training

hey again! sorry for the long lapse in posting once again. Things have been kind of wild. I actually started a post about smiling friends last week, because I was watching that show pretty closely lol, but I got in my head about it and didn't post it. Maybe I'll try to make it into an actual article! I feel like my job is really well-suited to doing free-lance writing on the side, so I want to explore ways I could break into that! There are some really cool publications floating around that I would love to be a part of and it's kind a dream of mine to write a book or two!

But music's kind of the focus right now, or at least it's supposed to be! I'm trying to dedicate an hour each day to both guitar and piano, but I'm not sure how much progress I've actually been making. I don't know how to play piano, so it makes sense for that one to be an uphill battle. But I have a solid base in guitar! You'd think I'd be able find ways to improve more easily. The good news is that I was able to start writing some songs for a project I"m really excited about, so you might be hearing more about that soon!

Also, I'm starting a strength training routine today? I've been going to the gym and doing this really basic pattern over the past few weeks, but now I have a whole routine set up and I'm trying it out.

Gosh, all this self-improvement talk makes me want to throw up. Please excuse me. This is supposed to be cool.

Oh, also, I finished Simulacra and Simulation. It was a lot for sure, but I liked it. Absolutely insane that it was published in the early 80's. I know it's the movie that inspired the matrix, but I found myself thinking about videodrome a lot while reading it. I was also really hyped to see McLuhan play a significant role.

I know this is a very broad statement, but I connect a lot with this negation of the reality principle that Baudrillard goes along with here. I've noticed that one of my favorite things to do (and I don't think this is at all unique to me) is to look through booksales, thift shops, and antique stores. The simple reason is you can find good books and other cool shit for very little money, especially compared to any corporate department store or even the average independent book shop. But I also suspect there's an underlying facination in browsing these objects that were made in a world that used to exist, but doesn't any more. I don't think this is just empty nostalgia for a time, maybe it's not nostalgia at all. Maybe it's more like wearing a costume you saw in a movie that felt more real and more authentic than anything you experienced in real life.