Ever since I started this blog so many years ago, I made sure to celebrate the season of goodwill, best-of lists and rubbish compilations with a list of my own. A lot of thinking was invested in my top 5 lists, with appropriate links and deep reasoning. However, this year my music obsession had to take the back seat, and let my studious side take the wheel.

Yes, there were albums that caught my ears. Death Cab’s Narrow Stairs has captured me completely and The Dresden Doll’s No, Virginia was great fun. MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular made me jump and Portishead’s Third brought up deep feelings of nostalgia. Yet, my ability to concentrate on music was limited, and I do not feel that I can create a list that will do justice to the music. My mind was not on music this year.

So, I have to apologize. I am sorry for not paying attention to the music around me. I am sorry I am unable to recommend to my readers the music that I loved this year. I hope to change my ways next year, but I’m afraid I cannot promise much since there is still much studying to be done.

All I am left to do is wish everyone a Happy Christmas/Hanukkah, and the best music possible for 2009!

We’ve been in Israel so far 3.5 days, and the only word I can think of to sum the experience is “sluggish”. We have been staying with E’s dad, which as E. puts it, feels like going back to the age of 16, in the worst possible way. For me it feels a bit straining as well. Trying to tread on eggshells to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings, while still keeping some feeling of independence is difficult. Add to that the fact that I’ve been feeling a bit unwell today, and you get a sense of suffocation. Next week we’ll move to my parents’ place which might be more specious, but otherwise is not expected to be much better.

The positive part is that so far we have managed to meet a few friends, and I am looking forward to meeting many more.

Like visits I had in the country while I was living in the UK, the nagging question comes up of which is better. The answer to this question I still don’t know. Neither feels like home anymore, but in Tel Aviv I at least have my friends and family. I’ve only been in Cincinnati for about three months, so maybe it’s too early to tell. I’ll think about it and let you know.

Grrrrr…, originally uploaded by Deviant Brainwave.

It turns out that Willy didn’t make it. I have a suspicion that the woman that took him in did not follow the care instructions I gave her, and soon after he stopped eating and died. My parents for some reason did not think they needed to notify me, so I only found out yesterday after asking specifically how he was doing. He will be sadly missed.

Moon Over Hyde Park, originally uploaded by Deviant Brainwave.

Last night I took this picture, just thinking about how nice the full moon looks beyond the trees that line the back of our house. Only later I found out that this is the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It was a very nice moon indeed.

In the past couple of years there have been a lot of news about reunions – most of them of bands that simply needed the money. None of the reunion news has made as much impact as Blur’s announcement this week. I don’t think I’ve seen a reunion announcement that had so many emotional reactions from fans and colleagues that offered to land a hand.

I cannot stop myself either! How I wish I could be in Hyde Park (London) on July 3rd! Hell, I would settle for one of the warm-up gigs if I have the chance! Unfortunately, I will most likely be stuck in Hyde Park (Cincinnati, OH) at the time.

Maybe I shouldn’t be greedy, though. I did get to see Blur (sans Coxon) play an amazing gig once, and I got to see Graham Coxon (sans Blur) play at Wireless (actually, I saw him more than once) – but it would be SO WONDERFUL to see them play together again! CAN’T WAIT!

What a busy couple of weeks I’ve been through! What a busy quarter!

Well, I’m done! The last assignment was handed in today, and finally I can breath (at least until the winter quarter starts on January 5th).

So much has happened in the past couple of weeks! As I mentioned, there were a lot of exams and assignments to go through. There was also the first serious snowfall, which E. and my Indian friends were very excited about. I had some pretty good interviews for the summer’s co-op, and hopefully I will get a positive reaction by the end of this week. And all that in no more than 14 days that went by so fast and with so little sleep that I hardly noticed them.

The plan for the coming break starts with a few days of catching up on settling down. I will finally enjoy a few spots of Cincinnati that may even have the chance of changing my opinion about the city (meanwhile, I still think Cincinnati is a dump). I will also try to enjoy as many of the neighbourhood’s drinking establishments as possible. Oh, and another important task will be to finally clean the pig sty we have been living in in the past few months. Yes, student life is harder than I thought…

And then will come Tuesday, when my journey eastward will begin. I am expecting a very long string of flights on my way to Israel to be completed by lunch time on Wednesday – so, if anyone wants to catch up, I will be enjoying the Middle Eastern sunshine until December 29th, so drop me a line!