In the meantime, take a read at the Onion’s skewering of Michael Vick.

I’ve been in a funk lately, one that is especially deep today. I’m not completely sure what it is about, but I can’t seem to break out of it.

I have some ideas of the causes but they shouldn’t be getting me this down. I think the chief concern recently is my health: I dislocated my toe, and it isn’t healing; I’ve been like shit for weeks; I’ve been sleeping like shit for weeks and getting heart palpitations recently, which scares the bejeezus out of me. And to top it off, I haven’t exercised in weeks beyond my daily 1.7 mile walk to and from the train stations – which ends up frustrating me more as I get fat and more out of shape.

And I’ve been just generally stressed, which never works out well for me. It feels like my life has been WORK > CHORES > TV > BED on weekdays, and CHORES > TV > BED on weekends, with little time for personal stuff like birding and design projects.

So, starting today I’m going to do everything I can to get myself together. Positive attitude is the first step, and I’m going to use this blog to help support that by posting at least one positive thing every day in August.

Others had some nice ideas – one of our tech guys did what looked like a system output (matrix font, syscode look and feel) but added his Facebook ID, softball batting average and other fun stuff. Our designers of course came up with some great designs, but a lot of people got into the act.

Me? Well, I went overboard of course and did FOUR different designs. I had 2 or 3 others I thought of but didn’t have the time to actually put together. Below are my four – the first is just an update of my previous one, updated to include my new position and the required ‘location number’. So, what do you think?

Weekends have been just as bad – I had a touch of the something this weekend (though not as bad as Shari’s full-blown flu), and had absolutely no energy to do anything constructive. It was all I could do to keep up with the basics around the house, let alone work on the websites I’ve wanted to, write the book reviews I’ve been meaning to, or finishing the numerous posts I’ve started.

The good news is that my projects are starting to wind down a little. We have been going at breakneck speed since before Christmas, and I’m not the only one who must be at the end of their energy. Between November and the end of April, I will have worked on and (hopefully launched) 9 websites, worked on 5 others that are launching later, helped in umpteen pitches, UX reviews, etc., written an online internal UX guidelines site for one client, and started managing (I’ll use that term lightly, however) my own 3-person team. It’s been trying at times, and a lot of work at other times and I see the light at the end of the tunnel. That light – our trip to Arizona at the end of April.

Bright Sides of Vegetating

On the plus side, I’ve seen a LOT of movies since Shari left for Vegas about a month ago. I went through a binge of movies recently, some good and many bad (since Shari won’t watch those with me, her absence was my time to watch things like “Alien vs. Predator 2: Requiem”). So, here goes:

Best New Music

I found a lot of great new music this year, so finding a list of my favorites was pretty tough. Old bands put out new albums (Metallica, Tesla, Guns & Roses), newer favorites released new tracks, and I found some new groups to enjoy. But out of the bunch, these are the ones that I found myself listening to repeatedly. The links go to = MP3 / = videos at Lala.com or other sources I could find.

1. “John the Revelator” – Curtis Stigers & the Forest Rangers
2. “Undead” – Hollywood Undead
3. “Big White Gate” – Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
4. “Onward” – Cornmeal
5. “Blind Faith” – the Rustlanders
6. “Talking About” – Susan Tedeschi
7. “Mercy” – Duffy*
8. “Jesse James” – Bruce Springsteen
9. “Follow that Sound” – Sharon Little
10. “Waiting for My Real Life to Begin” – Colin Hay
11. “Rowing Song” – Patti Griffin
12. “Cortez the Killer” – Grace Potter, Joe Satriani and Steve Kimock

Best Books

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini
2. The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession – by Mark Obmascik
3. Web Form Design – by Luke Wroblewski
4. Star Wars Legacy: Invincible – by Tory Denning
5. Life And Times of the Thunderbolt Kid – by Bill Bryson

Best New Websites

1. Lala.com

A really good music site that allows you to listen to any song in their library once for free – and for 10 cents, you can add it to your account to listen to it as many times as you like. For another $0.89, you can also download a DRM-free song. When I joined, I got 50 ‘adds’ for free, too, whihc was nice.

