gypsies in the Palace — Jimmy Buffett, Feeding Frenzy
368. Best I Ever Had (Skeemix) — Drake feat. R. Kelly, Unreleased
369. Chump — Green Day, Dookie
370. Give It Up — Wilson Phillips, Shadows & Light
371. Come to Jesus — Mindy Smith, One Moment More
372. Smaointe... — Enya, Shepherd Moons
373. Chicago — David Berkeley, After the Wrecking Ships
374. Another Spin (Bonus Track) — Barenaked Ladies, Barenaked Ladies Are Me
375. Trouble Me (acoustic) — 10,000 Maniacs, MTV Unplugged
376. These Days — Jackson Browne, The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne
377. Crown On The Ground — Sleigh Bells, Demos
378. Much More Than That — Sharon Van Etten, Because I Was In Love

And what if it’s a chick bear?

GR8D8B8

Also: Big laffs!

But! VULGARITY.

A LOT OF IT

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

(and it’s better if you’ve seen the episode titled “The Impertence of Communicationizing”)

(but it’s still damned funny!)

A novel—and natural—way of creating new bones for humans could be just a few years away.

Scientists in Italy have developed a way of turning rattan wood into bone that is almost identical to the human tissue.

* Yes, I know rattans are not, strictly speaking, trees, but are more like vines. But the metaphor/lame joke doesn’t work if the facts are paid strict attention.

I put it in my Netflix queue because it stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whom I first saw in “3rd Rock from the Sun” (and good Lord, that show ended NINE YEARS AGO?), and a bit later in 10 Things I Hate About You, which I loved. Still do—it was one of the first DVDs I owned, in fact.

So I heard about this little indie film, (500) Days of Summer, about a guy who falls in love but the girl doesn’t, and oh by the way it stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whom I like. Into the Netflix queue it goes, and only then do I realize:

It also stars Zooey Deschanel, whom I dislike.

Now if you ask my family about times in the past when I’ve expressed disdain for actors or actresses, it’s very likely they’ll tell you about the time I declared my utter undying HATRED for Steve Martin. He’d never been in any good movies, never would be. A useless pile of flesh who somehow managed to be in movies and by his very presence contaminated them.

The problem with this declaration of utter undying HATRED was, however, that I actually like Steve Martin. I like several movies he’s been in, among them Parenthood and Roxanne and All of Me, and I’ve enjoyed his comedy bits and his TV appearances and his banjo-playing and his essays and other writings, even. It's the damnedest thing, then, that at some point in my life I spent a good 20 minutes describing in vivid detail my absolute contempt for Steve Martin, until Katharine reminded me about Parenthood and All of Me and what about Roxanne and oh, yeah, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and L.A. Story? And I said, hey, the first two times I saw L.A. Story, I did hate it, well at least didn’t like it much, but now it’s grown on me a bit, and really it turns out I don’t hate Steve Martin at all. I just don’t like a couple movies he was in.

So ever since then, when I’ve said I didn’t like an actor, I’ve been reminded of my Steve Martin declaration and its utter insanity.

But my dislike of Zooey Deschanel was based mainly on one astoundingly lame turn, her appearance in a SciFi (I can’t bring myself to type “SyFy” and since the show I’m going to talk about was before the branding change anyway, puh hah) miniseries called “Tin Man”, a reimagining of “The Wizard of Oz” for the video-game and text-message era. Zooey Deschanel played DG, the updated Dorothy, with perfect vapidity and a strangely detached quality that made it seem like she was rotoscoped into the scenes after the fact.

And she was in Eulogy, where multiple generations of a family get together for the patriarch’s funeral and all the secrets come out of the woodwork, and it was like she was channeling her DG self several years in the future.

But now she’s playing Summer in this movie (500) Days of Summer and I find myself thinking, goddammit. She’s good in this. I’m liking her in spite of myself, and it annoys me, because I’m not just liking the character, I’m specifically liking her portrayal of the character.

So. Who can recommend me a Zooey Deschanel flick that will reestablish my hostility?

