Alrighty, so after a nice trip to southern Florida where I essentially made a point to separate man from machine (i.e. the Internet was not a priority as compared to lounging poolside), it’s time to get this bad boy updated, numerical list style…

1. I don’t really mind the whole Code Orange airport security thing, but at least, if I’m going to have to remove my belt before going through a metal detector, can I get an advance warning so I don’t wear the loosest pants I own before arriving, and end up waddling through security like a webbed duck?

2. Best quote while traveling, courtesy of a lady sitting behind me on the plane, shortly after departure from DC. “”This plane is an Airbus model? Is that a good kind of plane?”" No lady…it’s a piece of crap that’s either a) going to fall out of the sky and land on a pre-school, or b) …. oh just shut the hell up…

3. Two highly underrated releases from 2003 that I picked up a not-so-crowded-on-the-day-after-Christmas Best Buy: YEAR OF THE RABBIT – S/T, and LONGWAVE – The Strangest Things. LONGWAVE sound a whole lot like THE STROKES, but uhh, way better.

4. If you have eight or so hours to kill, don’t feel like changing cds, and have a cd/mp3 player (yea, yea, I don’t have an iPod yet, hush…), the GoKart MP300 double-disc compilation is pretty awesome. 150 bands, 300 songs, and plenty of good tunes.

5. Virginia clearly needs a larger Jewish population because everytime I go to Florida (or New York), I sorely miss eating all of the requisite Jewish comfort foods.

6. Check out the new MOMENTS IN GRACE ep here. This band is chock full of emo-rocking goodness, with a vocalist who puts many of his peers to shame. This band’s full-length, the first on producer, Brian McTernan’s new label Salad Days, hits streets this summer, and it is nothing short of awesome.

7. New Year resolutions are for suckers. Every day is a day where we all should strive to be better people.

8. Buy something from Suburban Home Records and Distribution. They are always running good sales and both release and distribute some great stuff. DO IT.