The Random Musings and Writings of Brandon

Last night, in an attempt at returning to some semblance of normalcy, I was invited to my daughter's place to celebrate Christmas Eve with my daughter and her boyfriend (and his sister) and my son and his girlfriend. Although, we have gotten together periodically over the past few years, the last time we celebrated the Christmas holidays was probably in 2023... in the middle of a whirlwind of bad news and tragedy. Besides excellent company and excellent food (and a couple of fine food related products - please send recipes using Blueberry Mustard), I also received something that I have been missing for a fair number of years. The trilogy of Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas albums (Christmas Eve and Other Stories, The Christmas Attic, and The Lost Christmas Eve). These were CDs that I have often lent to others, but I thought that they had somehow got lost with my mother's possessions. Every Christmas, I would go to my racks of CDs... and they were not there. I had resigned mys...

One of the extra benefits of working in a large customer serving environment is the ability to listen to lots and lots of holiday music. Luckily, from year to year, the music is switched up so as not to annoy the workers too much. The music that is played has a good variety, from pop to rock to country, blues and jazz; from the 1940s through the present day.  There are, of course, old classics like Burl Ives and Brenda Lee and newer "classics" like Mariah Carey and Wham. Those chestnuts are always roasting however, so I want to explore some different songs that I have heard this year - from work and from my own recommendations. Most Inappropriate Christmas Song played at Work: AC/DC - Mistress for Christmas I think one needs to take this song with tongue firmly planted in cheek... and if one does, it is certainly just an absurd AC/DC song. It is certainly better than the classic "Baby It's Cold Outside" or "Santa Baby." From the excellent Razor's E...

On Monday, I went back to my place of work to do something I had not done in over a decade. I went back to give blood. Between 2010 and 2014, I volunteered to give blood to the Red Cross seven times. Not because I got nice squeezy hearts or free t-shirts or the free food and drink after the bloodletting session (not that those are not nice things to be given). But, because blood donation is really important . So, the question is... why did I stop? If I know how useful blood donation is, what reasons did I have not to do so? Was it simply the difficulty of time commitments? That feels incorrect to me. Afterall, I did give blood all during the time of my mother's cancer treatments when time was less available. However, the bloodletting did stop after my mother's passing. So, much like the lack of putting up a tree for Christmas... did this activity also stop because of this event? It is hard for me to say that is the reason. Yet, I can't argue against this. So, why did I dona...

Today was the last day of work for one of my co-workers. After 29 years at our place of business, Dawn has bid us all a fond farewell. As any decision to leave your long-time work, the decision could not have been an easy one. After all, one's job is not only a place to earn money to live... it is also a place to see your friends and acquaintances. After all, one is at work for at least 40 hours a week. One likely sees your workmates more often than you see your friends outside of work. Potentially more than you see your extended family. Even, potentially, more than one sees their immediate family.  I have worked alongside Dawn for the entire 21 years I have worked at this place of business... although not always on the same shift and not with the same days off. I don't recall the first time I met Dawn, but I certainly do remember that she was a giver. A giver of hugs. A giver of candy. A giver of kindness. A guiding light of goodness that one wanted to reciprocate and to give ...

 A few posts ago, I discussed what Spotify thought about my listening habits... and for reasons beyond my ability to think about, people really focused on my aside that 141 genres of music appear to be overly broad. Subsequently, I read a post in the Babymetal subreddit about how "other" "kawaii metal" bands just aren't very good. Which got me thinking. If we take what genre means to its logical conclusion, is the conclusion that every band (and, by extension, any television show, movie, book, etc.) is, in fact, its own genre. Perhaps, in fact, that every single song by every single band is its own unique genre. Before we deep dive into this concept, I do think it is important to realize that there are reasons why humans tend to want to categorize things (in this case, music). If we want to listen to a rock song, hearing an old Louis Armstrong song is probably not what we have in mind. If I wanted to hear a country music song, I'm probably not expecting to...

A few days ago, I made the decision to try to get all hyped up for the upcoming Christmas holiday. There were a few things I was able to take out of a downstairs closet and place on the staircase.  The larger issue was getting the fake plastic Christmas tree out of one of the loft closets. Now, the actual retrieval of said tree was not particularly difficult. I knew which closet it was in, so opening the door and taking it out was trivial. However... it wasn't that easy. At least, not emotionally. For in that closet was a multitude of physical objects that put me in a bit of a tailspin. First, it was the realization that there were even more paintings by my mother that I had forgotten about. In fact, there were a large number of items that were taken from my mother's apartment after her death in 2015. Large plastic crates of pictures and memories that from just a brief look included such things as a newspaper clipping of my grandmother's obituary, a collection of player...

One of the many things about December is that one's favorite apps attempt to tell you what you "did" over the given year... giving one largely irrelevant stats that... if you think about it, you probably already knew and mostly don't care about.  However, sometimes, the wholly irrelevant does actually give insight into how one uses a specific program and/or how the program actually uses you.  So, it goes with my Spotify Wrapped countdown presented by Spotify. Who, for example, could have possibly guessed that my #1 artist of the year was going to be Babymetal. It isn't as if the AI underneath the Spotify engine realizes that I like Babymetal. Or, I like Babymetal songs. Or, that I listened to the full Metal Forth album on Spotify when it came out and before I actually received the physical CD. Or, that the program then leverages that knowledge when it presents me with various playlists to potentially listen to or when I decide to listen to music via the AI generat...

Hello people of the internet who may come across this random blog and read this random post. Welcome to the random thoughts and opinions of me, Brandon Magee... a middle-aged man who lives somewhere in the Northeast of the United States of America. Do I have a specific plan on what I will be writing about on this blog? Absolutely not. As the title of the Blog says... expect something different every day. There will likely be a generous helping of thoughts on music and on sports. Also essays on politic and on things affecting my personal life. As well as other topics that I have not even thought of. Largely, this is an experiment to see if I can find some peace in my life. Some might call it a diary of sorts. Others may call it a type of self-therapy. I, currently, am calling it a return to writing... something that I did as a side-hustle many years ago. Something that I enjoyed doing and, something I hope will become an enjoyable activity again. What I will say in oblique fashion is th...