Mashy points

Once again I'm writing with no particular purpose, but I felt I needed to do some writing tonight. Reader beware: I've had a long day and I'm polishing off a bottle of vodka. Thoughts may be random, at best.

Lately I've been listening to a mashup I came across by DJ Earworm. First point- that's a pretty decent DJ name. It's kinda gross, but it also makes perfect sense in a lot of ways.

Anyway, it's a mashup of the top TWENTY-FIVE pop songs off of the Billboard charts from 2008.

Point 2- I love mashups. Usually it's only a couple songs or a few songs, but I like them because I'm a editing nerd. I appreciate creative editing. I like looking at (or listening to) existing creations that are turned into something new. Sometimes it's better, sometime's it's worse, usually it's fun. This particular mashup impressed me because it combined 25 songs in a pretty coherent way. Sure, some of them were super heavily favored over others, but it's still cool. I'm big on creative editing in general. I think that's why I liked Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine"- whether you like Moore or not, you gotta admit that the editing on that film is outstanding.

Point 3- At 28, I think I'm old now. I only recognized maybe three of these songs. (I recognized about half of the artists, so at least that's something, but still). When did I get so out of touch? The song I knew the best was in there for only a second (3:08 - "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven). Maybe because it's so heavy on the hip-hop.

Side note- I saw Finger Eleven play at the Taste of Minesota in 2008. I got there right before Seether went on, and Finger Eleven closed with "Paralyzer", a cover of Pink Floyd's "The Wall", and then "Paralyzer" again.

Point 4- There was a song years ago that made me think I might want to listen to more Alicia Keys, but I never did, and this reminded me of that. (Searching around I think it was "Fallin'". Wasn't that her first hit? Gosh I feel old).

Point 5- I've been trying to think of new hobbies or activities for 2009, and I think making mashups would be fun. I don't think I could put together anything this big, but I'd like to give it a try. I looked up "How to make a mashup" on Google Search and one of the first results was "How to make a good soup."

Ideas Man

Sometimes right before I fall asleep, or when waking up in the middle of the night, I'll come up with some ideas/dreams for stories or poems or blogs (Dream I). I keep a post-it pad and a pen in the top drawer of my nightstand to scratch down these thoughts. Most of the stuff is written down at 4am without my glasses and turns looks like "ircusinopliv". I have no idea what that means, and it bothers me that that particular thought was probably really awesome or original and is lost now. O well. Anyway, some of my New Year's resolutions are to eat healthier and write more, so I've just started the process of copying all my post-it ideas to my computer. I know this isn't a funny post or anything, but just thought I'd share. Please post any cool resolutions of your own.

Cat Burgler

Taped above the mailboxes in my apartment building was the following note:

On Tuesday I rented a live trap to catch the black kitten who was seen living in our garage. Within 1/2 hour someone stole the trap. I am sad that someone would do that, causing me to incur a $70 rental charge, not to mention that I don't know if that person also has the cat. Please contact apartment ### if you have information.

I don't know why, but this made me laugh. They're sad because of the rental charge for the missing trap and, o yeah, DID YOU ALSO STEAL THE CAT? I have visions of the Janitor from Scrubs creating an army of taxidermied animals.

So Carl Pohlad's dead

Carl Pohlad is dead, and all over the Star Tribune writers and people are all like, "Boo-hoo, he was the best!" and praising him for his loyalty and how he was a great owner and blah blah blah. Please.

Sorry if this sounds cold. I'm not saying I'm glad he's dead or anything. I just wish he wasn't the owner of the Twins for about the last 15 years. Pohlad was the cheapest owner a baseball team could have. Over the years we've lost players like David Ortiz, Torii Hunter and Johan Santana because of Pohlad's cheapness. I remember him threatening to sell/move/contract the team, and I hated having him as an owner.

I read all sorts of praise about how the Twins are so competitive and won championships with their small payroll. Yeah? We haven't won it all since 1991, and when we've made the playoffs, how many times have we advanced past the first round? Every year we're looking for that one big bat that could bring everything together, and every year we get someone cheap who's washed up, terrible, or Nick Punto.

Pitchers and catchers report to training camp in 6 weeks, likely with "CP" patches on their jerseys or caps, and in April the Twins will open the 2009 season in the Dome and have tributes and banners for him. I doubt much will change (his kid Jim Pholad's running the team now I guess), but who knows. Maybe the boy will spend some of dad's billions and in a few years will look back and see this as real turning point for the franchise.