Year-End Review

So have been reading a bunch of year-in-review articles and other assorted similar material, and I wanted to post a couple of my favorite moments from the internet this year.  Now, I know that these videos are rather common and popular, but I just wanted to do a bit of commentary on them myself.  Take it or leave it.  :)

Well, the first thing that I wanted to talk about was what I considered the most amazing moment to watch, both live and whenever I watch it on video, and that is Felix Baumgartner's record-setting freefall jump.



I had been following this story for a few months after I first heard about Felix and what he was attempting to do.  When the days grew closer, I grew more and more excited.  How often in the world do we get to see moments like this live, true moments of human strength and ingenuity, "...because it was there" moments where we as a species reach new heights?  It is rare in these days to see science in direct action, see someone put their life on the line for the advancement of science and technology.  Add this to the fact that as I watched this live, as he jump, I thought "Holy shit...no one can ever question that guy's manhood again.  He has some of the biggest balls ever placed onto a human."

I still rewatch this video with child-like wonder and amazement.  I put myself in his shoes and try think about what would be going through my head as I stand there on that platform, many miles higher in the air than is even fathomable.  Congrats to Felix and congrats to science for that one.

-----

My other top video of the year is one that, no matter how often I see it, still brings a tear to my eye.  They are not tears of sadness, but those of pure human joy, and this is Isaac's Proposal.



So what if this guy ruined all marriage proposals for everyone else until the end of time?  This video is not only amazingly sweet and caring full of the romance and joy that we all wish for in life, but in the end, what puts it over the top for me is to think about the effort, the planning, the logistical feat it was to put it all together.  They say it was about 60 people, family and friends, that all helped put this together.  Getting Granny to learn dance moves and lyrics to a pop song is no simple feat, but also to inform everyone involved and get them to keep their trap shut during the planning and rehearsals is no easy task.

This man earned his wife full-heartily.  I hope for them many happy years together.  Come on ladies, who could turn down a proposal like that?  Hell, I am a straight guy and I wouldn't have been able to refuse him at that point!

-----

My final video is a bit egotistical because it is one of my own.  I know not many people give a shit, but I like it.  When I was younger I was in various bands, playing various instruments in various place around the States.  Of all the musical work I have done, the work I did during the early 2000's with my band from the Central Valley of California named "Cheshire" was my favorite.  While we broke up many years ago and went our separate ways, recently I started getting requests from people for the old Cheshire music, so I finally took it all and uploaded it to Youtube.  As I was doing that, I recalled listening to this one song in particular and felt nothing but pride.  It is a local Valley favorite still to this day.



The song is called "Manipulated," recorded in 2003.  I played drums for my this band and overall I not only proud of my work on the song (rhythms, and overall structure) but proud of my friends that we put this all together.  The lyrics were actually written by the lead singer's girlfriend at the time which she gave to us to make a song out of.

The picture shown in the video was the base for our promo pack picture.  I am the tall one with the Samhain "November Coming Fire" shirt on.  We decided to take a series of pics in a pool for some reason which I can't remember why now.  Out of the series, the one with our backs we just thought worked so well.  We ended up editing it and added our band logo and whatnot to the top of the pic, which is not shown in this video, but is in other of the youtube videos.

With very little effort we got rather popular along the West Coast at the time.  Things were being just dropped in our lap.  While I wish we could have devoted more time and effort to the project, after a while we all needed to part ways.  At least I still have the two EPs, a long demo tape, and a live recording of us playing at the Whisky-a-Go-Go to hold on to.  I like watching this video for the song and the memories.

What are your favorite memories of the past year?