Yesterday, I had coffee with one of my roommate’s. The occasion marks my first visit to Starbucks in Bellevue. It was a good time. We talked about all kinds of random stuff including movies, liturgy, and women.
I went to Starbucks again today to have coffee (read: holiday-flavored peppermint mocha) with the assistant pastor at the church I’ve been going to. He’s from British Columbia (Canada) and a recent transplant here in Bellevue. He’s an interesting guy and somebody I could probably learn from.
I grabbed lunch at Chipotle. I love Chipotle. The giant burritos help me feel at peace with life. Afterwards, I looked for a haircutting place but had no luck finding it. So much for looking beautiful at Christmas.
Instead, I stopped by the library. I perused the stacks and stacks of books and reminisced about my trips to Love Library in college to write papers on obscure topics like Internet Censorship in China.
On this trip, surrounded by a significant chunk of human knowledge, I grabbed the December issue of Rolling Stone and settled down to read it in a comfortable chair. Honestly, it wasn’t that interesting other than a revealing article about Sufjan Stevens. Apparently, he doesn’t even own all the instruments he uses to make his albums. He’ll borrow instruments from friends or at churches, record music wherever he ends up, and then later use it on his albums.
The rest of Rolling Stone bored me. We all know it’s cool to not like the president. Old news… move on. Oh, and I don’t care how sexy Justin Timberlake is or how Green Day is trying to save the environment. Posturing is so… empty. Glass half empty — yup, I’m an emo kid. Or I would be if I could afford that posturing.
2006 has been a year of a lot of new music for me. I’ve acquired at least a few gigabytes of new music. Just casually glancing through iTunes it appears I’ve obtained 50+ albums released this year including physical CDs (albums, EPs, compilations) and digital music (albums, EPs, compilations, singles). This doesn’t even include retro pickups from years gone by (Weezer – Make Believe, Pearl Jam – “Ten,” etc). I just received the CDs from an eBay charity auction where I picked up another ten albums (four of which I already owned in some form).
The sad thing is I think I acquired a higher quality of music overall in 2005. Oh well… something to improve on next year. If I have enough money from bonuses in 2007 I’ll buy a stereo system and a record player so I can be a serious elitist. The Postal Service on vinyl! That’s the way to do it. It’ll only take one more record to double my collection of vinyl (Simon and Garfunkel – “Greatest Hits”).
If only. It takes so much work to be a serious materialist. Some day I’m going to give up, move to Guatemala, and live on rice, beans, and bacteria for the rest of my natural life.