Devan's World

Right now I am visiting my family in Arizona, one of the hottest states in the USA. By hottest I literally mean hot, as in temperature. It is currently 110 degrees (fahrenheit) here. Where I live in Portland, Oregon, the temperature is much cooler, which has led my friends to ask, "Why, oh why, would you go to the desert in the middle of summer?" The reason is because my family lives here, and since I am in school during the rest of the year, this is one of my only opportunities to come see them. Between work and a full school schedule, I don't get much time throughout the year to take vacations. So the one or two times a year I am actually able to take time off from both work and school, my family generally pressures me to see them.

As much as I love my family, this is difficult for me, because once in a while I would like to save my money and vacation time to go somewhere I've never been, like Europe or Hawaii. Yet, it seems like I am guilt-tripped into coming to my home town that I've already seen hundreds of times over and over again. 

Do any of you guys have this problem? Have you ever skipped out on coming home for the holidays or summer vacation in favor of vacationing with your friends? Were your parents offended that you chose to use your free time NOT seeing them?

The weather is starting to get warm. I'm about to finish up school for the year, and I'm all ready to start my summer vacation. There's just one thing missing: I haven't found the "song of the summer." It seems like every year there's some hit song that becomes my "jam," that song that perfectly embodies the carefree feeling of a long summer day or a crazy summer night. But so far this year I'm still listening to leftovers from 2009. What do you guys think is going to be the jam of summer 2010? Have you heard any songs yet that are getting you in the spirit for beach getaways and pool parties?

If you have any suggestions, throw them my way. I'm always looking for new music! 

Today is Record Store Day in the United States. This is a special day that was created to help the failing record industry. Thousands of artists are putting out special releases that will only be available through independent record stores in hopes of boosting these stores' sales. 

I worked at a record store a couple years ago until it went out of business. It seems the iPod and the internet are killing CD's and records. I think a lot of good comes from technological innovations, but I think there's a lot of negative aspects to this as well. I spent so much time hanging out in record stores when I was a kid that I simply cannot imagine raising kids in a world where record stores don't exist. For me, scanning websites is nowhere near comparable to scanning record bins. I like to own the physical item, look at the pictures, read the lyrics, engage in the act of putting on a record.

 What about you guys? Do you still buy CD's/Records? Why or why not?