Re: 5 Albums

Tue 14 July 2026

I saw Noisy Deadlines' recent post entitled "5 Albums," and it reminded me of fun "getting to know you" viral copypasta posts on social media before social media turned into a pile of garbage 😄.

So, here's five albums to get to know me, based on release date. Note that the last two are religious in nature.

Michael Jackson — Thriller

CD Album cover for Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

This was one of the first albums I ever owned, and I had it on vinyl (before vinyl was cool! 😄). I was a big Michael Jackson fan when I was a kid (before his image was sullied by controversy), and I remember listening to this album a lot. I also remember seeing Thriller on MTV for the first time as a kid, and it was an amazing video. It was the longest music video I'd ever seen (about 14 minutes long), and I remember calling it a "movie" at the time. 😁

Tangerine Dream — Optical Race

CD Album cover for Tangerine Dream's "Optical Race"

I listened to this album a lot in the mid-90s, but I don't think I ever owned it, myself. A couple good friends of mine that were roommates through much of the 90s had it, and I'd hang out with them, listening to it while staring at the lava lamp, because... that was entertainment when you were bored and broke in the 90s!! 😄

RCA Victor — Beethoven's Piano Sonatas — Artur Rubinstein performing

CD Album cover for the RCA Victor release of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas as performed by Artur Rubinstein

I don't remember how I got this album, but I got it in the latter part of the 90s, and I remember listening to it a whole lot (I didn't have too many CDs, anyway). I honestly think Moonlight Sonata gets a bit overplayed, and overshadows some of the other Beethoven Sonatas, which are all pretty amazing.

These recordings gave this (undiagnosed) ADHD Spectrum kid a lot of emotional language and fluency that he was very badly missing. 😄

  • Discogs link
  • (Sorry, I couldn't find this exact CD on Youtube)

Misty Edwards — Always on His Mind

CD Album cover for Misty Edwards' "Always on His Mind"

Here we get into some choppy waters. This was a favorite album of mine for many years, and still holds a special place in my collection, but I honestly couldn't recommend it today without a raft of disclaimers. It comes from a religious movement that was revealed to be rather abusive and cultic, and one which I feel signtificant antipathy towards today. If you ever see anything labeled "New Apostolic Reformation," run, do not walk, in the opposite direction.

Adam Cates — Nights at the Big House

CD Album cover for Adam Cates' "Nights at the Big House"

This is another religious album, but one I don't have any reservations about recommending. It's a really lovely live worship album, if that's your thing, and I've enjoyed it for nearly 20 years.

Category: Entertainment
Tags: Beauty   Christianity   Collaborations   Content Warning   Entertainment   Music   Non-technical post  


The Mad, Joyful Chaos of the Creative Process

Thu 15 January 2026

After yesterday's unhinged, painfully cathartic threnody of a post, I really wanted to post something short, light and enjoyable. I was considering writing down my thoughts on my favorite TV show, The Good Place, but that would have taken altogether much too long, so that is going to remain a …

Category: Entertainment
Tags: ADHD   Beauty   Entertainment   Humor   Music   Non-religious post   Non-technical post   The Good Place   Writing  

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Songs to Improve Your Mental Health

Wed 23 July 2025

Background

I'd be fooling myself to think that I could be the first person on the earth to note music's incredible ability to heal and salve the tormented human soul. My own journey with music is, well, unsurprisingly, about as old as I am. Most everyone on one side of …

Category: Life
Tags: 100DaysToOffload   Beauty   Entertainment   Personal favorites   Life   Music   Non-religious post   Non-technical post   Philosophy   Prose   Video  

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Anker SoundCore P30i mini-review

Tue 22 July 2025

Time for another little hardware review.

Background

I've been getting complaints that the small, inexpensive bluetooth earbuds (Skullcandy Dime XT/XT2) I had been carrying around for the past five years have pretty poor audio quality during phone calls (likely no microphone noise cancellation), so I started looking around again …

Category: Tech
Tags: 100DaysToOffload   Entertainment   FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)   Music   Non-religious post   Non-technical post   Polemic   Productivity  

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Magical Moments

Fri 01 November 2024

This article is written based on a prompt I shared with a friend a couple weeks ago. You can my article from that "round-robin" prompt exercise here.

Since neither of my fedifriends have written their prompts yet, I'm actually borrowing the idea I gave Amin to write:

I'm going to …

Category: Life
Tags: Beauty   Computing   Entertainment   Hobbies   Life   Music   Non-religious post   Non-technical post   Philosophy   Prose   Retrocomputing   WritingMonth  

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