Purrfect Albums Updated

A while ago I made a list of albums that could be listened to all the way through and had lasting impact on me. After a decent while I knew I wanted to keep a list of albums that I consider the minimum of my library. If I loose a hard drive or want to give someone music, it's nice to have a list to fall back on as your favorite albums collection grows. It's a maintained list and not infallible, sometimes I will purge albums that don't have the same luster they once had. Adding new finds that have potential is great as long as you are open to reconsidering their place after a lot more listens.

Each of the albums on my list fits my personal criteria which takes in account a lot of subtle factors. I feel that each of them affected my life in some way and that they represent a unique example of good music. I try not to add albums that are similar in sound and have chosen one album over another many times. I think this happens most with albums by one band that are similar in sound and so the weaker one gets cut out. I also really like albums that you can  listen to the whole way through without feeling big lulls in the quality. Granted that in different moods, a quiet section can be the worst and others it's the most artistic thing you've heard (looking at you, Cloud Cult).

One of the strongest influence on my choices is also their live efforts. Seeing a band live has pushed multiple band's albums onto this list. I believe that some bands record albums that do not do their live shows justice. And while some bands blow me away live, I do realize that  there is something special about delivering a worthy album release. I know there are a lot of good musicians out there playing shows in thousands of bands, but only a few put out rock solid albums. My impressions of live shows are are clouded by all the influences that come along with going to a live show. You can't really hear the lyrics most of the time and I think that it is important that you understand what the explicit intent of the music is. If I can follow the content of the singing, I can get an even deeper connection with the music. It's awesome and I recommend following along with lyrics as you listen to music. It's surprisingly easy to sing along with music without knowing what they're talking about (being down with OPP, when it's about poor relationship choices). 

I also feel that as much merit in individual experiences are, we all have our own and so these are mostly based on being repeatable experiences. I can expect to listen to any of these and feel good and I have enough variety for most any time I need. If I could, this would be what I based my life's soundtrack on. So, after a while I ended up with about one hundred fifty three albums as of this past month. I hope to own these albums on physical media as I go on through the years, the albums I look for at the merch table and in the record stores, my favorite albums:


