Like most Americans, I have too much stuff. I'll be honest, I have been struggling with ways to cut back my materialistic tendencies while still appreciating the information and technology that the 21st century has to offer. Which is one of the reasons I'm enjoying Swaptree so much.

In essence, Swaptree is a cross between Ebay and your local book exchange. Like Ebay, you can create wish lists and manage your sales inventory. Like the book exchange, the idea is to get you to swap titles rather than selling items, all while suffering minimal costs (only shipping items to others). But unlike the book exchange, this is more expansive: books, movies, music and video games right now (I don't think they are planning to expand, but I'll update this post if necessary). The idea is to pair items from your want list with your inventory so you are trading with one user instead of money-for-product transactions. I love it! It lets you minimize your crap (Micah, you probably could've used this site before the big move) while not worrying about filling up junkyards with Alanis albums and Kurt Russell DVDs. Why not swap them with someone who is bound to love them? Plus, it's helping me make up for many of the bad Best Buy purchases I made in summers past.

With all that has been going on around me, I discovered the lyrics to Demon Hunter's song "Carrry Me Down". It gives an interesting perspective on what the dying might be feeling and praying, so I hope that this blesses you all who need it.

And if you see me losing ground
Don't be afraid to lie
I know the pain inside my heart
Can't break the fear inside of yours
And if you see me losing faith in what it means to die
Don't let me leave before I know what lies beyond the stained-glass doors

Save sorrow for the souls in doubt
Bleed every care out

Will you carry me down the aisle that final day,
with your tears and cold hands shaking from the weight?
When you lower me down beneath that sky of grey,
let the rain fall down and wash away your pain.

For every word we never spoke,
We have a tear to cry
For every silence like a wall between a better you and I.
So if you see me losing sight of all the death and life
You'll find the peace in every time I failed to see the death in mine

Let all the fear inside you drown
Tear out the blade and lay it down
Save sorrow for the souls in doubt
Bleed every care out

Will you carry me down the aisle that final day,
with your tears and cold hands shaking from the weight?
When you lower me down beneath that sky of grey,
let the rain fall down and wash away your pain.

Oh, the blood is rushing out
Oh, I'm better off without
Oh, the walls are closing in
Oh, sing for me again

Will you carry me down the aisle that final day,
with your tears and cold hands shaking from the weight?
When you lower me down beneath that sky of grey,
let the rain fall down and wash away your pain.

Will you carry me down the aisle that final day,
with your tears and cold hands shaking from the weight?
When you lower me down beneath that sky of grey,
let the rain fall down and wash away your pain.

Posted from Demon Hunter: Carry Me Down article on LyricWiki.org.

Per Micah's blog, I thought I'd through this up as well. Typical rules apply. No cheating, beating, or weeping. Here are the last 10:

Demon Hunter - As We Wept
Gary Puckett & the Union Gap - Young Girl
Officer Negative - Woven as One
The Who - Too Much of Anything
Jonny Lang - I Am
Mourning September - Hold On
Joan Baez - Rider, Pass By
Joss Stone - Some Kind of Wonderful
Cantus - Absalom, Fili Mi
Dean Martin - Baby Its Cold Outside

Despite popular opinion, I'm sure. After all, Gene's brilliance as a writer cannot be denied from his poetic phrases such as "I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day" or or course "You got, got nothin' to lose" repeated 15 times. Unfortunately for Gene, his talented poetry has gone neglected for years in favor of his television skills, so I wanted to take this moment and share with you some snippets of verse from his 2004 solo album titled (not family friendly) Asshole. Surprisingly the title songs chorus is not singable at home, but the verses are impressive to say the least. Let's take a look at them together:

"You think that you're so cool
That you're nobody's fool
But you've got a personality (Yeah)
Just like a bucket full of pee"

and the second verse:

"You know you've got no shame
And you've got such a stupid name
And one day you'll finally shut your trap
'Cause you're the cream of the crap"

Wow. Speechless. I can't wait until Penguin Classics releases a version for coffee table reading. He might be the worlds next Poet Laureate.

My brother and some friends visited and we saw Emery, Mayday Parade, As Cities Burn, and twy other bands perform at Detroit's historic Saint Andrews Theatre.

[gallery]

Despite accusations that I am music snob, I have an interesting musical palette that I must regularly satisfy. With that said, I present to you my current favorite artist of the day/week/month/until I find something else to listen to.

Under the Influence of Giants. Cool name, huh? Their album came out last year (2006 for those of you keeping score at home) and they credit people like the Bee Gees, Prince, and a group that may have included a singer whose name rimes with Gorge Strikel (I'm not solving that simple puzzle for you, kids). Honestly they have synths and the whole bit, and kinda sound like Scissor Sisters (another one of my faves).

The best part about UTIOG? Their entire album is downloadable, for FREE, over at Last.fm. So I could just leave you with that little link. Or better yet, here is the direct link to their album page. You may or may not need a free Last.fm user account, I don't know.

After spending parts of the last few days working on my Wordpress and webserver settings, I have finally managed to correctly configure posting via email. Why is this such a moral victory, you ask? Well for one, because of my work schedule, I have had very little time to provide the regular upkeep that the website requires.

Secondly, having post-to-email working correctly allows me to post on the go much easier, especially considering that I have not yet found a useful Palm-based option that is completely reliable (previous experiences with Palm applications proved faulty in the long term). So here I am, posting-to-email as I wind down this strange week.

For those of you lovers out there, I will have you know that I rocked out Five Iron Frenzy all day today. It was great. I miss them.

Because of the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas CD. Seriously kids, think about it.

I am off to bed after an exhausting day week, but I wanted to share that the Temptations and the Four Tops were phenomenal and I intend to post my thoughts about it this weekend.

It's probably common knowledge at this point that I am not a particular fan of Pearl Jam. In fact, they have made the yet-to-be infamous "Banned" list (for my vehicles). That being said, I came upon this post recently that highlights a humorous video made about said group. Actually, it is a homemade music video of their unintelligible song Yellow Ledbetter, a song that has who-knows-what for words but has somehow become a "fan favorite." The video referenced has put captions in place for a humorous interpretation of what the song says.

Enjoy the video here.