Joshua Zamrycki's Weblog

Those of you with at least one functioning eyeball may have noticed that things look distinctly different around here. I have been scheming and plotting these changes for a long time but it has taken a two-week holiday from work to finally have the time to implement said changes. Waddaya think?

The impetus for this makeover was three-fold:

• squash the plague of comment spam that has recently reared its ugly head on my MovableType blog. My diligence has kept it at bay and, hopefully, out of sight for you, my loyal readers.
• try my hand at a new content management system – namely WordPress – out of sheer curiosity.
• liven this place up with a smoother and more interesting look and feel.

What with the ringing in of the new year and the major family changes underfoot, there was no better time for this new look than the present. I hope you like it. That being said, there are sure to be many things around here that aren’t working quite right yet (like internal links, for example). I’ll be working my way through these over the coming weeks. If you see anything that needs to be fixed/adjusted, please let me know! I’ll be fine-tuning stylesheets and adding functionality little by little as I learn the ropes around here.

And for all you geeks out there, here are the technical details.

Platform: WordPress 2.7
Theme: Aeros 2.0 by Joe Fischler
Plugins: del.icio.us for Wordpress, Flickr Manager, Global Translator, Tagline Rotator, Akismet
Things that haven’t changed: Lonex (host), Flickr (photo hosting), YouTube (video hosting), me

It’s that time of year again. Time for absolutely everyone with two ears and a pen to chime in with their personal and hotly contested list of the best new albums of the year. I did this for 2006 and then again for 2007 – so here’s 2008!

Yes, I’ve purchased and listened to each and every one of the 900 albums released this year (except for the new Queen Album, Cosmos Rocks – either resurrect Freddie or change the name of the damn band!). The following is how I’ve ranked them. No excuses. No explanations. Just my favorite albums from the past 12 months:

	10. Santogold – Santogold
	9. TV on the Radio – Dear Science,
	8. British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
	7. Estelle – Shine
	6. The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement
	5. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
	4. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
	3. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night
	2. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
	1. Adele – 19

Honorable mention:
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Original Broadway Cast – In The Heights
Coldplay – Viva la Vida
Glasvegas – Glasvegas
Portishead – Third
The Bug – London Zoo

Do you have any favorites from this year that I may have missed?

Just got back from Dear Old Blighty and am very much looking forward to the upcoming stationary week and a half. There is a travel moratorium on until young Wolfgang finds his sea legs and we win the lottery ($2500+ in airfare to the US is not my idea of an easily repeatable family vacation!).

England was wonderful, as always. We were treated to hearty English meals and uninterrupted mornings in bed thanks to grandparent-like babysitters. Or babysitter-like grandparents. Either way, it was much appreciated. Our time in the US was very much the same, but that write-up has not yet been written.

England: lots of family. Lots of Christmas cheer. Lots of Christmas presents. Lots of playing with the aforementioned presents (by guess who). Lots of pussy cat abuse (not by me!). Lots of quiet evenings at home. We were even able to combine the trip with a lovely evening celebrating a dear friend’s 40th birthday, at which event Jan contracted a particularly nasty case of food poisoning, violently vomited for upwards of three straight hours, was visited by two rather chipper paramedics at 2am, and generally thought she would die. But the meal itself really was lovely and the company, divine. Damn you, foul prawns!

I am very much looking forward to reviewing the photographic memories created over the course of these past seven days. After a quick review, I see that no less than 188 photos were taken. After further review, I see that Emily must have taken at least half of them unbeknownst to me since most of them look like this:

In addition to the album of my timeless photos poignantly capturing the spirit of each celebratory moment, I promise to upload a separate album of Emily’s greatest hits. It’s rather amazing, though, that she has discovered how to locate my camera, turn it on, and take a series of avant-guard photographs. She has also figured out how to review the photos she’s taken and can even play any videos she finds on the camera. I am left dumbstruck at her ingenuity. Many of her recent accomplishments have totally bowled me over but that, yet again, is the subject of another entry.

I hope your holidays are/were joyous. Christmas has come and gone but Chanukah is with us for one more night. May your shamus stand tall and proud! And may your New Years, Kwanzaa, and Kings Day celebrations be bountiful. I leave you with our little cherub, counting and preparing this year’s Christmas cards:

Emily attempts to teach her mother about the perils of surprise snake attacks.

Hi all, we’re back. And it’s cold as a witch’s tit here! And we’re jet lagging (hence the 2am blog entry).

Florida was wonderful. Family and road trips and developmental milestones and airplanes and pussy cats. So much to tell. When I’ve had a chance to organize and upload all of the quality photos and videos, I’ll try and write a more thorough and entertaining entry – hopefully before we fly to England this Saturday! In the meantime, here’s a video of Emily performing the “Mount Everest” in GG’s living room.

It’s cold here in Barcelona. Maybe not as cold as it is in New York, but it’s a heck of a lot more humid. And that means the cold gets into your bones. Add this to the fact that nobody here knows how to build a house that doesn’t let the cold seep in through the windows and you’ll understand why we’re blowing this pop stand. Florida, here we come!

Manacles

In just a few hours, we’ll be hopping a flight to Miami for a much-needed 10-day family holiday. The bags are packed. The laptop is loaded. Wherever you look, rechargeable batteries are preparing themselves for the trip. I want warm and I want it now!

There you are!

Consider this my “out of office autoreply” for the next 10 days. I’ll try to write a little something here and there, but I may just be too busy lying on a deck chair. I’ll do my best. No promises