Life Beyond Sports And Music

I google'd JB's old online moniker and came across a blog he was keeping. It was after awhile that I realized he wrote it believing nobody would ever read it. It was like a non-so private journal or diary, a non-private private slice of cyber world to place thoughts, much like I'm doing here. The melonoma that JB had (in 1996) when he was 21, came back full force when he was 31. He was dead at 34. The time when I knew him best when I myself was 34, which I believe to be the (or a) peak year of life. I don't know his family or partner, and I imagine they are unaware of his blog. It's strange that it's still up and may up for a long time with perhaps my being the only person aware of it.

Someone had streamed the complete new Daft Punk 'Random Access Memories' album online  There are a couple of great tunes on it. Basically, Nile Rodgers old Chic-style guitar playing is all over the record, and it sounds very much like an updated Chic album

Speaking of music:

My family gave everyone in it two choices: music or sports. It's strange because anything else just wasn't on the map at all, as if supporting something they had no idea about, was way too uncomfortable for them. My mother was always pushing music and my father was always pushing sports.  I only pursued music because a) I could do it and had natural talent for it and b) I thought they would finally give me admiration and approval. But m family could say: we want you to climb Mt. Everest and then we'll approve of you and admire you. And then I go out and climb Mt. Everest and come home having done just that and they would say, "oh, that's nice. Pass the butter please...". Or maybe they would just throw the butter at you because they hated when I enjoyed myself and my life and being young.

If I had said, gee, I'd like to become a lab researcher, a rocket scientist, or a civic engineer, they would have absolutely no idea how to support that or give encouragement even if they really didn't understand what that was. Entertainment is easier for them--which is, music and sports. You learn how to do something and you perform what you learned in some sort of get up or uniform. It's not... uhm, a rocket science.

The Briggs-Meyer test repeatedly tells me that I should be in the field(s) that I already am in: art and psychology. Well, I've read enough psychology and understand it a fair amount that I have probably in some way earned a bachelor's degree in it. Another area they recommend is literature. I've read enough literature to have earned a masters degree. So there.

I am a better athelete than I am a musician. With that said, I think I will go for my 10 mile run soon as I sign off here. More to come...