I wrote this post this morning while standing in my kitchen waiting for the coffee to brew. It may seem frivolous, but I guarantee it is more relevant to your life than all those other Top Ten lists you’ll be reading this week.

1. Byzantine Country Olive Mix
I wish it was there all year long. It’s great to have these at the ready for snacking. I also like the idea of having something “Byzantine” in my life.

2. Roast Pork
The pork people had a big push several years ago with “The Other White Meat”. It really is! Why don’t they keep pushing that? We all don’t have enough pork in our lives. This works great as a midnight snack.

3. Greek Yogurt and Kozy Shack Pudding
These are year-round favorites. Also, the Kozy Rice Pudding is pretty good. Are these in your fridge? They should be!

4. Hard Boiled Eggs and Lemons
Todd Barry does a joke about how nobody has slices of lemon in their water at home. Everyone laughs, because it’s true, for single people. But friends, once you are married, things like sliced lemons and ready-to-eat eggs are always there when you need them. Makes you consider taking the plunge, right?

5. Rosemary and Thyme
How Simon and Garfunkle is my life?

6. Peter Luger Steak Sauce
Do you use steak sauce? Probably not, but you should get a bottle of this and you’ll change your ways. It’s a little weird at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll never go back.

7. Pomegranate in a Bowl
I don’t even eat this, but I like the look of it in my refrigerator. I like the idea of being able to be the kind of guy who picks at a pomegranate as I read my Kindle. (I don’t have a Kindle either)

8. Chocolate Sauce
It’s chocolate sauce. I don’t think I need to explain.

9. Stella and Pilsner Urquell
I like them both. They are similar, I know, but I like having the choice. You see the Bud Light back there? My wife claims she prefers it. I don’t really believe her, I think it’s her clinging to some kind of blue collar aesthetic- she wants to be a Bud Light type of woman. Kind of like me with the pomegranate.

10. Old Pancakes
Of course reheated is not as good as fresh off the griddle, but these are a wonderful surprise when you unwrap them late at night. Finding pancakes is like…finding pancakes! (Don’t put them in the microwave, just put the whole foil pack on top of the toaster to heat them.)

Life is good. Happy New Year.

OK. For all the emails I’ve gotten over the years, I guess Benjamin Allen’s facebook comment pushed me over the edge. I’ve got to find a way to get these podcasts up regularly. So I threw this one together just now. But that is really the way I should always approach it- throw something together. When I try to make it a big production, I end up procrastinating and not doing anything. The theme now is share stuff consistently; audio, video, whatever. Let me know if you are out there. feedburner says I still have a few hundred people subscribed to this feed.

I remember when Hot Wheels® came on the scene. They seemed flashy and ostentatious. I was strictly a Matchbox® kid, being more traditional and not interested in hype. I didn’t need Camaros and Cougars with mag wheels and Spectraflame® paint. But everyone began to switch to Hot Wheels®. I still wasn’t taken in. Until the Splittin’ Image®. It was the coolest car I ever saw. With twin pontoons and bucket seats. I actually traded several Matchbox cars to get it. After that, it was only Hot Wheels®. Or rather, only Splittin’ Image®. I used to picture myself driving around the neighborhood alone, with only room for one more-who would I pick up?
Look at this car. I still want one!

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This is a test for the next podcast.

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This interview with George Lucas, specifically this response, is a wonderfully succinct answer to “Why were the last three Star Wars films so terrible?”

Q: But the second trilogy certainly had a built-in audience.

GL: Yeah, everyone says the second trilogy was a slam dunk. But there was a lot of controversy around here about the fact that I wasn’t doing the obvious — I wasn’t doing the commercial version of what people expected. People expected Episode III, which is where Anakin turns into Darth Vader, to be Episode I. And then they expected Episodes II and III to be Darth Vader going around cutting people’s heads off and terrorizing the universe. But how did he get to be Darth Vader? You have to explore him in relationships, and you have to see where he started. He was a sweet kid, helpful, just like most people imagine themselves to be. Most people said, “This guy must have been a horrible little brat — a demon child.” But the point is, he wasn’t born that way — he became that way and thought he was doing the right thing. He eventually realizes he’s going down the dark path, but he thinks it’s justifiable. The idea is to see how a democracy becomes a dictatorship, and how a good person goes bad — and still, in the end, thinks he’s doing the right thing.

OK, so he admits that he realized we all wanted to see Darth Vader cutting peoples heads off, and he does just the opposite, forcing everyone to “explore relationships.” You know who likes to explore relationships? My wife. And she walked out of Star Wars, when she was in junior high school! I love that Lucas reported that most people said “This guy must have been a horrible little brat — a demon child.” Really? What people, all the parents at your local PTA meeting?

The whole interview at Wired.