Seeping Matter

One year ago today I was sitting there at work in the afternoon, trying to decide what to listen to.  I knew I wanted to listen to something, I just wasn’t sure what.  I knew I wasn’t in the mood for any of the old standbys.

Do you ever get in a mood like that?

Anyway, right then and there I decided I would listen to my entire music collection in alphabetical order by artist name, based on the way iTunes orders it.  And pretty much that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

When I started out, some people mocked me and said I would never be able to finish.  And here we are, one year later, and I’m still going strong, primarily on pure defiance.  And look what it has become!  Every month, you have these very intriguing posts to look forward to!  And let’s not forget the highly lucrative and controversial facebook contest!

Anyway, here’s where we stand today:

• Current artist/album/song: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark/The Best of OMD/Forever Live And Die
• Songs listened to: 6329
• Total songs: 10324
• Percentage complete: 61.3%
• Estimated completion: June 2010

This was a good month for music, which included the previously mentioned definitive industrial band (Nine Inch Nails), definitive grunge band (Nirvana), definitive new wave band (New Order), definitive 60-year-old ladies band (Neil Diamond), and obscure hair metal (Mr. Big, MSG) all thrown in.  I must admit, though, I think the best surprise was when the Oak Ridge Boys came up.  My dad used to listen to those guys all the time when I was little.  I’m no country fan, but those guys were pretty great songwriters.

Anyhow, despite all the excellent clues, hardly anybody won the contest.  Are you guys even paying attention?

Tell you what, I’ll help you out:  Coming up next is the section where I give out clues to the bands coming up soon.

So, if we hold pace here, we might make it clear through the Ps this month.  That means Pearl Jam is on the way, and some Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins.  Nothing else coming up, however, can compare to Pink Floyd, a band I absolutely love.  But before we get to the Ps, it seems like there might be some heavy metal in there.  It just seems likely.

The end of the month approaches and it is time for another experiment update.  We’re nearly a year into this thing now, by the way.

Current standings:

• Current artist/album/song: Mötley Crüe/Theatre of Pain/Fight For Your Rights
• Songs listened to: 5633
• Total songs: 10367
• Percentage complete: 54.34%
• Estimated completion: June 2010

(Sorry.  I had to censor the cover.)

We’ve gained a month in our completion date; this is good.  And this has been a great month, with such awesomeness as Liquid Tension Experiment, Megadeth, and the Crüe of course.  A great surprise was Megadeth’s “So Far… So Good… So What?” which I had never listened to before.  A great disappointment was Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” — I had been led to believe it was quality, but alas, it is more of the same garbage (no pun intended) that has come out of Metallica for the past nearly 20 years.

Man – has it been that long since the black album came out?

Anyway.  This next month should be a good one.  If we hold pace, we should get as far as Oingo Boingo, including a definitive industrial band, a definitive grunge band, a definitive new wave band, a definitive 60-year-old-ladies band, and some obscure hair metal thrown in for flavoring.  Should be outstanding.

Man, time flies.  It is already time for another update on the experiment.  Here’s where we stand now:

Current standings:

• Current artist/album/song: Led Zeppelin/Led Zeppelin IV (ZOSO)/Black Dog
• Songs listened to: 4931
• Total songs: 10469
• Percentage complete: 47.1%
• Estimated completion: July 2010

Having a brand-new private office is really helping move this experiment along. I’m now able to listen quietly to my music in the background for a much larger part of the day, and I’m getting through things a lot faster. See? We’ve moved the completion date up by 2 months!

It’s been a good month. We made it clear to the L’s, so we’re currently on Led Zeppelin, one of the classic rock bands of all time. And I got some great reactions on Facebook when I posted that I was listening to Kane Roberts. Obscure heavy metal bands, people!

Anyway, over the next month we should get well into the M’s, covering bands like Live, Megadeth, and Men at Work, along with a couple of obscure heavy metal bands in there, of course. I’d be surprised if we make it clear to Natalie Imbruglia though.

Whoa.  I’m late with the update, since I was in Seattle last week, and totally forgot about it.

Here’s where we stand now:

Current standings:

• Current artist/album/song:  Journey/Frontiers/Chain Reaction
• Songs listened to: 4277
• Total songs: 10099
• Percentage complete: 42.35%
• Estimated completion: September 2010

I listened to a lot of music this past month, despite two trips to Seattle.  But I added a bit also, so the current estimated completion is still September 2010.

It was a good month altogether.  Joe Satriani was a highlight, and both John Mayer and Josh Groban were great surprises – I always appreciate great talent.  Unless it is country music.  But only non-talented, uh, “artists” resort to country music, so no worries there.

