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In putting together a CD mix recently I compiled a list of songs that at some point in time I was obsessed with, listened to on repeat, and inevitably got a little sick of. Only rule was that I couldn’t repeat bands. I didn’t go too far back (probably ~1996) so you wont see any PM Dawn, Bon Jovi, or Mr. Mister. Songs are in no particular order.

1. The Deadly Snakes - Gore Veil
2. Editors - An End Has A Start
3. Fugazi – I’m So Tired
4. Tindersticks - Cherry Blossoms
5. Yo la Tengo – You Can Have it All
6. Pulp - TV Movie
7. Gothic Archies - Dead Only Quickly Decay
8. Bright Eyes - Kathy With a K’s Song
9. Feist - Mushaboom
10. Nine Inch Nails - A Warm Place
11. Sifl & Olly - Weird Day
12. Sigur Ros - Svefn-G-Englar
13. Tobin Sprout - Digging Up Wooden Teeth
14. Vitesse - The Human Element
15. Flaming Lips - Do You Realize
16. Azure Ray – Don’t Make a Sound
17. Unboyfriendable - Sunny Moog
18. Emiliana Torrini - If You Go Away
19. Barbara Manning - End of the Rainbow
20. Vincent Gallo - When
21. Modest Mouse - Heart Cooks Brain
22. Cat Stevens - Here Comes My Baby
23. Beta Band - Dry the Rain
24. José Gonzáles - Heartbeats
25. Yann Tiersen - La Noyée
26. Say Hi to Your Mom - The Death of Girl Number Two
27. Iron & Wine - Muddy Hymnal
28. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control
29. Shebrews - Leave All Your Old Loves in the Past
30. Radiohead - Let Down
31. Ladytron - fire
32. Kath Bloom - Come Here
33. Fischer Spooner - Emerge
34. Okkervil River - A Girl in Port
35. Peter Bjorn And John - Amsterdam
36. Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
37. Nick Drake - Northern Sky
38. The Notwist - Consequence
39. Múm - Green Grass Of Tunnel
40. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Where The Wild Roses Grow
41. The Delgados - No Danger
42. Neutral Milk Hotel - King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1
43. Nico - The Fairest Of The Seasons
44. Jesus and Mary Chain - Sometimes Always
45. The Shins - When You Notice the Stripes
46. Kahimi Karie - What are you Wearing
47. Kind of Like Spitting - Young Fiction Writer
48. Luna - Bonnie And Clyde (Gainsbourg Cover)
49. Momus - The Penis Song
50. Paul McCarthy - Ram On
51. Paul Simon - The Vampires
52. Placebo - Every You Every M
53. Rufus Wainwright - Instant Pleasure
54. Seam – Inching Towards Juarez
55. The Velvet Teen - The Prize Fighter
56. Steve Margin and Bernadette Peters- You Belong to Me
57. Tullycraft - the lives of Cleopatria
58. Velvet Underground - Ocean
59. Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should Have Come Over
60. Aimee Mann - It’s Not
61. Leonard Cohen - The Stranger Song
62. Coldplay - Beautiful World
63. Low - Sunflower
64. Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather
65. Death In June - Rose Clouds Of Holocaust
66. Lambchop - Up With People
67. Grandaddy - Summer Here Kids
68. Franz Ferdinand - The Dark of the Matinee
69. King Crimson - Moonchild
70. Mirah - Recommendation
71. The Magnetic Fields - Strange Powers
72. Interpol - Untitled
73. Built to Spill - Car
74. The Good Life - Don’t Make Love So Hard
75. Counting Crows - Anna Begins
76. Sunny Day Real Estate - How it Feels to Be Something On
77. Badly Drawn Boy - A Minor Incident
78. Explosions In The Sky - Magic Hours
79. Elliott Smith - Waltz #2 (XO)
80. At the Drive In - One Armed Scissor
81. Eels - Electro-shock Blues
82. Doves - There Goes The Fear
83. Air - Sexy Boy
84. The Decemberists - The Legionnaire’s Lament
85. The Divine Comedy - Something For The Weekend
86. The New Pornographers - Use It
87. Death Cab For Cutie - What Sarah Said
88. Wolf Parade - I’ll Believe In Anything
89. Cursive - Some Red Handed Slight of Hand
90. Belle & Sebastian - Sleep The Clock Around
91. Beirut - Postcards From Italy
92. Andrew Bird - Plasticities
93. The Statler Brothers - Flowers on the Wall
94. 28 Days Later Soundtrack - In The House - In A Heartbeat
95. Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day
96. Joanna Newsom - Emily
97. Stars - Romantic Comedy
98. Regina Spektor - On The Radio
99. Aden - I Knew You Would Go
100. The 6ths - Aging Spinsters

As long as I can remember I’ve always had a difficult time managing my hobbies and interests… there are just too many things I want to do and learn: Raise my proficiency in French, get better at piano, write Shakespearean sonnets, pick up oil painting, learn how to play the Trumpet, actually put some real time into blogging, etc etc etc.

When I started working as a web designer/developer this problem only multiplied. Now I needed to sharpen my design skills, get better at Photoshop, Illustrator, wrap my head area pre-press production, keep tabs on the latest developments in xhtml/css, javascript, ajax, get my understanding of asp.net, database design, and C# up to snuff. Of course my bosses also wanted me to work with clients doing online marketing, search engine optimization, online ad management, so that was a completely new field for me to dive into.

Now that I own my own business the range of skills I feel I should dedicate time to has exploded. Now I have business development and marketing, heading new internal projects, business plan writing, sales and presentation techniques, bookkeeping, and accounting skills to work on.

For the most part I try do everything. Spending a little time here and a little there, and, while I can see how far I’ve come since last year, progress just seems so slow.

My (Latest) Solution: Focus, Focus, Focus

Okay, so what I’ve come up with is to create a side-project schedule. I’ll have two per week so if I just don’t feel like one I have a backup without becoming too scattered. Gonna plan it out a month or so but not be strict if I want to change things up. Also this wont apply to relaxing or casual hobbies such as playing a few tunes on the piano after work but would apply to say actively expanding my repertoire on the piano or focusing on my technique, etc. Also going to try to keep the two items somewhat different from one another.

Four-Week Schedule

• Week of 09/01
  • Ruby on Rails
  • Drawing
• Week of 09/08
  • Design Techniques (concurrent to redesign of Station Four’s website)
  • Poetry
• Week of 09/15
  • Javascript Frameworks
  • Piano (begin lessons?)
• Week of 09/22
  • SEO
  • History or philosophy (wikipedia free association)

That should do for a bit