Tubasaluki: Quoting music since 2003

Welcome to Adventures in Asian Cooking! I’ve had this idea for a blog feature for awhile. Ever since I bought this book. I bought that book last April after realizing that 1) I enjoyed cooking and 2) I like a lot of different types of Asian food. This book does not disappoint.

The whole idea of Adventures in Asian Cooking is to cook a recipe from a different country (there are 13 countries listed in the book) and then blog about it. Volume yi (one, in Chinese) is a Chinese dish called Baw Law Gai, or chicken with pineapple.

I’ve made this dish before, its fairly simple but very delicious. To the recipe!

Half a small pineapple (I use a can of pineapple chunks. Progress!)
chicken breasts
1 tablespoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablesppon soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil (this, I have found, gives it that distinct asian scent)
1 small clove garlic
1 tablespoon peanut oil

Sauce:
2 teaspoons cornflour
1/2 cup pineapple juice (also known as the greatest post run drink known to man. Do not dispute this)
1 tablespoon soy sauce.

Skin pineapple, or if you’re mean open the can. Then cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces. Mix cornflour, salt and pepper, and coat chicken in this. Easily done with your hands. Add soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil and mix. I did this in a pie plate, so I used my hands. I’ve also put this all in one big ziploc bag. Whatever floats your boat.

Heat peanut oil in wok. If you don’t own a wok, now is a good time in the recipe to buy one. Once the oil is heated, toss in your treated chicken and fry until the color changes. Then add pineapple. Stir fry this for about three minutes. Add the sauce mixture, stir until thickened. Serve over rice.

Recipe rankings:
Difficulty: Pretty easy. Rice cooks itself, more or less, so even though I had two burners going, it wasn’t complicated by any means.

Taste: I really like this recipe. I’ve now made it a few times (including once for the parentals, who approved of it). If you’re ever craving chinese food, can’t go wrong with this one.

Optional things: The recipe does call for small onions, which I did not use, perhaps due to a lack of onions in the apartment.

Baw Law Gai is a good recipe, and for me a good introduction to cooking Chinese food. Got familiar with a wok (not hard) and its just good. Plus, there’s left over pineapple and pineapple juice. Win, win.

Next time, whenever that is, I shall try something from Korea.

No one runs faster than you eat,

Alan

Alright, lets get this started a bit early. Hour before opening faceoff. Since Facebook will only take this once you can follow along here

Stay tuned for thee game and whatever else draws my fancy. Possible comments on the somehow mesmerizing cross-country skiing race. Did you know they exchange skis? I did not.

Stay tuned for hockey…

1:03: DON CHERRY!

1:04 Someday I will talk in depth about my love of Don Cherry. From his suits to his “totally not biased against Europeans at all in anyway” (wink, wink) style.

1:09 I’m a little skeptical of the people calling this “the biggest game in hockey history”, as NBC did. Jamie Langenbrunner, captain of Team USA says “it kind of like a game 7.” Yes, something that’s “kind of like a game 7″ is a bigger game than USA 4-USSR 3.

1:12 Its the Marraige Ref tonight! if you’re excited about this, you cannot be helped.

1:15 How did my Chicago readers enjoy watching Jay Cutler throw an interception during a hockey telecast? I enjoyed it.

1:21 Here we go…

1:22 Good save for Miller off a long drive. He’ll need to play out of his mind today.

1:23 Early goings, no real possession by the US. Canada just being faster, but the US defense is doing a great job.

1:26 Roberto Luongo hasn’t lost at GM Place since January 11. I’ll pretend to not love that stat for this game only.

1:28 The fact that there is a really good hockey player named Jack Johnson is funny to me. Jack Johnson will return to the Kings and go “Where have the good people gone?”

1:31 USA getting some good pressure, need better quality shots though to beat Luongo.

1:32 Heatly just got knocked into the US bench. Love it.

1:33 Yup, Baches is a Blue. Only a Blue could break his stick on a clearing attempt.

1:35 Now that’s what the USA needs to do. Crash the net, get in Luongo’s face.

1:36 Nice forechecking by the Americans. Really liking how we’re playing.

1:40 Oh how I loathe Johnathan Toews. 1-0 Canada.

