Thursday, March 31, 2011
A Farewell to Arms
I read A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway a few months ago. It was my first book to read outside of school texts for sometime. I thoroughly enjoyed Hemingway's writing style of short, but provoking syntax. The story is about an American ambulance driver who is in Southern Europe for World War I. He experiences the war first hand, falls in love with an English nurse, and deserts his post as he and his lover flee. It was a great read that I had a hard time putting down. The conclusion was shocking, but I won't say anymore of that so as not to spoil the surprise. I would recommend this to everyone that enjoys well written literature. I will definitely be reading more Hemingway in the future.
The Pacific
So I just finished the DVD set of the HBO miniseries, The Pacific. I've been looking forward to this one for awhile, as I was a huge fan of Band of Brothers. The Pacific covers the marines fighting in the South Pacific. The locations range from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima to Okinawa. As well as an episode depicting leave and training in Australia. The miniseries differs with Band of Brothers in that it seems to drift in the characters it follows and also focuses much more on the psychological tribulations endured by the marines fighting a stubborn unrelenting enemy in the hot fetid environs of the pacific tropics. You feel apathetic for the marines as they endure horrors of the war and then on leave or after the fighting is over have to try to outlive the horrors they remember. The marines were fighting in the Pacific in 41'. That's a full 3 years before the U.S. entered into the European theater, the fighting was drawn out, toilsome, and costly. Watching this show, I feel that it did about as good as TV series can do in depicting the actions of the war in the Pacific. I will gladly keep this in my collection right up there with Band of Brothers.
"You can't dwell on it. You can't dwell on any of it."
"You can't dwell on it. You can't dwell on any of it."
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Breckenridge Spring Break 2011
This was my second year in row to Breck with my dad, brother, and uncle, I had a blast. We left at 5 a.m. in the morning and by the time I woke up at noon we were halfway there. One thing that I didn't realize is how long it took to get through Kansas going East to West... something like 10 hours.
So, we pull up to the condo we have rented. Next door there are a group of sorority girls unpacking their car. They yell to me as I step out of the car painfully, "Hey, we should be friends!" Of course, I couldn't agree more... So half an hour later I'm walking back from the ski rental shop and the girls are walking by. My dad and brother are about a minute behind me, so I know I need to talk quickly. Not that I'm ashamed of my dad or brother, but I realize that this conversation is huge as far as my week goes, and I can't afford to stumble through awkwardly with the "howdy, where are y'all from?" lines that would come out if they were there. So one girls says hello and mentions they are going to the rent skis too. I say hello, and mention how excited I am to be on spring break and how cool it is to have neighbors my age as I'm staying with family. At this point I have about 30 seconds... </flashback>From the previous year I know how hard it is bump into people multiple times, I talked to a girl on the lift and thought I'd see her out that night or the next as we both said would be doing. I never saw her again and was mad at myself for not getting a number</flashback_off>.... So I talk quickly to the girl who was smiling the most and seemed the most friendly, I gave her my number and told her to text me if they were going out and wanted some company. My dad and brother then walk up and "howdy, where are yall from?"s commenced flawlessly. They were from Texas Tech, as I had known as soon as I read their sorority t-shirts when they had walked up. From there it was all downhill, I went out for drinks with them a few times and spent alot of time in the hot tub. The week was fun and playful, and nothing too serious happened. It was a great spring break with family and friends.
Now we can talk about skiing, it snowed on our second day there, we had 3-5" of powder and it was great. I improved quite a bit and was comfortably doing blacks and a few diamonds. The air is amazing, it gives you a light headedness and quickness of breath that reminds you about the simple pleasures of living and breathing. I love the adrenaline rush that you get when you test your limits.
So, we pull up to the condo we have rented. Next door there are a group of sorority girls unpacking their car. They yell to me as I step out of the car painfully, "Hey, we should be friends!" Of course, I couldn't agree more... So half an hour later I'm walking back from the ski rental shop and the girls are walking by. My dad and brother are about a minute behind me, so I know I need to talk quickly. Not that I'm ashamed of my dad or brother, but I realize that this conversation is huge as far as my week goes, and I can't afford to stumble through awkwardly with the "howdy, where are y'all from?" lines that would come out if they were there. So one girls says hello and mentions they are going to the rent skis too. I say hello, and mention how excited I am to be on spring break and how cool it is to have neighbors my age as I'm staying with family. At this point I have about 30 seconds... </flashback>From the previous year I know how hard it is bump into people multiple times, I talked to a girl on the lift and thought I'd see her out that night or the next as we both said would be doing. I never saw her again and was mad at myself for not getting a number</flashback_off>.... So I talk quickly to the girl who was smiling the most and seemed the most friendly, I gave her my number and told her to text me if they were going out and wanted some company. My dad and brother then walk up and "howdy, where are yall from?"s commenced flawlessly. They were from Texas Tech, as I had known as soon as I read their sorority t-shirts when they had walked up. From there it was all downhill, I went out for drinks with them a few times and spent alot of time in the hot tub. The week was fun and playful, and nothing too serious happened. It was a great spring break with family and friends.
Now we can talk about skiing, it snowed on our second day there, we had 3-5" of powder and it was great. I improved quite a bit and was comfortably doing blacks and a few diamonds. The air is amazing, it gives you a light headedness and quickness of breath that reminds you about the simple pleasures of living and breathing. I love the adrenaline rush that you get when you test your limits.
Proposed Purpose
Why did I start this? I'm not sure... I'm bored on the Sunday after Spring Break. I want to express myself in place where I don't have to shove it down anyone else's throat. This blog is for me, anyone is free to read it, but it will not have a particular topic as of right now. Just my rambling thoughts. I haven't written anything in quite some time, 3 or 4 years. So this sounds like a fun way to sharpen up and refine my thinking. I've got a lot on my mind: school, play, girls, crazy friends, a combination of the former two, my travels, dreams, opinions, disappointments, music, movies, games. I think this is completely random and so it will probably remain.
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