Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Dentists
So I went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago, and I mentioned how I never had braces. The hygienist says it's really rare nowadays for someone to have straight teeth without braces. I thought about what she said, as I tend to do. Really, do that many people get braces? I was surprised by what she said. So I thought, by natural selection, humans as a race would get better teeth because the people with straight teeth are more likely to procreate. But now, braces changed the game. Now, people with an unfavorable characteristic were on a level playing field with everyone else. As a result, humans' teeth are staying the same or even getting worse. Thus, more people who need braces, and the cyclical process continues. I don't like the sound of that ... but I'm sure orthodontists love it. The same thing could be said about the drug industry. We're screwing up natural selection!
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Sometimes ...
Sometimes I think that there are two types of guys in the world: me and everyone else. I mean, not to be self-aggrandizing, but really ... am I the only guy on this planet with morals?
This concludes quite possibly the vaguest post ever.
This concludes quite possibly the vaguest post ever.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Half-marathon (cont'd) ... and other stuff
Okay, there's not really a whole lot left from the half-marathon to say. A couple of things I forgot to mention. After I left the medical tent (but before I met up with John Jost), I got my medal for finishing. It's a pretty cool little medal. I also still had my timing chip around my ankle. Apparently, you were supposed to drop them off after you finished, so I had to go back to the finish line to turn mine in. After I found John, we hung around for a little bit. Marc and John Martin eventually called back, and I talked to them for a bit. Apparently Marc wasn't doing so well by the end either. According to John M., we both looked terrible at the end, but we weren't too far apart. Then again, Marc started a few minutes late. Anyway, so the official times were (taking into account varying start times):
That's right: I missed my #4 "dream" goal by 45 seconds! Still, I wasn't upset, but rather very pleased with myself. I didn't expect to get that close to that goal. Had I been feeling better, I might've been able to shave off 45 seconds. In any case, I was proud of myself.
Colfax Half-Marathon
Now the fun part of the story. So the marathoners had to park at the finish line, and the half-marathoners at the starting line. So John offered to give me a ride to my car if could help him find his car. Mind you, he had parked at like 4 o'clock in the morning, so he couldn't remember much except that he pulled up to a grassy curb. I figured that'd narrow it down considering there wasn't much grass in the lot. So we start looking, and we're not having any luck. John is hurting (I think physically from the run and emotionally from not being able to find his car after running 26.2 miles!), and we stop a couple of times for him to compose himself. It felt like an episode of Seinfeld! We ended up walking around the entire mall and eventually found his car like 10 feet in the other direction from where we started (ok, perhaps that's an exaggeration)!
So I get my car, and we head off we go to our Ultimate games even though neither of us have any intention of playing. This was a make-up day from earlier in the season which was cancelled because of weather, and ironically our teams were playing against each other. Both of us were bummed because we wanted to play against each other (even though I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to keep up with him). I joked that day that I could finally cover him because he was in a lot more pain than I was.
It turns out our team had a lot of players out, and it looked like we might have to go "savage" (with no substitutes) unless I played. I told them I would play if they needed me to, but I knew that Tim, Mike and Lori were planning on coming after their relay. They showed up shortly after the game started, so we were okay. They were tired but were able to play (there's a big difference between 10k and 13 miles (21k)). I just sat there and watched, but we played amazing! It was the best performance I'd seen from our team, and I really wanted to get out there. But I could see they were fine without me, and there was no point in risking an injury. Our team was getting tired later on (we still didn't have very many subs), but they finished strong, and we won by reaching 15 (first time this season) to their, I want to say, 5-7 points. Needless to say, we dominated them, and I was very surprised because their record was similar to ours, and I expected it to be a close game. Maybe they were really reliant on John. In any case, it was an awesome win. Between games, I went and grabbed my running shoes (I left my cleats at home since I had no intention of playing) in case they got tired again and need a sub for a point or two. The second game was quite the opposite. They never called on me to come in, but we got slaughtered ... getting 15 put on us for only the 2nd time this season.