As we welcome in 2010, Queen Anne may be saying goodbye to a third of the neighborhood’s caffeine corner. Reader Ann Chen walked in to Peet’s Coffee & Tea at the top of the hill yesterday to find a closing sign and the news that today, January 1, 2010, may be their last.

The “available” messages first, in creation order:

• 2009???
• around
• householdery
• on-call duty kinda bloze
• on call, may be away
• minimally attentive
• oops, I fell off
• A general indicator of my state of mind as I left work this afternoon http://bit.ly/4pwgdg
• oh the coughing
• STUPID LUNGS
• taxes done, earliest ever
• actually watching the Oscars, someone please shake me into reality
• President Obama’s address on C-SPAN
• President Obama’s address on http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/
• killing time before the damned conference call
• just please kill me now
• talking to a dozen Apus
• is a cluster of Apus a “convenience”?
• is a cluster of Apus a “convenience”? a “squishee”?
• hello India!
• India fell off
• since I can’t log in to work... domesticity reigns
• meh
• can’t get away from the workin’, dammit
• waiting for my potato
• dinner time, of sorts
• well past zonk time
• organizing my media library
• Sunday night.
• goddamned phone!
• went sailing today, much fun
• happy movie night: Rachel Getting Married
• Bottle Shock, about California vintners’ triumph over France
• thinks we have Sync Success, knock on wood
• waiting for my chicken to thaw
• finally, dinner
• slummin’
• windy, bah
• damnable winds!
• doesn’t play one on TV
• rain, again
• damn, almost June already
• {S out with it
• media files go boom, argh
• media files back, woo!
• ahhh, temp down 10° in 19 minutes
• Yakima, baby
• WWDC keynotin’
• probably should go to bed
• tonight went by FAST
• battery dying, poof soon
• DVD: Smart People
• ho hum.
• BØRD
• DVD rippin’
• newly intolerant of shitfaced assholes
• who says “barf” anymore?
• working from home
• pondering a grilled cheez.
• that was a good grilled cheez.
• 85.7° in the living room
• 85.6°, woo!
• {S 32dohs}
• ::swelter::
• travel prep
• Hawai‘i, baby!
• chillin’
• Studyin’ (not me) and sippin’ (me) and cookin’ (also me)
• Football!
• DVD: The Wire: Season 1: Disc 1
• hi.
• back from the beach, goddammit
• why so serious?
• goddammit
• yay HSI
• ahhh rain
• got subpoenaed today http://bit.ly/74fCpL

And now the “away” messages—looks like I wasn’t away very often:

• snüz
• out for a bit
• inattentive
• out.
• errand(s)
• cookin’
• on the phone
• out, try phone
• stabbing in apt next door, yargh
• cops are here
• encoding DVDs
• since I can’t log in to work... domesticity reigns
• shower time
• damned conference call
• bath time!
• time, methinks, for a cool shower
• travel prep
• dinner time
• taxi service
• media-library sorting, etc.
• getting the laundry

Listed in roughly chronological order; links go to related posts or categories.

• Seattle, WA*
• Orlando, FL
• Sequim, WA* (day trips, first to hike Dungeness Spit and later for Easter)
• Yakima, WA
• Kapa‘a, HI
• Telma, WA (actually a cabin on Lake Wenatchee)
• Cannon Beach, OR
• Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• San Francisco, CA

Previous lists: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.

Friends and family joining me shortly for dinner and hanging out. At midnight we’ll crowd out onto my balcony to toast the new year and watch the Space Needle fireworks display from 6 blocks away.

It’s like living a postcard each year. :-)

Happy new year!

Photo by Jim Bates / Seattle Times, via article Space Needle’s fireworks to welcome new year

In the last ten years, I have

• lived in five cities across three states
• held three jobs, each in a wildly different industry from the previous
• moved seven times
• bought two new cars
• had three wireless phone numbers on two different carriers
• experienced great financial freedom and worrying financial instability
• had four main email addresses
• fallen out of contact with both of my parents

Not remotely comprehensive analysis of the decade, but certainly some of the high (and low) points.

