Blog

Trip to Indianapolis to hit bookstores and see downtown. Decent hotel right on the circle. We checked out the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library which had some great photos of Vonnegut. We also did a quick drive-by of the Fountain Square district which is probably much better nicer when it’s warm enough to actually walk around. Trip to Louisville to visit the brother. We hit a few bookstores and ate very well as always. Lots of cooking: rib-eye steaks, deep dish pizza, spaghetti sauce, shoulder roast, stroganoff. Lots of heavy, cold-weather comfort foods. Checked out the Chicago Botanical Gardens to test out some camera stuff. Got Jen to sit through Season One of The Wire. It’s easy to forget just how tremendous that show is. Spent too many hours finishing up the last music project and zero hours thinking about work.

Hit a personal record of 405 deadlift this morning. I wasn’t planning on maxing out, I had done a pretty heavy squat set two days earlier and my hamstrings were pretty sore. I had also only had about five hours of sleep, so conditions were less than ideal. I ended up feeling pretty strong after a few warm up sets and decided to go for it. I still want to add about 20 lbs by the end of the year and I’m starting to feel optimistic that I may reach my goal. My grip strength has been the biggest weak point, so I’ve been working a lot on my grip and lower back strength and it’s been paying off. ...

Every year I come up with a crazy workout goal to keep things interesting. A couple of years ago it was going through Eric Cresey’s plan and last year it was going through Dave Tate’s Strong(e)r workout series (which ironically didn’t leave me stronger, but I think it did improve overall physical fitness). These are the totals from the last time I tested max lifts. Bench 335 Squat 375 Deadlift 385 1095 This year I want to push those three lifts to either hit or get close to 400 lbs. ...

I blew through Lipsky’s book on David Foster Wallace in two sittings. The times that Lipsky inserted himself or his thoughts was distracting, but it was great to dive into Wallace’s head for a nice chunk of time. I was happy with how ended, it would have been easy to be morose, but instead I was left with much happier memories. I like thinking about how much DFW was enjoying the process of writing and how he was looking forward to working for a good length of time. ...

This is supposed to a be complete week off from lifting. After taking the weekend off, I had to get in and do something. I’m going to focus on getting in some cardio and doing more ab work and recovery work on my shoulders. I spent nearly 30 hrs over the extended weekend working on music. I finally got around to reading and watching a bunch of tutorials for the Native Instruments software and have a better handle on things like Kore2 and Reaktor. I need to but more time aside to crafting sounds, but lately I’ve been far more interested in creating new music rather than sounds. ...

Last day and plenty to get to. We had a quick breakfast at Firehook Bakery and headed out to the Newseum. It had just opened last time we were in town but I’m glad we made the trip this time. It was pretty impressive to see a half-dozen massive chunks of the Berlin Wall as well as a broken portion from the World Trade Center antenna. The 9-11 exhibit was pretty tough and we skipped the documentary. The inclusion of kleenex at the entrance to the film gave some idea that we were in no mood to check it out. The Pulitzer winning photographs were amazing to see, but again were a bit rough to take a times. I had to steady myself a few times admittedly skipped over a few. The sports photography exhibit was pretty great as well. ...

We started the day with a mighty fine breakfast at Afterwards and then hit up a tourist trolley up to The National Cathedral. There’s a great view of the city from the top floor and the cathedral itself is massively amazing. We hopped back on the trolley and spend a couple hours in Georgetown. We had lunch at Billy Martin’s tavern where John Kennedy proposed to Jackie. It was pretty standard tavern food, but good service and a nice, homey vibe. ...

Had a great trip out to DC, one of my favorite places on earth. Chicago has my heart, but DC pulls at my head. Such a nerd town in a non-geek way, but also has an ugly self-indulgent / self-promotional feel. We had a quick flight out and stayed in a fancy-pants hotel just off of Dupont Circle. Lots of places to check out in Dupont including Afterwords bookstore. How can you not love a book store that is open by 7:30 am and is open all night on weekends. ...

Hit the road to Kansas City. We stopped just outside of St. Louis to grab breakfast at Bob Evans. It was another pretty easy drive. Once we got into town we headed towards the 18th and Vine district to see the Negro Leagues Museum. On the way there we passed by Arthur Bryant’s (most BBQ fans know the name) so we stopped in for lunch. It was a nice solid sliced pork sandwich on Wonder Bread. The pork had a lot of flavor and the fries were tasty as well (fried in lard if I’ve read correctly). ...

I’ve been participating in the infinite summer read. It’s brought up a lot of memories since the first time I read Infinite Jest was on vacation ten years ago. I had just finished school and Jen and I were going to take a trip westward to visit my friend Nathan. We had little money and I needed a large book for the flight there and back. I found a British printing of IJ in the discount bin at Barnes and Noble. Something sounded familiar about the title, but I knew nothing further. It was large and looked interesting and became my vacation book on sight. ...