I finished all of my magazines pretty early this month. The only article that really stood out, this month, is one of the first ones that I read. It was a little profile piece on Usain Bolt. It was awe inspiring and depressing, all at once. Apparently Bolt doesn’t really even try as hard as he can. He is just that good.

As a result burning through the mags so quickly, I had to resort to some heavier literature during the commute.  Reagan’s parents (knowing how I love historical literature) gave me a copy of Jon Mecham’s “American Lion.” For Christmas. I started into it, this week. So far, I have really enjoyed it.

Here come the other useless tidbits:

• Reagan’s cousin is going to be in town this weekend. We will be attending the first baseball game of the season with him, this Friday night.
• Since we are going to baseball, we will be missing the NYC premier of Banksy’s movie (we will probably catch it Saturday night, if you wanna come). If you are a fan, and you are in NYC, you should check it out, Friday. There was all kinds of hooplah at the LA premier. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are similar antics planned for Friday night.
• Running has been going ok. I did a 26:26 4mi race last Sunday, then took the last 2 days off to give my knees/blisters a break. I’ll be back on it, later tonight.
• It is allergy season. I have always had really bad allergies, since I was a little kid. Occasionally so bad that I found myself in the insta-care waiting for an adrenaline shot, with my eyes swollen shut. I moved to Brazil for two years, came back and my allergies have practically been gone ever since. It is weird to not be the one sneezing my face off, anymore.
• I did some spring cleaning last night, in my home office (I still have a long way to go). I kicked up enough dust that, even w/o allergies, I went to bed with a tickle in the back of my throat. Incidentally, I carried out 4 trash bags of old law school outlines and shredded docs.
• Piper seems to be in great spirits, these days. I was cracking up at the photos that Reagan took during her visit, yesterday.
• Speaking of photos, I launched a Facebook photo page, today. If you read this blog, then you have probably already seen all of the content on there.

The first one caught my eye because it is about a guy who lives in a cave in Moab. It’s called “Could you survive without money? Meet the guy who does.” It was in the latest issue of Details. It is basically about a guy named Daniel Suelo who used to be a college professor before swearing off modern capitalism, and reverting to living off of the land.

The author follows Suelo around Moab, documenting the way that he subsists from dumpster diving, eating road kill, and sleeping in a cave.

I confess that the main reason that I was interested in the article is because it involves Moab. Frankly, I would be very surprised if Suelo is the only guy in Moab who lives in a cave. As I was reading it, I thought that his ideas also probably seem pretty tame compared to some of the other philosophies that abound in that region. It certainly is a beautiful place to be homeless though.

I also thought that the idea of swearing off money was an interesting one. It is a quick read, so even if you hate it, you won’t be wasting more than a few minutes. Christopher Ketcham is the author. The photo is by Mark Heithoff. Here is the link.

The next article that really grabbed me, this week is called “Never Forget,” by Michael Patemiti. The article ran in the latest issue of GQ. I am not sure how to best describe this article. I want to call it deeply disturbing, but it is also a heart-breaker. Definitely only read it, if you have a strong stomach. The story details the atrocities that occurred in Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

The author focuses on one labor camp specifically, called S-21, where roughly 15,000 Cambodians were tortured and murdered. The story also catches up a couple of the seven people who survived the camp, as well as telling the story of the former Khmer Rouge operative who was in charge of running the camp.

I definitely recommend this story, not only as an extremely moving story, but as a fantastic piece of journalism. Here is the link.

If you get bored easily, do this instead. If you are looking for a less entertaining way to burn through this Friday afternoon, read on. It seems like not matter what I do, I can’t get away from Ryan freaking Seacrest. It all started when he was on the cover of one of my magazines, recently. I mean, the guy has always been around. How long has American Idol been on, now? But Lately, it seems like Seacrest over-saturation/inundation, has been taken to new heights, at least as far as the media that I subject myself to, is concerned.

It used to be that I would only have to put up with the guy during American Idol (by default) because Reagan is a pretty regular watcher. Even if I’m not in the same room, I have to hear his mindless banter with the contestants, and attempts to land a verbal zinger on Simon. This was more than enough for me. In fact that only thing that made it bearable was watching Joel McHale make fun of the exact same Seacrest garbage that was making me crazy. If you ever watch the Soup, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Ok, so there was that. Then suddenly, Seacrest starts hosting the Times Square New Year show with Dick Clark. Holy crap. Is Seacrest the new Dick Clark?

Not that I really have anything against Seacrest. I don’t. It just seems like his face and name are everywhere lately (possibly seems like this since American Idol is underway, again). But today was the kicker.

As I mentioned previously, I have a pretty hefty stack of books on the reading list for this year, already. So I have been trying to push through and finish one of the books that I got for Christmas. It is TSAR, by Ted Bell. The book is like a modern James Bondish, spy novel. The main character, Alex Hawke, is even British. The author does a pretty good job of dropping all sorts of Pop-culture knick knacks into the plot, making it relatable. So there I am, reading a long, as I ride the train into work this morning and whose name pops up in the book? The little sport coat wearing guy himself, R. Seacrest.

It is comforting to know that Seacrest will still be getting gigs in the future even if it is  hosting a media junket to showcase the launch of a modern Russian airship, styled after the old Zeppelins.

Since my sleep schedule has been all out of wack, I have been fighting my alarm in the mornings. This morning was the first time in 2 weeks that I have had to get up early to move the car. I took advantage of the fact that I was awake, and got a lot done this morning. Including, coming into work early, to get a head start of a huge pile of rubbish that I will probably get trumped by something else, then firedrilled back to life at an inopportune time, if I don’t get it out of the way.  Anyway, like most people in this town, my headphones are part of my standard commuting gear. I always have them on, and turned up pretty loud. It helps drown out loud talkers, people arguing over getting shoved, etc. But occasionally, not having audible sensory of ambient noises can prove to be embarrassing. The combination of coming in early, and having headphones turned up, caused one such embarrassing moment for me, this morning. My daily alarm is generally set for 7:30, or 8 (I use G-calendar updates to wake me up for moving the car), and it is this really cheesy tune called “Eurotrance.” Chances are you also have a blackberry and know this tune. If you don’t have a blackberry, or haven’t heard this tune, the name accurately conveys the essence of the tune. Yeah, pretty fruity. Anyway, I got on the train this morning around 7:45, the alarm was set for 8. I arrived at work a little after 8:30 and didn’t notice that my alarm had been going off, until I got into my office and took out my headphones. That’s right, I was walking around [completely oblivious to the fact that I was] audibly blasting Eurotrance [for the benefit of my headphone-less fellow commuters]  for over 30 minutes this morning. Sweet.

Other goings ons:

-I have a mountain of reading to do right now. I’m currently reading Robert Hamburger’s new book, and TSAR, both which I received for Christmas. On deck I have 2 David McCullough books, one which I received in the mail yesterday from my dad (1776) and the other, which was given to me by one of our secretaries (John Adams) when he saw 1776 on my desk and assured me that I would also like John Adams. I can’t wait to read them all.

-Because of the books I listed above, I am about 2 issues behind on GQ and the rest of the men’s magazines. Was there anything good in the Jennifer Anisten (SP?) or Lebron James issues?

-Reagan and I are about to have an anniversary and I haven’t even planned anything for it. Ideas?