Here, then, some details to illustrate life’s unforeseen adventures.

Ten years ago tonight, I was at a New Year’s Eve party with my then fiancée. I was sober and would remain so until at least 30 minutes past midnight, because I was on call in case the Year 2000 bug actually bit the managed-care company where I worked at the time. I was supposed to be near a phone with my pager on my person so I could respond instantly if the midnight rollover resulted in hideous crashing of the claims systems or whatever other problems might have cropped up.

All of this assumed that Y2K wouldn’t manifest itself most directly as failure of major communications like telephones and pagers, but we had business continuity plans in place for that eventuality as well. For that night, the backup plan was for me to drive to the office if I didn’t receive a page or phone call by 00:30 MST informing me that everything was fine and I was thereby released from on-call status.

We all watched the ball drop in New York City, but by then we had a good idea we weren’t going to experience any nasty problems due to Y2K because, well, the ball drop isn’t live when you live in Salt Lake City, it’s already two hours in the past, and we’d had no word of massive problems as the change from 1999 to 2000 marched westward across the globe. So when the page came at 00:30, ALL CLEAR ON-CALL ENDED, it was something of an anticlimax and I was already a 6-pack behind in the celebrations.

By March 2000, my fiancée and I had gone our separate ways, though we still spent time together for the next several months. Right around this time was also (but independently) the first point in my life where my thought process changed from “Is it payday yet?” to “Oh, we got paid today?”—I had been lucky to experience a couple of years of promotions that saw my income vastly outpace my spending habits. It was a great time all around.

Then in late 2000, I was promoted to run the entire help-desk operation for my company, and I got another sizable income bump. I suddenly had staff in four cities across the country, and I started traveling for work a lot. Went to cities I might not otherwise have visited: Chicago, Houston, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Scottsdale, San Diego, most several times over the next two years. A great way to see the world, traveling on the company’s dime. I was racking up airline miles and earning hotel points on flights and hotel rooms I didn’t have to pay for. I had paid time off stacked to heaven’s basement because many of my work trips felt like play, and even though I was taking two weeks off minimum each year for personal travel, I could never seem to get below about 180 hours of accrued vacation time.

I was in Chicago on business starting September 10, 2001. I planned to fly back to Salt Lake City on Sep 16. My business would be finished that Friday; I was staying in town for the weekend to be a tourist, because though I had been to the Chicago area half a dozen times by then, I had never been in Chicago downtown, and I desperately wanted to experience it.

And then the September 11 attacks happened, and my grandmother’s health took a turn for the worse. She died Sep 15 after a long illness. I was thousands of miles away from my friends and family at a moment of enormous national and personal distress, but the airports were shut down and I had been busy with work matters that week, and so the same day my grandmother died, I was standing at a window on the 90something-floors-up observation deck in the John Hancock Tower, gawking toward O’Hare International Airport because every tourist on that observation deck that day thought the same thing: What if one of those airplanes turns toward the city?

I had chosen to stay because I couldn’t change what was happening to my grandmother or to the country as a whole, and I couldn’t get home in time either way. Instead I worked and then played tourist and in the space of four days became a regular at a brewpub close to my hotel.

When I got home on September 16, I went from the airport to my apartment just long enough to drop off my bags and change clothes quickly, and then we were off to family gatherings in my grandmother’s memory. I was back at work a few days later, reveling in the familiarity but still in that same state of shocked dismay over the terrorist attacks and somewhat at loose ends with the world. Those feelings started a thought process that led me to a couple of fairly major decisions.

First, in October 2001, I bought my first brand-new car, a 2002 Saturn L200. Loved that car, a nicely geared 5-speed manual with all the options I had wanted. I put nearly 70,000 miles on that car in the not quite four years I owned it.

Then in March 2002, I left the managed-care company after 7 years. I wanted to leave Salt Lake City, and I wanted to continue working for that company, but I also wanted to live in the Seattle area and the company had no operations in Washington. So I decided to move to the Seattle area to see what life would bring me.

