| I'm coming back to my journal because I want to do a lot of things in the upcoming year. It's time to accomplish the things I said I would during my hiatus from school. This is going to be my attempt to record how things are going, as well as help me organize my thoughts on how things are going.
The first step obviously is to say what exactly it is that I want to do. I will probably add to this list as the first month or so goes on. For now these are the main things I have in mind.
1. Re-Activate my journal. This was something that helped me back in high school when I was going through therapy, and I think it will be a good thing for me to get back into the habit of doing.
2. Prepare a schedule of exercises, and perform these exercises each night. I already have the first 6 weeks of this planned out, as the Navy Physical Therapy has a very useful planner on their website. I have left myself some room to be creative, but ultimately I plan to follow the Navy standards. They have a system of grading your physical ability, and my goal is to at least score the equivalent of a B in all areas. This will require me to join the swim center, which is conveniently located only a few miles from my house. It is an extra expense, but a necessary one.
This goal comes to mind because as I've grown older I've gotten in worse and worse shape. In 2010, there was a time in my life when I was not able to run. The physical act of the exercise put a strain on my body that created a great pain. With my history of physical activity, whether it be all the weight lifting classes or basketball, it was a real bummer that I wasn't able to engage in something as simple as running. I vow that I can return to the physical shape I once was in, and the only way to do it is to buckle down and do the work. Physical fitness is worthwhile, and nothing worthwhile is easy.
3. Improve the effort I make towards saving money. I have noticed lately that I am living paycheck to paycheck in my current lifestyle. This involves several factors, not all of which I will list. However, the main goal is to get to a point where my savings begin to outnumber my spending. This is, unfortunately, not something I can say I currently am doing. I have lots of resources available to me, and I have to start utilizing them better. By doing so, I will be much more secure financially when I get back to school in a few months.
I plan to track my spending much carefully, and make sure that I am spending underneath a certain limit on a weekly basis. Visiting Firehouse Subs four out of seven days is not only bad for this resolution, but also #2. I must keep my spending down so that I can invest in the things that will help me most come August.
4. Practice on a more regular basis. I have a recital program in mind, I need to get the literature and get crackalacking. The key to this one will be my scheduling. I have two calendars, one which has my workout schedule, and the other which will be my practice schedule. On this calendar I will track how long I spend playing my clarinet, saxophone or piano, as well as how long I spend playing a video game or watching TV (shall be labeled "Non-Productive Time", or NPT) so that I can keep myself honest with how I'm spending my time.
If I find myself in a situation where my NPT is heavily outweighing my practice time, then I will commit to shut down those things that will keep me from practicing. On the other side, if that I reach certain hourly goals, I will allow myself up to a two day vacation where that NPT counts don't occur.
5. Approach each situation with a stronger level of calm, and understanding. In the book I'm reading, Joseph Campbell describes the power of reason as the power of godliness. The only true form of reason would require each experience and action be made while disregarding those elements that make us human, specifically passion or a preconceived disposition. Not quite jedi like, but more open minded for sure. I hope this will also help calm my nerves while living in Spartanburg, where I find myself (unnecessarily?) anxious on a regular basis.
This should also help me with the relations with my friends and family. I need to try to hear more each time, and speak with clarity and conviction. Patience is a virtue, and to me the reasonable thing to do is practice that virtue to the best of my ability.
6. Cut the smoking. Nuff' said.
That is the groundwork for what I want to accomplish this year. It will be an undertaking, for sure. But I can't stop waiting around. What am I waiting for? There's nothing that should stop me anymore. Time to run the race. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| General asshats, Tipper Gore
Circle I Limbo Skip Bayless, Michael Vick
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind Paris Hilton
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow Saddam Hussein
Circle IV Rolling Weights Dick Cheney
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled River Styx Sarah Palin
Circle VI Buried for Eternity River Phlegyas The New England Patriots
Circle VII Burning Sands The Los Angeles Lakers
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement The New York Yankees
Circle IX Frozen in Ice Design your own hell
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Cool beans. The only other person I've heard of who did this sort of thing is Rayna, who is an ENFP. Interesting stuff.
I'm in Jersey, have been for about a week now. We've been doing a lot of chilling. I've been doing a lot of meeting people. It's been a good time. Saw Tropic Thunder and Wall-E, been in a hot tub and talked like a redneck in a diner, much to all the girls' delight. Fun times. We're on the way back to Rock Hill on Thursday, and I'm actually kinda glad. I miss my horn. And other people that I know. Not that I don't like being with Diana, I'm just ready to get back to real life is all. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Bullet For My Valentine- Scream Aim Fire | | Current Location: | Home | | Security: | | | Time: | 02:31 pm | | Current Mood: |  bored |
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| It has been quite a while, the last time I've posted anything saying, "Hey I'm not dead" was on September 11th. Three months later, school is over and now I'm sitting at home bored out of my skull.
