EPT
Life
I don't really have anything insightful to say. I haven't really played a lot of Starcraft since remastered came out, but I recently started working on my macro again, so we'll see. Cross Out is a game I've been playing most recently. But mostly, I'm just really busy. I teach, I'm the athletic director of a small school, and I'm currently coaching two volleyball teams. (I'm going to try and not coach basketball so I can recover in time for Track and Field season.) Our volleyball season is almost at an end and the senior team I coach has a shot at provincials, but anything can happen. Busy, busy busy.
And next semester I'll get to teach 20th Century History as a grade 12 course, so after six years of classroom teaching, I'll have taught history in every grade from 7-12 (except grade 9). So that'll be a lot of work developing yet another new course, but it'll be fun as I enjoy the time period.
Oh yeah. And I bought house, so now I have debt again. But I have a house, which without family help would've been a few years away still.
Music
So to close out my blog (which is surprisingly short if anyone recalls my monster blog posts from the past- I haven't blogged in a year), I thought I would post my Top 10 most played songs in my iTunes library. It's still pretty relevant to what I listen to as I never gravitated to music streaming services (beyond youtube's synthwave videos).
The library has been imported across multiple computers since 2009 (when I learned you could so my play count stopped resetting.) Of course it doesn't count mp3 player and android phone play counts, but it's a good approximate to what I listen. The play count isn't super high in the Top 10 because I try not to over play songs because I want to enjoy them long term, so my library ends up being relatively evenly distributed (I think). I also don't make heavy use of playlists, except to curate the Up Next feature.
I guess, unsurprisingly most of the songs in the Top 10 were imported in 2009/2010 as those songs have the most chance to be played on Random. The Top 10 of the Top 25 iTunes list has actually been fairly stable over the years as all the songs I've listed below have been in the top for years.
Hopefully someone finds something enjoyable in the music I have enjoyed. If not, oh well.
Falling's iTunes Top 10 Play Count: 2018
Three way tie for 10th at 39 Plays
10) Maylene and the Sons of Disaster- Dry the River
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Southern Metal- aside from my alternative metal, I tended to gravitate toward more of the power/ synth metal side of metal, for instance, Stratovarius, Nightwish, Blind Guardian, or more recently Sabaton, but there are three songs by Maylene that I really like and this is one of them.
10) Marie Mai- Emmene-moi
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French-Canadian band. First heard this song during the Winter Olympics and added it to my collection.
10) Linkin Park- In The End
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I listened to a lot of Hybrid Theory, Reanimation, and Meteora in high school. I don't listen to them near so much anymore, but I still like playing them from time to time and this song (and its remix) is still excellent.
9) Saosin- Bury Your Head 41 Plays
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I'm a little surprised that P.O.D. never ended up in my top 10, but then again all my play counts on iTunes kept resetting until 2009 when I learned to import library... and CD plays from high school wouldn't have counted, haha. But yeah, I still like the alternative metal that was coming out in the early 2000s. But I got this song from a music library dump from a girl in university and I really gravitated to this song (and The Juliana Theory to the Tune of 5000 Screaming Children + Show Spoiler +
8) London Beat- I've Been Thinking About You 41 Plays
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Not much to say, except that I still enjoy it.
7 Kaskade & deadmau5-I Remember 41 Plays
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Rather melancholy song. I was introduced to electronica in high school and really got into a lot of electronica and trance music in university.
6) Chagall Guevara- Take Me Back (To Love Canal) 41 Plays
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A band that foundered before it really started, but put out one really great album. Founded in part, by my favourite lyricist, Steve Taylor
Bonus: A more recent project of his Steve Taylor and the Perfect Foil- Only a Ride
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5) Aspirations- Get F'd 42 Plays
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(Although, I have it renamed to "What You Deserve" because I edited the song for myself, haha.) I don't know why I like this song so much. Somehow the screaming voice with the melodic female voice really works (Her voice is more prominent in some of the other songs). And there's just a lot of energy in the beat and with the trumpets.
Bonus- another by them
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4) Woodhands- Pockets 43 Plays
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Just a really bouncing beat. Friend in university introduced me to them. Love it.
3) Röyksopp- Alpha Male 43 Plays
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My house mate of four years in university introduced me to Royksopp- his musical taste was rather ecletic/ weird. Sigur Ros and mewithoutyou + Show Spoiler +
2) Journey- Separate Ways 43 Plays
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I think, although I like a lot of different genres, I really gravitate to 80s Rock and 80s New Wave. This has such a big sound, and I love it.
1) Aha- Take On Me 45 Plays
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Classic radio rock. (And 80s... of course) I actually had a hard time figuring out what this song because I somehow always missed when they announced what the band and song title was and I had such a hard time figuring out what he was singing, that I couldn't google search the lyrics, haha. I'm surprised Depeche Mode- Precious + Show Spoiler +
I can't say it's my favourite song as such- in fact, I might put it on the bottom of the songs I've listed so far, but I do really enjoy it. And it's 80s, so that' fairly representative of my musical taste.
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