I moved from Salt Lake City to Bothell, Washington, and lived off savings for a few months before I went to work in an environmental laboratory. It was menial work, a simple shipping/receiving clerkship really, because it turned out that while my skills at running an internal help desk for a managed-care company were admirable, the technology industry in the Seattle metro area was in no short supply of middle-management types, most of whom had already been in the industry here for years. I got several interviews but no realistic offers, so after those first few months, I took the lab job as a stopgap and ended up staying there two years. By the time I left in April 2004, I had worked upward a few spots to the client services group, handling data reporting and such, but I was ready to move on again. And so off I went, to the Phoenix area in pursuit of a return to the company I had left in 2002.

I lived in Glendale, Arizona, for just six weeks. The job opportunity didn’t develop the way I had hoped, so only a few weeks after I had finished UNpacking my life, I packed it back up and retreated to Salt Lake City. The city I had wanted so badly to leave just two years earlier now was a welcome refuge for a time. In June 2004, I moved back into a one-bedroom apartment on 12th Ave, the same apartment where I had lived for a short time after I broke off my engagement but before I left Salt Lake the first time around, and I got a new cell number for the second time in less than two months. It was like I had never left, in a strange way, all familiar surroundings, but still nothing the same.

I spent the late summer, all of autumn, and the holiday season in 2004 installing a point-of-sale cash register system in my mom’s gift shop, and training the hospital volunteers who worked there on using the system. In those five months, I learned more about the gift industry than I ever imagined I would know. I heard teddy-bear salespersons prattle endlessly about the charmingly made-up backstories of the bears they sold, and I learned by repetition how to recognize certain manufacturers’ wares, and I scanned probably 12,000 separate bar codes into the register system and did data entry for pricing and item names and all the fun that goes along with POS conversions, flashing back to my time at Kmart all the while.

I also got two cats in September 2004. I’d resisted getting any animals for years, partly because the house was practically a zoo the entire time I was engaged—oh dear God the lizards and rats and crickets, but the dog was cool—and partly because I had this idea that hey, no family or animals, I can pick up on a moment’s notice and go anywhere in the world. And then I realized, I never DO pick up on a moment’s notice and go anywhere, and even if I did, I have family and friends who would cover me, and Annie and Flex came into my life.

Much of this time I was also seeking admission to the University of Utah to finish my degree work, because I wanted to be a pharmacist. I had done pharmacy tech work for the last couple years of my time at Kmart in the 1990s, really liked it, but had fallen away from it when I first joined the managed-care company (in their pharmacy benefits section, since I had retail pharmacy experience). I had to track down transcripts and fill out paperwork by the cubic meter, and in late September 2004, I got the word: I was admitted for the spring 2005 semester.

But then I traveled to Seattle around that same time, on a combined vacation/work trip. I was here to visit my sister, Katharine, and I was here to meet the retail equipment sales company’s representatives and get final information before we selected the register system we would use. And while I was here, the environmental laboratory director asked me to stop by his office for a few minutes, there was something he wanted to ask me about.

Turned out he wanted to offer me a job, a significant raise and a moving allowance to relocate to Seattle once more and start up the lab’s electronic-data department. As more and more clients wanted their data in electronic formats, and the various electronic data standards were starting to jell, the lab needed someone with an IT background who also knew at least the fringes of the lab business to handle it, and I fit that bill perfectly. And so I ignored my acceptance to the University of Utah and found myself committing to return to the Seattle area and to the lab in January the following year.

The 13-hour drive from Salt Lake City to Mill Creek, Washington, took 23 hours that day in January 2005. We ran into nasty weather at every point on the trip, and my belongings, in a moving-company van, needed another week to catch up to me. I slept on the floor of my new apartment for that first week, and then I ended up in a townhouse in the same property due to a leasing snafu that worked in my favor. Shortly after that I changed my cell number for the last time—even if I end up in some other part of the country, it will be a cold day in Hell before I change phone numbers again.

