Vin

For all those who don’t know what the V.F.D. is, its the Volunteer Fire Department. It would be a great thing to put on future resumes and applications. Plus it’s community service, so I could get all my hours done for school. I’m old enough to join. I was at the county fair today and I saw a couple cars with V.F.D. liscence plates on them. Just seeing them redoubled my enthusiasm towards joining. The only thing stopping me is myself. I feel like I need another year before I’ll be ready. When I’m sixteen, which is on July 10, I’ll join.

I am most posotively trying. This is by far the hardest of my goals. I have been heaped with homework, pounded with papers, assasinated with essays . . . uh . . . bombarded with bookwork . . . and the such. It’s a difficult task it is. I have taken a break from my constant slaving to update my progress on the goals I’ve been keeping up with. So far I think I’m retaining A’s and B’s. Maybe one C, but I’ll get that little bugger.

A writing journal is a good idea for a jumbled mind. Everytime I have some spare time I sit down and read my last entry, just to see where I left off. Then I write about my characters, plots, story ideas, villians, and sometimes an inspirational quote. Sometimes I write down certain scenes that are unrelated to any story I’ve so far written or a scene of a story that hasn’t progressed that far yet. I can turn back to those and use them or elaborate on them when the need calls for it. If you don’t like to write free hand use a computer instead. Personally, I like the change of pace. Writing free hand is more difficult because your hand gets tired, so you won’t be writing for a long time and it won’t be as wordy because its just you writing to you (and there’s no automatic thesarus!)

I have finally found my zone in playing drums. I’m no longer self concious about people hearing me and embarassed that I don’t sound good. I don’t sound much better, but now I have something to play. I was playing drums and I gave up, again, and left the garage. I got to my room and realized I still had my drum sticks so I just kept them in my room. While listening to music I saw my drum sticks lying on the floor and succumbed to the sudden urge to play. I just hit on my leg (softly) and the bed and tryed to keep up with the music. I felt stupid because I wasn’t playing anything near the drums on the music, but I had the basic beat down. After two days of doing this I finally got the courage to play my real drum kit and lo and behold, I had those basic beats stuck in my head and was able to play them as soon as I sat down. They were simple, maybe five notes repeated with one variation every once in a while, but thats progress! I’ve been doing this for a week now and it seems less stupid as I get more fluent and have a wider range of things to play.

Last night I finally got an application form to a popular store near my school. A couple of my friends work there so it wouldn’t be a hostile environment or anything. My mother’s boyfriend was their first customer and he is friends with a couple people who work there, so I have a slight advantage. Now I have to make the best application I can muster. I’ll need some outstanding reccomendations because my past employment section will be blank. What could I put there instead of leaving it blank? I don’t have past employers, only the heavy work I do around the house. Today I cleaned the gutters. Thats a little more money in my pocket. Anything for a buck.

Thisis the hardest of my goals. I’m a procrastinator, which doesn’t help, but I’m smart. I can remember the lessons and I can figure out the problems with some thinkin, but doing the work is my problem. I hate taking the time to write essays, complete worksheets, and the worst, study. If I could do it all in school it would be no problem because I have nothing better to do. At home, though, I’m busy with the 1000 things I would rather do besides homework. I don’t want straight A’s, but I refuse to get any F’s or D’s.

My ways to get money go from mowing my lawn, to washing my friends dishes, to digging in the couch cushions for quarters. I’m desperate for money. What I need to start doing is taking every single oportunity that presents itself to make money short of selling my soul. Even jobs I’d rather not think about like cleaning the bathroom. If I want money, I’ll have to go to the extremises and past the limitations of an average teenager. If I could find a place that will 1. Hire me 2. Be within a ten minute drive and 3. Have good hours that go along with my schoolwork I will jump at the chance. But transportation is a huge deal. When I get a car/learn to drive I’ll be all set.

This I’ve actually started doing. I excercise when I’m stressed, which is usually right after school. I’ll stay in my room with the music really loud and excercise until I’m too tired to, then I’ll eat dinner, take a shower and do my homework. Then I’m ready for bed and happy with myself. What I want to start doing is drinking high carb drinks before I excercise so I have a lot of carbs to burn off into muscle mass. That way I can gain muscle weight, which is my ultimate goal for excercising.

I’ve already played bass for half a year and I’m posotive thats not my insturment. I’ve started playing drums now and it’s much better than bass and very fun, but it doesn’t feel right. So now I think I’ll learn acoustic. It feels right in my hands and when I play what I know I’m beaming with joy. I can get into it and I learn fairly fast. Now all I need is the money for an acoustic!

I haven’t been drawing as much as I’d like to. Lately though, I’ve been writing a little more and that motivates me to draw the characters. It helps me give them a fixed look and I improve my drawing skills as I repeatedly draw the characters until I get the right look. So having fun to draw characters and a reason to have to draw those characters is a good way to motivate yourself into drawing. Last thing, ALWAYS DOODLE. I doodle a lot and most of my bigger drawings come from smaller versions.

I know the best way to start doing this is to always have my camera with me. That way I don’t have an excuse for missing a shot. It also is a constant reminder to be on the lookout for interesting photographs. It’s the same as having a pad and pen when you want to write.

I’ve read the Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and it is by far one of the most amazing books I’ve ever laid eyes on. Most definately read this book. The ending is such a surprise and leaves so much room for debate and speculation without leaving things unanswered. The meaning of life is 42!

I began writing a long, long time ago. I started thinking more of it about two and a half years ago. I have a couple short stories, one novel-in-the-making, and countless ideas. Then, out of the blue I stopped writing. I’m pushing myself to write more and more often and I’m slowly getting back into the habit. Motivation is my key resource in writing and its very limited sometimes.

I’ve been fooling around on drums for a little while now and I can’t seem to get much better. I’ve managed to learn one or two things, but after that I stopped dead in my tracks and haven’t gone much further. Any tips on motivation? Any recomendations for things to learn, ways to practice, techniques to look into?