Afterwards, we hung out for a good while before I had to leave because I was starving! I had totally forgotten about lunch ... and having just run a half-marathon, I was definitely hungry. I stopped by Chipotle on my way home for the first time in quite a while. I stopped going there after visiting this website and learning that my normal burrito contained 141% of my recommended daily value of sodium, 61% of the calories, 81% of the total fat and 92% of the saturated fat. In any case, I figured I could make an exception since I had quite the active morning. Even though I was starving, I still couldn't finish the whole thing. I started getting a headache shortly before I left ultimate and also started coughing, and I only felt worse as the day went on. I ended going to bed pretty early, but the coughing wouldn't stop. I got really hot (yea, I know, I'm pretty hot already ;-) ...) and tried sleeping downstairs where it was cooler. Unfortunately, my coughing fits kept me up most of the night. I ended up getting up around 3am and started looking at the race results and doing some statistics on it since I obviously wasn't going to get sleep. I'll spare you the details and just say that I ended up calling in sick Monday and just rested. I felt better as the day went on. I got some sleep that night, and I went to work the next day (where of course everyone thought I took the day off because of the race ... which I guess was indirectly true). I wore my medal around that morning, but it's actually pretty heavy, so that didn't last long. I was pretty proud. :-)
I got better as the week progressed but was never really completely over it by the time the weekend came. My friends and I went camping Friday and Saturday night. I ended up driving, and I felt so bad for my poor Honda Accord. The last couple of miles were pretty rough, and my car had no business on there. There were a couple of times I wondered what the hell I was doing driving that road. I scraped the bottom of my car a couple of times, and I just sat there apologizing to my car. For the last little bit, D was out guiding me to avoid the larger rocks which worked pretty well. Finally, we reached a point where both of us looked at each other and concluded there was no way my car was making it. I just backed down to a nearby campsite and just parked there. We just walked the rest of the way which was like 10 feet from where I turned around (ok, maybe not 10 feet, but you get the idea). It turns out they were at a closer campsite, and the original one involved driving through a small stream. Yes, THROUGH the stream! I'm just glad I found that spot to park where I did.
The next few days were a lot of fun, but it was pretty cold. If you weren't by the fire or in your sleeping bag, it was freezing. I think it was in the 40s at night and 70s during the day. I was wearing pretty much every layer I brought. We didn't really do a whole lot except go on a short hike on Saturday (there was still tons of snow on the higher trails). It was still a lot of fun, though. Our tent was on a bit of an incline, so it was interesting because we kept sliding down our sleeping bags during the night. Saturday night, we crammed another into our tent, so we were literally shoulder-to-shoulder ... still sliding downwards into our sleeping bags. It was kind of funny but of course also uncomfortable. Still, I slept pretty well both nights. I was afraid my coughing (which was sporadic, but still surfaced at times) would keep everyone up. Luckily, it stayed under control. We pretty much woke up and left Sunday morning.
The gang out for a hike.
After going home and taking well-needed showers, we went to John's for a good carbo-loading dinner. We tried to figure out how we were going to get to the Bolder Boulder because of all the traffic. There were supposed to be close to 50,000 runners! We toyed with the idea of taking the bus, of going there that night and either staying at a friend's place or car-camping, but eventually decided just to leave early in the morning. D had the idea a few weeks earlier that we dress us as the Coyote and the Roadrunner for the race, but we never found time to get that together. Somehow they convinced me to stay at John's place to save time, so I went home and grabbed my things, came back to John's and crashed in an empty room.
We got there in the morning with ease. Parking wasn't a big deal, and we got there with plenty of time. Cara came with us to cheer us on, and we took some pre-race pics: one normal one, and one with our "tough guy" faces which is friggin' hilarious! I can't look at it without cracking up!
Yea, that's our "tough-guy" look. Are ya scared?
