Jazzin' up the place.

Playing music in public places is fun to do. Part of it is because I like to listen to the music and part of it is because I like the art of performance. I certainly am not so skilled at the latter but I also really enjoy practicing to somehow get better at it. Even when the temperature is up a little too high.

I did not, however, get enough of my homework done today. I have gobs of homework that need doing as soon as possible. Tomorrow is my personal deadline and I really need to stick to it for once. I know it can be done... I just need to DO IT. So ya... that is my plan for tomorrow. Boom.

Responsibility of creativity.

Sometimes I am compelled to learn and improve so fiercely that I am equally compelled to help lift the level of those around me just to increase the opportunity of my own learning and improvement. It almost seems strange in someways but it certainly seems enjoyable to me in most regards. I do enjoy helping others a lot.

This kind of mentality has gotten me into a position of undeclared leadership, which will lead me to carry a lot of weight in the future as I attempt to build the digital media production club at school, and even though I expect a certain level of failure I similarly expect a good level of success. I really look forward to the experiences altogether.

The beautiful success of friends.

I am thoroughly overjoyed by the success my friends experience, more especially when I am able to help in the process, even if only a little. I have generally enjoyed the experience of vicarious blessings for most of my life, as I am far more focused on the lives of others than I am on my own, and even though I have become somewhat self-focused over the last few years I am still quite thrilled to see good people move up in the world. It is yet another tremendous blessing I am so grateful to enjoy!

Hitting the fan... with my face!

Which is pretty much how this part of every term feels, now that the crunch for finals projects and stuff is already upon me. Actually, it is a little earlier this term since my Art History class is a couple weeks ahead of the curve. Oh, the fun!

Will I make it through it all in one piece? Sure. Will I like it? Probably not while it is happening. What will I think about it after it is all said and done? Some of that depends on how I perform, and other parts of it will leave a profound sense of accomplishment stirring in my bones. Pushing my way through a brick wall tends to do that kind of thing for me.

Day one... again.

In a good way, even. I think this is a mindset that, though it could take some time to get used to, could help me focus on the right things in life with far more consistency than I am prone to doing generally. It is, after all, the truth of life, correct?

Today IS the first day of the rest of my life. Tomorrow will be that as well. And on with the next ad infinitum. Oh, the blessings of time!

The first day of the rest of my life.

I think that idea might be somewhat of an oxymoron... or maybe a conundrum... I am not too sure, either way. In any case, today feels like the beginning of something new. Not tremendously different, but new, nonetheless. This is the way every day should feel, in all reality.

I like to be optimistic about life as a whole. I know I fall short in that desire in certain areas of life(like my ideas about finding a girl) but I actually am optimistic about pretty much everything else. School keeps me learning, work keeps me bill-paying, sports keep me semi-healthy, and music keeps me full of creative motivation. One day(and hopefully it is not just "one") I will likely be optimistic about the girl stuff but I guess I just have to be patient about it for now.

This will be a tough but good week. Mostly because of school stuff but nothing I can not handle in general. This is a small piece of my optimism.

Planing the disc.

I feel like there could be some sort of life metaphor likened to the act of getting a better thrown disc to level out and fly flat. I really have no idea what it could possibly be so I guess I will just leave it alone for now.

I really enjoyed disc golfing today because I feel like I made a pretty good break-through in my technique/style. It is all just baby steps I guess but I think each noticeable step is pretty significant no matter the size. At least I am sure that can have some sort of life metaphor parallels.

So... onward and upward, I suppose... or onward and forward... really far.

Black and blue Friday.

Even though I did not work at any given point during the day I still participated in the "Black Friday" insanity through the simple purchase of something on sale online. No, I did not have to stand in any physical line under looming possibility of my own bodily detriment. I did, however, miss a good sale that I would have liked to taken advantage of. Meh. Better luck next time, I suppose. I can take my lumps like a man every now and then.

And that was the hardest part of my day. I certainly could claim that four or so hours in the cold rain was rough but the fact is that I chose to be out there. And it was fun, even! I like flinging discs around a lot, I suppose.

Now, it is back to work for me. My paycheck really missed the last two days of non-work but I can not really complain. It is all good in any case.

The gift of gratitude.

I am grateful for the sincere feeling of gratitude I have when I consider the bounteous blessings with which I am blessed.

I am grateful for the challenges of improvement in every area of life which I am lacking the level of skill I one day hope to have.

