Thursday, April 05, 2007

Real Heroes Wear Capes

It's spring break.

We've vacated slightly (Amelia Island for a day). We've been to the beach. I've aged another year (Tuesday was the old birthday). It's been a good few days. I've got pictures to prove it.


As a birthday present, Amelia bought me the Xbox 360 game Guitar Hero II. It's ridiculously fun, and I've wasted a lot of time playing over the past few days. In my defense, however, Amelia has had work and so I've been left home alone with not a lot to do.

Anyway, I've been enjoying it (along with reading 1984 again in preparation for teaching; I'd forgotten how racy that book will seem to 10th graders: sex, profanity, "corruption" as methods of rebellion against the oppressive establishment. No wonder high schoolers love it), but all this playng has gotten me thinking about goals in life.

I have one major goal in life (OK, two if you count losing weight, but that one is sort of constantly on-going): to write and publish a book.

This is good and important. I don't think it will go away anytime soon. But I have lots of free time that I can't use to write (partly because I have to be in the zone to write, and that zone is not disciplined yet . . . but that's another entry). So instead of playing a guitar simulator, why don't I learn to play the real guitar? Hey, good question! I think I'd like to do that.

This, then, is the problem. This is a daunting task. Along with skateboarding, playing guitar is one of those things that you're supposed to learn to do at 13, not 28. So now I turn to my faithful readers--all four of you. What's the best way to learn to play? Videos? Hiring a teacher? Mimicking Slash? How about a good starter guitar that will fit my needs: casual playing for myself and maybe a few friends and maybe the occassional talent show. Electric or accoustic? There's so much to figure out that it seems overwhelming, but I really do want to do it. So, any suggestions? And Dylan and Shawn, if you at least don't comment, expect harrassing emails until you do so.

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