1:42 Just a nice job of Toews following up on the rebound. Nothing Miller could do there. Defense needs to tie up some sticks there.

1:43 Well this isn’t good. Canada, after a goal, getting a power play. Eep.

1:44 I like how NBC put up “LIVE” in huge letters at the top of the screen. Its as if they’re saying “No, really, after showing you everything on tape delay, we’re really showing you a sporting event in real time!”

1:46 A good PK for team USA. Really good even. Only one real chance for Canada, and Canada’s momentum seems to have diminished a bit.

1:51 Ryan Kesler is awesome. Nice check there.

1:53 A great chance by the Americans at the end. Then some pseudo-fisticuffs. Corry Perry has been a punk these entire Olympics. Good thing he picked on someone in his own division there. Might have to watch the next Ducks-Kings game to see if Jack Johnson gives some retribution.

1:55. Yesterday, I linked this story about there being a condom shortage in the Olympic Village. A few thoughts to get you through the intermission:

~No one should be surprised. You have incredibly attractive people, in one of the most stressful environments of their lives, living near each other.

~I wonder if there a certain nations or sports that are more known for their…”friendliness”. Like, does the Swedish women’s biathalon team show up and the veteran Olympian guys start high-fiving?

~Lets say there’s some unprotected sex going on (a probability) and someone gets pregnant. What if that kid grows up to be an Olympian? Would that not be the most bizarre puff piece that NBC could show over live sporting events?

~The fact that the condoms were “airlifted” in is great.

Now, onto my thoughts on the first period:

~The Americans played a good period. Need better quality shots, but they should be able to get a goal.

~Defensively, the Americans are blocking shots and not letting Canada to just keep cycling the puck.

~not a lot of whistles. Refs letting the players earn this win.

~Al Michaels would like you to know that this game is “Live, live, live.”

2:08 Here we go, period 2.

2:09 Checking from behind…now…legal?

2:11 Corry Perry deserved it. PK time for the Americans. Bad penalty, as the Americans were getting some good pressure.

2:14 Get. the puck. out. of the. zone. Also, PP time for the US!

2:17 After the most worthless power play since the New York Islanders…Corry Perry scores. No one picked him up. Americans need a response.

2:19 The American response is “hit everything that moves”.

2:20 If there was ever a must-score PP, the Americans have one here. need to do more or less the opposite of what they did last time.

2:22 This power play is about as useful as the recipe for “New Coke”.

2:25 Does Luongo get a quicker whistle than Miller?

2:28 I have never been happier to see Patrick kane score. 2-1!

2:29 I like this new found energy by the Americans.

2:31 End to end action…this game is getting awesome. Amazing what Kane’s goal did for the US.

2:35 USA goal changed to Kesler. Awesome. I really love that goal now.

2:36 So, did Ron Wilson just say at intermission “maybe we should shoot the puck?”

2:40 I can actually feel my heart pounding. Intense end to the second. Epic third period coming.

For the Americans to win:

~Shoot the puck, forecheck, take away passing lanes in the defensive zone, and be safe in the neutral zone.

For the Canadians to win:

~Use their speed, get some quality shots on Miller, not overly rely on Luongo.

The next goal is huge.

2:55 Here we go…period 3.

2:58 Canadians hit a post…and another one.

3:00 A couple of icings for the Americans, not a good sign. Need to get possession and work the puck down the ice.

3:03 The Americans haven’t had the same sense of urgency as they showed in the second period.

3:06 I’ve seen Luongo play these games before. Look a bit shaky for two periods, close the door in the third.

3:10 Miller just absolutely bailed out Patrick Kane. Wow, what a stop.

3:11 Hello, team USA! Welcome to the third period.

3:15 7 minutes to go….every shift important.

3:17 Luongo looking calm in a stressful situation.

3:22 What a defensive play by Kane. Wow, Crosby on the break away and Kane with the poke check. All game, after a big defensive play, the Americans have had good shifts.

3:24 2 minutes left.

3:25 Miller pulled…timeout USA.

3:26 If Canada wins, can we have a tie-breaking Game 3. Would anyone not be on board with that?

