A Look Through Thiseye

So I pretty much haven’t read at all in this past month. Since finishing The Catcher in the Rye, I put a hold at the library on this book called Choke that was recommended to me by a friend. It’s by Chuck Palahniuk, the same guy who wrote Fight Club. Well, rather than reading another book in the meantime, I waited, even though I should’ve known it was going to be a while because there were a couple of holds on it. After a couple of weeks, I got Diary by the same author. But, I barely read it at all. I still had my heart set on Choke. I realized that this book is a metaphor for a lot of things in my life.

Incidentally, I finally got Choke today.

I guess I’ve been reading a lot more lately because there are three books I’ve finished since my last post. Although, I was already most of the way through two of them.

• Fast Food Nation – I thought this was a very interesting read providing lots of insight into the history and goings on of the fast food industry. It was definitely eye-opening, and I highly recommend it. What I found particularly pleasant was that the author, Eric Schlosser, does not write it as an attack on the industry, per se; he is merely presenting some interesting information to the reader, leaving the judgment to us. Mind you, the information presented is largely negative, but it’s written in a way such that it doesn’t feel like the author’s agenda is being shoved down your throat like many documentaries do. Of note, there is a film adaptation of Fast Food Nation that is set to release in a few weeks.
• Confessions of an Economic Hit Man – Another non-fiction book that I found to be interesting. I didn’t enjoy this one as much largely because I was skeptical of a lot of what was said. This is an auto-biographical book by John Perkins where he claims to have indirectly worked for the U.S. Government as an economist where his job was to fabricate economic forecasts for countries in order to gain favorable positions with them. His stories reach from foreign policy in Venezuela and Panama to arrangements made with the House of Saud to avoid another “oil crisis” that crippled the U.S. economy in the 1970s. Definitely an interesting read.
• The Catcher in the Rye – The classic story by J.D. Salinger of Holden Caulfield. I just finished reading this about an hour ago. Interesting characterization, but I have to admit: I didn’t “get” it. This is so many people’s favorite book including one of my best friends (which is the main reason I wanted to read it), but I just didn’t see the big deal. Perhaps a book like this about teenage angst would’ve been more meaningful when I was younger.

So what’s been going on? Let’s see. A couple of weeks after hiking Grays and Torreys, D and I did Mt. Evans (along with Mt. Spalding, a nearby 13er) with Joe and his wife, Ruth. Unfortunately, it was a foggy day, so we really got screwed on the best part of doing 14ers … the view! I only took maybe five pictures that day compared to the 140 from Grays and Torreys! It really was a downer because we couldn’t see anything. It cleared up towards the summit a little, so we were able to grab a few pictures, but the view was still nothing like it could’ve been. It was very cold that day (I want to say in the 40s), and I was worried I didn’t bring enough warm clothes. It actually worked out fine. Evans is interesting because you can drive up it. It kinda took away from the whole experience after hiking for hours, making the final push to the summit and seeing SUVs drive up a paved road. The summit was like a tourist stop (which it is) with little kids and people in flip-flops. Eh, regardless, I can check that one off of my list … 14er number four for me. It actually started sleeting then raining as we were descending, but luckily we were almost to the car before it got bad.

A bunch of us went camping a few weekends ago at Lake Granby. It was beautiful there! A couple of us left early on Friday to do some mountain biking, but the weather didn’t cooperate so that ended up getting cancelled. Saturday morning looked like it was going to be more of the same, but it cleared up and we all went our own ways. Some people went biking, some went hiking and some went to some hot springs. I went kayaking in Grand Lake and Shadow Mountain Lake with five others. It was my first time, and I have to say: it’s harder to go straight than it looks! The weather was perfect! We ate a late lunch in town, and spent the rest of day throwing around the disc lakeside and going on a short hike. I had a lot of fun despite the stints of rain.

