Morning Commute Music Roundup: Week of February 6th, 2012

So far, posting my morning commute songs has provided a way for me to consistently update my blog, but I've gotten behind a little lately. Here's a roundup of the songs from the week of Feb. 6th. Enjoy!

Monday, February 6th
Trojans by Atlas Genius - My Original Tweet

Here's the original Album version:


Here's an acoustic version they have out there as well. Great track.



Tuesday, February 7th
Short Skirt/Long Jacket by Cake - My Original Tweet



Wednesday, February 8th
Mahna Mahna by The Fray - My Original Tweet

This is a cover tune by The Fray of the original Muppets song. I've heard a few songs off of this cover album and they sound great.



Thursday, February 9th
Cold Shot by Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble - My Original Tweet



Friday, February 10th
Promises by Nero - My Original Tweet

Morning Commute Music Roundup: Week of January 30th, 2012

Looking back through my tweets and my Path timeline, it looks like I didn't post any songs for Monday or Tuesday. That would've been the last 2 days of the month, so I'm not surprised. January is our busiest month at work. Either way, here's my morning commute songs from the last half of the week. Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 1st
Paradise by Coldplay - My Original Tweet



I attempted to embed the original song and the original music video,  but Vevo and EMI don't allow embedding on other sites (I'll have to post my thoughts on that later). Instead, here's a live version of the song from their visit to the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Thursday, February 2nd
Love Is Here by Tenth Avenue North - My Original Tweet



Friday, February 3rd
Allies by Mute Math - My Original Tweet

Morning Commute Music Roundup: Week of January 23rd, 2012

Here's a roundup of my favorite songs of the week from my morning commute. Enjoy!

Monday, January 23rd
Lucid Dreams by Franz Ferdinand - My Original Tweet



Tuesday, January 24th
Barbara Streisand by Duck Sauce (Lorenzo Llama Remix) - My Original Tweet

This remix appears to be exclusive to Kids Place Live on Sirius XM Radio, since I can't find it online (legally, that is). I was in the car with the kids that morning, so it wasn't my normal commute music. Either way, it's a hoot of a song if you ever get a chance to hear it. I was going to embed the music video for the original remix, but the artist doesn't allow embedding (good luck with that).

Wednesday, January 25th
Crystalised by The xx - My Original Tweet



Thursday, January 26th
Get It Daddy by Sleeper Agent - My Original Tweet



Friday, January 27th
Shuffle by Bombay Bicycle Club - My Original Tweet



Saturday, January 28th
Comeback Kid by Sleigh Bells - My Original Tweet

Yes, I had to work on Saturday, but I did get to hear this new song from Sleigh Bells on XMU. Pretty slick. Oh yeah, and I did steal the stapler.

A New Way to Subscribe to The Straits

Now that I'm getting my blog back in order, I keep finding things I want to tweak. I just found one of those things and I wanted to make sure you're aware of it.

I now have a way to subscribe to my blog by email. All you have to do is click on the link on the right hand side  of my blog. Once you are subscribed, you'll receive a notification by email when I post to my blog. Pretty cool, huh?

Morning Commute Music Roundup: Week of January 16th, 2012

Since I started using Path on my iPhone (I'll have to blog about Path later), I have been sharing one song per day from my morning commute. I have Path push it to Twitter and Facebook most of the time so my friends and followers get an feel for the kind of music I'm listening to.

On average, I'm in the car for 40 minutes in the morning. I listen to XM Radio for most of that drive and I primarily listen to Alternative and Modern Rock, although I will listen to almost any genre.

With all that being said, I've decided to recap or roundup all the songs I have shared from the previous week into one post. It's an easy way for me to start delivering more consistent content to the blog.

Monday, January 16th
Not Your Fault by AWOLNATION - My Original Tweet



Tuesday, January 17th
You Will Leave a Mark by A Silent Film -My Original Tweet



Wednesday, January 18th
Isolation by Alter Bridge - My Original Tweet



Annoying Side Note: I wanted to embed the original music video for the song, but the record company didn't think it was worth it to allow blogs on blogger to have that right. So, instead, I linked to the song so you can play it here.

Thursday, January 19th
One Month Off by Bloc Party - My Original Tweet



Friday, January 20th
Icky Thump by The White Stripes - My Original Tweet




Another note: The original music video for this song was also blocked from embedding.

Tidying Up the Ol' Blog

When I decided to revisit my blog yesterday for the first time in two years, I found there were some things that needed to be cleaned up as part of the design. Today, I took some time to clean up the sidebar to make it a little more relevant. Here's what I did:

1. I removed my Facebook badge. I really can't remember the last time I friended someone on Facebook that I haven't met in person. That's what Facebook will continue to be for me, for now. I'd much rather connect on Twitter and G+ right now, it's a simple fact. (reminder: blog about my social media habits)


2. I added a link to my Google+ profile. I haven't done much on G+ as far as posting is concerned, but I have started to comment and +1 to try and get myself more involved with it. Twitter is still my 'go to' network to share and post for now.


