Analog-Theater 2.0

Before I start into today’s post, Robert has got the forums back online.  However, all the threads were deleted.   Feel free to sign up again and enjoy them.

I was talking to a friend of mine.  He said that I should post one goal a day, but since I’m working on 100 goals, that would take a while.  However, posting 10 or so at a time would make the posts way to long.  So, I have come to the conclusion that there is no hard and fast rule for how many I post.  Some of my goals have several paragraphs around them, others are short. 

2. Learn to play the violin – a lot of people I know play or want to play the guitar.  When I was younger, I wanted to play one, too.  Then I saw a music video, I can’t recall who it was now, but there was a woman who was rocking on a violin.  It was so cool.  I want to do that, too.

I read an interview with the Rock and he talked about how he learned how to play the guitar.  He said that he always carried one around with him and practiced with people that he knew could play.  All I need now is to buy a violin and find people who know how to play.  Actually, I know a few people.

3. Earn my black belt in TKD - I took Tae Kwon Do for about a year when I was living in Key West and I earned my orange belt, which is not very high, before I moved. I have found a few places here that teach it, but I have not made the time to attend, nor have I had the money to spend on it. To achieve this goal, I need to get some extra cash to pay for the classes, and start setting aside the time to attend. Of course, the easy way to do this would be for this website to take off and start earning enough revenue for me to pay for the classes.

Attending a Tae Kwon Do school is a good step to achieving this goal, but there is more that I can do to achieve that goal. I found a book I have on TKD with the different exercises and forms. I’m going to start practicing at home so that I am ready again when I sign up.

4. Become more spiritual – after posting the first chapter on my website, I got a message from my mother abut how I am not a nobody, I’m a precious child of God.  She is right about that, we are all children of God.  God knows us and answers our prayers. He knows that I want to improve my life and achieve these goals and if I have faith and be obedient, I’m sure that he will create opportunities to help me do that. The scriptures say “Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

At church there is a joke about the primary answer.  If you ask any question to a child in primary, they will say “read the scriptures, go to church, and pray”.  However, all of these things help a person draw closer to God.  I know that I’ve been slacking a little.  I need to make sure that I do each of these every day.

5. Learn to write better – not only learn better spelling and grammar, which I need, but I want to learn to write more meaningful and better organized papers.  In high school and college I dreaded essays, because I couldn’t make the ten word point into a thousand word paper.  I loved creative writing, though.  I have been an aspiring novelist; however the first book I published was a bomb.  I have gone back and looked at it again and I am disappointed with myself for having written that badly.  I have been studying different books about writing in an effort to improve my skills.

I have been working on a new book for a while now.  However, I want to get away from fiction.  I write fiction because it provides me with an escape from my life.  I picture myself in the story and write what I want to happen.  At times I get a little depressed because life isn’t like the stories.  I want to live those adventures, but I’m not.  One of my dreams was to become a travel writer, but every time I plan a trip to write about something comes up.  I have a book on travel writing.  I’m going to study it and find a way to take a trip (somewhere nearby) and write about it.  Maybe Kevan and I can go on a hike somewhere.

6. Develop my own style – Eric should appreciate this one.  He always complains about the fact that I’m a tee shirt and jeans type of guy.  He tried to help me out once, but I wasn’t comfortable with the wardrobe that he picked out for me.  I saw the anime Witchblade and I liked Hiroki Segawa.  He always wore a three piece suit and was immaculately groomed.  I thought that was pretty cool, but it would be very hard for me to pull off.  I’ve also been avoiding buy a new wardrobe because I really want to slim down and I don’t my new clothes to no longer fit in the immediate future.  But, with the goal to slim down and some of the goals later on, I should start paying attention to how I look and the tee shirt and jeans won’t cut it anymore.  I need to find something better.  Maybe I could try to pull off the three piece suit everyday (I’m going to need to buy a couple suits in that case).  Or I could try something a little more casual, like what Spike wears in Cowboy Bebop.  Once I have something put together, I’ll post pictures of it.  If I have more readers by then, I’ll hold a vote.

7. Learn calculus – I hate it when I fail, it’s just so annoying.  Well, I took a college calculus class once and failed miserably.  I just did not understand anything.  I guess it didn’t help that I had skipped precalculus.  So, I want to figure it out so that I can take the class again and know what’s going on.  To figure out calculus, I’m going to start a little easier, with precalculus.

8. Go on a date with Roxanne – Once I am more confident about my looks, and if Roxanne is back into the country, I will put myself to the test and try to woo her.  This should make my mom happy.  Roxanne is an amazing woman, she pretty, she’s funny, and she’s intelligent.  In my opinion that’s a perfect combination.  And at the moment, she’s not interested in me.  Being self conscious about my look, I immediately distrust anyone who appears interested in me.  However, when I slim down and dress nice, it will be a different story.  Another obstacle that I will need to overcome to get a date with her is the Atlantic Ocean.  He’s in Scotland right now, though she’ll have to come back to the US eventually.

9. Get a source of income – As I started putting together this list, I realized on thing.  Some of these goals will require money.  Such as buy a violin to learn how to play, buying a new wardrobe, and many of the others further down this list.  Some of them I will be able to get around.  There are places to take people on dates that are cheap or even free and there is a program to teach English in foreign countries (that will help out with some of the goals further down the list).  While being unemployed will give me time to achieve many of these goals, having an income would also help.  In a perfect world, I would have enough traffic on this site to support myself, but at the moment this is not the case which I why I am applying for jobs.  Or, if I do become an international master, I could try to play in chess tournaments for a living.  It has been done, but you have to win a lot of tournaments.