2012-Zammuto-Zammuto
2012-Purity Ring-Shrines
2011-Youth Lagoon-The Year of Hibernation
2011-James Blake-James Blake
2011-SBTRKT-SBTRKT
2011-Nicolas Jaar-Space Is Only Noise
2010-Caribou-Swim
2010-Beach House-Teen Dream
2010-Gayngs-Relayted
2010-Massive Attack-Heligoland
2010-Jónsi-Go
2010-Panda Bear-Tomboy
2010-Claps-New Science
2010-Yeasayer-Odd Blood
2010-Kanye West-My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2009-Animal Collective-Fall Be Kind
2009-Animal Collective-Merriweather Post Pavilion
2009-Anni Rossi-Rockwell
2009-Various Artists-Dark Was the Night
2009-deadmau5-For Lack of a Better Name
2009-Dirty Projectors-Bitte Orca
2009-Neon Indian-Psychic Chasms
2009-Jookabox-Dead Zone Boys
2009-Phantogram-Eyelid Movies
2009-Phoenix-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2009-The Antlers-Hospice
2009-The Flaming Lips-Embryonic
2009-The xx-xx
2009-tUnE-yArDs-BiRd-BrAiNs
2009-Dan Deacon-Bromst
2008-Caroline Smith & The Good Night Sleeps-Backyard Tent Set
2008-Cloud Cult-Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)
2008-Crystal Castles-Crystal Castles (I)
2008-Dark Dark Dark-The Snow Magic
2008-Dosh-Wolves and Wishes
2008-Fleet Foxes-Fleet Foxes
2008-Wale-The Mixtape About Nothing
2008-Fuck Buttons-Street Horrrsing
2008-Gospel Gossip-Sing into My Mouth
2008-M83-Saturdays=Youth
2008-Noah and the Whale-Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down
2008-Solid Gold-Bodies of Water
2008-Santigold-Santogold
2008-The Tallest Man on Earth-Shallow Grave
2008-WHY?-Alopecia
2008-Tim Fite-Fair Ain't Fair
2007-Panda Bear-Person Pitch
2007-Animal Collective-Strawberry Jam
2007-Battles-Mirrored
2007-Beirut-The Flying Club Cup
2007-Black Moth Super Rainbow-Dandelion Gum
2007-Bon Iver-For Emma, Forever Ago
2007-Building Better Bombs-Freak Out Squares
2007-Cloud Cult-The Meaning of 8
2007-El Ten Eleven-Every Direction Is North
2007-Flobots-Fight With Tools
2007-Explosions in the Sky-All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
2007-Kanye West-Graduation
2007-MGMT-Oracular Spectacular
2007-Menomena-Friend and Foe
2007-Radiohead-In Rainbows
2007-Spoon-Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
2007-Justice-† (Cross)
2007-Yeasayer-All Hour Cymbals
2007-Vampire Hands-Virgin Dust American Lips
2006-Beirut-Gulag Orkestar
2006-Destroyer-Destroyer's Rubies
2006-P.O.S-Audition
2006-Jeremy Messersmith-The Alcatraz Kid
2006-Subtle-For Hero: For Fool
2006-The Black Keys-Magic Potion
2006-The Plastic Constellations-Crusades
2006-TV on the Radio-Return to Cookie Mountain
2006-The Knife-Silent Shout
2005-Gorillaz-Demon Days
2005-Animal Collective-Feels
2005-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
2005-Hockey Night-Keep Guessin'
2005-Lightning Bolt-Hypermagic Mountain
2005-M83-Before the Dawn Heals Us
2005-Sigur Rós-Takk...
2005-Sufjan Stevens-Illinois
2005-The Books-Lost and Safe
2005-The Mae Shi-Heartbeeps
2005-STNNNG-Dignified Sissy
2004-Animal Collective-Sung Tongs
2004-Arcade Fire-Funeral
2004-Best Friends Forever-Best Friends Forever
2004-P.O.S-Ipecac Neat
2004-Grizzly Bear-Horn of Plenty
2004-Heiruspecs-A Tiger Dancing
2004-Modest Mouse-Good News for People Who Love Bad News
2004-Subtle-A New White
2004-Sufjan Stevens-Seven Swans
2004-The Streets-A Grand Don't Come for Free
2003-Explosions in the Sky-The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
2003-The Books-The Lemon of Pink
2003-The Shins-Chutes Too Narrow
2003-The Knife-Deep Cuts
2002-Iron & Wine-The Creek Drank the Cradle
2002-Johnny Cash-American IV: The Man Comes Around
2002-Queens of the Stone Age-Songs for the Deaf
2002-Sigur Rós-( )
2002-The Streets-Original Pirate Material
2002-Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2001-Daft Punk-Discovery
2001-Gorillaz-Gorillaz
2001-The White Stripes-White Blood Cells
2000-Godspeed You! Black Emperor-Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
2000-Modest Mouse-The Moon & Antarctica
2000-Radiohead-Kid A
2000-Deltron 3030-Deltron 3030
1999-Panda Bear-Panda Bear
1999-Sigur Rós-Ágætis byrjun
1999-The Flaming Lips-The Soft Bulletin
1998-Beastie Boys-Hello Nasty
1998-Neutral Milk Hotel-In the Aeroplane over the Sea
1998-Fugazi-End Hits
1997-Jurassic 5-Jurassic 5 EP
1997-Radiohead-OK Computer
1996-Weezer-Pinkerton
1995-The Smashing Pumpkins-Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
1994-Blur-Parklife
1994-Weezer-Weezer
1993-Built to Spill-Ultimate Alternative Wavers
1992-Rage Against the Machine-Rage Against the Machine
1991-Red Hot Chili Peppers-Blood Sugar Sex Magik
1991-Nirvana-Nevermind
1989-Pixies-Doolittle
1989-Fugazi-13 Songs
1988-Pixies-Surfer Rosa
1986-Beastie Boys-Licensed to Ill
1983-Tears for Fears-The Hurting
1980-Talking Heads-Remain in Light
1979-Neil Young-Rust Never Sleeps
1979-Pink Floyd-The Wall
1979-The Clash-London Calling
1977-Pink Floyd-Animals
1976-The Modern Lovers-The Modern Lovers
1975-Pink Floyd-Wish You Were Here
1973-Pink Floyd-The Dark Side of the Moon
1971-Led Zeppelin-Led Zeppelin IV
1971-Pink Floyd-Meddle
1971-The Kinks-Muswell Hillbillies
1970-Black Sabbath-Paranoid
1968-The Kinks-The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
1968-The Zombies-Odessey and Oracle
1967-Pink Floyd-The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
1967-The Doors-The Doors
1967-The Jimi Hendrix Experience-Axis: Bold as Love
1967-The Velvet Underground-The Velvet Underground & Nico
1966-Bob Dylan-Blonde on Blonde
1963-Bob Dylan-The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Password methodology