3:20 PARISE TIES THE GAME!!!!!

3:30 Nice time for the Canadians to vacate the front of the net. Two Americans in front of Luongo, no one with a Leaf on their sweater around. Easy goal, we head to OT.

3:36 The open ice in the OT will probably favor Canada. Americans need to litter Luongo with shots and really clamp down in the neutral zone.

3:39 NIKE makes the best ads, hands down. Just sayin’.

3:42 Nearly changed my AIM status…can’t jinx it. The Denny Manifesto stays. I can however report that the #beatcanada tag on twitter erupted after that goal.

3:44 Here we go…OT.

3:46 Oh the home run pass there would have been amazing. Like the start to the extra session by the Americans.

3:51 Doc Emerick is having an on air heart attack, I’m fairly certain.

3:54 Crosby scores, Canada wins. The cruelty of sudden death OT. Game just ends like that.

3:56 What a game, couldn’t ask for anything more. Americans played great, but Crosby had just enough space to show why he’s one of the best players in the world.

4:30 Alright, signing off. What a game. Hopefully this spurs Team USA forward. They were the youngest team at the games. Can you say “gold medal favorites in 2014′? I thought you could.

Sometimes when I’m driving to work I like to think of creative and hopefully witty things to do and write about in this blog. The idea that I toyed with for awhile was doing a parody of Lost, in which it begins “Previously…on Tubasaluki.” This idea fell apart mainly because 1) thats as far as I got and 2) I sometimes get the feeling that I’m the only one of my friends that watches the show, which is sad, because Lost is awesome.

I digress.

Since I last left you, I have moved to Montana, started working, and, as the title suggests, partaken in a gatorade slushie.

I left Lake Stevens on a Monday with a fairly full truck and leaving behind one confused cat and one I would guess happy mother. Though, now that it will take her longer than 20 minutes to go to the grocery store, I can only imagine my departure as being bittersweet to some degree. I had chains with me, since the trip to Havre consists of 4 mountain passes. Snoqualmie was actually closed the morning I left, but opened again before I left. I did see a semi turned the wrong way on the other side of said pass, which would be really interesting if it didn’t slow down traffic to a crawl.

I stopped in Ellensburg to have lunch with one of my high school friends that I hadn’t seen in forever. I believe we determined it had been five years or so. Good times! Lots of catching up to do. I’m guessing we skipped over some of the minor details, but good times were had by all. Next stop..Spokane! I saw another high school friend. I like this having high school friends located along my route bit. Its quite nice. Quick, one of you move to Missoula and Great Falls!

After leaving Spokane, I traveled through Idaho (as always, watch out for orangoutangs). Idaho manages to squeeze two mountain passes into its 60 mile panhandle. I was very close to calling it a night in Wallace (I’m not a fan of driving at night) but a lack of the official hotel of Alan road trips (Super 8, for the record) and better road conditions kept me going onward. I got up and over the second pass with no problem, but with the snow starting to fall, I called it a night in St. Regis. The goal was Missoula for the night, and as my friend Nick so helpfully pointed out when I logged online that night, St. Regis was not Missoula. After deciding against Seppuku, I went to bed.

The next day, it was smooth sailing for the ever dirtier truck and I. The most trouble I had was getting into an Arby’s parking lot. (Sidebar: My family always stops at the Arby’s in Ellensburg. I had always heard rumors that there was a town past the Arby’s, but it had been awhile since I’d seen it. Somewhere around 5 years. Anyway, between eating at non-Arby’s restaurant in Ellensburg, and the fact that Havre doesn’t have one, I made sure to stop at one in Great Falls). The second day was very uneventful and I got into Havre at around 5:00.

Flash forward (fun fact: this rambling blog post is written better than that show, which has taken a great concept and killed it by repeating every single line, usually three or four times). to Wednesday. My dad and uncle came. They went to Salem to get my stuff, which was nice. Other than a melt from Five Brothers, I wasn’t to keen on going back there so this worked out nicely. Dad and Rick had themselves quite the adventure, including blizzard conditions one day. Should Dad ever fire up his own blog, he can give you all the details. (You should be chuckling at that notion.)