I haven't really written anything about the school year, so here is a quick recap on the semester...
- I auditioned and got to be the 1st chair alto this year. I've kinda wanted it since last year, and after playing the lead chair for a while I didn't like it at all. It has really grown on me though and this is definitely a spot I wanna take. With Rogers on the way out, this kinda sets me in position to be the next top player in what may be Doc's last studio. Very exciting times :-) We had band tour this year, and being lead alto I got to play a couple solos, including for Ms. Walters from my junior high days when we stopped at Pendleton. The tour itself was very very successful, and I'm glad that it was good since it very well might be my last band tour. We ended the year with a concert in, of all places, the West Center. The acoustics were bad and I'm sure it sounded bad. They're currently working on our main auditorium, Byrnes, to get repaired and the organ put back in and all, so we can't play there. So the gym it is ha ha... reminds me of high school.
-Staying with music, I got selected to the collegiate honor band! It's held in January and I was selected on Bari, so hopefully it'll be a fun time. All I've heard is that it is way lame and that the ensemble is overbalanced and bad and there is never enough time to get anything done. But it'll still be nice to have it on my resume, and maybe I will get return trips in future years. No telling though...
- Last real music thing, my recital date has been decided, and it is March 5th. That's a wednesday, at 7:30 pm. I don't think anyone should come. If you really wanna hear it, I can burn you a CD afterwards. All I'm saying is that there will not be any facebook events created. I'll be playing four pieces: A baroque transcription of a Handel Sonata, A 20th century rag piece, a celtic sax quartet and my closer is a spanish dance. Should be fun stuff.
- Now for non-real music, the new Guitar Hero lasted me like, six days of playing it before I had everything 5*-ed. No problem, and there are more tough songs coming through the internet and such. It was a good buy, even though it is way easy. But just so everyone knows, I kick that games ass up and down no problem.
- As far as school is concerned, I had 18 hours this week, which kicked my ass. There was the normal bevy of music classes, along with biology which was way lame. I really enjoyed one professor in particular this semester, Dr. Parks, and his 20th century music history class (introduced me to Glassworks, which is awesome!) and am actually taking an elective class of his next semester on Wednesday nights. Our science classes are broken up into a lecture and a lab class. The lab was great, I had an awesome teacher and I don't forsee anything going wrong in that class. The lecture was an entirely different matter, and I'll feel really fortunate if I pull outta there with a C at least... Everything else should be fine though.
- Next semester I have like... 13 hours? Something way hella easy, because I've got a ton of crap going down next semester. I'm the FEO for Phi Mu Alpha, which means I'm going to be running our rush and recruiting pretty much the entire next semester. It's going to be a huge endeavor to make it all work out, so good thing little hours... on top of that is my recital, as well as the musical the school is putting on that I'm playing in as well as working at the West Center and getting through school. I'll be doing summer school as well to help make up a couple more hours and get my dreaded foreign language credits out of the way. So busy times next semester.
- as I mentioned earlier, I'm still working at the West Center, which is the campus health and wellness center. It's an easy gig: I sit at a desk, do my homework, avoid falling asleep, do minimal real work and make a paycheck every two weeks. Awesome. The latest challenge here was that I decided to take the early shift, meaning I had to be at campus at 5:45 every morning... and that sucked. I eventually got in the groove with it though, but it didn't matter in the end because later in the semester, due to budget cuts and such, the hours at the West Center got cut, so it started opening at 7 as opposed to 6, and I wound up losing six hours a week. But hey, making up the sleep was good, and I certainly needed it at exam time.
- One more real music thing that I have forgotten is that I am now playing a lot of clarinet as well as sax. I had to learn to play clarinet for the jazz band CD last year, and I've decided to keep working at it. I can't take lessons because, due to more budget cuts, secondary lessons have been cut. But I am a part of the clarinet choir here on campus, and I really like to play! It's cool because doubling like this is exactly what I wanna do for my career, and it's nice to be able to play one horn just as well as the other. Not that I can play clarinet just as well as sax, but it is definitely coming along. The hardest part is the reading, but honestly that's coming fast so I'm hoping that by the time I get outta here I will be considered proficient enough on clarinet to actually get clarinet gigs :-)
- Speaking of the jazz band CD, it came out and sounds great! If I wasn't so sick of the songs then I probably would have listened to it a lot more than I did. But at any rate, it sounds terrific, and I'm proud to have my name and picture in and on that thing. Very very proud of our work :-)
- I voted for Obama and he won. Woot.