Anyway, not too many people are playing the contest anymore.  I don’t know why, with such great prizes.  Regardless, I will continue to give out hints, and let people know that I’m looking forward to Judas Priest, Kansas, The Killers, and Kiss this next month, and if we’re lucky we might make it clear to the Ls.  Until then…

Time for another update, and we did a lot better this month than I thought I would.  Here’s where we stand:

Current standings:

• Current artist/album/song:  Iron Maiden/Piece of Mind/Revelations
• Songs listened to:  3344
• Total songs:  9829
• Percentage complete:  34.02%
• Estimated completion:  September 2010

Hooray!  We moved the completion date up by one month!

This month has been enjoyable.  George Lynch was cool to listen to, as was Guns N’  Roses, Hurricane, INXS, and Iron Maiden.  Oddly I never really listened to Iron Maiden much before, which is hard to explain, I know.

Also, this month I wondered why I have so many Heart songs.

So, looking forward, it’s kinda hard to predict.  I’ve got a week of vacation coming up, and a job change in the works also, so that might have some effect.  But I’m kinda looking forward to Joe Satriani and may even get as far as Journey this month.  Other than that, it’s looking a bit bleak.  Stay tuned…

Amazingly I am still conducting this experiment faithfully, when I get the chance.  It’s time for another update.

Current standings:

• Current Artist – Album – Song:  Genesis – Platinum Collection – Home by the Sea
• Songs listened to:  2871
• Total songs:  9710
• Percentage complete:  29.57%
• Estimated completion:  October 2010

I felt like I made a lot of progress this month, but the completion estimate is still so far away.  Uhhhhhhhhhh.

It was a great month though.  Foo Fighters, Fuel, Garbage and Genesis were all great fun, and Frederic Chopin, one of the greatest pianists and songwriters for piano of all time, was wonderful.  (iTunes alphabetical order.  Frederic, not Chopin.  Not my fault.)

This month could be very busy with a lot of bands going by.  Some highlights include Goo Goo Dolls, Guns n’ Roses, and Hootie, and we might even get as far as House of Lords this month.  Summer is coming though, and I haven’t taken hardly any vacation for a year, and so I might not get as far as that.

‘Til next month…

It’s that time again, to do the music experiment update.  Some good progress has been made.

Current standings:

• Current Artist – Album – Song:  Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace – Erase/Replace
• Songs listened to:  2590
• Total songs:  9718
• Percentage complete:  26.65%
• Estimated completion:  September 2010

Huh, I’m not doing as well as I thought.

The F’s have been alright so far, with Faith No More and Foo Fighters in particular being pretty good.  Fear Factory, on the other hand, was pretty lousy and so I sorta cheated and just got rid of them altogether.  Yuck.

I listened to about 300 songs last month, so if I do about the same this month I might get as far as George Lynch with some of the highlights including Genesis and maybe Garbage and Fuel, depending on whether the recommendations for those bands were sound.  We’ll see.  Boy isn’t this fun!

Image credit: amazon.com

The movie “French Kiss” with Kevin Kline and that one chick is one of me and Amber’s favorite VHS movies.  (In our house, there are three time periods to movies – DVD movies, VHS movies, and pre-VHS movies.  No Blu-Ray yet.)  I like it, but the reason is not because it is a romantic comedy with that one chick in it.  And the reason is not because it says “French” in the title and I’m trying to suck up to my boss, Luis, who lives in France.  No, I like it because it has some really, really funny Canadians in it.  Like Strange Brew!

No.  Actually, not.  But it is a pretty funny movie.  And there is this part, which is not funny, where Luc is explaining to that one chick about what makes wines different from each other – that they take in elements from their environment that contribute to their unique flavor and texture.  For example, if you spill some wine in the dirt, and then scoop it up with your cup and drink it anyway, you will probably get some dirt crumbs in there, which changes the texture from “smooth” to “gritty” and just tends to get you even more drunk than you were before.  And that’s why I don’t drink.

Anyway, I was thinking about that today, and how similar that is to software engineers.  See, software engineers, also, take in elements from their environment that make them unique.  In fact, an easy way to say this is that software engineers who live in one part of the world are better than software engineers who live in another part of the world because of their superior geography.

For example, you might have one software engineer, let’s call him Steve.  He might live in an peninsula that is called a valley, surrounded on three sides by ocean, with real estate that is unreasonably expensive.  Or you might have another software engineer, let’s call him Bill, who lives in a place where it rains all the time, in the land of Nirvana and Alice In Chains and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Starbucks.  Or another guy, named Nathan, who lives in an area with tight roads that wind all over creation, also with expensive real estate, elitist professional sports teams, and where nobody ever pronounces the letter “r”.