2. Facebook.com

Yeah, I got the bug and started using this site. On the good side, I have re-connected with a lot of old friends from high school and college.

3. SmashingMagazine.com

This site has been a great resource for me for design, programming and more. They update it quite often, and the things that they talk about are usually very timely and well written.

4. Welie.com

This site is great for giving patterns and tips for UI designs.

5. XKCD

I know that this has been out there for a long time, but I only discovered it this year.

Most Important Events

This year was another one with lots of ups and downs (mostly ups), in chronological order:

1. My promotion

Actually, this was a two-parter. I got the ‘official’ promotion to UX Lead in March, which led to me working with a team to handle one of our biggest clients. It meant more work and responsibility but it really gave me a lot more opportunities. Then, later in the year, I got a quasi-promotion to Director of UX because of one of those ‘level’ disconnects between our company and the ‘home office’. Not a real promotion, but it did give me a bit more authority, which helps at times.

2. Erin’s Wedding

My cousin Erin finally got married to her longtime boyfriend, Chas – it was a great time and a wonderful event.

3. Grace Potter at the TLA

It had been a while since I had been to a show, and this one really made up for lost time. My cousins, Blair and I all went out for a night at the TLA, where we were treated to a great triple bill of the Rustlanders, Cornmeal and of course Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. I only wish I could find a copy of the show.

4. Grandpop’s Death

It had been coming for a while, but his death was still a little bit of a shock. The fiasco after it was even worse, and still gets me a little angry when I think of it.

5. Phillies Win the World Series

It took 25 years, but finally a team brought a championship to the city – and the celebration showed how much we all appreciated it. Too bad the Eagles couldn’t follow it up, instead falling back on tradition (that is, the ‘tease’).

6. Obama Elected

After 8 years of this nightmare called the Bush administration, finally some sanity was back in the White House. I’m still a bit worried about whether he’ll be able to do the job with these tough times, it’s without a doubt a great moment in our country’s history.

Top Pictures

Best Birds

1. Curlew Sandpiper
2. Blue Grosbeak
3. Horned Lark
4. Piping Plover (& chicks)
5. Barred Owl

2009 Goal Birds

1. Snowy Owl
2. Golden Eagle
3. Elf Owl
4. Elegant Trogon
5. Cactus Wren
6. Hooded Warbler

Accomplished (18)

1. Workout: No, just once. Why start off by lying to myself?
2. Update Fairweather Zealot (this blog – again, finally)
3. Sell a photograph or win a photo contest I won an honorable mention in one contest, and sold a picture to Popular Photography.
4. Read at least half of the 25 books I’ve bought over the last year-plus (but haven’t read)
5. Win more $ than I lose in poker – and as a bonus, I actually won our weekly football poll 3 times
6. Be a better husband
7. Prioritize goals better
8. Limit myself to 10 minute showers every morning
9. Walk instead of driving to the train
10. Use a dish towel instead of paper towels to dry my hands in the kitchen
11. Recycle more
12. Reduce the amount of trash we generate – buy products with less packaging, compost food, reuse more*
13. Throw out less food – do more with leftovers
14. Spend more time on creative stuff (drawing, graphics, etc.)
15. Make sure I get all birthday cards and gifts out in time
16. See a Philly or Penn State championship (and not in fencing)* Go Phillies!!
17. Be better about returning things (too often we let stuff lay around until we can’t return it, sadly)
18. Build and reuse things instead of buying new, when we can*

Mixed Bag (7)

1. Lifelist – Goal animals: birds – Redpoll, Burrowing Owl, N. Saw-whet Owl, any alcid; butterflies – Queen, Painted Lady – Well, I did add that Painted Lady
2. Take a trip to CA, CO, FL or TX – visit relatives, and of course birding. Better yet, take TWO trips* We did get down to Georgia, at least.
3. Read at least half of the 10 work-related books I’ve bought but haven’t read* – I read about half of them, though
4. Eat healthier – more veggies, less junk food and ordering out
5. Buy and use re-usable grocery bags (when I remembered)
6. Keep in touch with friends better – Some yes, some no – Facebook helped.
7. Try to spend less than $10 a week on breakfast and lunch.