- I'm living in Rock Hill this semester, and it has been interesting. It's a small house about fifteen minutes from campus, and it's all cool. Except that Justin moved out and the other people I live with I have no interest in spending anything beyond the minimal amount of time possible. So I feel kinda like a recluse at home, which is lame. The good thing is that I don't always have to stay there so I get to get away from it sometimes.
- I'm very much looking forward to drinking again. I did the math a few days ago and I have a little more than 90 days left. It's been over 400 days total. The party is going to be at my house on the 28th of March, and I really really can't wait :-) I will be celebrating on my own in Rock Hill on the 26th and 27th... I just can't wait :-)
- I'm finally done with goddamn piano! Fuck that class in its big piano ass.
- The only other thing I can think of that really went on was the I've been dating Diana for three months a couple days ago. She makes me happy :-)
So there's a little catch up for anyone who missed it. I'm gonna go and set my butt down in front of the tv with apple juice and white cheddar cheez-its and continue to enjoy my christmas break! | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Following suit, I am also not dead. Just been kinda all over the place doing and being and such. I still check this thing from time to time, I just haven't written anything lately. I will update more when I actually get a little time. For now though, it's almost bed time. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Band Camp started today and I'm so incredibly happy with this gig. For one thing the staff is way cool. There are two guys from Crown there, a horn player and a quint dude, as well as a freshman percussion dude who just graduated York and is coming to Winthrop. But then here's the great part: The rest of the staff are all friends from Winthrop! Brandon Sanders, who played piano with me on my jazz combos noon recital, is working with the trumpets. Erin is handling all the low brass and Joe Wilson is doing the tubas. Not only that, but when it's time to break up for sectionals Lashara comes in and handles the clarinets. This is particularly awesome because it frees me up so I can work with the saxes only, who are quite talented and can play this tough music very well for the first day of band camp. We were able to work through the entire opener in just today, and I found out later that a lot of the other sections didn't even make it half as far as we did. The section got many compliments from Mr. Turner. It's a good group for him, because of the seven of them four are very far along and the other three are pretty solid. Four altos and three tenors, and they have a great section sound, as far as their blend. And there are zero seniors too, so this will be a strong section for a few years. I'm really hoping that if the sax section keeps drawing compliments that Mr. Turner might offer me a job for the season, which would be awesome if I could make it work with my schedule. Even if it doesn't, the school is really nice and so I'm guessing it'll pay handsomely. I've heard rumors of what it might be, and it sounds like a good gig to have, and even if I don't get a regular gig I'm hoping he might ask me to come back next year.
I'm looking forward to these next fews days, not only because of band camp but also because I'm making a steady recovery from one of the worst conditions I've ever been in recent memory as far as my health is concerned. On Sunday, we went to see Marshall and Ryan march in a DCI show up in Charlotte, and on the way there I started to feel pain in the left ribcage area of my chest whenever I would breath. It was an odd feeling, but it wasn't a really terrible one, it just was an annoying ache every now and again. Well, I slept in my bed that night and woke up around two because of the pain in my chest. It had intensified tremendously, and the pain of breathing and coughing and moving my upper body was agonizing. I kept trying to go to sleep, and it was off and on all throughout the night. I got out of bed and dragged myself downstairs and pretty much just laid on the couch and watched Sportscenter while writhing in pain. At about 8:30, Taylor came down and I had him take me to the doctors office, where I got X-Rays taken. The doctor did say that my lungs and ribs looked good, and he said that he thought it could be one of three things
a. A pulled muscle. This is my leading choice, since I have been doing a rigorous regimen of push-ups in the recent days to try and make my body a sexier piece of man meat than it already is. I could have worked too hard and when the humidity from the DCI show visit could have done it in from there.
b. Acid Reflux. The medicine the doctor gave me was about four bottles of anti-heart burn medicine, and as I've taken it each day my condition has slowly gotten better. Not only that, but my dad also endorses this idea, which makes it seem more credible.
c. I'm about to get shingles. That would totally fucking suck. I don't want to be bed-ridden and highly contagious. I'm really hoping this isn't the case
At any rate, whatever it is, it's getting better.I'm feeling better and better each day, and I think band camp will help because it'll take my mind away from the painful bursts. The only problem I had today was that the pain made me cough like a smoker in my sectional today, but it was only for a second and these days I pretty much am a smoker so...