I am grateful for the diversity of people and the knowledge that we share a great level of commonality despite our vast differences.

I am grateful for the verbally unspoken warmth of my family's love.

I am grateful for a break in the pace of things where I get to basically sit and think about things mundane as well as things important or interesting.

Sideways rain.

It has been a while since I have experienced this kind of elemental extremity, so I certainly can not complain for any real reason, but whoah was it something else this morning! My pants were soaked for hours after my shift. I definitely need to wear my snow pants next time.

Thus,

I am grateful to own snow pants to make my life warmer and dryer.

I am grateful to have cool teachers that really seem to care about me and my actual learning.

I am grateful to enjoy a game or two with good friends.

I am grateful for a day off once in a while... even two days off, once in a while, are nice.

I am grateful to learn more and more about the career I am pursuing on a daily basis.

Gratitudial duty.

I am grateful that I am quite exhausted right now and look forward to the bed as if it is a good meal... which it might be... for my mind.

I am grateful for the feeling that I often get good deals when I shop for things even if the reality is that I am not getting such good deals... I may never know whether I am or not but that does not really matter.

I am grateful that my poor little car has been so faithfully reliable for as long as it has. I really need to give him an oil change as soon as possible.

I am grateful for new things to learn at work every day I am there. It is always that way when a person is new to a job, but I think the variety of things to learn at my newest job is quite extensive.

I am grateful for my semi-efficient creativity and ability to find seemingly good ideas about potentially challenging and complex problems. The puzzles of life are meant to be solved in pieces.

Gratitude week begins.

I am thankful for tons of cool friends who like to eat lots of free food with me.

I am thankful for a splendid art history class that reminds me about the importance of prayer.

I am thankful for my job and all the awesome things it helps me look forward to.

I am thankful for the ability to think a lot and express some of those thoughts with a little clarity once in a while.

I am thankful for music and riddles and optimism, not necessarily in that order or even bundled together in that way.

I am thankful that it was not even hard to think of at least five different, important things that I am thankful for right now.

The homestretch into Thanksgiving week.

Maybe I would call this the anchor lap. Shouldn't be too tough since midterms are over now. Though I know I certainly have a good amount of work cutout for me in a couple of my classes, anyway.

Going from a simple, easy, non-day, into a straightforward, non-lethargic, piece of time. Probably does not sound too fun but I think it will be just dandy!

Rain the old man away.

Today I opted to skip the Turkey Bowl excitement because of the cold, rainy weather and it made me realize that I am probably starting to get to that point in life where my age is actually a factor. I am sure it actually has been a factor for quite a while but mentally I have not really yielded to my body's protests very much over the years... which is probably why my back is not very happy with me right now. Ha.

So, despite my decision to skip out on what is normally a very fun activity, I had a good day with some friends anyway. All kinds of good in a totally different way.

Time and a half is my friend!

I just found out that every hour after five hours in a shift is overtime(I worked almost seven hours today). Score! My paycheck will be slightly happier... which is nice since that is "Black Friday" and whatnot. So, I guess this is the good news of the day for me.

Beyond that, I am quite past my bedtime and my eyes are pretty heavy so I suppose I will cut this entry even shorter than normal for me. Whoops.

Sleeping with the lights on.

Sometimes I catch myself walking through life in a bit of an auto-pilot mode wondering what the heck I have been doing for so long... it is usually a stirring revelation that I tend to forget the importance of fairly quickly. Today has not actually been one of those times, though, it feels like it could have been if I were paying better attention. Maybe today was one of those moments in between that could serve as a reminder anyway.

Midterm mayhem.

I am glad to be through the testing part of midterms week but still a bit trepidatious about the homework I have left to complete before Friday night. The sad fruits of procrastination, I am loathe to say. I am definitely going to eat a big ol' bowl of ice cream when I am done with that stuff. I don't even care if it's on sale or not by the time I need(yes, I am using the word "need") to go buy it. Yum!

Rush into zombieness.

The day was, in general, a pretty typical day. All of that changed, however, when my band mate called me up and invited me to a Rush concert. Against my better judgement I decided it would be my evening activity in lieu of the sleep that would be revitalizing me at the moment. I thought "hey, free Rush tickets should not be passed up"... or something to that effect. Tomorrow I might think something different.

The Monday non-blues.