With things unpacked and somewhat settled into…it was time to work! Hooray employment! Thursday was Day 1, and as a lot of Day 1s entail, I watched other people do their work. Enthralling! I’ve picked up on things fairly quickly, since this is the third station I’ve been at to use Audio Vault and second one to use my audio editing crack, more commonly known as adobe audition. Mmmm…fix transient feature.

At this time, I have a fairly limited roll. Voice tracking an on air shift, doing some production. I voice (but do not write) a couple of sportscasts each day. As I get more into it, I’ll be originating some stories (both news and sports) and will get to call some ballgames as well. Once that happens, I’ll let you know.

I have now been in Montana for nearly two weeks and have yet to experience above freezing temperatures. This is not bad, since I work inside and utilities are included in my rent. Its actually kind of awesome, because of Gatorade slushies. Here’s how to make one.

Ingredients:
One (1) bottle Gatorade
One (1) Vehicle

Wait for outside temperatures to become freezing. Place bottle inside vehicle. Leave overnight. Serve whenever you want.

I love Gatorade slushies, though admittedly, they turn out better when the temperature is closer to 32 than 0. (or closer to 0 and not -17.778, for my Australian friends).

Overall, I’m enjoying things. I like the stations where I’m at. I have family relatively near Havre, there are mountains here. I saw a couple of deer outside the station window the other day. It just needs to warm up so I can run outside. May have to hop on a treadmill soon.

So draw, little piggy, better watch out for number one.
(I fear there’s a bad wind blowing through there),

Alan
(lyric posted for rocking purposes…live version is the best)

With any kind of luck, I’m leaving in 12 hours for cold, cold Havre, so I figured I would pass along a few notes. Mostly notes of thanks.

Thanks, obviously, to my parents, who allowed me to live the unemployed cliche and live with them and spend a lot of time in the basement. Could not have made it these past few months without their help and support.

Thanks to my friends who continued being awesome during the whole process. It was great to see people again and of course use that socialization to take my mind off things. I may have hung out with Nick more over the past few months than I ever did in high school. I look forward to our frustrating sports arguments, probably about soccer, a sport neither one of us really played or coached.

Thanks to the Lake Stevens Cross Country Program which literally kept me sane from August to November. I will say this as long as people will listen: that was an awesome bunch of kids to be around on a daily basis and if I ever coach again (hope to) I can only hope that I have a group like that. Each day was a lot of fun, and I found something, in coaching, that I feel I can fall back on at a later date. I now know that I like working with kids and being able to teach them, and I owe it to spending this season with the cross country team. Oh yeah, and the boys going to state wasn’t half bad either.

Thanks to Trivia Night at the Irishman, which was just awesome. If you live near Everett, I recommend going on a Tuesday night. Its a blast, as long as the categories aren’t things like “Friends” or “Seinfeld”.

And thanks to the million other things that probably made this experience not nearly as bad as I felt it was at times. From reading a bunch of books, to completing NaNoWriMo, to working out more, to cooking, to my general obsession with Coheed and Cambria, Dream Theater, Death Cab for Cutie, U2 and others, every little bit helped.

On the road tomorrow. Will post again when I have Internet. They have that in Montana, contrary to popular belief.

Its not your fault
I don’t care
My new girl
She’s got laser hair,

Alan

The title, as long and confusing as it is, sums up my past week quite nicely. You’re confused. I can tell.

On Monday evening, I boarded a train for Havre, Montana. Tuesday afternoon, I got off said train (luckily, in Havre) and went and looked at the new stations. Its a three in one deal, so thats neat. I talked to the program director for a couple of hours and accepted the position. I like these guys, as they seemed nice, personable, and gave me asprin for my “being on a train for 18 hours” pains.

The job entails a little bit of everything. There’s some voice tracking work, some writing of copy, some producing, and possibly calling games. I’m looking forward to it. I think it will be good.

That said, I’m not letting myself get too excited. I did that with my last job. When I re-read what I wrote at the time I accepted the job, its mind blowing to an extent. I’ll be cautiously optimistic and hope that this is a great opportunity. If not, I now know what my back-up plan is (teaching) and that gives me a sense of calm about the whole thing. If this works, great. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll know where to go next. Direction is a good thing to have.

