Random Acts of Journalism

1. Last night, my Arizona Diamondbacks put the finishing touches on a superbly disappointing NLCS. They played a great regular season in which they got by on timely hitting, excellent defense, clutch relief pitching and smallball tactics (stealing, bunting, hitting and running, taking the extra base, etc.). They dominated the Cubs in the NLDS by playing the same game as they had all year. Then, when faced with the scorching and suddenly dominant Colorado Rockies, they decided to stop doing all that had previously worked. No bunting, no stealing, poor defense and even poorer management. I’m not one who calls for a coach to be fired the second a team loses, but if i was, Bob Melvin would deserve to be fired for how he managed the last 4 games. It was painful to watch and i feel like i out-managed him from my couch on more than a few occasions. It was like all-of-a-sudden everyone got so scared to make a mistake that they did nothing at all (maybe i could learn something from them…). It was sad to watch but i can’t be too upset. They had a great year and overachieved beyond everyone’s expectations. Tough to be mad about that. It’s also tough to be mad because they couldn’t have lost to a better team story-wise. The Rockies are on one of the greatest runs in baseball history — and maybe even sports as a whole — (they’ve won 20 of their last 21, including 13 out of 14 to just barely make the playoffs in the first place…) and since i’m originally from Denver and was a Rockies fan before the Dbacks existed, i’m legally allowed to practice a little sports fan polygamy and root for the Rockies in the World Series.

2. I’m obsessed with this new Torrent way of sharing music. In the last few days, i’ve added some terrific music. The best part is that instead of trying to find every song individually on a certain album, you can just download the whole album, in order and tagged. On Limewire you used to have to search for each song and then place them in order, IF you were even able to download them all. This way is much easier, faster and better. And for the most part, i’m not downloading artists i’ve never heard, but i’m downloading the entire albums of artists that i had one or two songs from.
The other great part is that when albums “leak” they are available immediately on Torrent, whereas you used to have to wait for them to pop up on Limewire and then they were usually crappy copies.
In the last few days i have really enjoyed Bloc Party – Silent Alarm, Arcade Fire – Neon Bible, Band of Horses – Cease to Begin (terrific album), Motion City Soundtrack – Even If it Kills Me, The Decemberists – Picaresque, Jay-Z – Kingdom Come and last night i downloaded Alexi Murdoch – Time Without Consequence (this man’s voice is about the most soothing thing i’ve ever heard. i’m comfortable saying that in public.) and also the new Coheed & Cambria album, a few weeks before it comes out. Everything i’ve named here is terrific and totally worth a listen to all of you. OH, also, i got the Into The Wild soundtrack which is made up entirely of magical Eddie Vedder solo work and, like the movie and the book, is absolutely fucking incredible. Any of you reading this that haven’t read, seen and listened to Into The Wild, i recommend that you drop whatever it is you’re doing and go experience them in that exact order (read the book, watch the movie, then listen to the soundtrack, trust me). This provides an interesting segue into my next point.

3. Last week, i wrote a post called “Fundamental Life Change, Part 1″ which, before i was done, expanded into 3,500 disjointed and improperly-spelled words. Not only is it too long to post, but it became far too personal to ever expose on this blog in its entirety (i do however feel like i laid the groundwork for a future novel…).
I will however share the basic idea…However happy i feel on a day-to-day basis (and i do feel typically content and happy with my life), i’ve recently been plagued by a feeling that thus far, the existence i’ve led has been more or less completely meaningless. In the grand scheme of things at least, i’ve absolutely gone through the motions. In high school, i went to class and did my homework because they told me i needed to get into college. In college, i went to class and did my homework (rarely) because they told me i needed to get into grad school so i could go to more classes and do more homework. They told me i needed an internship, in which i would work for free and be grateful for it. As i was graduating, i needed to work on my resume and try and get a career despite having no idea what i really wanted to do. Then i got a “real” job and was told to “pay my dues” and work very hard for very little recognition or money or satisfaction and that i should get used to it. So i did that for a while and bought a house and a 56 inch HD TV and a bunch of furniture and i pay $150 a month for cable and i weigh 200 lbs and need a nightly combination of boxing (read: angrily punching stuff) and cocktails to shut up that voice inside my head that tells me that this isn’t right. What’s next? Get married? Have kids? 
You know what? Fuck it. That’s not going to cut it for me. Sure, i’ve had some accomplishments and made some impact on some people’s lives, but by and large, if my life ended today, i wouldn’t feel very good about it or that i’d even scratched the surface of my potential. Overall, my 24+ years on this planet have been fraught with privilege, consumerism, hypocrisy, procrastination, underachievement, laziness and more abject fear than i care to really admit.
I am going to change this starting now. Soon, my 2003 Jetta goes on the market in exchange for a 1962 International Scout. The money i make on the sale will go into A. teaching myself how to fix this vehicle with my bare hands and without help from a professional, B. into whatever improvements need to be made on this vehicle to enable it to make very long road trips and C. to use the next 6 months to make the necessary preparations and arrangements to go into the wild.

In March or April of 2008, i will embark on this. 3,100 miles and 6 months later, i’ll be back in civilization but hopefully, not quite as civilized as i am now (oh, and consider this your open invitation to come with me for all or part of it. i’m serious, i am not planning on going alone so who wants to go on an adventure?). I never pictured my life in an office, i never pictured it being about making enough money to have an impressive house, car or television, i never pictured myself as a salesman, trying to convince people to hand over their hard-earned money for something they don’t really need, just so i can have more and nicer stuff that i don’t really need. I’ve always had a vision of a more basic and blue-collar existence. The work i’ve always enjoyed most is the work that left me tired and dirty and sore, so i think i’m going to finally pursue that. That was my plan all along, and i’ve gotten severely sidetracked over the last few years, hopefully this is me getting back on track.

More soon.