Best Of

It’s getting near the end of the year which means its about the time people start going crazy with lists:

• Christmas Lists
• Best of 2009 compilations
• Best of the decade compilations
• New Year’s Resolutions

I’ll just go crazy with an end of the year rant. I remember a while ago, I wanted to make a site that only focused on lists, but I would do it right. You know, easy to create, edit, share, and all that good stuff. My friend laughed at me. To this day, I still hope that I will show him up.

I’m not going to have any list for 2009 (at least not for now), but listening to All Things Considered compile the best music of the decade got me thinking. This is the first decade that I can begin to say I’ve experienced. Like, really experience.

Your first decade, either you’re overly sensitive and you have no memory, or you’re numb to your senses, giving you nothing to remember. I think starting from middle school, you begin having some taste. Music, food, movies, whatever. And it’s not just media. I think for me, that was the time I started to really enjoy math and computers.

My girlfriend says I’m overly nostalgic. She’s totally right. I just asked my best friend for some old CDs: something from Ice Cube, something from Method Man, and Krayzie Bone’s, Thug Mentality 1999. Ten years ago, I listened to gangster rap. Somehow, I journeyed from there, to trance, to punk rock, to whatever I listen to now. A mix of indie rock and public radio.

And movies! My favorite movie used to be Romeo Must Die. How did I get from there to Lost in Translation?

I wonder if the internet will change any of this. The next generation will seemingly grow up plugged in to Facebook and Google. Can you imagine that? Ten years from now, Facebook could remind you of what you were like 10 years ago. Good luck erasing Mo-Thugs and Sugar Ray from Facebook’s memory. And Google could show you what celebrities you had a crush on.

Just like all the best things in life, I find it both awesome and creepy.

And by the way, (Will, I’m talking to you), back to my whole list site idea, you could have the internet auto-generate these “Best of” compilations for you. last.fm and pandora probably could do a better job at it than you. God, I’m awesome.