The Best Summer Ever
Thursday, January 3, 2013 - Monday, September 16, 2013
Synopsis
Thursday, January 3, 2013 was a monumental day in my life, for that was the day I began playing Minecraft. Ever since that day, the trajectory I would take I was irreversibly altered.
To this day, I remember the spring and summer of 2013 as the very best months of my life. I can think of no other period where I had as much fun in such a short window of time. I spent most of my time playing these songs in the background as I worked on building the Flying Clown House and, later, the original incarnation of the N Tower with Wyatt.
This single aspect, playing these songs as background music as I played Minecraft, is what gives The Best Summer Ever its definition. To experience the game as I did at the time, you can install either the Nosiphus Pack o' Fun or the Nosiphus Required Mods.
Notable Tracks
Say It Isn't So - Daryl Hall & John Oates - 1983
On Wednesday, May 22, 2013, I was at my grandparent's house with a specific task: fixing a computer that had never worked correctly. In 2006, my grandmother had bought a Hewlett-Packard Media Center PC, but this machine would not boot properly. Whenever it started up, it would immediately encounter a program that would prevent Windows XP's out of box experience loading.
After some light diagnosis, I realized that all I had to do to stop this was change the name of the one file that was preventing the system from booting up. Upon doing that, the system loaded for the first time in seven years and was completely usable. (As a sidenote, the system had been hit by power flashes over the years, so it did have intermittent shutdowns, but it was removed from service too soon for that issue to be a long-term problem.)
I began to load CDs into the system, and the first one I grabbed was Rock 'n Soul, Pt. 1. Kiss On My List was on another compilation album, so I figured I'd like to hear more from Hall & Oates. The first track, Say It Isn't So, I had never heard before, but the moment it began playing, I knew I'd found a new song to play regularly.
As the opening track on the album, I would hear it every time I'd open Windows Media Player on my laptop to play it.
Diamond Girl/I Saw The Light - Seals & Crofts/Todd Rundgren - 1973/1972
These songs will forever be linked together in my mind. As tracks 3 and 4 of Classic Soft Rock: Ride Like The Wind, whenever I hear Diamond Girl, I make sure to follow it with I Saw The Light, and if I hear I Saw The Light, I immediately stop it and play Diamond Girl if I hadn't just heard it.
These songs were staples of my time playing on the 2013 Nosiphus modded server, and hearing either of them will immediately bring me back to that time. Specifically, I remember two events: the first one occurred at about 5:00 pm, and the songs were playing out of the speakers on my desk while I was lying in bed on the server, and the second was at about 1:00 am, when Wyatt was working on his riverside cabin on as I watched.
Notable Songs
On May 22, 2013, I was at my grandparents' house to fix her but due to a misconfiguration, one of their own programs stopped the Windows XP OOBE from loading. After some light diagnosis, all I had to due was change the name of one file to prevent that program from loading, and it started up properly for the first time ever.
After I got it up and running, I began to scan in her music CDs, and the first one I grabbed was Rock n' Soul, Part 1. I'd already heard and loved Kiss On My List, so I decided I'd like to hear more from Hall & Oates. I had never heard the first track, but when Say It Isn't So played, I knew I found a new favorite.
As it was the first track on the album, I'd hear it every time I played it, which was very often.
Boogie Oogie Oogie was the opening track to Jammin' Oldies, and as a result I would hear it every time the disc was played. I do have a specific memory for this song despite its heavy play. Sometime in early 2006, before I was in school, my grandmother played the disc on her living room stereo system. Although it wasn't the first time I heard it, I think it was the first time I heard it while not buckled into the back of the truck, meaning I could actually get up and move. I remember dancing to it without a care in the world.