Amazing view of Lake Granby from our campsite
I’m kinda having “ultimate” withdrawals right now. I goes back several weeks to August 10 which was my last game in my summer league. We only won one game in that league, so we were one of two teams that didn’t qualify for the tournament on the 12th. I went to the tournament anyway to watch my friends’ games, and it was fun just to hang out and throw around afterwards. Anyway, so the next Sunday my fall league (U2) started up, but I already had plans for camping that weekend, so I had to miss it. We also formed this team from our friend circle to play in this Wednesday Sports Monster league. So the first game for that was the 23rd, but they said that the league was already full by the time we had registered (which was BS). After a tactfully-worded email about how we have had so many problems with Sports Monster, they expanded the league to make room for us, but we’d have a bye the first week. It was a relief to get the team in the league, but ARGH! I wanted to play! Finally, on the 27th, I got to play in my Sunday league, but we only had one game (U2 usually has two games per Sunday, but I think every team has one week with a single-header). It was just as well because I hurt my knee a few days earlier when we were tossing around at Wash Park. Then, the following Wednesday, I couldn’t make our first game for the Wednesday league because I had tickets to Cirque du Soleil. I really hated to miss that game because I was/am pretty excited about this team that we formed. I don’t think we’re going to be that good, but it’s just going to be so much fun playing with friends. And then, this Sunday, we don’t have any U2 games because of the long weekend. Wonderful.

So yea, last weekend, Shannon had a birthday party that was pretty fun. That was also the night of the Moonlight Classic, which is a bike ride through downtown Denver in the middle of the night. I was planning on doing that with a bunch of friends, but as previously mentioned, I hurt my knee the day before, so I wanted to take it easy. A lot of people left the party to do the ride, and I wish I could’ve gone. Oh well … I still had fun.

This past Wednesday, I went to see Cirque du Soleil’s Delirium at the Pepsi Center. It’s funny because everyone I talk to about Cirque always says something along the lines of “it’s expensive, but it’s totally worth it!” And I’d tend to agree. I wasn’t totally wow’ed, but it was definitely good with some amazing stuff. The best part was probably with these four guys who were doing some ridiculous balancing acts like having two people stand on their hands, have a third guy balancing on their feet and a fourth guy balancing on one arm on top of the third guy’s head (or something crazy like that … I don’t remember the details, but I’m not exaggerating). The show was very visual with so much stuff going on that you couldn’t really take it all in. Delirium is apparently meant to be different from “traditional” Cirque shows in that it’s more music-oriented. Tonya said that it wasn’t as good as others she had seen, but it was still good. All in all a good experience, but I just wish I would’ve gotten tickets for the Thursday show so I could’ve played ultimate! Mind you, I did get the tix months in advance … long before this league was even a consideration.

And now, here’s Labor Day weekend. A lot of my friends have left town. I was trying to plan a trip to San Francisco or Yosemite for this weekend, but my friend, Gabriel, in SoCal couldn’t take any time off, so that kinda fell through. It’s cooled off quite a bit here (tomorrow’s high is 69°), so I’m thinking I may take this opportunity to paint some rooms in my place (which I’ve been putting off for quite a while). I also recently found out that I need to go to India in December, so I’ve been trying to book a flight for that.

Other random stuff:

• I did end up getting a digital piano a few months back, and it is great! It’s so nice to be able to play a piano whenever I want! I’m re-learning Moonlight Sonata, but there’s so many other songs I want to learn.
• I’ve been reading some non-fiction lately. I started reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man recently which was interesting. I’m not sure how much of it I really believe, though. Right now, I’m finishing up Fast Food Nation which I started reading several months back but never finished. I think that one is really interesting. It makes me want to never eat fast food again … and the chapter I’m on right now makes me glad that I don’t eat meat.
• I bought Finding Nemo recently which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I watched it again, and man that’s a great movie. I watched the “Making of …” too, and it was pretty incredible seeing how much research and attention to detail went into that movie.
• We had a 5k race at work the other day that I participated in. I never did get my time, but Marc said I wasn’t too far behind him, so I think I did it in about 21 minutes which I’m pretty happy with. My goal was a sub-20 when I signed up, but as I did a couple of practice runs, I quickly realized that wasn’t going to be possible. So then, I was just hoping for a sub-24.
• And football season is here! LSU plays their first game tomorrow. Unfortunately, it won’t be on TV … at least not here in Colorado. And of course, there’s fantasy football! Unfortunately, ultimate on Sundays will conflict with a lot of NFL games, but oh well. Ultimate takes precedence for now.