On Wednesday, I found a place to live. Havre is a college town (really!) and so the apartments that are there are pretty much full. I was able to find a place to rent for the time being. I like the place, but it doesn’t allow pets. So, I may see if something opens up in the summer time (everything is basically done month to month, rent wise) that will allow Cagney to move out with me. In the meantime, I may get some plants. I’m thinking of getting a cactus and naming it Ned. None of you in the Midwest understood that joke.

I was able to poke around Havre a bit. I bought a book from the book exchange, at at some of the restaurants (I already like The Lunch Box). I like the town. I have relatives along the Hi-Line, so that’s helpful. Havre is about the size of Salem, which makes it the largest city in that part of Montana. I think I’ll like it, if only because there are mountains near by and its just hard to beat a Montana sunset. (Well, sunset at Martin Stadium against the clock tower is up there too).

Thursday I boarded a train for home. I read the book I bought at the book exchange. I found out 150 pages into it that it was Book 8 of a series. So, I stopped reading. I slept, came up with a new character and story idea to use him in. Basically, I came up with a story title: “The Denny’s Manifesto”. Why Denny’s? Because my last two years in Carbondale, I wrote just about every paper at Denny’s. So what is the Denny’s Manifesto? I have but a vague idea, but I think it will drift into religion quite a bit. Just toying around with it for now though.

Friday morning I got off the train and drove home. I was there for maybe an hour, 90 minutes tops before I headed down to Oregon for what is best described as “Track School”. It was USA Track and Field’s Level One certification class or: “About 20 hours of learning more about track than you thought was possible, but this is just the tip of the iceberg so don’t get to brain dead”. It was one of those sessions where you learn so much that when people ask “what did you learn” you kind of respond with drool. There’s a 200 question test that I’ll have to take to become Level One Certified. My brain hurts just thinking about it.

That said, I was happy to go. I loved it. I learned things that I could incorporate to a distance or cross country program should I continue coaching. I also learned of things that I can use for my own personal use. Maybe not so much when I learned how to throw a discus, but I did learn lots.

I went to this with my friend Nick, so that was a good time. I also made beet juice jokes with Courtney Jaworski, who is only an All-American in the 800. He’s fast. Also listened to Brian Hoddle speak. He’s a coach with the USA Paralympics team. I enjoyed listening to his speak. You can tell he has a passion for coaching and for helping people realize their goals. His philosophy of coaching was interesting to listen to.

Level One lasted through Sunday, at which point I was finally able to sleep in my own bed. Thats a welcome relief. And then I realized that by the end of this month, I’ll be able to sleep in my real bed. And that is a very welcome feeling indeed.

I feel my heart implode
and I’m breaking out
escaping now
feeling my faith erode

Alan

I got a job offer.

Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook (which really should be all of you) know the story. I applied for a radio gig in Havre, Montana (home of the Havre Blue Ponies, and the MSU-Northern Lights(get it?)) to do some sports and production work. They called me two days later, right after I woke up. I did the job interview sans pants and was offered the job later that day (I had found pants by then).

So! Exciting! I’m going out to Havre this next week to check it out and see what its all about. If I dig it, I’ll accept and once again move in the winter time (this would mark the third time I will have taken on a cross-country road trip in either December or January). There’s a flurry of activity associated with the ordeal, most notably is finding a place to live. Then there’s moving my stuff from Salem to Havre, and then there’s the whole business of it being f***ing cold degrees in Montana right now.

I will keep you posted on the situation. If nothing else, its a break. Worst case scenario I stay on my track to go back to school.

And I never liked your hair
Or those people that you lie with
But I’m not satisfied
Until I hold you tight,

Alan

Happy New Year’s Eve to all of you out there. I figured I would write some year wrap-up type thing and then read about ten trillion best of/worst of decade lists and thought about what the past ten years have held for me.

Haha, wow, I hated most of it. I think this comes down to a ever burning desire to not be where I am at any given time. I spent the beginning of the decade wanting to not be in high school any more and go off and be independent. This led me to go to Southern Illinois University, where I promptly gave serious consideration to transferring and when I didn’t do that, plotting my escape from Carbondale. This led to Australia, which was six months of pure awesome and the lone part of the decade where I was happy with where I was. I should probably go back sometime. After college, I got a job in podunk, Illinois where I bought a house. If you want a refresher on how I felt about that experience, just peruse the archives.