I started cramping up by the time our wave started. D and I were in the same wave, and we kept together for the first half of the race. There were lots of waves separated by a few minutes. I thought this would help prevent crowding, but unfortunately, it didn't take us long to run into the wave in front of us (even though we were both sub-60 waves). We were forced to weave through everyone which was annoying. He pulled ahead about two-thirds of the way through, but I figured he wouldn't be able to keep up the pace. He was fluctuating speeds a lot where as I was staying pretty consistent. My goal was to finish under 50 minutes which translated to 8 minute miles. Unfortunately, I never really timed myself, so I didn't know what a 8 minute pace was like, so I had to pretty much wing it. I still had a runny nose, so I was breathing through my mouth a lot which dried it out quite a bit. Unfortunately, drinking on-the-go was still an art I hadn't mastered, so that slowed me down.
Bolder Boulder 10k
They had all these "entertainers" along the race route from dancers to bands. At one house, they had a slip-n-slide set up, and by the time I realized it was for the racers, I had already passed it. The next thing I know, I see D in front me all wet. I just had to laugh. It was pretty impressive that he only lost a little bit of ground by going through there. In fact, he pulled ahead of me pretty good after that, so maybe it was good for him. I overheard from some people at the start that there were two big hills around mile 4 and at the end leading into Folsom Field. It was at this first hill that I caught up to D significantly. Unfortunately, my side started hurting, so I had to slow down shortly afterwards. I had to watch him pull away as I slowed my pace. I think I probably had too big of a breakfast. I'll have to keep that in mind for the future. I still maintained a decent pace as I went up the final hill. A lot of people slowed down which I took as an opportunity to pass a lot of them. As I went through the final stretch, I heard John Jost in the stands call out my name (he was in a wave starting about 5 minutes before ours). I crossed the finish line and wondered how they were going to time us since we didn't have timing chips. At the finish, there were all these people frantically writing down our bib numbers (and I found out later, punching them into a little electronic device). I glanced up at the scoreboard and saw the time was 8:27 and since our wave started at 7:39, I knew I had about a 48 minute time and thus reached my goal despite the cramping. I was pretty happy, and I met up with the rest of the gang at our predetermined meeting point. I saw John Martin as well who was apparently waiting to snap a picture of me as I finished. He was surprised when I came up behind him. He was in a much earlier wave.
It turns out that Cara missed John and D as they finished was ready for me after she saw D. So, she got a decent pic of me at the closing stretch. D, John, John, Cara and I walked around and got our goody bags along with other free stuff including Häagen-Dazs ice cream. We went back into the stadium later to catch Tonya, Shannon and Lyndsey finish. Their wave started around 8:30, and we knew they wouldn't be done in less than an hour. We got there kinda late, so we couldn't get a pic of them. Apparently, they too didn't get their secret costumes in order because they weren't wearing them. Supposedly, they "forgot" them but still wouldn't tell us what they were. So we got the final results that night:
- John Martin - 1:45:09 (8 min pace)
- Marc - 1:55:47 (8 min 46 sec pace)
- Me - 2:00:45 (9 min 9 sec pace)
- John Jost (full marathon) - 3:27:40 (7 min 54 sec pace)
That's right: I missed my #4 "dream" goal by 45 seconds! Still, I wasn't upset, but rather very pleased with myself. I didn't expect to get that close to that goal. Had I been feeling better, I might've been able to shave off 45 seconds. In any case, I was proud of myself.
Now the fun part of the story. So the marathoners had to park at the finish line, and the half-marathoners at the starting line. So John offered to give me a ride to my car if could help him find his car. Mind you, he had parked at like 4 o'clock in the morning, so he couldn't remember much except that he pulled up to a grassy curb. I figured that'd narrow it down considering there wasn't much grass in the lot. So we start looking, and we're not having any luck. John is hurting (I think physically from the run and emotionally from not being able to find his car after running 26.2 miles!), and we stop a couple of times for him to compose himself. It felt like an episode of Seinfeld! We ended up walking around the entire mall and eventually found his car like 10 feet in the other direction from where we started (ok, perhaps that's an exaggeration)!
So I get my car, and we head off we go to our Ultimate games even though neither of us have any intention of playing. This was a make-up day from earlier in the season which was cancelled because of weather, and ironically our teams were playing against each other. Both of us were bummed because we wanted to play against each other (even though I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to keep up with him). I joked that day that I could finally cover him because he was in a lot more pain than I was.