I've decided that I'm going to write an essay on this summer once it draws to a close. This summer really has been a memorable, crazy summer for me. I've gone through a lot of ups and downs and happiness and depression. It's been a crazy summer indeed, and I think it would be good to write about it and reflect on everything that has happened in my life these last few months. We'll see what happens...
I'll be moving into my house very soon. It's an exciting time, because this is my first house. I'm really excited to have a place of my own. Dave had a pretty sweet idea too, which was for me to hang up a hammock in the room. Could be awesome, we'll see what happens...
Coheed concert is next week. Should be a fun time, since I'll get to meet and hang out with Maria's siblings on the trip. We'll see how it all goes down.
I'm glad things are on the upward swing. I hope I don't come crashing down soon... | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So I have come to a conclusion: Fuck Spartanburg, I'm leaving this weekend! I'm going to get my parents to front the money and I am packing it up and leaving here. I don't know when it will be, but I'm definitely moving back this weekend! Woot woot!
In health news, my back has been a real bitch lately. It seems like it'll hurt at random times whenever I put wait on my left leg, and it makes moving really painful too. I don't know what triggers it, but it sucks when it kicks in at work.
Speaking of work, my fears were confirmed. See, I figured for a while that all my co-workers hated me. But none of them had done anything to confirm this, so I just figured I was being really really paranoid. But lately they've been far colder than they ever have, and the most volatile one, simply named T, has started coming after me a lot and refuses to work with me. Not only that, but the bosses hate me too. Today I got into work earlier than usual, and I stood around for a little while waiting for the first truck to pull around. So I'm sitting there watching it turn when Zane, the second-in-command at the plant, comes up to me and tells me two trucks had cancelled, so I should take the day off. Now Zane and I have had a few scuffles while I've been there, mainly because he's a huge fucking redneck who doesn't open his damn mouth when he speaks. Because of this, I can hardly understand a word that comes outta his billy goat mouth. And that often leads to miscommunication, and him yelling at me. One time he asked me if I understood english, and I swear I wanted to go off on him. Anyway, Zane was in charge because the head guy, Bob, was sent to California on business and wouldn't be there this week. And Zane came to me first to tell me to take the day off. Now were I the newest guy then I would have seen it coming. But I was definitely two of the other guys senior at the warehouse. So what he was basically saying was that he would rather have any of those other guys than he'd want me there. Or, in simpler terms, he likes me least. So now I've got him on my back too.
So now the only ones who like me at the warehouse are the women, and Bob. Bob isn't around, so he can't do me much good. But it made happy the other day when the women said they were going to miss me. Bob won't miss me, he probably doesn't have much faith in me either. But whatever. I only have to go two more days and then I'm done with that shitty job. Consider this the last warehouse job I ever have. And also consider me officially looking for a summer job in Rock Hill immediately following Christmas...
The only other notable thing I've been doing is talking to Catherine Hunsinger a lot while she goes through recovery from her wisdom tooth surgery. She is quite a fun person to talk to, and it kind of makes me wish the rest of my friends could get to know her enough to see that she is more than the cold hearted bitch most of the guys think she is. I'm not saying she isn't a bit of a bitch, but there is more to her than that, which I am learning the more and more I talk to her. It's nice to see she's opening up to me a little.
Aaaaaaand that's all. Captain, OUT! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Ugh. I did some math and determined I'd be out of here by next weekend. But my math was wrong, and so now I've got at least one more week to tack onto that total... No fun at all. I want to be gone so bad. I hate it here...
By the time I'm ready to finally get back to Rock Hill, it'll be time for me to move into my new house. Super excited. Can't wait to see how it all works out. I need to begin packing stuff when I get back so that I won't have to make a lot of trips...
Anyway, that's it for now. Short update. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Wimbeldon is on in the other room | | Current Location: | Home | | Security: | | | Subject: | And the wheels come off | | Time: | 01:20 pm | | Current Mood: |  blank |
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| I was making it through all this staying in Spartanburg stuff, but lately my patience has worn thin. This long weekend was supposed to be nice and restful and fun, but it has instead re-affirmed how much I hate hate hate it here. I don't really enjoy being around my parents much. And lately my copy of Guitar Hero has stopped working, so I'm now back to having not a damn thing to do. On top of it, work has been sketchy lately, with five of my last six shifts resulting in getting off early, and I'm not even going in on Monday because they don't need me. With bills still to pay, my Rock Hill arrival just keeps on getting pushed back and back and back and it is almost maddening to think that I'm going to have to extend my stay here.
That's pretty much the only update, is that I hate my life hardcore right now. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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thefieldman32's journal
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