Failed (17)

1. Lifelist – Birds: 375 (currently 332)
2. Lifelist – Butterflies: 100 (curr. 76)
3. Lifelist – Dragonflies: 50 (curr. 38)
4. Lifelist – Damselflies: 25 (curr. 18)
5. Sell some of my graphic designs
6. Update martytdx.com (finally)
7. Get my bike out and ride it regularly
8. Attend a UX conference
9. Use 1 paper towel instead of two in the bathroom
10. Home improvements that will decrease our footprint – new windows, use the AC less, etc.)
11. Take my wife dancing and to at least one concert/show
12. Make at least $100 from my CafePress store
13. Keep up with my professional mailing lists (IxDA, PANMA, etc.)*
14. Complete at least a dozen projects around the house*
15. Bring in my lunch most days
16. Order out a lot less
17. Okay, really – lose 10 pounds and be more active. Seriously.*

Okay, now that THAT’S out of the way, let me explain. I don’t listen to radio very often around here, almost exclusively when I’m in my car. But when I do, the radio is usually tuned to WXPN, a local station that focuses on more independent (read: folk and singer-songwriter) music. However, there are times when WXPN is playing some programming (such as Kid’s Corner or during their pledge drives) that I have had to turn elsewhere, and my first two choices have been two rock stations – 93.3 WMMR and 94.1 WYSP.

Around Halloween, I started noticing something about those two stations – there seemed to be a ridiculous number of times that I would be listening and songs from a limited number of bands would be playing: primarily Guns ‘n’ Roses, Metallica and Nirvana. It was a little bit of a joke – any time I turned them on, I figured that the chances were about 50-50 that one of those bands would be on. But as I listened more and more, I found out that it wasn’t as much of a joke as I had thought. So, enter the OCD and I started tracking what I was hearing.

Lo and Behold, I found that WMMR and WYSP do seem to have a rather limited stable of songs that they play. From the day before Thanksgiving until the end of the year, I kept a tally in the car of what they were playing, and I found that 10 bands were accounting for almost 50% of all of the music I heard on these stations; in fact, SIX bands were accounting for almost 1/3 or more of all of the songs they were playing. See below for the stats (the ‘Big 6′ are in bold):

So, as you can see WMMR’s songs were from the ‘Big 6′ accounted for 29% of their airplay, with the top 10 ‘bands’ being over 40%; for WYSP, the numbers were even worse – 41.7% from the ‘Big 6′ alone, and a whopping 55% of their music (that I heard) coming from just 10 ‘bands’.  Pretty glum when it comes to hearing a variety of music – but great, I guess, if the bands listed are your favorites.  One thing I didn’t track was the number of times I heard the same songs by these bands, and that happened at least a couple times (such as Tom Petty’s “American Girl” being played 3 times out of 5 total plays).

The Trend Worsens

So, I figured I was done with this after finding out that I was right – commercial radio sucks because they play the same stuff repeatedly.  But then, in the first 3 days of 2009, I found out that it was even worse than I had feared.  I literally went 5 or 6 songs in a row between the two stations – and every one of them was from the ‘Big 6′ bands.  Every. Single. Song.

Since 1/1/09, WMMR has played 6 songs out of 11 (54.5%) from those 6 bands; WYSP has played SEVEN (7) songs out of 11 (63.6%) from that limited stable of bands – including two G ‘n’ R and 2 AC-DC alone.

Now, I love hard rock and with the possible exception of Nirvana, who I think is an over-rated (though still decent) band, I like these bands.  But I seriously find it both humorous and sad that these COMPETING stations play such identical playlists all the time.  Where are the new bands coming out?  Where are the newer or different songs from bands we like?

I tell ya – THIS is what happens when only a few companies control most of the radio stations in the U.S.