It is always a nice thing when Monday's are relatively easy. This is mainly because I know the next couple or so days will be somewhat challenging by comparison.

I have to say, if I have not said it before, that I am actually quite glad for my daily commute. It is a grand and peaceful moment of contemplation and planning that I am not sure I would find in any other way. I often have lots of ideas to sort through about all kinds of projects and plans for the future. Of course, and somewhat frustratingly, I produce a veritable crop of good intentions which are never realized by my diligence, or lack thereof. But, to some degree, this is certainly not the worst thing ever either. I do drive quite a bit... which means I get to plan quite a bit. I suppose it is simply a matter of planning time/doing time ratio imbalance. Either way, I am glad for the opportunity.

Rolling into midterms week again... for the nth time.

I few more days more and the midterm week will officially be bygone and my stress level will diminish a small piece or two. I have a crumb-load of work to do by then but I suppose that is nothing new by any stretch. Tomorrow morning is a plan for work done-getting time. The day will be filled in by several more of those as expected. Focus is the key to the whole melee. Though, I am sure it needn't be explained in such a flurry of strange, disjointed phrases as these of this paragraph.

Life is a many splendorous thing. That's what I heard once, anyway. I'll agree to it from my perspective. Glad to be a participant on such a regular basis!

Rolling with the shoot.

Today was the second day of my big shoot and it was quite a learning experience. There is SO much to do and doing it all on your own would basically be impossible. I am so glad to have the help I have had.

I think we made a pretty good dose of progress today. The weather was beautiful, though certainly on the cold side, and it made for some excellent shots. I look forward to seeing what happens with the footage in post production.

Cold on the knees.

Winter has come into town with rip-roarin' fashion on its boots. Shooting the production still rocks my socks. Hearing and heaven are not too far from the truth. The weekend is as long as the lines between it. Murky metamorphosis just for fun.

Annual Piemas festivity.

Since today was basically a non-non-work day, except for the brief pie-laden exploration of a couple or so hours ago, I will keep my remarks brief and to the pie-tipped point.

I enjoy uncommon, friendly gatherings, the smiles and funny quips, with the sweet smells of the holidays wafting through the air. I am glad for such grand folk in my life and equally glad they open the door to me from time to time.

Long day accomplishment.

These longs days are definitely a challenge and every time I survive the entire span of one I need to be proud of myself. Tomorrow will definitely be a collateral challenge but it will certainly be much more manageable than today's experience was. Well... that is the expectation, anyway.

The steepening hill.

So... four more years of increasing social trials. I suppose for those who make it out the other side of it alive will be made stronger for having survived it... but that number of fair folks will certainly be smaller. I hope I am blessed enough to be listed among their ranks. I am certainly glad to have survived the first four years... even if only by the skin of my teeth. The thin skin of my teeth.

Building motivation.

It feels like it is something that literally needs to be constructed in my life in order for it to have the proper effect. I certainly have the general desire of finding a suitable companion but it is not, in and of itself, actual motivation. I wonder why I have not really noticed this before?

So, I am all kinds of talk, when it comes to what things should be done. Where is my walk, one might ask? Somewhere lost in the wasteland of my gaping mindscape I suppose. There could be worse places for it, I suppose.

We be jammin'.

And it is just all kinds of fun and a few kinds of games as well. The challenge is certainly there and I have a long way to go before I expect to feel proficient as well. I am not really sure how we are getting by as well as we are but I am grateful the audiences have been so kind.

PLUS, it is daylight savings and I get to sleep a little longer than expected. Who doesn't think that is totally awesome?!

Hooking into hobbies.

I am enjoying disc golf more and more these days. I guess it comes with the increase of enjoyable shots and the further expectation of better shots to come. It is a very natural path of progress in any endeavor, I suppose, but, as with pretty much any sport, the feeling of performing something well also has a physically positive manifestation to associate to the emotional ones that come with improvement. I apologize for laboring through such a simple concept with such verbose expressions.

I look forward(as is basically perpetual with me anyway) to all kinds of things that life is sending my way. I am certainly blessed beyond my worthiness for them!

Learning about hazardous materials.

Today I learned how to be a safer employee. Despite the material having a very dry quality to it I was still able to maintain a useful enthusiasm without much difficulty. My body, lacking the proper level of restful awareness, had a few other things in mind at a couple different points but I think it went pretty well overall. I suppose I will know how certified I am tomorrow when we get our tests back.