unfinished business

I don't quite know where to start. I have more media to handle than I have time for. This became clear as soon as I left the bookstore with an exciting new book, Sacred Games. It's essentially a sort of primer to modern day Mumbai, if the primer you were after was a sprawling cops vs. gangster tale. It looks cool, it got good reviews, and it was cheap and in next to new condition. Sadly, there are two other +/- 1000 page books vying for my attention - Anna Karenina, and The Stand. (That's in a small hardback though, so the 'real' page count would be smaller.) Another King novel staring at me is Needful Things, a book I hadn't even heard of when I picked it up; it was a one dollar library overstock sale find. That's at least 600 pages or so. I've tried starting A Great Improvisation, a narrative history of Franklin's relations with France that secured their aid in the Revolution, but God bless her the author doesn't know how to hit a stride. I have textbooks that are easier reads. Maybe my best bet is to crack open Flowering Judas (and other stories). Another library sale item, authored by Anne Porter - I've never heard of her. If I finish that, it might get me over the hump and move on to the next book. All told, there are at least 3500 pages yet to be explored.....and that's completely ignoring movies I downloaded and haven't watched yet (Paris, je t'aime, Lost in Translation, Into the Wild, Ghost World, the Sci-Fi Channel Dune) and new albums left silent (Los Campesinos! EP, the newest from Atmosphere, Death Cab, Back Door Slam, and Minus the Bear.) To sum up: don't belittle me when I sit back and flip between the Dog Whisperer and the History Channel. At least it can be done in an hour.

time to get into it.

It's really hard to get into a regular biking schedule....a lot of that has been the weird cold/rainy spells we've been having every other week. I do have a rear blade fender, but really that doesn't help; the worst of it gets kicked up by my front tire and goes straight up. At any decent speed, I ride into this continuous stream. I'm cheap, so rather than buy a front fender I tell myself I'll just ride on nice days. Sadly these same 'nice' days have 40 mph wind to ride into, are days when I have stops to make in my job hunt, or both. All that aside, I'm now pledging to myself, starting this Saturday, to ride at least an hour a day every other day after 5 pm. This is totally feasible since any job hunting I need to do will be done by then, and since it's becoming summer I won't need to buy a light and reflective gear. I'm also not allowing skips due to wind, but I am retaining a rain exception. Unless I'm swimming, I DESPISE being wet. I do like the rain though......driving in it, sitting inside looking at it, etc. I have the luxury of enjoying it since I live in the rainshadow of the Cascades. Tying local geography back in with my original subject, my goal is to be able to bike the canyon to Yakima by September....depending on progress I might change the goal to there and back, but one way is good for now.

i hate times like this.

Every so often I get the feeling that I will definitely not end up using my degree, at least to work in the field I'm going in to. That doesn't really bother me, except that over the past few years, I've gotten the itch to open a restaurant eventually. Being an avid follower of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, I'm aware this isn't for everyone. A major disadvantage for me is that I will have graduated without taking any business related courses. An economics minor will help in terms of general principles, but really I should have signed up for the totally made-up Restaurant Owner major.

off topic:

Sometimes I think I'd like being in a band, then I'm struck by my total lack of experience, or at least singing in front of anyone except my family. Additionally I don't play any instruments, and I for sure have no desire to 'front' a band.....just to get into one. On the other hand, I know I can stay on key pretty good, but as for it sounding pleasant to anybody....that's yet to be seen (heard?). The next step would be to keep an eye out for bands looking to jam. It's that first step that's the biggest.

very off topic:

I'm getting restless and want to get on a plane to some foreign country with no return ticket. The Netherlands sounds good.

MLS Seattle, or 'Football' in a Football City

I'll be the first to say that soccer has never ranked very high for me on the 'let's all get excited' scale. I never played, which is part of the problem. The other part of the problem is just getting over the hump of actually watching a game, even though I don't know anything about the rules. However, after I heard Seattle is getting an MLS team (side?), I figured it would behoove me to brush up a little. The other day I watched most of a Chelsea/Arsenal match that actually ended up being exciting towards the end....especially since I'd decided to root for the underdog. I may not be much of a soccer fan yet, but damn it, if Seattle has a team I'm pulling for it. I'll actually GO to games (matches), since I don't think tickets will be priced so ridiculously high as Seahawks tickets. The proposed names for the teams haven't been too encouraging yet, especially speaking as a general sports fan. Starting tonight at midnight you can vote for A: Seattle Alliance, B: Seattle Republic, C: Seattle FC, or D: a write-in. From the sound of it, diehard soccer types in the area are going to try a Sounders write-in campaign. I don't know or care about the long history the Sounders have in Seattle......it's just a stupid name. (So is the Sonics/Supersonics while we're on the name topic.) My last hope as a sports fan is that the logo and uniforms at least look cool and professional......more than other sports, it's kind of the state's face to the sporting world, and the MLS has plenty of ridiculous teams already. This picture is my favorite jersey choice from some mockups done by some firm or person brainstorming; sadly none of them are being considered. They're all pretty solid. You can see them all at http://www.fanhome.com/forums/sports-logos/10604-4-design-concpets-mls-seattle.html. At least if the team turns out lame, I'll still have my ancestral team to root for.....
Go Oranje!

how do people do it?

I swear, I don't know how a month just went by. I'm definitely not a 'blog every day' person. Oh well. I just moved; that was interesting. I'll just sum that up by saying I'm in a much better environment (plus rent is cheaper and my room is bigger). I'm also super close to downtown, which is nice. I can walk to and from the bars! On a related note, all the snow is gone so I've finally been able to ride my bike all over. I'm still getting used to riding in traffic occasionally and still haven't quite found a good seat height, but otherwise the bike has been great. Eventually I'll want a helmet, and better splash guards, etc. Luckily there's no helmet law in town, and since speed limits are pretty much 25 everywhere it's not an issue.
I made some red curry last night; it wasn't quite what I wanted. I needed to get basil, lemongrass, fish sauce and other authentic thai condiments which I didn't have on hand. It was still ok. I got some plain yogurt and tomato paste; I'm trying some sort of tikka masala next. Delicious! For now though, I'm going to eat an english muffin and watch the office online until LOST COMES ON!! AHHH!!!

who are these people?

eavesdropping at starbucks today i overheard the workers conversing; one was telling the other how they aren't going to vote in the presidential elections because they aren't informed enough. on the surface it seems a noble gesture; staying out of the way of people that know because they care. patriotic almost. but straightaway i realized how totally apathetic one has to be to not be up on candidates. even in primaries you're not dealing with more than 10 between the two major parties. it really takes a five minute introspection regarding what YOUR values are, then a determination of how much you want a government to impose them, if at all. from there, it's a pretty simple matter to find out if someone agrees with you or not. really, it's the height of laziness to not take five minutes and at least figure that out. maybe it wouldn't be such an annoyance if people didn't pour so much time and effort into vapid, asinine pursuits. gotta keep up with america's next top model, espn, and that wacky lie detector game show; God forbid we should come across something intellectually stimulating.
on a related note, i finished reading fahrenheit 451. excellent book. i'll end with a quote. actually two.

"School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?"

"The home environment can undo a lot you try to do at school. That's why we've lowered the kindergarten age year after year until now we're almost snatching them from the cradle."

-Ray Bradbury (amazingly, in 1953)

i lied.

I'm not done nerding out about Lost. I felt like giving people another compelling reason to watch, beside the storyline. Sometimes I wonder if I should be living in Australia.....