You see, all it takes is a little motivation. For some reason, mine was finding my headshot from the Daily Eastern News circa 2005ish.

Hello, ladies.

ChasD34: haha I just scored 82 on this IQ test
me: no shit!
ChasD34: (Spammy link that would destroy my PC) Can u take it plz and tell me what u get?
me: since you are my best friend in the whole wide world, of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ChasD34: this one is supposed to be pretty accurate and I wanna see if I’m smart plus I know u wont beat me!! LOL
me: oh you! is everything always a competition??????!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ChasD34: brb I’m gonna go get a drink…
me: i scored 93. suck on that, chasd34, you dumb piece of shit!
ChasD34: k
me: HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA, YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
me: DRINK THAT UP, BITCH!

Sadly, ChasD34 now wants nothing to do with me. I thought we were the best of friends?!

These lists are never easy.  Definitely listened to a ton of stuff that was not released this year, but of what I heard, these albums may just be my favorite.  I am sure I will discover something I missed years from now, but this is where I’m at.

1. Menomena – Mines: I love this band so much it hurts.  “Mines” is their most emotional album to date.  See them live.  Pick up their albums.  Dooooo it!

2. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach: Damon Albarn is the man.  Hell, he released “The Fall” a couple days ago and I am already in love with that album.  Let me also mention that the Gorillaz put on the best show I saw this year.

3. Spoon – Transference: Sure, it’s not the best Spoon album, but it’s Spoon, and they are awesome.

4. Whitey – Canned Laughter: Never heard of Whitey?  Educate yourself.  This guy puts out some of the catchiest and danciest songs you’re going to find in this musical landscape.

5. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening: The same stuff that people say about Whitey can probably be said about LCD Soundsystem.  People are just a little bit more educated on James Murphy and co.

6. Adam Franklin – I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years: The Swervedriver frontman put out his third solo album this year, and it’s fantastic.  Mellow, laid back shoegaze-y tracks that I can’t seem to get tired of.

7. TOBACCO – Maniac Meat: This is PERFECT driving music.  TOBACCO’s beats just destroy.

8. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker: I felt like I was cheating on Dungen the first time I listened to this album, but it really proved itself to be a worthy peer.

9. Clinic – Bubblegum: Clinic kind of switches things up here with some groooovy, spacey tracks that I heartily approve of.

10. New Pornographers – Together: It’s the New Pornographers, c’mon.

Headache Frank Black

Smiley faces Gnarls Barkley

There’s No Other Way Blur

Eat My Beat AIR

Pizza Adiam Dymott

Jealousy Spoon

Send A Message To Her   Beck

Such a Pretty Lie The Wrens

Crying Lightning Arctic Monkeys

Young Love Delivers Oxford Collapse

Don’t Take Me To Space (Man) Brakes

On Your Own                          Blur

Alcoholics Unanimous Art Brut

We Have a Technical Blur

Walkie Talkie DJ Shadow

Cracked Actor David Bowie

Burn Baby Burn Ash

Fire & Fast Bullets Blitzen Trapper

Grace Supergrass

Kim’s Watermelon Gun   The Flaming Lips

The Real Me                        The Who

Debaser Pixies

addicted to drugs Kaiser chiefs

Twin Cinema                      The New Pornographers

I Can See For Miles         The Who

Sleepyheads (Drums and Wires out take)     XTC

Bigtime The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway (Again) Wilco

Hammer I Miss You                      Jay Reatard

The End Has No End                      The Strokes

New Years Eve The Walkmen

Lovers Who Uncover                 The Little Ones

You Gotta Feel It Spoon

Just Radiohead

Ulysses Franz Ferdinand

Alec Eiffel Pixies

10 A.M. Automatic The Black Keys

Dream Police Cheap Trick

Direct Hit Art Brut

Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider Of Montreal

Go With The Flow                         Queens Of The Stone Age

Electric Feel Mgmt

We’re Not Gonna Take It The Who

No Epiphany Fucked Up

Tropicana Ratatat

Fashion Is Danger Flight Of The Conchords

Making Plans for Nigel XTC

Cowbell Tapes ‘n Tapes

Going Mobile The Who

I’m Always In Love Wilco

Don’t You Evah Spoon

Officer Blue XTC

“I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to Be Nicer” The Cardigans

Nag Nag Nag Nag Art Brut

Worked Up So Sexual                     The Faint

This Boy Franz Ferdinand

5/4                                                    Gorillaz

Party Hard                                    Andrew W.K.

Timebomb Beck

I used to dance with my daddy Datarock

I’m Slowly Turning Into You The White Stripes

There’s No MIMS In Threesome ABX

Too Many Dicks (On The Dance Floor) Flight Of The Conchords

Don’t Upset The Rhythm (Go Baby Go) Noisettes

Be A Bee AIR

It Won’t Be Long The Hives

What You Waiting For Gwen Stefani

Alright Supergrass

BAD CARTRIDGE (E-Pro) [Remix]           Beck

True Stories Datarock

Get Up And Party Like A Rock Star ABX

Auld Lang Syne The Black On White Affair

Fancy Footwork Chromeo

She Is Beautiful Andrew W.K.

