The best parts of a crappy year....

This year was frought with turmoil: hurricanes, a divided nation, Bush's reelection, work, and the tsumani terror. All in all, pretty cruddy. But, there were some good things. Here's my stream of consciousness stuff, organized as best as possible. (Yeah, I know, that makes no sense. Deal with it.)

Songs I loved but shouldn't have:

• "Toxic" by Britney Spears
• "My Band" D12
• "Drop it Like it's Haaaaawwwwt" Snoop Dogg and Pharrell
• "The Way You Move" OutKast
• "Yeah" Usher
• "Love Song" 311
• "Growing on Me" and "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" The Darkness
• "Somewhere Only We Know" Keane
• "Word Up" Korn
• "Lady" Lenny Kravitz
• "We're All to Blame" Sum41

Songs/albums I love without shame:

• "Songs About Jane" Maroon5
• "Hot Fuss" The Killers
• "Big Brat" Phantom Planet
• "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" Modest Mouse
• "To the Five Boroughs" Beastie Boys
• "No Phone" Cake
• "Fall Behind Me" The Donnas
• Franz Ferdinand
• "American Idiot" (album) Green Day
• "Walk Idiot Walk" Hives
• "Megalomaniac" Incubus
• "Get Born" Jet
• "Hysteria" and "Time is Running Out" Muse (actually, the whole "Absolution" album is cool)
• Snow Patrol
• The Strokes
• "C'mon C'mon" The Von Bondies
• Velvet Revolver
• "Maps" Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Movies, current and video, that are to die for:

• Anchorman
• Napoleon Dynamite
• Dodgeball
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Elf
• Mean Girls
• The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
• Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events
• The Incredibles

Cool stuff that happened with no real category to define it:

• Got an iPod
• Voodoo Fest
• SNOW ON CHRISTMAS
• Passing the second part of the Praxis
• Becoming an actual grad student and getting to register for classes
• Mark's surprise party
• Nijel giving me training sessions for Christmas
• Seeing that door slowly start to open....
• Got a nugget cell phone
• Downloadable ring tones
• Shazzy
• The chair
• Being Alicia's matron of honor
• Tsofim Travel Adventure

Best concerts

• Better Than Ezra
• GreenDay
• Beastie Boys
• Velvet Revolver