My Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2010

It was a hard list to put together as this was a pretty good year for music. Am leaving out some fantastic albums. It pained me to leave things like The National's High Violet or Sharon Jones and the Dap-King's I Learned the Hard Way (a recent obsession) off of the list, but I think this is a good indication of some of my favorites of the year, even if it is very focused on the first half of the year.

1. 1) Beach House – Teen Dream

2. 2) Arcade Fire – Suburbs

3. 3) The Tallest Man on Earth – Wild Hunt

4. 4) LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening

5. 5) Best Coast – Crazy For You

6. 6) Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

7. 7) She & Him – Volume 2

8. 8) Tame Impala – InnerSpeaker

9. 9) The Morning Benders – Big Echo

1 10) Belle & Sebastian – Write About Love

In before the 2010 ends. Next is my official end of the year mix, but I should probably get work done.

Did I mention that in January, I'm going to be seeing Hair in LA? I'm so excited. I've wanted to see a production of this show since I was in high school. When it was on Broadway, I had planned and subsequently failed to execute trips to NY to see it.

First I need to get through this IP Licensing final. :( Worst finals period ever.

Still alive, but I think I'm hitting zombie mode soon. Crim Pro, Admin Law and now Animal Law are all out of the way. I tackle Copyright on Thursday and then I'm just left with IP Licensing and Data Privacy. IP Licensing is a take home that I've heard is going to be an absolute bundle of joy. Data Privacy...who knows.

It's been a fairly non stop marathon the last few weeks. Pretty exhausting, but I guess I knew that going in. On the upside, I don't really have much time to sit around and dwell on the previous exam I've taken.

But three more finals and I am free-ish until January. Still have journal stuff to do.

On the plus side, despite Thanksgiving, a ton of cupcakes, and a box of Swiss chocolates, I've managed to lose a little weight this finals period. Yay? I blame the kickboxing.

Random mini rant related to my last post: Why do I only have the movie soundtracks for Rent and Hair? I know I have original cast recordings for both. Where did they goooooo? :(

I really shouldn't be up right now. Due to blue screens of death (it is finals time so my computer is due to crash as it has the past two semesters), outlining, a dog that barks incessantly at night, and a crazy recent addiction to Sudoku puzzles, I really haven't gotten much sleep the last few days. Boo to that.

I am, however, one lecture away from finishing my Criminal Procedure outline. Considering how long I've been working on it, I should actually be finished but...yay 3L procrastination? Anyway, almost done, so I am up at an ungodly hour and feel like I'm hitting zombie mode soon.

I had to take a break, though. Chris asked me a question earlier that had been bugging me ALL day. Way back when I was a freshman at UCI, I took C7, the Introduction to Criminology course. For some reason, this is what led me to switch my major to Criminology. I'm not sure why. It wasn't nearly as exciting as some of the Crim classes I later took. I guess I just hated Humanities Core that much. Seriously, the English major thing was not working out. I loved my Crim major, though, so I'm not complaining. A lot of things I learned in that major (as well as professors I either had/heard of/had dinner with) have shown up in my Crim Pro class, so that's been kind of cool. But I digress.

Anyway, our big paper for the class was to analyze a song about a crime and then write about the crime...or something like that. I don't remember the details. I wanted to do my paper on "Every Step You Take" by The Police and talk about stalking or something, but that didn't pan out. Chris reminded me about that paper today and asked which song I ended up using. I couldn't remember. I remembered that I didn't do the Police song and I remembered that my friend used a song on rape, but I could not remember the actual song I ended up using.

I eventually turned to my old friend, Live Journal. After going back through entries from 2004, I found an entry talking about the paper. I guess I ended up using the song "Walking in Space" from the musical Hair. I think I discussed illegal drug use or marijuana or something. I don't remember.

(Speaking of which, if someone really loved me they'd take me to LA when Hair is playing there...*cough*)

Random final note: Accidentally started listening to Bachelor Girl. Do you remember that band at all? They only really had one hit here and, even then, it wasn't that big. I was obsessed with them freshman year of high school. Brings back a lot of memories.

Okay, I really need to finish this Crim Pro outline so I can focus on Admin Law tomorrow. I know you are all completely jealous of my life and my six finals right now.

I've decided that I'm subscribed to far too many blogs through Google Reader. Went through to trim out some of the ones that I never read (not too successful, but whatever). I think that when I first started using Google Reader, the majority of the blogs I followed were related to the environment and music. I think now, it's become some crazy mix of food, webcomics, soccer, IP/Tech, music, and entertainment. I trimmed them down a bit for now, so I'll see if that makes me slightly more productive than before.

Today was another one of those lost days. I spent a lot of the evening in one of those random music ruts and insisted on finding some new music to listen to. Passed up the new Maroon 5 album. Nothing that they ever make will be as good as Songs About Jane. I didn't like the last album and this one wasn't exciting enough for me to actually want to buy it. As a result, my being over them overrode my compulsive need to cling on to an old artist I used to be obsessed with.This is a new and strange feeling. (Although, I don't think I'll ever be over Songs About Jane. That was just a great album).

Anyway, it's far too late and I should go to bed.

I enrolled in classes for the very last time (*knock on wood*). It feels weird knowing that this is it. Hah. I think I got a good schedule. I know it gives me three finals and three finals >>>>> six. It also gives me a lot of down time. Maybe I can fill that void with volunteer work? Or maybe just enjoying my last semester as a student (and before I have to slave away over the bar).

Anyway my classes:
Cal Civ Pro
Cyberlaw
IP Concentration Seminar
Con Law II
Negotiations

My IP Concentration class is at 8:30 on Fridays. Ugh. It was almost enough to make me want to forget doing the IP Concentration all together and fulfill Upper Div writing with Mass Media Law. On the other hand, I've come this far, so I might as well finish the concentration, right?

What is it about Les Mis that makes you want to sing along with everything? It's so distracting to study to this. On the other hand, I tend to turn this on when I need to stay up late. If I turn on Les Mis, I have to go all the way. It's an all or nothing thing. Works better than caffeine.

I'm supposed to be working on Data Privacy but I've been kind of meh about it all night. Outlined instead, which is like somewhat productive, right?

Halloween is around the corner. One of my favorite holidays because it means I get to dress up in ridiculous outfits. I will be the Swedish Chef this year. Pretty simple and straight forward costume to put together.

I think this blog is turning into more of rant/super random stream of conscious one. I might pick up the Music & Jjigae one to be more of the personal blog. I haven't touched that blog in forever though. I think part of the problem is that I have too many blogs. I'm an addict. I admit it.

Listening to the full Neon Trees album again. I gave it a try once but it's kind of meh beyond Animal.

Exciting plans for the weekend that do not include outlining:

• Star Wars party tomorrow
• Quakes in the first playoff game against the Red Bulls
• Halloween bowling (of course)

Okay, now back to Data Privacy.

So I really haven't been on here that often. Hah. I'm kind of sad. I got a ticket for the Sunday night Treasure Island show because the line up pretty much consists of bands that I've been dying to see for a while (especially freaking Belle & Sebastian). Usually I go with Dinah to these things, but she's off galavanting in Europe. I got the ticket in June because I thought that I had people to go with. Turns out none of them could go and Chris refuses to go with me because apparently he's okay with me going to a music festival by myself and can't bring himself to go with me.

Sooo it's up on Craigslist now. If no one buys it, I might have to go alone. Either way, I'm kind of annoyed that Chris won't go. That's just me though.