And I was back at the lab for almost two years, but management changes and an ownership change finally resulted in my abruptly leaving in October 2006. Within a month, I had landed at Microsoft on a one-year contract gig to work with the MSN division, supporting the content editorial and production staffs via the content-management system they used.

Six months after I returned to the lab, I traded in the Saturn on a 2005 Ford Escape, which to that point had been my dream car (as much as I had an ideal vehicle in mind any point in my life). That’s my car to this day, 76,000 miles and counting.

In early 2007 I decided I had lived in the ’burbs long enough. I wanted to live in Seattle proper, and I found a great apartment on the west side of Queen Anne Hill, overlooking Elliott Bay. I gave notice at the townhouse and started the initial steps of packing up once more, and then I found out the tenants who were leaving the Queen Anne apartment had decided not to leave after all, and the apartment search had to start all over again with just a few weeks’ notice.

That’s when I found the building where I live now. I was on the first floor the first year I lived here, enduring the noise and inconvenience that came with a building undergoing a full remodel and my graveyard work schedule, but I had 180-degree view of Seattle from my patio that included the Space Needle just six blocks away. I was loving it, and then a one-bedroom unit came available on the 4th floor, and I’ve been there since, enjoying the idiot tourists who don’t know how to use their digital cameras well enough to turn off the flash when they shoot the city at night.

My dad disappeared from my life in the late 1990s, when he experienced a classic midlife crisis, split from my mom, and moved into an apartment of his own. The last time I spoke to him directly was in the summer of 2000, when I saw him at a memorial dinner for his sister, who had died in May of that year. He was an unmitigated jackass about several longstanding issues he had (still has, I presume) with the way his life had played out to that point, going so far as to give a farcically insulting toast at the memorial dinner. In the first few years after that, I received a couple of random emails and a few instant messages from him, all small talk, nothing substantive, and in about 2004 he just fell off the face of the earth so far as we were concerned.

My mom and I had a falling-out in August of 2008, when she was visiting Seattle for a combined business and pleasure trip. We’ve exchanged a few emails, sent a few birthday and Christmas cards back and forth. I imagine mentioning that on this site isn’t going to do much to help repair that rift, if it’s even possible to do that, but it certainly fits the criterion of “major life development” that spurred this post at all.

So then.

As 2010 starts, I’m still at Microsoft, though also still a contract vendor, which means none of the one-year contract limits and enforced three-months-off craziness that goes with some types of contract arrangements here. Much better for the sense of stability.

I’m single, haven’t been on a date in... God, I don’t know how long now, but not particularly eager to change that anytime soon.

And though there’s light at the end of the tunnel, I’m in a financial downturn, back to the “Payday is HOW FAR AWAY?” line of thinking, following pay and benefits cuts my contract company made earlier this year.

But the best part is:

I’m home.

Via Awesome Blog.

Jumping backward a bit....

Way back in January, I was involved as a witness in a domestic-violence assault incident in my apartment building. I was the second person to call 9-1-1, and I ended up giving several statements over the course of the day. It was rather a harrowing experience as a witness—I can’t even imagine what it must have been like from the victim’s perspective.

In typical fashion, once all the hoopla had died down, the incident mostly left my conscious thought except for occasional reminders. I was asked to tell the story a lot over the next few weeks as I saw family and friends who knew about the whole thing, but hadn’t heard any details. But after those retellings, it faded from my immediate memory until occasional reminders like brief mentions in the newspaper came along. And most of those came fairly early on—here’s one from Jan 29 and I can’t find the article I’m vaguely remembering from midsummer sometime. When the six-month mark passed without further word from the police or the courts, I assumed it probably had been disposed by plea bargain or something along those lines.

Cue my arrival home today to find a file cabinet’s worth of subpoena paperwork taped to the building’s main entrance door. Seven total; mine’s the one on the lower right.

I imagine the recipient of that UPS InfoNotice was pretty intimidated by this display of summonsy goodness.

Anyway, yeah. Three pages of paperwork demanding my presence at the courthouse in downtown Seattle on or about January 25, which coincidentally happens to be the one-year anniversary of the attack.

So how was your Tuesday?