The Wondeful World of Books

So as per one of my resolutions, I have been reading quite a bit lately. So far this year I have read:
Starr: The Bart Starr story
Black and Blue: A history of the NFC Central Division
and three quarters of Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street

You might have noticed that all the books are about real people and/or places and/or things. This is because I enjoy reading about things that actually happened. It somehow makes it worthwhile in my mind to spend time reading if the final result is that I'm smarter than I was before. This isn't to say that I won't read non-historical books. The next one on the queue is The Appeal by John Grisham, and while John has written more and more historical books of late, this one is in the mold of his originals...ie, it's about lawyers.

Basically, I just have to be entertained by it. If I don't feel forced into reading it, then I'm not opposed to it. There has been several times over the last few weeks where I was distracted by other things and simply could not read. It wasn't because the books were lame or boring, because they definitely weren't. The fact of the matter is that I view reading as a pure entertainment option, although I'm not opposed to learning something along the way.

One problem that has arisen from this is that I can't afford all the books I want. I would absolutely love to read about WWII. Borders has a number of books about the Russians and Germans and Italians before and during the war. I'm fascinated by all of them...just by reading the blurbs on the inside cover. Some day I plan on reading many of them, limited partially by the time I have for reading, but mostly by the cost. In addition to the WWII books, I have always enjoyed reading about the civil war. The current book I am most interested in acquiring is Team of Rivals which is about Lincolns cabinet.

Anyway, I'm off to read more about Sesame Street...and I hear Grisham has a new book coming out in February...

Kevin Sieg

Singing the Blues [Clues]

Being in this latest musical has definitely made me realize something...I can completely love a show, greatly enjoy being in said show, and still not actually like the people I'm in the show with. I should probably warn you that this will be a bit of a whiny post which doesn't necessarily reflect poorly on my fellow cast mates as much as my lousy attitude toward them.

The problem, as it appears to me, is that there is a distinct lack of people who I am completely at ease with. The majority of the cast is high school girls which never used to be a problem for me, until everyone started making fun of me for hanging out with that particular age group. Something about it being not generally an accepted practice in our society. Furthermore, the ones who ARE my age are all "involved" shall we say, with other members of the cast, IE: Amy and Taylor, Libby and Nina with their cronie Kathryn.

I guess the biggest problem is that I can't handle being left out. I don't generally like being alone, and this show has made that unfortunate section of my life quite painfully obvious. That, however, is another entry entirely.

I guess I'll just focus on the joy I get from singing and dancing as a giant salt shaker. It sounds strange, but I love every second of my stage time, even if I am in a ridiculous outfit. Also, it makes me appreciate my ties to the Theatre Guild even more, and Anything Goes simply cannot come soon enough. To quote Don Cheadle in Ocean's Eleven, "That's terrific! It will be nice working with proper villains again!"

Kevin "Mr. Salt" Sieg

Learning to Crawl

Well, at least one of my resolutions should be fulfilled, as this will be the third entry in roughly a week. I don't know that I'll keep that pace up, but this seems be serving as a good sounding board for getting my thoughts out in an organized manner.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my so called Christian "walk" and I haven't been too happy with the way it looks. Yes, I attend church regularly, and am in fact helping get a new Church plant started here in Eau Claire. Yes, I have been reading a couple different devotional books, though I haven't really been taking notes. (probably should remedy that asap) Yes, I have been turning to God in prayer more often, though not nearly as much as I should. The problem is I'm not actually LIVING my life the way God desires.

That isn't to say that I'm doing the opposite extreme. I'm not running around the city naked. I'm not going out and getting wasted(though I do feel a beer is OK now and again as long as I don't get drunk). I'm not having wild sex parties. I'm not doing drugs. I'm not tipping over handicapped peoples wheelchairs or poking retards with a stick.

The thing is I'm also not 100% about God all the time. This bothers me because in all the books I'm reading, the authors are super Christian people. Everything they do or say is related to God in some way. Their very thought processes are programmed, it seems, to focus only on Him. I have trouble praying for five minutes straight without being distracted by some random thoughts. I want to be walking among these great Christian men and women, but it seems I can't even figure out how to crawl, let alone stand up.

I equate it too my niece. As a 7 month old, her newest thing is to get up on her knees and one hand, and then grunt and struggle as she tries to figure out how to get that second hand in place so she can actually go somewhere. Usually she gives up after awhile and then just scoots forward on her stomach. While it's cute too watch, it would be much more productive for her to be able to crawl, as she could go faster, and do more.

That's how I see myself as a Christian. I know what I want to do. I have the general idea of what I have to do. I just can't seem to get all the parts in place to actually do it. it's kind of a huge struggle for me, because I want to be able to Walk with Him NOW. I don't want it to take a lot of time and effort. The thing is, just like my niece will eventually figure out how to crawl, and then walk, so too will I eventually figure out this Christianity thing, if I keep working on it, and relying on God to get me through.

Another tie-in to the crawling analogy is that usually I take pity on her, and pick her up. in the same way, I have my pastor and other Christian influence in my life who "pick me up" with encouragement and advice on how to proceed.

I know I'm not perfect. I know it's going to take a long time to get where God wants me to be. I know it won't be easy. But I am learning to Crawl, and for now, that simply has to be enough.

Kevin Sieg

2009: And so it begins.

For my first entry of 2009, what else could I possibly write about then New Years Resolutions? Thanks to the amusingly inspirational Danielle Ryan, I have to decided to actually make some this year.

My first resolution, which I proclaimed to my roommates a couple nights ago, is to make at least one New Years Resolution. I think I already succeeded with this one, so let's move on to the "real" resolutions for '09. For the record, they are going to be in no particular order, as I haven't actually thought of any yet, and will be written out as I think of them. Here goes!!

1. Read more. I used to read all the time, but since my introduction to the PS2, it has definitely fallen by the wayside. The new goal is to read at least 18 books by the end of the year. "Books" shall hereafter be defined as being of at least 150 pages in length, and have to be at least 75% words...I know 18 seems like a smallish number, but I believe in attainable goals, as the whole point of these things is too make you feel better about your life.

2. Finish scrap booking at least through '08. Right now I'm in June 0f '07, so not so far behind, but still, it'd be nice to catch up to within a year...

3. Pay off my debts and keep total balances due under $1,000 at any given time. Again, $1,000 may seem like a rather large margin of error, but considering that's only $250 per card it would be an improvement. Baby steps. Maybe next year we can knock it down to $500 or less.

4. Get Married. No, I'm just kidding. But it would be nice to get a girlfriend and maybe even a fiance?

5. Make an Appearance on Couchcapades. This one is entirely dependent on Libby, so hopefully he reads this. Most of you probably don't even know what Couchcapades is. Google it. Those are the guys I live with.

6. How many of these are you supposed to make? Number 6 will be update this blog regularly. I've never been all that good at keeping things updated, but we'll try to turn over a new leaf, to borrow a cliche phrase.

7. Exercise...at least once a week. Again with the wimpy goal, but like I said, attainable is good, and it'd be a vast improvement over exercising 4 times a year, which is the current ratio...also "exercise" shall hereafter be defined as any strenuous activity that lasts at least 20 minutes and has no other goal but to be exercise. This means that work, musicals, shoveling snow, and walking to the grocery store DON'T count.

That seems like enough. Tune in next year to find out how I did.

Burger Me,
Kevin Sieg