It turns out our team had a lot of players out, and it looked like we might have to go "savage" (with no substitutes) unless I played. I told them I would play if they needed me to, but I knew that Tim, Mike and Lori were planning on coming after their relay. They showed up shortly after the game started, so we were okay. They were tired but were able to play (there's a big difference between 10k and 13 miles (21k)). I just sat there and watched, but we played amazing! It was the best performance I'd seen from our team, and I really wanted to get out there. But I could see they were fine without me, and there was no point in risking an injury. Our team was getting tired later on (we still didn't have very many subs), but they finished strong, and we won by reaching 15 (first time this season) to their, I want to say, 5-7 points. Needless to say, we dominated them, and I was very surprised because their record was similar to ours, and I expected it to be a close game. Maybe they were really reliant on John. In any case, it was an awesome win. Between games, I went and grabbed my running shoes (I left my cleats at home since I had no intention of playing) in case they got tired again and need a sub for a point or two. The second game was quite the opposite. They never called on me to come in, but we got slaughtered ... getting 15 put on us for only the 2nd time this season.
Afterwards, we hung out for a good while before I had to leave because I was starving! I had totally forgotten about lunch ... and having just run a half-marathon, I was definitely hungry. I stopped by Chipotle on my way home for the first time in quite a while. I stopped going there after visiting this website and learning that my normal burrito contained 141% of my recommended daily value of sodium, 61% of the calories, 81% of the total fat and 92% of the saturated fat. In any case, I figured I could make an exception since I had quite the active morning. Even though I was starving, I still couldn't finish the whole thing. I started getting a headache shortly before I left ultimate and also started coughing, and I only felt worse as the day went on. I ended going to bed pretty early, but the coughing wouldn't stop. I got really hot (yea, I know, I'm pretty hot already ;-) ...) and tried sleeping downstairs where it was cooler. Unfortunately, my coughing fits kept me up most of the night. I ended up getting up around 3am and started looking at the race results and doing some statistics on it since I obviously wasn't going to get sleep. I'll spare you the details and just say that I ended up calling in sick Monday and just rested. I felt better as the day went on. I got some sleep that night, and I went to work the next day (where of course everyone thought I took the day off because of the race ... which I guess was indirectly true). I wore my medal around that morning, but it's actually pretty heavy, so that didn't last long. I was pretty proud. :-)
I got better as the week progressed but was never really completely over it by the time the weekend came. My friends and I went camping Friday and Saturday night. I ended up driving, and I felt so bad for my poor Honda Accord. The last couple of miles were pretty rough, and my car had no business on there. There were a couple of times I wondered what the hell I was doing driving that road. I scraped the bottom of my car a couple of times, and I just sat there apologizing to my car. For the last little bit, D was out guiding me to avoid the larger rocks which worked pretty well. Finally, we reached a point where both of us looked at each other and concluded there was no way my car was making it. I just backed down to a nearby campsite and just parked there. We just walked the rest of the way which was like 10 feet from where I turned around (ok, maybe not 10 feet, but you get the idea). It turns out they were at a closer campsite, and the original one involved driving through a small stream. Yes, THROUGH the stream! I'm just glad I found that spot to park where I did.
The next few days were a lot of fun, but it was pretty cold. If you weren't by the fire or in your sleeping bag, it was freezing. I think it was in the 40s at night and 70s during the day. I was wearing pretty much every layer I brought. We didn't really do a whole lot except go on a short hike on Saturday (there was still tons of snow on the higher trails). It was still a lot of fun, though. Our tent was on a bit of an incline, so it was interesting because we kept sliding down our sleeping bags during the night. Saturday night, we crammed another into our tent, so we were literally shoulder-to-shoulder ... still sliding downwards into our sleeping bags. It was kind of funny but of course also uncomfortable. Still, I slept pretty well both nights. I was afraid my coughing (which was sporadic, but still surfaced at times) would keep everyone up. Luckily, it stayed under control. We pretty much woke up and left Sunday morning.
