A New Sound

May 24, 2013 meisajDaily Life

On several occasions in my life I have randomly held onto a cd that I really had no interest in listening to. I think the best case for this was from my youth, when randomly the BMG CD Club sent me Pablo Honey by Radiohead. When someone visiting the house said they were I put it in the cd player and never looked back.

So yesterday driving home I was tired and looking for something to keep me awake. I grabbed the cd’s in the door of my car and came upon Oh My Me. I had picked up the cd with Wussy and Sundresses from a Kickstarter campaign last year. I love Wussy (they are amazing, check them out) and the Sundresses impressed the hell out of me as well. But Oh My Me, I had no clue who they were, and their cd was in a plastic sleeve looking a little underwhelming.

But wanting something new to keep me up I threw the cd in the car. The first song was blew me away. Sounding both old jazz/bluesy and yet something altogether different at the same time. I was awake and involved in the music for the next 20 minutes til I arrived at home. A quick search and purchase later and I had a live album to along with the cd I already had.

Life is good. I’ve got new music to listen to. And that’s always a good thing.

Relaxed Biking

May 22, 2013May 22, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I haven’t biked with a group of people in a long time.

I generally biked for distance or for speed. Basically as hard and as fast as I can. Which probably isn’t good for my legs in the long run. So I joined Meetup.com and went for a ride with people yesterday.

They met up 9 miles from my apartment and biked slowly for 14 miles or so. Basically you bike out for 40 minutes and back. So I biked the whole way talking to a few people. I had a long talk with a 10 year old on the ride about Garfield. Garfield is his favorite cartoon character. I then went out for dinner with them at a bar/pub around the corner from where me met.

So yeah, a nice slow ride. Felt almost like slacking. I think this summer I’d bike to wherever we meet, go for the 14 or so mile bike ride, and bike back to the apartment to throw a little more distance in. But yeah, leisurely bike riding, I’m down for that once in a while. It felt good.

Strangely enough, as much as I love my cyclocross bike, I’ve been eyeing road bikes too.

That’s a ways off though.

By the way, since buying my new bike the first week of April, I’ve bike over 450 miles. Not too bad.

Best Thinking

May 20, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I do my best thinking on my bike.

When I’m out on long rides I listen to music or audiobooks or the news, but these don’t distract my mind from wandering. I’ve come up with stories, book ideas, things to draw, blog entries, and other random deep thoughts. I’ll have the greatest ideas every, things I get excited about to implement or do when I get home.

The problem is that I forget everything I’ve thought of as soon as I finish my ride. Its like I get all this blood pumping to my head while biking and clears away the background noise constantly buzzing in my head. Nothing going on except biking and the thoughts in my brain. No distractions.

Someday, I’ll be able to harness this for the good of all mankind I’m sure.

Waking Up

May 15, 2013 meisajDaily Life

06302010AJC

The right music to wake up to is important.

Nothing crazy is my motto. Smooth into melody.

I think I’ve hit the nail on the head with this one. Maybe a little too good. I’ve got the perfect morning song that ends up stuck in my head for at least an hour each morning after I wake up. And as Sam can attest, if more than one second of the alarm plays before my lightening quick morning reflexes shut off the alarm, it has been a bad morning.

I once almost punched a girlfriend when she accidentally played the same song I used for an alarm late at night while I was sleeping. She was awake in bed and was trying to put a show or movie on the laptop (I can sleep through that and just about anything else) and played the song instead. I sat up immediately and snatched my arm out to shut off the alarm and almost gave her a black eye.

Anyways. Stories aside, this one song has been what I wake up to on workdays for the last year or so.

Early Nights and random stories

May 14, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I was in bed crazy early last night. 10:15pm I laid down.

That’s insane. But other than that I’ve got little to write about this morning.

So, another short, off the top of my head, Rory’s Story Cube inspired story.

___________________________

Jim – at least he called himself Jim, he wasn’t really sure who he was but knew he had an affinity for three letter names so he picked Jim – currently found himself falling out of a plane. Or it could be a UFO. Or a hot air plane. Or a helicopter.

Here’s the thing about waking up to find yourself falling towards the ground at an exceedingly fast rate, you don’t worry about what you’re coming out of. Jim just knew that he was falling. He freaked out quite a bit, because honestly he had no choice, instinct and all.

“First time, eh.”

Jim looked over and saw another person falling right next to him.

“I’m Cindy. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

Jim didn’t feel like conversation, but stopped screaming (he was screaming he realized, instinct and all) so he could talk to her.

“I’m just a little concerned about impending death,” he said in a surprisingly relaxed tone.

“Don’t worry, the aliens always let us go prepared.”

“Aliens?” Jim asked.

“Yeah. Let me guess, you can remember who you are or how you got here.”

“Pretty much. Although I woke up calling myself Jim.” It was just then that he realized he couldn’t remember anything before waking up, and wasn’t really sure his name was Jim.

“Don’t worry. You’ve got a parachute, like me. Just pull that tab there.”

And Jim saw that he did have a parachute on. And he pulled the tab and slowed, drifting far away from Cindy.

Jim was instantly at ease. Sure he didn’t know who he was, what he was doing, or where he was falling to, but it was relaxing and pretty. Trees everywhere.

He took the time to check his pockets. He had a small book, a pack of matches, and a key. He was really hoping for a wallet or some form of ID, but apparently the aliens, if it was aliens – he was pretty sure Cindy was nuts, the aliens had decided it wasn’t necessary.

He looked around as he drifted towards the ground wondering where he was. He saw a small town in the distance and guessed that was where he should head when he lands.

Summer of Refinement

May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I made last summer the “Summer of Self.”

Basically I the goal was to read books, draw, get my finances in order, and get in better shape.

On the read books goal, well I’ve read a few books over the last year, but sadly not as frequently or in whole as I wanted. I more or less end up reading half a book, stop at a natural break in the story, and end up picking up another book a few weeks later. So I’m reading (and I read the news and various comic books daily). So I’m a nerd more than a literary fiend. It is ok.

Drawing – I’m about a month behind in drawings, which, all things considered, is pretty good. At one point I was 100 drawings behind. I’m slowly catching up. We’ll put this one in the “ongoing progress” category.

Get Finances in Order. Well I have no credit card debt, but do still pay student loans and have a car payment. But those are manageable. Getting rid of credit card debt was huge. Its been a goal for years. So that’s a check in the done category.

Getting in Better Shape. Well, January 2012 I weighed almost 200 pounds. Which is nuts for my frame and who I am. Today I weighed in at 170.5. Not bad. I weighed 185 in July 2012 and 170 by the middle of October 2012. Which is when my regular biking ended. So the fact that I’ve maintained 170 (ish) since then is really good. I’m back to biking regularly and my goal is to get to 160 and maintain there. So I’ll put a check in the done category (being that exercise is a routine as opposed to a rarity now) with some more refinement to be done.

I think I did pretty good with my goals. I’ll have to keep working on them as I figure out some new ones for this summer.