In the previous paragraph, I listed the three major life decisions I have made. Where to go to school, accepting my first job, and buying a house. I am 0-3 on these major life decision bits.

Granted, it could be worse. The decisions weren’t exactly poor. Its not like I decided “cocaine….yes, that is a great way to get ready for unprotected sex with multiple partners!” So, you know, go team. And these decisions that I’ve made have resulted in a college degree and decent credit. So, yeah, I get it: there is a lot worse out there.

Since I am not a big fan of people who complain loudly but offer no solutions, I should add that I do have a plan of sorts for making the 2010s better. I’ve applied to two universities (Western Washington and Washington State) and hope to get a teaching degree. As I’ve probably written before, I found out this fall that I liked working with high school kids in a coaching capacity. Considering that I would think about lesson plans and how I would teach various topics, its kind of amazing that it took me this long to figure out that teaching wouldn’t be a bad gig.

I don’t think I’ll do any New Year’s Resolutions this year, if only because barring death, 2010 is shaping up to be a much better year than 2009. As long as I keep moving forward, things will turn around. I now have a plan, I have another goal, and for once, that goal is more than “to not be here”.

I usually leave you with a musical lyric, but instead I will leave you with a quote that I’ve taken a liking to. There are certain quotes that as soon as you see them, they resonate with you. Some quotes you see and think “thats nice, I can see how people are inspired by it” and other quotes just hit you with a moment of clarity. The second I saw this quote, I got a post-it note, wrote it down and stuck it in my wallet. Perhaps I will dedicate a post to discussing it later.

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. -Alex Carrel.

Happy New Year,

Alan

Since I took the time to tell you that I was taking part in National Novel Writing Month, I figure I should tell you how it ended up.

I won. I am the champion. I am amused by the simplicity of the game, bring me your finest meats and cheeses.

The Druid Chronicles, sure to be a New York Times best seller and indeed change how the world views literature (modesty…I have it) reached the 50,000 word mark on November 29, ensuring that I was awesome. The story itself is maybe half way finished. It has not been touched since November 29, save for a 200 word struggle that ended with me saying “I really don’t want to do this right now” and probably having a beer instead. I do plan on finishing it. I’m very excited about how it will play out. On one of my walks (I take walks after the Seahawks play like crap. I am taking a lot of walks on Sundays) I figured out not only where I wanted MY story to go, but also where I wanted the manga Bleach to go. I deemed it a successful walk.

So, I wrote down four plot points for the rest of the story (or at least events) and have let the story sit since then.

In other news…

I officially got on as a substitute teacher over at Granite Falls. Awesome! Except that things are slow going for subs. Boo! Oh well, I’m in their system. I don’t think they’ll be much in terms of openings this week or when they get back from break, but hopefully after that it will pick up. I’m just hoping for something to do thats somewhat consistent. At least until possibly the summer when I can go back to school.

~Speaking of that, I’m applying at three places. Seattle U, Western Washington, and Washington State. I am not worried about getting in since my transcripts from SIU indicate that I’m kind of smart and thats what universities tend to look for. Going to get my endorsement in English, then get a master’s in education, and then help shape the minds of our youth. You just shuddered. I know you did.

And on that note…Jolly Solstice everyone!

Alan

Earlier this week I went down to Portland for an informational meeting about becoming a recruiter for International Volunteer Services. The meeting and interview were interesting to say the least. The key thing they were looking for was volume, as in loudness. So, the interview consisted of a lot of shouting and then a discussion of a goal people had accomplished. How this helps them figure out how to determine which of the people at the event might make good recruiters is beyond me. I put in an application, so we’ll see.

At any rate, I drove home after the shoutfest and as I am wont to do on such trips I thought about things.

~Kid Bopz. I spent a little bit of time visiting my brother and his family down in Portland and was exposed to Kid Bopz for the first time. Now, many of you know that I’m not a fan of pop music to begin with (as I will more or less prove later on in this note. Spoiler alert: Its about Dream Theater), but to have kids sing “Hey There, Delilah”?