Everyone should know that the more secure their passwords are the more secure their information is. Let alone that everyone is sharing more information publicly than they might realize, it's often the private information is much more important and regretful to let fall into unwanted hands. If people know that they're important, they eventually fall on a tiered system of security. Most systems have a minimal tier, which is enforced by requiring multiple numbers, special characters, and sometimes you have at least two groups of letters that are divided by a number. These will inherently be more secure than not requiring them, because it isn't about the content of your password but how fast someone can find out what it is. If it's a birthdate or a dead son's name, like in some hollywood movies, then it can be found out easier through social engineering or put to the top of the probable patterns. Context adds only a little help in the grand marshal of password cracking, brute force. Given that you have ability to run thousands of guesses per second, there is no reason you wouldn't brute force a password. It's likely that the person just got hold of a hundred passwords and user names at once and doesn't want to spend too much time on just yours. If it's tough, they'll skip it because it would take too much time.

 Toughness with passwords comes in tiers and the complexity of the password. People's passwords are determined by a balance of their want for security and the maximum complexity they feel they can manage. I've seen people typing in sentences as their password, which when used with numbers and special characters is pretty secure. This type of password works best with a password manager, where the sentence is a master password and the manager creates extremely secure passwords. You can keep this manager installed on a USB drive, which can be encrypted. The passwords the manager comes up with are many and more times secure than what a human could remember. And between accounts, each have their own unique passwords. This is more than most people care to go through to be secure. So we can take certain ideas from it and make it into a new method that we can keep in our heads.
Having a sentence password is nice, but if you use the same sentence on each account, if one is cracked then they all are. There is only one key they need to open all your doors, that doesn't seem optimal. The manager makes different keys for each door, we can do that by having different sentences for each account. Suddenly our method just got pretty complex, how do I remember which sentence is for which account when there are so many? We can take one long sentence and derive many different unique passwords from it using an algorithm. For example purposes, I'll use the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." You might know that this sentence is special because it is a pangram, using every letter in the English alphabet. That is an important part of what makes our algorithm work.

Our algorithm takes in one piece of information and turns it into a secure password. Take a website domain name as the input, we have "www.google.com" as the address and "google" as the domain (cutting off the .whatever). We then take the first letter of the domain and find it in our sentence. This is why we need a pangram, for websites can be start with any letter. If a website starts with a number, use the word in its place. We find the first instance of 'g' in our sentence at the very end. We take the 'g' and the next two letters, which when the sentence is wrapped around are "th". These are our first three letters in our password, but to throw a twist in, we will capitalize the second letter, ending up with "gTh".

Because each domain is unique, we end up with different passwords. But if we only use the first letter, there are only 26 starting three letter combinations, not very good. If we assume that domains are at least three characters long, we can break them down into the first character, the second to last character, and the very last character. When you have more than three characters, such as "google", you can still find the letters that make up this combination. In our example with "google", we will be using the 'l' and the 'e' found in our sentence. If we include the letter that is to their left we would get "el" and "he" to add to our password. Lets capitalize the last letter to get "hE".