After going home and taking well-needed showers, we went to John's for a good carbo-loading dinner. We tried to figure out how we were going to get to the Bolder Boulder because of all the traffic. There were supposed to be close to 50,000 runners! We toyed with the idea of taking the bus, of going there that night and either staying at a friend's place or car-camping, but eventually decided just to leave early in the morning. D had the idea a few weeks earlier that we dress us as the Coyote and the Roadrunner for the race, but we never found time to get that together. Somehow they convinced me to stay at John's place to save time, so I went home and grabbed my things, came back to John's and crashed in an empty room.
We got there in the morning with ease. Parking wasn't a big deal, and we got there with plenty of time. Cara came with us to cheer us on, and we took some pre-race pics: one normal one, and one with our "tough guy" faces which is friggin' hilarious! I can't look at it without cracking up!
I started cramping up by the time our wave started. D and I were in the same wave, and we kept together for the first half of the race. There were lots of waves separated by a few minutes. I thought this would help prevent crowding, but unfortunately, it didn't take us long to run into the wave in front of us (even though we were both sub-60 waves). We were forced to weave through everyone which was annoying. He pulled ahead about two-thirds of the way through, but I figured he wouldn't be able to keep up the pace. He was fluctuating speeds a lot where as I was staying pretty consistent. My goal was to finish under 50 minutes which translated to 8 minute miles. Unfortunately, I never really timed myself, so I didn't know what a 8 minute pace was like, so I had to pretty much wing it. I still had a runny nose, so I was breathing through my mouth a lot which dried it out quite a bit. Unfortunately, drinking on-the-go was still an art I hadn't mastered, so that slowed me down.
They had all these "entertainers" along the race route from dancers to bands. At one house, they had a slip-n-slide set up, and by the time I realized it was for the racers, I had already passed it. The next thing I know, I see D in front me all wet. I just had to laugh. It was pretty impressive that he only lost a little bit of ground by going through there. In fact, he pulled ahead of me pretty good after that, so maybe it was good for him. I overheard from some people at the start that there were two big hills around mile 4 and at the end leading into Folsom Field. It was at this first hill that I caught up to D significantly. Unfortunately, my side started hurting, so I had to slow down shortly afterwards. I had to watch him pull away as I slowed my pace. I think I probably had too big of a breakfast. I'll have to keep that in mind for the future. I still maintained a decent pace as I went up the final hill. A lot of people slowed down which I took as an opportunity to pass a lot of them. As I went through the final stretch, I heard John Jost in the stands call out my name (he was in a wave starting about 5 minutes before ours). I crossed the finish line and wondered how they were going to time us since we didn't have timing chips. At the finish, there were all these people frantically writing down our bib numbers (and I found out later, punching them into a little electronic device). I glanced up at the scoreboard and saw the time was 8:27 and since our wave started at 7:39, I knew I had about a 48 minute time and thus reached my goal despite the cramping. I was pretty happy, and I met up with the rest of the gang at our predetermined meeting point. I saw John Martin as well who was apparently waiting to snap a picture of me as I finished. He was surprised when I came up behind him. He was in a much earlier wave.
It turns out that Cara missed John and D as they finished was ready for me after she saw D. So, she got a decent pic of me at the closing stretch. D, John, John, Cara and I walked around and got our goody bags along with other free stuff including Häagen-Dazs ice cream. We went back into the stadium later to catch Tonya, Shannon and Lyndsey finish. Their wave started around 8:30, and we knew they wouldn't be done in less than an hour. We got there kinda late, so we couldn't get a pic of them. Apparently, they too didn't get their secret costumes in order because they weren't wearing them. Supposedly, they "forgot" them but still wouldn't tell us what they were. So we got the final results that night:
- John Jost - 00:40:33 (6 min 31 sec pace)
- John Martin - 00:44:28 (7 min 9 sec pace)
- D - 00:47:05 (7 min 33 sec pace)
- Me - 00:48:08 (7 min 45 sec pace)
- Shannon - 01:01:22 (9 min 52 sec pace)
- Tonya - 01:06:31 (10 min 42 sec pace)
- Lyndsey - 01:06:33 (10 min 42 sec pace)
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Random stuff
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:
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.
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.
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