3. I removed my FriendFeed link. Yes, the last time I blogged, FriendFeed was relevant.


4. I removed my "What Am I Reading" section. It was linked to my Google Reader feed. While I still maintain that feed so I can push it into other aggregating apps on my iPad and iPhone (like Zite), I haven't been pushing anything to that feed in a long time.


5. I made a minor modification to my tag/label cloud, removing the amount of tags number from each tag. It makes it look a little cleaner.

That's about it for now. I'll keep making small tweaks until I decide to either do a major overhaul (if that will ever happen) or to switch platforms altogether. This was more of an update to make sure all my links are relevant. I want to make the blog more about my writing than anything right now, instead of aesthetics.

Two Years!

It's been two years since I last blogged on this site. That's ridiculous. A lot, and I mean a lot has happened to my family in the last two years. I think it's time to pull this blog off the shelf, dust it off, give it some love and start blogging again.

Help... My Blog Is About How Little I Blog

I think my blog is officially a spot for me to write about how I don't blog enough. It's a place where I mention other blogs and other web sites that have inspired me to start blogging again. I'll be inspired by the post, I'll send out a shout-out link and share about how it's going to be different, and then you won't see me again for another 4 months.

Just to prove my point, here's the latest post that got me thinking about blogging again. It's a tweet by @DavePeckens where he shares a blog post by @nealschaffer. The post gives you 7 reasons why you should start a blog. It's an excellent post and it really motivates.

But how do you keep it going? I can always give excuses about how I don't have the time or I don't know what to write about, but I don't know how to keep it up.

What inspires you to blog? How do you keep up with it? Where does your drive come from?

The Time to Share is Now

I'm not sure what it is and how it happens, but the internet has the uncanny knack to pull us in. It gives us the ability to create connections and share our story, even before the story is finished. I read a blog post by my friend Kevin a few days back that has inspired me to get back to this blog and share my story. Kevin simply points out that:

...we don’t have to wait until we’re old and gray to have something valuable to say.

It's so true. We all have a story and it's worth sharing. I want to be in on that.

How are you sharing your story?

9 Things I Learned From Friday's Snowstorm

For those of you in the Detroit area, you got a chance to experience the first major storm of the snow season on Friday. Most of the schools were out for the day and it seemed like half of the workforce was home as well. According to the National Weather Service, the area received between seven and 12 inches, most of it coming down during the morning period.

This led to a long commute for myself (I drive 30 miles one way each day from Westland to Troy) and it also provided some lessons for me to learn. I thought I would share some things I learned from this unordinary day.

1. Good Samaritan's still exist.
I witnessed 3 acts of kindness on this day. 3 different people helped stuck cars right outside my window at work. Each time, a car got stuck in the snow coming out of a parking lot or going in. Another person ended up stopping within 5 minutes, got a shovel out of their trunk, shoveled the snow away and then helped rock and push them on their way. It made me proud to see fellow Detroiter's help each other out. It was pretty cool to witness 5 stories up.

2. Yes, you can get stuck in 10 inches of snow
These weren't really snow drifts, it was just snow from the day that these cars were getting stuck in.

3. And yes, your bumper can get ripped off trying to get your car unstuck.
Yep, I saw it happen. One of those good samaritan's ended up connecting it back on so the person could drive away with some diginity.

4. If you don't feel comfortable driving faster than 10 mph on the highway, you probably shouldn't be driving during a snow storm.
I passed at least 4 vehicles that were on 3 and 4 lane highways driving around 10 mph. The average speed of everyone else was 30 mph. What's even worse, each of them had their hazards on. It just seemed that driving way to slow was just as unsafe as driving too fast. I would suggest you stay at home or maybe you should consider spending the night in the office so you don't have to drive in during the storm.

5. Just because their are 3 lanes on the road, doesn't mean you should go 3 wide on the road.
You can't see the lanes, so why not follow everyone else. Most people were taking a safe approach and staying away from other vehicles. The closer everyone is to each other, the better chance a spinout will take out more vehicles. Is it really worth it?

6. Your SUV/truck obeys the same laws of physics that my car does.
Really, it does. No, seriously. I'm not kidding. If you drive 55 mph and you expect to stop in the same distance as a car moving at half that speed, it's not going to happen.

7. Sometimes it's worth it to pay the neighborhood kid to snowblow your sidewalks and driveway.
My wife worked from home during the day and a neighborhood kid stopped by to ask if he could snowblow our walk ways and driveway (for a donation of course). I'm sure glad she said yes. It saved us a ton of time since we were going to have to shovel the 8 inches of snow. And, it rewarded a kid who's actually out doing work and helping people in the community, instead of a kid who's out throwing eggs at parked cars (see #9)

8. You will feel bad for your dog if the snow is up to their chest.
I feel really bad for our dog. She hates the cold. She goes outside, shivers, goes the bathroom and comes back. The only problem is, the snow is too high to even do that. We cleared out a path for her, but it's still pretty sad.

9. Teenagers in Milford have nothing to do on a Friday night other than throw eggs at parked cars.
We were at a Christmas Party and when we were ready to leave, we found a nice frozen omelette on the side of our vehicle. Needless to say, we had to stop at a self-serve car wash at 1:30AM in the morning.