Compare these people to someone named Drew, for the sake of argument.  This guy, also a software engineer, lives in an area with big mountains, lots of Mormons, and secret sand dunes where someone exactly like myself can go riding motocross bikes.

Anyone can see that there is simply no way Drew will ever be able to measure up to the likes of Steve, Bill, and Nathan.  I mean, just take into account the geographic considerations!  How can big mountains ever hope to make you the kind of software engineer you could have been if instead you had been surrounded by ocean or Soundgarden?  The simple answer is:  they can’t.  I mean, be serious.  This, my friends, is the effect of geography on software engineers – geography can make the difference between you being really excellent and simply mediocre.  Secret sand dunes are really amazing, but they obviously cannot make you into the kind of software engineer you could have been if instead you were to replace those dunes with expensive real estate.

Time for yet another update on the experiment.  I’m getting a lot of slack for this right now because we seem to have hit a local minima.  But I shall forge onward!  Onward!

Current standings:

• Current Artist – Album – Song:  Enya – Amarantine  – Drifting
• Songs listened to:  2264
• Total songs:  9544
• Percentage complete:  23.72%
• Estimated completion:  July 2010

I fell off the pace this month, because they made me the Windows DevLead at Mozy, and Luis was here one week, which was the same week we were wrapping up a major deliverable, and I don’t think I actually listened to any music that whole week, at least not at work.  And because I didn’t listen to any music that week, that explains why it will now take me two months longer to finish. (?)

Anyway, Drowning Pool was a great new discovery over the past month.  That will definitely be listened to again.  Also, Angie Newman Hull became the first, and still only, winner of my ongoing Facebook contest.  This gave me great hope for future contests, but we haven’t had any further winners, although some people seem to be participating more again.

I also listened to The Eagles and Elton John this month.  Bo-ring.

So the goal for this month is to get to the Fs.  Eric Johnson should be a decently good time, if I don’t get bored of his style, which I might after enough of it, but you have to admit he’s pretty awesome.  Once we get to the Fs, it still looks a bit bleak for the rest of the month, but Faith No More is in the Fs, and that should be good.  And Falco!  Don’t forget Falco!

‘Til next time…

Image credit: amazon.com

Well it is nearly the end of February so it must be time to provide an update on the music experiment I’m running.  Yes, I’m still running it.

Here’s where we stand now:

• Current Artist – Album – Song:  Dream Theater – Images and Words – Metropolis, Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper
• Songs listened to:  2055
• Total songs:  9544
• Percentage complete:  21.53%
• Estimated completion:  May 2010

Well, May 2010 is still a long ways off, but it is much closer than October.  Apparently I’ve picked up the pace a bit.  Also, I removed some more songs that inadvertently had found their way into my playlist from my wife’s playlist.  I mean – Faith Hill – seriously?!  Nah, that’s my wife’s stuff.

This month has been pretty awesome so far – Dokken and Dream Theater in particular have been very awesome, and Dishwalla was a good surprise – that was a band I had in there on recommendation from someone else, and I hadn’t really listened to them before.  Listening to all of Dragonforce was also interesting, although I have to admit that stuff can make you feel tired just listening to it.  Also I started a contest on Facebook for people to try to guess the next band.  This has been interesting, mostly due to the large volume of people who don’t seem to understand alphabetical order (“Hmm, he’s listening to Dokken – my guess for the next band is… Abba!”) or who don’t seem to understand me (“My guess is… Barry Manilow.”).  Nobody has actually won yet – even when I gave a totally obvious hint on my last “Essential Albums” post.  Still, the contest continues.  The winner will get a very excellent SuperPoke and notoriety beyond their wildest dreams, so I’m sure this contest is only going to get more and more popular.

We should be to the E’s pretty soon, and with a bit of luck we could possibly finish the E’s before the next update.  The E’s are looking a bit sparse, but there’s some ELO, a good sampling of Eric Johnson, and a smattering of Enya in there which should make it a good listen.  Yes, Enya.  I like Enya.  Sorry to disappoint.

(See?  Did you see the other totally obvious hints?  Did you see that guessing any band starting with F before April is probably not a smart strategy?  Did you see that guessing “Extreme” right now is probably not the best strategy either, since it comes at the end of the E’s and I already named three bands before that one?  I’m just sayin’.)

Image credit: amazon.com