“New Year” blog posts typically deal with lists. Lists of the best and worst of the preceeding year. This post will be no different. Observe

2008: The Best

Discovering that my pr0n name is Jake Ponderosa and getting people to actually refer to me accordingly.

2008: The Worst

We have a tie between Mamma Mia! and being rejected for Celebrity Rehab.

I do not really want to focus on 2008 with 2009 currently so shiny. 2009 holds so much promise: a new new deal, a new president, new friends, a new Star Trek movie that actually looks good, and a new motto “Feelin’ fine in oh-nine!”

I figured the new year was a great time to redesign erichurst.com. I kicked around a few approaches before settling on this package. I started rewriting the blog engine with Rails. Then realized that to do this the way I really wanted to I would need a virtual private server which I would have to maintain. Rails is a blast for me, but maintaining a server is not. That’s why this blog continues to be powered by good old fashioned Wordpress.

This turned out to be beneficial since at UCLICK we also decided that we would provide creator sites – to those who want them – powered by WP. This leaves us with the task of skinning the app appropriately and adding plugins and widgets as desired. I decided to experiment with my own site and what you now see is the result of said experiments.

I don’t know what to call the design. I’ve narrowed it down to Asian Cowboy, Parquet Party, Fake Brass, & Booyah Bowler. Your thoughts are certainly welcome. I’ll announce a winner this time in 2010.

Besides blogging and developing more there are a few things I’m looking forward to in the coming year.

First, Jen, my wife, is scheduled to give birth to our first child. We’re hoping for a Panda since they are so rare.

Second, in March I’m going to attend SXSWi for the first time. I’m hoping to make new friends, learn a lot, and make convention lanyards sexy again.

Third, I will be joining the Under 200lbs Club again. I’ve been hitting the gym with a buddy and I’m liking how much spandex agrees with me.

I hope you will join me here often in 2009. I’ll share a little of my world, if you will share a little of yours.

This morning I woke up and jumped in the shower (Side Note: it was deluxe day in the shower, which means i wash/condition my mane, and trim my face). When I came downstairs Jen was a tad bit more than her cheery self.

As I walked into the kitchen to pour my coffee she says to me, “Hey, good morning,” with a cheerfulness that was almost scary. Then I found out why, “Two things,” she said, “Good morning, and this Thanksgiving let’s be sensible eaters.” What?!

I immediately knew what had happened during deluxe day in the shower: Jen had been watching The Today Show. If only I could count the things the Today Show has ruined for me in my life. Why couldn’t their writers have gone on strike?

Happy Thanksgiving

what you are about to view is … well … it’s just … hmmm …

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTLj_3R0-2g[/youtube]

I felt compelled to pass this flammable little morsel on to my faithful reader (big ups M.O.M.). You can follow the same trail I did from Blankbaby to Al Nye to be reminded once again why McDonalds still sucks.

Turns out the secret ingredient that keeps McDonalds Chicken McNuggets so fresh and so clean is butane. That’s right: lighter fluid. A gram of which, by the way, has some wicked side effects; ingest a mere five grams and you’re partying with Anna Nicole!

The worst part is that the FDA approves of Ronny McD’s use of butane… on our food. Really?

So, who else is using lighter fluid as a preservative?

“Would you like fries with that?”

If you’ve been reading this blog for more than six months then your name is probably M.O.M. and you probably recall my committment to take on 30 with a vengence. I am making good on that committment every day.

My friend Peter Inzerillo once told me that 30 is “the age of clarity.” The age at which so much comes in to focus. I am beginning to understand what he means.

I started looking at what I value the most over the last five months. It just started happening. I didn’t decide, “I’m going to examine what I value most out of life.” It just kind of happened.

Funny what I found. I wonder if these types of values change, too? Still, I’ve come to determine that I value stability (believe it or not), my community, and opportunity. General items I know, but in the interest of brevity and being thought provoking I’m going to leave it at that.

Armed with these new found revelations I began job hunting and am happy to say that my search was relatively short compared to some. This past week I accepted a Web Producer position with uclick the online division of Andrews McMeel Universal. After tieing up some loose ends with my current job and a few days rest I’ll start later this month.

To say that I am excited is a vast understatement! If you only knew the killer things going on inside that company, and if you only knew some of the amazing people that make everything happen you also would be elated. Plus, I’ll be working with comics and games… what could be better?

Check out uclick when you get the chance. We’ll be taking over the world soon.

I can’t wear contacts. My eyes are too dry or something. Good thing I don’t mind wearing glasses.

I had an eye exam for the first time in years – like seven, actually – and it turns out my eyes have more than doubled in suckiness. So, I took the opportunity to update my frames also.

I made the mistake of first looking for frames I would like on the Country Club Plaza at the Optical Shop of Aspen. I should have remembered the simple equation Plaza + Aspen = Unaffordable, but I didn’t. Thank the Lord for the interweb.

Enter modernglasses.com, while they won’t ever be nominated for a SXSW Web Award, they do offer a great service: boutique level and designer eye frames at great prices. I saved well over $300 on a pair of frames and lenses (with Crizal, no less).

Whilst searching for a new frame my friend !jon asked if I was getting “a pair of glasses like all the ska-kids wear?” Well, I guess so, I told him. “Oh man… those are so lame! They look like your trying to hard to be cool!” Hard to hear your trying to hard to look cool from this guy!

Trying to hard to look cool? Really? Do I come across that way? I always feel like I’m trying to hard to suppress my coolness. Seriously, I have to dial it way down all the time.

I wonder if my friend !jon feels this guy is trying to hard to be cool?

Wal-Mart announced today that they will begin offering nearly 300 of the most popular generic drugs for $4 for a 30 day supply (read here).

It appears that Wal-Mart is actually doing a great thing for the common good. The best part about this plan is that it is available to anyone with a prescription regardless of their prescription drug or insurance coverage (or lack thereof as the case may be).

While this isn’t the nationwide free healthcare I’d like to see, it is a step in the right direction. I wonder if I will be able to purchase on-line so I can actually avoid visiting a Wal-Mart.