let it snow? f that.

in my wise 446 months of existence, i've lived a solid eight of them outside of the northeast region. as a result, i've seen my fair share of snow...& i sort of hate it. yes, i'm from nh but i don't know how to ski or snowboard or iceskate. i've never seen a yeti. my family at no point owned a snowmobile, but i did ride on one once. while i definitely loved playing in the snow as a kid (see: blizzard of '78), i'm over it now. i guess i should just shut my face & move somewhere without snow but, the way i figure it, with the whole global warming thing it's probably better just to wait it out. eventually, the earth'll be too hot for it to snow on the east coast anyhow.

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#196 - tracks & snacks 2011.

for the past two years, when this time of year rolled around & i sat down to compile my top ten tracks & snacks of the year, it's been a relatively painless process. not so this year. in the past, i've always been able to open up itunes, take a look at my list of most played tunes & easily compile a list. this summer, my computer finally decided to kick the bucket for good, taking all the precious "most played" info with it & forcing me to rely on my memory, a task which is a dicey proposition at best. 

...so there's inevitably something i'm forgetting but i have to give nods to das racist, st vincent, cut copy, adele, shabazz palaces, los campesinos, atlas sound, pj harvey, destroyer, girls, anvil hands & cities aviv who, if this was a top 22 list, all had songs worthy of being on it. in the end, each artist on this year's list has never been in my top ten before although three songs from the albums on my mid-year top five list made it into the 2011 top ten.

...so if you're the type who's looking for a shiny new band to call your own, there are ten great candidates below & links to videos for eight of the songs & "listen" links for the other two. ALSO, since spotify has finally made its way to america, i've tossed up a playlist of the nine top ten tracks that are available on it, so if you swing that way, have at it here. BRING ON THE TRACKS! BRING ON 2012! SMELL YA LATER 2011!

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#195 - links & drinks 2011.

well...so today, for the first time in almost a year, i actually went back & checked out last year's top ten links & drinks list. in it, i described 2010 as an "often-shite year." hmm...i thought that 2011 was the often-shite year. who knew? 2011 was a year that, with that whole "lack of steady employment" thang going for me, i spent a LOT of time on the internet. on TWO separate occasions this year, i got my google reader down to ZERO. somebody please design me the appropriate nerd merit badge.

as is par for the course, much of my interwebz time was spent perusing food & drink sites, as i dreamed of all the things i could be cramming into my piehole. along the way, i came across a bunch of new blogs & tumblrs & whatnot, many of whom worked their way into the regular rotation.

all told, this year's list is comprised of eight new sites & two repeat members from last year's list. if you're looking to waste all your precious time on the internet, you can't go wrong with adding any of these sites to your daily regimen...enjoy!

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HEY YOU! check out my fancy nuts.

if you're a food or drink company who wants to be taken seriously these days, there's no better way than to give your brand an EXTREME mascot. from john jameson to dig 'em to that dos equis prick to the king from the burger king ads (RIP), with an EXTREME mascot you can easily let consumers know that you've got attitude. you can scream at them, "HEY YOU! THIS BRAND IS F'N CAH-RAYZEE (buy it & eat it)." on that note, let me introduce you to the one & only lord nut levington & his fancy lord nut levington thai dyed peanuts.

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ferrara panorama.

there's something deliciously exciting about cheap, processed junk food. at the top of that cheap heap are the 25¢ boxes of ferrara pan candies. for over 100 years now, the illinois-based candymaker has been churning out tiny, round candies in a variety of sugary sweet flavors. ever had an atomic fireball? how about a jawbuster? ferrara pan invented both of them classics. although their website is a bit outdated-looking, they do have sufficiently fleshed out pages with histories & whatnot for each of their candies, so that's cool.

this weekend, i picked up a few boxes of their candies. TOTAL DAMAGE = 75¢. yeah, pocket change. today i broke them out & munched on them throughout the work day, rekindling all sorts of childhood memories as i performed extraordinary feats of data entry...

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