old cards

I’ve been putting old Christmas and birthday cards into a big pile for the last 10 years or so. Well, the pile has finally gotten big enough that I need to throw some away. I expected I would just be able to go through the cards and throw out most of the old ones, just saving a few that were interesting, or touching, or funny. It turns out that there were quite a few little memories in that pile. At the risk of embarrassing a few people, here are some quotes:

From a birthday card from 1995, from my Aunt Janet:

“Sorry this is so late. I always remember you coming home from the hospital with that little green cap on your head for St. Patrick’s Day, and think that is your birthday.”

From Mom & Dad’s birthday card, probably the same year:

Don’t send any more payments on the Tercel.” (Thanks!)

A Christmas card from 1994:

“About 12 years ago, I considered you to be garbage. Now, you’re one of my best friends. Food for thought, for both of us.” (I won’t mention who this was from!)

Hey, I just reached the bottom of the pile, and I remembered why I was looking through it in the first place! I was looking for a picture from my old roomie Rob’s wedding. I scanned it in quite a few years ago on my old black & white scanner, and put it up on the web page. It’s still here, and it looks like crap! I wanted to scan it in again, in color this time. Lo and behold, there it was, at the very bottom of the pile. And here it is, in color now!

Best albums of all time

Zagat has a music survey running right now. Just for yuks, here are my selections for some of the best albums of all time:

Selected from their list:

  • AC/DC, Back in Black
  • Beatles, The, The Beatles (White Album)
  • Devo, Q: Are We Not Men A: We Are Devo!
  • DiFranco, Ani, Living in Clip
  • Led Zeppelin, IV
  • New Order, Power, Corruption & Lies
  • Queens of Stone Age, Songs for the Deaf
  • R.E.M., Murmur
  • Replacements, The, Let it Be
  • Roxy Music, Avalon
  • Rundgren, Todd, Something/Anything?
  • Rush, Moving Pictures
  • They Might Be Giants, Flood
  • U2, War
  • Uncle Tupelo, No Depression

My write-ins:

  • Ani DiFranco, Dilate
  • The Smiths, The Smiths
  • Jimi Hendrix Experience, Axis: Bold As Love
  • Husker Du, Candy Apple Grey

Not a complete list of my favorite albums, by any means, but a good start, based on the stuff they had to choose from, and a few things that popped into my head at the time.