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New York City is filled with so much absolute randomness, that I often feel the need to document some things as I go through the day. This picture surely speaks for itself, but I think it helps to point out that the price tag is $250.00. I have to concede I did take part in some fashion crazes during the late 80's and early 90's (Z cavaricci anyone?) But at least I can say I was just a stupid kid back then. Grown women are buying these things! Weird.

When people get depressed, it sometimes helps to remind them of certain situations that are worse than the one they are currently in. If I'm saddened by the fact that I got sick and had to miss the Dave Matthews concert, its easy for me to come to grips with reality when I'm reminded of the fact that some people are sick all of the time, not just for a few days.

The same concept is certainly valid in the jungle of software maintenance. If your buddy is given the task of adding some functionality to a piece of obfuscated code, it might help to remind him of some code that has much more serious problems. This easy to do, given the large collection of nauseating code samples available at The Daily WTF. A simple click of this link, and I assure you that your buddy will be feeling better in no time.

I will leave you with the sole inspiration of this post. An error message that I hope to never see again during the rest of my career:

I love when this happens...You're wandering along mindlessly listening to your iPod on random play, and you realize, "I haven't heard this song in the longest time." Then it all comes pouring back. The posters that were hanging on the wall in your old bedroom. The 'best friend' that you haven't spoken with in years. The girl that broke your heart. Everything. These memories come streaming from this song. This music. This chaos of analog waves bouncing around in your head. The feeling really is amazing.

So if you haven't guessed it, I was fortunate enough to have this experience the other day. The song was Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, which was released on The Downward Spiral album back in 1994. It's probably been about 6 years since I last heard this song, so I was content with the fact that my iPod chose to play it out of the thousands of choices it had. But when it rains it pours, right? A couple days later, I learned while reading Spin Magazine that Johnny Cash did a cover of the song in 2002 on his American IV: The Man Comes Around album.

I'm here to say that the Johnny Cash version is amazing. I love how a song can lead multiple lives between artists. The emotional differences between Trent Reznor in his 20's and Johnny Cash in his 70's is a lot of fun to compare and pick apart. Download both versions - you won't be dissapointed.