Everyday I’m Ghosthustlin’ ABX

Goldmine                               Caviar

human after all Daft Punk

Computer camp love Datarock

The Girl And The Robot Royksopp

Weird (Dekoder remix) Menomena

Working for the Weekend (Remastered 2006) Loverboy

It Don’t Move Me Peter Bjorn and John

Leave Them All Behind      Whitey

1901 Phoenix

Happy Up Here Royksopp

Fa-fa-fa                            Datarock

Animals Talking Heads

Cherry Cola Eagles Of Death Metal

10 Feet of Snow The Prairie Cartel

head in the corner Whitey

Intimate Secretary        The Raconteurs

Gunman Them Crooked Vultures

Great DJ The Ting Tings

Young Thongs                 The Prairie Cartel

Princess Datarock

Sex me up Datarock

My Moon My Shawty DJ STV SLV

Secret Plans Eagles Of Death Metal

Paranoid                            Kanye West

Disco Infiltrator             LCD Soundsystem

Toxic Local H

I Told Her On Alderaan Neon Neon

Lay it Down Peter Bjorn and John

Lisztomania                              Phoenix

Cracktown (Hey Champ Remix) The Prairie Cartel

The Pretender                          Datarock

Five on the Five The Raconteurs

Eple Royksopp

L.E.S Artistes Santogold

Got Nuffin Spoon

Cold War Trans Am

Amsterdam Peter Bjorn And John

Ready For Love/After Lights Mott The Hoople

The Final Countdown Europe

In other news, I did finally receive a new copy of GTA IV about a 1.5 months ago.  All I did was complain a couple times to Rockstar’s twitter account and someone finally noticed and contacted me.  So, to those of you who find twitter worthless, I have a new copy of GTA IV that says otherwise.

Back around early ’09, (February to be exact), I lent my buddy my copy of GTA IV for XBox 360.  No harm, no foul, until his 360 scratched my GTA IV disc, rendering the game unplayable.  Fantastic, thanks bud.  And of course he wasn’t going to shell out $60 to purchase me a new copy.  But, why should anyone have to buy a whole new copy?  There must be a way to replace a scratched disc.  That’s because there is!

I emailed Rockstar Games, the publisher of GTA IV and explained my situation.  They quickly responded and told me to mail the disc and a check for $8 (in order to ship the game back) to a disc replacement facility of sorts in Ohio.  Piece of cake, or so it seemed.

Time went by and I became engrossed in Fallout 3, no need to rush the replacement GTA IV.  I’d check online every so often to see if my check had been cashed yet.  Then, sometime around late March, I notice that my check had finally been cashed.  Looked at the image of the check to see a big ol’ Take-Two Interactive ,(the distributor of GTA IV), stamp on the back of the check.  Fantastic, that new copy of GTA IV should be mine any day now!  Boy was I wrong.

I gave it a few weeks, simple crap like magazine subscriptions take 4-6 weeks, no need to get over-anxious.  Besides, Fallout 3 was still keeping me occupied.  I wait and I wait, nothing.  Come June, I finally get off my ass and give Rockstar Games a call.  The nice British dude tells me that they had switched over to a new customer service system since my original email.  Because of that, my reference number was no longer in the system, they knew nothing of my claim.

(Boy this is interesting stuff.)

So, I am told to forward the original email that Rockstar had sent me about the replacement process.  I do, and hear nothing back.  I call back a week or so later and speak to someone.  They see that I had emailed the information, but for whatever reason, it was not followed up.  They will pass this on to a manager or God knows who.

More time goes by, I call again, explaining my situation once more.  They have my reference number, why must I keep doing this?  Anyways, a manager will take care of it, but he won’t be in til after the weekend.  Fine.

Call back the next week and they say they just need my address to send me a new copy!  Huzzah!  Thanks manager!

Weeks go by.  Nothing.  Where the hell is my game?

Once again, I call back and speak to another fancy lad who tells me that the information was relayed over to the returns location in Ohio.  The same location in Ohio that cashed my check and never sent me my game!  Great, yeah, they’re really efficient over there.  And the kicker was that they had yet to receive a response from Ohio.  Those British dudes have a tough time saying Ohio, by the way.  But no worries as they will contact them personally for me!  Easy peasy!

I call back the very next day, (which happens to be today), and find out that no one ever contacted Ohio.  Great!  Excellent!  Cowabunga!  Now I have been very patient on the phone.  I’ve worked customer service before, it can suck, so I resisted the urge of losing my cool with these Brits.  This time the rep told me he would forward this on to his manager and have him contact Ohio.  And here’s the kicker:  He told me to call back in a week.  So far I’ve waited 8 months, what’s another week, right?

But I don’t get it.  Why must they contact the Ohio location?  Why can’t they just send me a new game?  What must I do?  I don’t get it.  So, I am pleading with Rockstar Game and Take-Two Interactive:  You cashed my check, send me a game.  Is that so hard?  Please?  I am asking nicely.  Screw Ohio.  This has gone on for far too long.  Got it?  Thanks.

Seeing as how sentence long posts are pointless, I created a twitter.  Lucky you!