Early Childhood
Instead of torturing you with TV show theme songs I'll stick to more specialty tracks

Forever Young by Carol Parks from the Care Bears II OST
I can't think of any song that whisks me back to childhood like this song does. I was like four years old when this movie came out. Still its a touching song that reminds me of the innocence one loses from age.

Rock and Roll from The Chipmunks Adventure OST
This is the only Chipmunk movie and another favorite film that reminds me of my childhood. This movie taught me that my parents had awful taste in music...

Walk Straight - Raphael from the TMNT: Coming Out of their Shells Album
Before Video games really absorbed my free time, my obsession growing up was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This was the first cassette that wasn't really my parents and reflected my own taste. So I always think of this album when I think about the first time I really began to distinguish myself from the family... Yes I totally still have this on my iPod. TMNT was also the first thing that I actually had in common with the kids in my class and so I made a lot of friends because of this series.

Super Mario Bros. 2 Overworld Theme by Koji Kondo
Yes I could have chosen the more iconic SMB Theme but I was always more partial to this game growing up. This song signifies when I first started playing video games. I played a bunch of arcade games but towards the end of the 80s my mother buckled down and finally picked up an NES for me.


Later Childhood

Piano Man by Billy Joel from the album of the same name.
This is the first non-kid song I really remember and the only decent music my mother owned and would let me listen to. Billy ingrained in me a love for more soulful music, a love of the piano, and a dream to see New York City. He is still one of my favorite artists and I can sing along to most of his music.

Kokomo by The Beach Boys
My father use to take me this place called FunPlex when I was young, it was a family fun type of place that had roller skating, miniture golf, bowling, laser tag, and a sweet arcade. This place has changed hands and names many time and still stand today though its a shadow of its former glory. Anyway, this was one of the big songs that played all the time in the roller skating ring and we could even do requests to the DJ so my father would request this song quite a lot cause I loved it so much. It's probably the happiest memory I have with him.

Ace of Base ~The Sign
This song is associated with a lot of things. I met a friend who really influenced me, though in hindsight, I'm not sure if it was for the better. I lost my religious faith after being raised for years in a Christian private school, and this damn song was playing everywhere... Don't get me wrong, I love Ace of Base but I still cringe a bit when I hear this song.

Billy Joel ~ River of Dreams
The River of Dreams album was the first music album I ever bought for myself. This was an album that really helped me around this time. I was changing, both physically (yay for early puberty!) mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. While the River of Dreams album is not my favorite by Billy Joel (Glass Houses is my favorite) I can't deny how much this song and Goodnight My Angel really helped me through this trying period of my life.

Stand Out from A Goofy Movie
Time to assert my identity. Plus its a great song from a cool movie. Turned out about as well as it did for Max...

Middle School dun dun DUNNNN!!!!

Alanis Morrisette ~ Head Over Feet
I started to really discover music for myself and collect it around this time. I was recording off the radio and making my own mix tapes so for years I had a crappy radio version of this song before I finally bought the actual album and got this song. Making these mix tapes became one of my favorite hobbies and a pastime I really need to pick back up cause it was so fun controlling the mood through the song selection. For me, this was a period in my life where I began to really come into my own. This song always reminds me of this time period, I also discovered music channels and really started my love of music.

Merril Bainbridge ~ Mouth
I adore this song and I remember it because at the time I was really starting to write and I used this song to represent one of my characters. So this song represents the period in my life where I finally started writing. I think I even started work on my collaboration story which is my personal epic (its awful as well) that I've been writing for like 15+ years now.

Sailor Moon Theme
This was also around the time I discovered Sailor Moon and finally ditched comic books for anime. This show was an obsesion for me and I am a proud Moonie! While I had watched anime before, this was the first time I became really aware of it and finally plunged head first into Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo!, and Ranma 1/2.

Lynn Minmei ~ We Will Win from Robotech
Speaking of watching anime before, I grew up on Robotech not realizing what it was but around this time I got myself reacquainted with the series and fell head over heels in love with it. Partly because it was just one of the more iwell written series about first contact, had great giant robot action, and one of the most famous love triangles in anime. This is still one of my favorite series ever and one that really influenced my writing so it wasn't just macho battles and simple stories of good vs. evil. Man I need to watch this again...

Aria di Mezzo Carattere ~ Nobuo Uematsu from Final Fantasy VI OSV
This song changed a lot of things for me. It changed how I viewed video games, it changed how I viewed writing, and it changed what I wanted out of life. There are reasons why FFVI is so close to my heart, even as hard as I try to look at it objectively, there are just moments that reduce me back to that gleeful 14 year old boy who was completely dumbfounded the first time I witnessed this scene. This was one of the those watershed moments where I felt like the different elements of my life had a common theme and I suddenly noticed it for the first time.

First Love ~ <3
You are not getting details on this, I'll simply let the music speak for itself and yes... I can sing all of these songs.

Rainy Day Man ~ Sailor Moon OST

Savage Garden ~ Truly Madly Deeply

Sarah McLachlan ~ Possession

No Doubt ~ Don't Speak - My Favorite No Doubt song btw.

Mariah Carey ~ Always Be My Baby

High School ~ I'm Depressed!
My love life is... well I could write some really good non-fiction stories about them cause none of them have been typical. Anyway, trout went down, lost the girl, and I lost my will to write or do anything else for that matter. I remember the music I was listening to more than I actually remember my crummy high school years.

Counting Crows ~ Long December

The Wallflowers ~ One Headlight

Harvey Danger ~ Flagpole Sitta

Third Eye Blind ~ How's It Going to Be

Hedghog's Dilemna ~ Neon Genesis Evangelion

WK Get's Over Himself!
So eventually I worked my way out of my funk beginning in my senior year of high school.

Ace of Base ~ Whenever Your Near Me
Still one of my fave songs by this band. I like the upbeat nature of this song which is why it was chocen and I associate it with better times.

Journey to the Past ~ Anastasia OST
A good song that reminds me of my own journey to move on with my life. Still one of my favorite animated movies as well.

Gorillaz ~ Clint Eastwood
Kind of my personal anthem my senior year. I also discovered this band that year because of the music video for this song.

Tears and Rain ~ From Green Legend Ran OST
This may be one of my favorite songs ever. I think it really embodies my views on love. I will belt this in the shower as well.

Daft Punk ~ One More Time
This is still my personal "victory" song and I played this non-stop the week I graduated from school and I will still play this song every time I feel I have succeeded in life. It is to me what Fanfare is to Final Fantasy. This was also attached to an amazing album and music video movie created by one of my favorite manga creators.


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I will stop for now and jump to the college years when I get more time to reflect.