I got double-tagged by TeacherJulie and Pining to blog about the songs when I was 18. Eighteen! That is so 20th century, lol. But here they are:

Baby Baby – Amy Grant

I actually have Amy Grant’s CD, Heart in Motion, which features this song. Such tender lyrics, quite fitting for a mom singing to her newborn baby – which was said to be her inspiration for writing this song:

Baby, baby
I’m taken with the notion
To love you with the sweetest of devotion.
Baby, baby
My tender love will flow from
The bluest sky to the deepest ocean.
Stop for a minute
Baby, I’m so glad youre mine, yeah
You’re mine.

However, her MTV shows her frolicking with a guy, and nothing suggests that this song was actually created with a baby in mind. Btw, where in the world is Amy Grant nowadays? Does anybody know?

More Than Words – Extreme

Saying I love you
Is not the words I want to hear from you
It’s not that I want you
Not to say, but if you only knew
How easy it would be to show me how you feel
More than words is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me
Coz I’d already know

How can I ever forget this song? It blasted from the radio of every commuter jeepney I rode back then. And if that wasn’t enough, it was played over and over in the malls and stores. Any guy with good guitar skills and a voice would sing this song, just to impress the girls. And for good reason: this is such a romantic song. Those lyrics. They just drip, they can make you woozy with emotions. The whole song simply oozes with love and romance. Everyone, take out your lighters, and watch the video here:

(Everything I Do) I Do It for You – Bryan Adams

I can’t help it – there’s nothin’ I want more
I would fight for you – I’d lie for you
Walk the wire for you – ya I’d die for you
Ya know it’s true
Everything I do – I do it for you.

Oh yeah? How about doing the laundry for me? Or cleaning the house? 😛

Seriously, this is another romantic song, and Bryan Adams’ raspy rendition makes it sound even more emotional. Like someone being tortured martyred for love.

Personally, I don’t really think this was an appropriate song for the movie Robin Hood (starring Kevin Costner, back then with more hair and less forehead). I just didn’t think that the love story angle fit into the whole prince-of-thieves concept. Oh well.

Watch the video, and see a really, really young-looking Christian Slater (also with more hair and less forehead). 🙂

When a Man Loves a Woman – Michael Bolton

Oh wow. Is this post dripping already or what? I remember watching at SM the movie of the same title, starring Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan, the queen of romantic comedies. Unfortunately, that movie only proved to be a rather poor vehicle for Little Miss Sunshine of Hollywood. I mean, come on, Meg Ryan as an alcoholic, abusive wife and mother? The storyline was terrible. Ugh.

So can you guess what year it was? 🙂

Ok, now I’m supposed to tag 5 people. So let me call on Kathy, Sheila, Wil, BW, and Zherwin.

The rules:
1. Go to www.popculturemadness.com
2. Select the year you turned 18
3. Get all nostalgic over the hit songs of the year
4. Write about it
5. Pass this tag onto 5 others

How should one measure blog growth? Yuga, one of the most famous bloggers in the Filipino blogosphere, suggests the following indicators of blog growth:

• # of subscribers
• Technorati ranking
• Alexa ranking
• Ratified.org

Sure, rankings are good. It gives you an idea of how far up or far down you are with respect to other bloggers. And if it is indeed your goal to climb to the top – whatever “top” represents – then a quarterly or biannual evaluation would be in order.

Numbers are good. In fact, I deal with numbers everyday. In my field of work, I measure certain parameters in order to determine whether I’ve succeeded or not in my goals. I get measured myself. I am evaluated in terms of output, which in concrete terms translates to the number of publications, patents, workshops, conferences attended. It is a way to determine my efficiency and range.

I’ve only one complaint about this type of evaluation. Focusing on numbers doesn’t reveal who I really am. For instance, the number of publications doesn’t really indicate if I’m a good scientist or not. It basically boils down to the question of quality over quantity. There are Nobel prize winners who produced only a couple of publications in their lifetime, and yet they changed the world. Would my patents for some gizmos be worth anything if they didn’t make our lives better?

For me, blogging is a hobby. A way to unwind. A way to express myself. Now why the hell should I deal with numbers when it comes to something I consider as a hobby? Isn’t it enough for me to deal with all those numbers at work already? I’ve long deplored the fact that cold, hard evaluation of someone’s performance is a decidedly masculine way of doing things. You don’t get evaluated as a person. Just cold, hard numbers.

If I gave you my Alexa ranking, for instance, would that really tell you how much of an impact I’ve made on your thoughts? If I gave you my Technorati ranking, would that tell you about the quality of my blog?

What I’m saying is, blog growth should be measured based on an individual’s goals. I think every blogger should first consider what goals they want to achieve with their blogs. Evaluation should then be done in consideration of those goals.