If we just threw these together to get "gThelhE, we'd still only have a seven letter password that isn't as secure as we want. Using a simple dictionary brute force attack, this password would not stand up very long. To make it more secure we will choose a two digit number and a special character. For choosing these, we won't use the domain and we'll use what is called the salt. This is chosen by each person to make it unique to them and because it's only three characters it isn't very hard to remember. In this example I will choose "45" and '%', but I want to stress that you need to pick your own and remember it, because this will be the one thing that remains the same between passwords. When we put the number between the first and second part we get "gTh45elhE". To finish we throw on the '%' at the end to end up with "gTh45elhE%" as your password that you would use for your google account. To show that other sites would have different passwords, here is the password for your amazon account: "aZy45rowN%". Your password for facebook is now "fOx45rocK%". These are secure passwords because they are nine characters long, include two capital letters, two numbers, a special character, is not contextually related to anything, and they are unique to each input.

This means that you now have 17,576 (26x26x26) unique passwords at your finger tips, given that two domains don't share the same first and last two letters. For instance, "google" is identical to "great-tale" and other if the match. Turns out with web 2.0, many websites took to replacing suffixes with the letter 'r', so there are even more passwords likely to be the same. So we have duplicates, but only in rare cases, what can we do to make this all even more secure? Personalizing this algorithm is one of intentions it was made with as you can choose what sentence you use, some other pangrams are "Pack my red box with five dozen quality jugs. ", which is 36 letters long. "Back in June we delivered oxygen equipment of the same size." is another coming in at 49 letters. You can change which direction you pull the letters from, which ones are capitalized, what order you put them together, and they have your own personal salt.
If you want to use this algorithm with an account that doesn't have a domain name to pull your source word from, look at the login prompt and pull the application name, company name, or anything as long as you can use it consistently. This can also be the case when you have different accounts at the same website, where it is unwise to use the same password for different accounts one after another.

Despite that this creates complex passwords, there are still some websites that have a maximum level of security. These websites are putting you at risk. Any maximum limitation on passwords is unacceptable. There is no technical reason that a maximum should be preferred, it might be said that it is harder to limit passwords than to allow them to be complex. I have had a bank account where you could have a maximum of 8 characters and no special characters were allowed. With a password like, "gTh45elhE%", what do we do when we encounter limitations? We sadly have to dumb our password down. If we can't use special characters, use the number that shares the character's key instead. We use '5' instead of '%' and '3' instead of '#'. If we can't use numbers of our choosing, we can use our choice of letters instead. Sometimes it takes more work to dumb a password down than to come up with it in the first place.

I use a variation of this method that I feel is easy enough to use on a daily basis that I never allow a website to remember my passwords. It is another problem that your password might be held un-encrypted inside a cookie either on your computer or on a server. It gets easier the more you remember your sentence and get used to filling in with your salt. The algorithm that you use is your last level of security, if someone knows it they can get into any of your accounts. It is important to never share how you create your passwords. When explaining this method, I recommend changing certain aspects of your algorithm so it can't be figured out. I think that it is likely that even with all your passwords in plain-text, such as a key logger would have, that most crackers would not be able to backtrack what your algorithm is. They would have your salt and know where the characters are divided, but they would need to work out your sentence to be able to find out new passwords.


I hope this helps keep your data safe.

Single speed racer

I just rode 7.5 miles! Check it out on Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/19433410

Forgot to take my lock off my mountain bike, so i didnt go shopping. I went for a great ride, ending up at the Chataqua trailhead. Single speed is different, but in a positive way since i never realized how much i think about shifting gears while riding. Hills are definitely tougher, but if i can get up the big hill on my way to work, i won't worry about it. I took baseline tonight and was absolutely zooming down the hill. The new bike is smooth. But going up that hill is awful and actually where i destroyed my last derailleur, now there's no derailleur to break. I still walked it though.

Tennis with the family

<p>My mom has been taking lessons and has gotten really good. So we teamed up and took on my brother and dad. We lost, but it was a close match at 6-3. Jess, molly, and thomas cheered us on. Molly was a great ball girl.<br>
</p>

Grrrean beer

Hanging with c. Thorne at the downer.

Backyard

This is 5 minutes from my work. Four mile creek is the trail and it's really peaceful.

Smaller than life

This is an electron microscopes view of a crack in steel. It blew my mind. Its probably the color scheme they chose to make it look like rock and sky, but i think it goes past that to look completley natural. Its just very very small.