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:

  • 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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