Flashback Episode

Unable to sleep despite my present state of complete mental exhaustion, tonight I found myself browsing back through some of my old posts. In the process, I got to thinking about how, even for someone like me whose "writing" consists of random crap on a blog hidden away in a corner of the internet, there are certain pieces you look back on fondly and think "That was good stuff. I'm glad I wrote that."

More than that, in some respects this blog has served as a kind of diary from time to time, chronicling the events in my life that were (or seemed to be) important to me at the time. Obviously I don't write all, or even most, of my day-to-day experiences here. I have, however, occasionally touched on some specific things that were important moments in the more recent period of my life.

Well, in the spirit of both of these considerations, I've taken the liberty of collecting together a dozen of my favorite entries from this blog's short and unremarkable past, and organizing them chronologically in this single location. I'm including a link to each original post, and a short remark or explanation of why I picked it. This may be a pointless exercise as far as readers are concerned, but I'm feeling nostalgic and introspective, so I'm putting this together for myself even if nobody else cares.

To the ladies:
This was the second post I published on this blog, but I'd written it prior to that. A desire to post this somewhere online was actually a big part of why this blog came into existence. It's basically a short essay about the men who grow beards, and it may be weird but I remember this post and those fledgling days on Blogger fondly.

My Top 25 Metal Bands
A flawed and ambitious list, I still enjoyed writing this. I like lists, and this was the first big metal one I put on here.

Strange Karma
This was just a post where I related one of those peculiar "butterfly effect" type series of events that happened to me one day. The post is nothing special, but it reminds me of a day that had a strong impact on me.

Death Metal Extravaganza
As part of the fallout from my initial "Top 25" list, I got to thinking about bands I hadn't included, and eventually that devolved into writing about a series of what I felt were underrated death metal bands. After a few such posts I decided to knock the rest out in one big post. I like this one because I got to talk about one of my favorite death metal albums, and because it's the only post where I ever used a star-based rating scale.

Tribal Metal
The post where I talked about Native American folk metal. It's a topic I keep thinking I'd like to return to in a new post at some point, but so far I really haven't.

A Guitar Called "Plan B"
This is another selection that isn't so much about the post itself as the subject matter. It's where I talked about, and showed pictures of, the guitar that my dad and I built starting from rough lumber over the course of one winter. It was a great project, and it was a bonding experience with my dad that I'll never forget.

Album 4 of 12
My favorite entry into my "12 Albums That Changed My Life" series, where I talked about the impact Blackwater Park had on my development as a music listener.

Oh Deer!
Another strange event that happened to me, this time on a late night drive back to my parents' house. It's one of those memories that just lingers in the back of your mind, and when you think about it you can put yourself back there as though it were happening right in front of you.

Internet Hiatus
One of my prouder moments, this was something I felt strongly I needed to do. At times I drift into bad patterns and I forget the lessons this exercise taught me. I also am often far too willing to be complacent and just take the path of least resistance. This manifesto (of sorts), though, stands as a testament to one of the few times where I really stepped up and took control of my own life. I know that sounds awfully dramatic all things considered, but it was a bigger deal psychologically than it probably seems to an outside observer.

My 25 Favorite Metal Songs
On a lighter note, this was another of my attempts at an essentially impossible list, but a list which I still had a lot of fun assembling.

"Great" Metal Albums?
This was the post where I set about destroying my own metal credibility by discussing some of the defining metal classics that I just don't like or don't understand. Beyond my enjoyment of ripping on Mayhem, this post is probably more fundamentally "me" than anything else I've ever written about music.

Swedish Death Metal - Part 1
The first of 5 segments on my auditory tour of Swedish death metal. I really liked the style and concept of that series, and I'd like to do a similar one again at some point, because that was a lot of fun to put together.

So there you have it. From serious to silly, twelve of my favorite episodes from this little corner of my world.