April 5, 2014

There wasn't a lot going on today. I opened at the theater and spent my time reading and knitting. A couple of the projectors are having issues so I had to do a little work but other than that it was a really boring day. I did manage to watch the first part of Captain America 2: Winter Soldier, which I didn't get to see last night, and the last part of Noah, starting right as the flood was coming. I don't really know anything about the first part of the movie but the last bit is really intense. It is weird having a protagonist that is so easily despised. I probably won't get to see the first part of the movie until it comes on DVD or starts streaming, but I am interested in seeing it now. The only thing I don't like, even with all the fantastical things, is the idea of starting humanity over from one family. All but Emma Watson's character are blood-related. A father, wife, and three sons. Looking at the history of royal inbreeding (and one of the only episodes of the X-Files that I ever saw), we know it isn't really good for humanity. And gross. I found Noah's story of the seven-day creation of the universe interesting. Or rather the visual depiction of that story, showing everything happening in fast forward. If it had actually happened at that speed then that could be a “reasonable” explanation for how fossils could be buried in layers that take however many years (way beyond the thousands that some religious people believe is the age of the world) to actually form, or the size and state of the universe around us. But why would God, or the Creator, fast forward through all of that stuff and then slow things back down when modern-day humans show up? If I created the universe, I would want to experience it in real-time. I would probably fast forward through some of the boring bits but I would have also probably started fast forwarding through some of human history as well. Get to the end and see what stupid thing we do to finally bring about the demise of our own species. It all just seems a little egotistical. Humans can be pretty amazing at times, but all the stuff happening in the universe is also amazing. I can't imagine someone would go to all the effort of creating an entire universe just to get to our existence. And then punish us and all that crap.

Tonight I watched YouTube videos and played piano. I slow down a bit toward the end of the second page but I can fairly reliably play the song I'm learning now, up to the point I have learned. Tomorrow I will need to start on the third page. After playing the song over and over again I took a break and just started noodling around and came up with a cool little riff. At some point I would like to come up with a full song but on all the instruments I know, I only ever come up with little riffs. I need to take the time to develop one into a full song.

I'm about to go to bed but right now I'm listening to Gregory Porter, a cool Jazz dude I saw on the British music show the other day. I really like his stuff. And I don't know if he has one or has any plans to make one, but he would make one hell of a Christmas album. I would buy multiple copies.