Cool Acoustic Covers Album

Get it now before we send out a nasty cease and desist letter.

http://rapidshare.de/files/10991621/Acoustic_Covers_Compilation.zip.html

1) Ben Gibbard – Thriller (Michael Jackson)
2) Sufjan Stevens – The One I Love (REM)
3) The Magic Numbers – Crazy In Love (Beyonce )
4) Phil Weinrobe – Hey Ya ! (Outkast)
5) Mountain Goats – The Sign (Ace of Base)
6) Adam Green – What A Waster (The Libertines)
7) Colin Meloy – Sister, I’m a Poet (Morrissey)
8) Josr Gonzalez – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division)
9) Ted Leo – Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson)
10) Jose Gonzalez – Teardrop (Massive Attack)
11) Ben Gibbard – Complicated (Avril Lavigne)

(from the AP)
CAMBRIDGE, Md. (AP) — The eavesdropping tables were turned on President Bush on Friday. The president apparently believed he was speaking privately when he talked about listening in without a warrant on domestic communications with suspected al-Qaida terrorists overseas. But reporters were the ones doing the listening in this time.

The incident happened at a House Republican retreat. After six minutes of public remarks by the president, reporters were ushered out. “I support the free press, let’s just get them out of the room,” Bush said, intending to speak behind closed doors with fellow Republicans and take lawmakers’ questions.

Read more…

How the heck this ended up in the “Oddly Enough” section of NY Daily News is quite suspicious to me.

Mamihlapinatapai

Mamihlapinatapai (sometimes erroneously spelled mamihlapinatapei) is a word from Tierra del Fuego listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the “most succinct word”. It describes a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that neither one wants to start.

Nuff said.

[Update: Now with YouTube-y bandwidthy goodness!]

OK, so this was originally posted in my private journal, but I sent it around to a few friends and they seemed to enjoy it, so here we are.

Please note that I am certainly not attempting to take credit for these concepts, as they’ve been stolen from various bits of psychology, spirituality and the like. They are simply a list of 10 rules that I’ve tried to follow and have found to be very helpful in decreasing my stress levels and enjoying my life more.

I’d love to hear any feedback from the (literally) DOZENS of people reading.

So without further ado, here’s the list.

1. You get back from the world what you put out into the world.
2. Get everything out of your head (write it down, say it out loud, sing it)
3. When presented with new opportunities, say yes more than you say no
4. Avoid attention whores and emotional vampires, they are people with nothing to offer.
5. Pay regular conscious attention to how you are treating yourself. If it’s not at least as good as your closest friend, do something about it.
6. Ask for what you want, when the worst response is a “no”
7. Spoil yourself when you can, but remember that material goods are background noise in a fulfilling life.
8. When you feel down, sit down and make a list of the good things that have happened to you in the last week. “There haven’t been any” is not an acceptable answer.
9. Don’t stress what you can’t control. Ever.
10. You can’t change other people; all you can do is be the kind of person that other people want to change in order to be.

[Update 1/27: Some other good/duplicate ideas at Hack Yourself]