Okay, I’ll finish the Half Marathon story some other time. I just wanted to post some random stuff right now. Firstly, it seems I only post about a few select subjects. There’s a reason for that. I’m a generally reserved person except around those closest to me. Thus, I don’t talk about really personal matters in such a public forum. My life isn’t just about music and doing physical activities. That said, that pretty much is what the rest of this post will be about. I still need to touch on camping and the Bolder Boulder 10k from Memorial Day weekend and the Ultimate tournament today. Man, I really wish I could post to this thing more often. Okay, those will come later, time permitting.

So in those days before the half-marathon in which I was sick, pretty much just stuck at home, I finished reading The Da Vinci Code. It was a good read, but I didn’t think it was as great as everyone made it out to be. I don’t know. I guess expectation has a big effect on me. I don’t think it could’ve possibly lived up to all the hype (especially since I’ve heard it for 3 years now). Same thing happens with movies. I’ll enjoy a movie a lot more when I go in with low expectations. Conversely, if I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about a movie, then most of the time, I’ll be disappointed in the movie (even though I still may enjoy it). In any case, everyone’s told me that Angels and Demons is the better book, so we’ll see. I bought it the other day, although I haven’t really started reading it yet. I also have Fast Food Nation to read though. And then several people have told me I need to read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man so I’ll have to check that out soon. So much stuff to do, so little time!

Now to touch on music a little, I just wanted to list out some of the songs I’ve been hooked to these last couple of months. I pretty much go through periods (ranging from a week to months) where I have a song that I’m hooked to. So in order from the most recent:

• Fort Minor – “Remember the Name”
• Fort Minor – “Where’d You Go?”
• Nine Inch Nails – “Right Where It Belongs”
• Pearl Jam – “Black”
• Coldplay – “Talk”

Of course, there are lots of other songs I’ve liked during this time, but these are the ones that pretty much reached the “I have to listen to this on my way to work” status. I’m sure there are others I’m missing.

On a related note, I really want to get a digital piano. I’ve been looking to get a cheap used one for like $500, but no luck so far. Yea, they’re not cheap, but hopefully I can manage to get a used one for around that price. I have this keyboard that I’ve had since I was in like Junior High was good enough for a while, but even back then it got be limiting as I taught myself some piano (just not enough keys on it to play Adagio from “Moonlight Sonata“). In any case, I’ve always wanted a digital piano (or a real one). I haven’t really used my keyboard at all in the past year and a half, so it seemed silly to think that that would change if I got a piano. Okay, now flash back a little bit: I’ve wanted to learn how to play the piano part from Van Halen’s “Right Now” for quite some time (a great part and a great song). There was this kid in high school that could play it, and I picked up a little bit of it, but just enough to tease me. A few years ago, I tried to find the piano part online and in stores to buy but couldn’t. So the other day, I just randomly think to look again for the first time in forever. I do a couple of searches online, and bam! There it is! And for free, no less! So I print it out, and I start practicing. After a few days, I get pretty decent with it, but again my keyboard is just insufficient. It doesn’t have enough keys, and it’s not touch-sensitive, so you can’t play the bass and treble lines at different volumes (another big problem with “Moonlight Sonata”). So again, I start to think if I should get a digital piano (a real piano just wouldn’t be practical getting upstairs, etc). Then at a friend’s barbecue one day, I find out that his wife has a Clavinova digital piano (which is really what I would want, if I wanted to spend that much money). So I take a stab at “Right Now” on it, and it just sounds sooo much better! Of course, I had an audience too, so that was cool, but I soo want one of those. So I’ve been looking on craigslist a lot lately, and hopefully I can grab a used one. That would be most excellent.