Music is the fabric of my life. Playing and listening both potentiate catharsis, the piano as my medium. And unlike the violin, the piano keeps my secrets. I've always been able to depend on music much more than I've been able to depend on people.
When I'm not in class, asleep under the trees outside of class, and/or writing papers, I tend to be hidden away in some dark corner with my face in a book. I like to read, probably more than mother shrews like to eat their babies.
Huzzah, etc. 'Tis my last and final semester at the lofty institution my car's odometer has come to know as California State University, Long Beach. Grad school is hiding in the dark cockles waiting to creep out and suck the life out of my ideals. Assuming my head doesn't explode before it has the opportunity.
Although my focused area of study at CSULB has been in rhetorical criticism, the kid in me wanted to jump into the study of cultural folklore and how it shapes and is shaped by evolving human histories. I soon realized, however, that such a thing is much better left to when you're old and have nothing better to spend your money on than a ticket to the cave of the Bell Witch.
I wanderlust. I love to travel and never turn down an opportunity. I've been lucky enough to travel abroad, but I still have a few more continents I need to conquer. Word of advice: never take directions from gypsies. I will be visiting Peru for three weeks in November and will be (hopefully if weather permits) kayaking down the Apurimac River in order to reach the start of the Inca trail to Macchu Picchu. I can't wait. Once we complete the trek, we will be taking a train to Bolivia. If I don't have my throat cut when I'm sleeping, I should have some nice stories.
I love to explore. I've always had curiosity for abandoned places. Empty buildings, dilapidated tunnels, old mines, forgotten cemeteries.. I think they're fascinating. As for what I think is my nerdiest hobby, I have a collection of over 70 grave rubbings to date (I am but one man). Some consider it morbid; I consider it to be the preservation of legacy. Remembrance is the purpose of the epitaph in the first place... Appreciation for burial art is something that seems to have been disregarded in American culture. Death is seen as something horrible, something to fear. I see it as the most beautiful and natural event we can experience as humans. We die, we feed the earth with our dust, and everything we are becomes everything else. Our waste gives life to the worm, to the grass, to the apples your Grandma uses to bake you pie. Even in the absence of an afterlife, one lives forever in this way. You just don't get to keep your car.
ANYWAY, on that emo note, I like soy milk. I think that covers everything.