So, then I got to thinking, lets expand children’s musical horizons. Can we get kids singing Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills”. I think we should. It is never to early to learn how to rock. But, don’t stop there. Lets get some Kids Alternative in this mix. Tell me you wouldn’t find the irony in hearing a kid’s version of Phoenix’s 1901 thanks to the line “Its 20 seconds to the last call and you’re going hey hey hey hey hey.” Throw in some Modest Mouse, Muse, Death Cab for Cutie, maybe some Editors…yes. This could work.

~Speaking of music…I got to thinking about Dream Theater. This was brought on by the fact that I was listening to Metroplis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory, which is my favorite of their albums. Now, this album is part of what some fans refer to as a “meta-album” meaning the last note or noise (in this case, static) begins the next album. It spans four albums ending with Octavarium, which I’ve discussed before.

Scenes from a Memory is a concept album with a fascinating story. (Spoilers…so, just go listen to the album) In it there is a man named Nicholas who has these recurring visions of a girl (Victoria). By undergoing hypnosis he discovers that he was this girl in a past life and the girl was murdered by a jealous Senator. After figuring all that out, Nicholas is killed by the hypnotherapist, who is the reincarnation of the Senator. This happens while Nicholas is listening to a news report of a person’s death, whom I believe may be the reincarnation of Julian, Victoria’s lover. Julian was also killed by the Senator, and it is heavily implied in the news report that the man who had died wielded some political power, perhaps as a Senator. Not exactly the most uplifting tale to be told.

Now, the meta-album bookends with Octavarium, which while not a concept album is definatly an album with a theme. That theme is that life is a circle, a continuous cycle. That album’s last lyric is “this story ends where it began” followed by the same note that began the album, representing that cycle starting over once again. When comparing that to Scenes from a Memory, I find it fascinating how the same theme is woven into the story.

Its an interesting theme, really. Life as a cycle. I don’t believe in that (as I used to say in grade school, When you die the worms will get you…that about sums it up) but I do find the idea fascinating. You live a life, die, get reborn, and the same stuff happens to you. And, can you break free of this cycle?

Step after step
We try controlling our fate
When we finally start living it has become too late

Eh, not so much apparently. Again, I don’t believe this stuff, but its fascinating to think about, and kind of neat how the theme is woven into these two albums (and sadly, I haven’t listened to Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence or Train of Thought to see if the theme extends to those albums.

This thought process dominated most of the drive, as you can tell.

~Is there a better sight than Seattle at night? The city is gorgeous. I love driving on I-5 North at night and passing Seattle. You crest a hill, and there the city is. At night, Seattle is spectacular to look at. Though, I still get a little disappointed when I see the Tully’s T where the Rainier “R” used to be.

Then I started to think about what was going on in the city right at that moment. Even at night, there were people working, loving, fighting, surviving, thriving, everything. The city itself isn’t busy, as its just buildings and pavement. (Seattle at night looks fairly calm, to be honest) but thinking of what goes on beyond those buildings was a neat thought.

~ I finished my Christmas shopping on December 8. This caused me to chuckle a bit.

One last time
We’ll lay down today
One last time
Until we fade away

Alan

When I ran cross country in high school, my coach Ernie Goshorn would say “cross country kids are the best kids to be around.” Back then, I don’t know what I really thought about it. We seemed like a good bunch. I probably felt it was a little coach speak.

Then I spent a season as a coach, and saw that what Ernie said was absolutely true.

This fall I was a coach for the Lake Stevens cross country team. Those of you who read my status updates on Facebook probably knew where Lake was going and how we did from week to week. And honestly, from the beginning of the season in August till tonight’s banquet, it was a blast.

The kids were fun to be around. They always worked hard and were consistently good (as the results would show. Boys went to state and girls missed going by a single point). Having the success we had helps the season, but the day to day work ethic and character of the kids was great as well.

Being a part of this team has meant a lot to me. I probably haven’t had this much fun day to day since Australia. I think back on the season and its been one awesome experience.

Its been rewarding on so many levels and I can’t wait to coach again.