What do I do when I’m bored out of my mind? I design Wordpress themes and start new websites. I was quite bored this week. Guess what I did!

It’s with a little sadness and a little excitement that I split this blog in two. 540 Mbps will continue on (with a new look), and I’ll keep posting my cynical quips on the degradation of popular technology. On the other hand, I’ll be moving my - shall we call it, “personal life” - over to a new blog called F1lm Sch00l, where I’ll talk about my life as a film student, college student, etc. You can find that one at http://www.f1lmsch00l.com/.

Read one, read both, read a book… Regardless, I’ll keep writing :).

So I know you’re supposed to do the whole, “Best of 200_” before 200_ is over, but hey - I was busy driving from Indiana on New Years’ Eve to do that. So here it is: my list of favorite things from 2007 (in no particular order).

Television Show: Damages
This was my favorite new television show from 2007 for many reasons. One was the stellar cast - newcomers like Rose Byrne alongside regulars like Glenn Close came together to play out a great story of high stakes litigation, murder, betrayal (all that good stuff). The best thing about it was how it kept making you switch who you thought the bad guy was - and made it plausible each time. It’s scheduled for another season next year on FX.

Movie: Romance & Cigarettes
So maybe I’m biased (it was a first-date movie for me), but John Turturro’s sophomore effort as a director with Romance & Cigarettes was a no-brainer for my favorite movie of the year (though Ratatouille and Juno came in close seconds). The loose plot about a New Yorker (The Soprano’s James Gandolfini) and his struggle to win back the love of his wife (while dealing with his crazy mistress) pale in comparison to the sheer humor of the fact that it’s a musical. Most of the songs are actually vintage recordings from the mid 20th century, with the actor’s lip synching as if it were actually them singing - though it’s quite obvious they aren’t. The DVD comes out in February, and I strongly suggest you see it - just keep an open mind (and preferably see it in a pack) and you’ll laugh harder than you have in years. I also was able to speak with John Turturro with just a few dozen others during the Virginia Film Festival, which might be adding a bit more bias to the situation…

CD: This Delicate Thing We’ve Made by Darren Hayes
So Darren Hayes may have had his 15 minutes of fame come and go as lead singer for Savage Garden - but that doesn’t mean he can’t still make great music. The production on this 2 CD set is a bit less impressive than on the chart-topping singles he made in the 90s, but Hayes nevertheless managed to put out a CD with more emotion and a greater message than any I’ve seen in recent years. At 25 songs, it’s a long listen - but it’s one of those CDs you should listen to straight through; and the message of hope and happiness that seeps out of it is worth the time.

Website: Richmond Sunlight
Also a bit of bias here, since Waldo created it, but it really is a wonderful piece of work. The site allows you to track every piece of legislation that goes through the Richmond General Assembly - from what stage of the process it’s in to who supports it. And Waldo says there’s even more coming for next year.

Book: Not available.
Mainly, because the only books I have time to read are for English class. And they all stink.

2007 was also a year of “Oh crap…” moments for me, not the least of which occurred on this very blog. A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences at NBC29 here in Charlottesville, which some at the station could theoretically take offense at. Naturally, Waldo linked to it on Cvillenews.com, and I’ve gotten hundreds of hits from WVIR’s IP address since. Thanks, Waldo :). A critique of my math teacher’s grading practices (and his subsequent reading of the post) led to a certain amount of awkwardness for the first few months of class. And last but not least, back in May I criticized some comments made about teachers on Facebook by Andy Carvin (a bigwig developer for PBS and NPR’s websites). 24 hours later, I’ve got two comments from him. But because of all this, I’m now very aware that anything you post online can (and probably will) be found by the wrong people.

Anyone else have any Best of ‘07 lists?

As many of my friends will attest to, I’ve spent the better part of the past month on web design work (even spending 35 hours straight working on my school’s theatre website). Yesterday, Sean Tubbs and I released the new design for the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, which is an incredible site Sean started a few years ago which audio content from local radio stations, audio producers, and podcasters. I guess I spent about two weeks on this one, but I’m learning so much about PHP by fiddling around with WordPress templates. A few weeks ago, I tried working a few other CMSs, Joomla and PHPNuke, but I hated both of them. They’re both bloated and way too complex for even the simple things. WP has a very simple frame that’s easy to understand, but you can do really intricate things if you know what you’re doing (I’m wearing my WordPress shirt right now, so I’m feeling very loyal).

Anyway, you can check out the new site at http://www.cvillepodcast.com/, or take a look at the pictures below. I’d love to hear what you guys think - any critiques would be greatly appreciated .

Like every other student lucky enough to be zoned into the Charlottesville City School system, I started school today (there was only a hint of sarcasm there…). Unlike every other student, I was actually pretty excited to get back to school. I guess maybe this summer’s just been so productive, I don’t feel like I need any more time with it; knowing that I’ll be doing an Internship at NBC29 this year is also a plus. And thanks to that internship, I get 5th and 6th period off, which means that I get about two hours in the middle of every day to do whatever I want - an extended lunch, hang out in the Black Box, visit a teacher…

There were a few things I didn’t expect about this year, though. For example, apparently I’m on chummy terms with the administrators, who laugh and joke with me (using my full name) - I don’t even know all of their names (I’ve never really spoken to many of them, you see)! I also never expected the Principal to start up a student advisory committee for him. Considering that our student council wastes their time with things like dances and completely abdicates their responsibility of serving as a line of communication between the students and administrators, this is exactly what CHS needs. He’s even going to have lunch with students every two weeks so he can get a feel for student opinions.

Wow. This is so different from the administrator-student relationship I’ve grown used to in high school. Maybe things are finally changing for the better?

Speaking of high school students, whatever happened to all the high schoolers that used to blog? I used to have a good half-dozen or so friends that had a blog, and now the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Kenton Ngo… Then again, I’m glad that blogs are starting to lose their association with the topics normally discussed on LiveJournal posts
from a horny 15-year-old, so it might be good that the average blogger is now 20+.

Yay, it’s my birthday!

But in addition to me turning 17, this is also a special day for something else - my blog turns 3! I started this blog back on my 14th birthday in 2004, right before my first day of high school. 1095 days, over 200 posts, several dozen emotional breakdowns, 10 or so websites, 3 unnatural hairstyles, four-dozen culture shocks, five cell-phones, my first concert, my entire Dance Dance Revolution career (so far), 1 futon, ~20,000 tracks, a few wasps, 1 pissed off editor-in-chief of Penguin Books, my first relationship, my first breakup, a screenplay, and 1 time coming out of the closet, I stand before you today (electronically, at least). This blog may have dropped off the radar a few times, but it’s never stopped being a blast.

As I sit here, typing in this very modern interface WordPress has, I think about how blogging used to be over at Blogger: a bland, orange-and-blue background with duller-than-gray text boxes; no tags, no slugs, no categories, no image-uploading features… The technology of blogging has come almost as far as I have in life (almost). But regardless of how much the software or user-interfaces have changed, blogging has always been there as a release for me, a way to get the thoughts out of my head and into a form which might help other people understand me a little bit better (how cliche, I know…). And it’s so much better to know that there are people out there that do read this thing, that do understand me a bit better than my average friend. And I want to thank you for that.

So now I have a challenge for you all (since most of you blog): write a post about why you blog, and how you’ve developed as a person since you started blogging. Take a look at how you’re different, why you’re different, and think about how the realizations you made while writing post #327 may just have changed your outlook on life.

Here’s to the upcoming years of blogging, and all the changes it has in store for our lives…