I'm no shrinking violet

"Not a Pansy"
This is one of my drawings.

I've been absent from here for a while now. I'm a little down about job hunting, and I've let my schoolwork slide a bit.

On the green side of the fence, I returned to my webcomic, and it's been receiving the same amount of traffic it did when I abandoned it 7 months ago, which is frankly astounding.

Also, my math class is disgustingly easy, so it's not something I have to stress about.

My laptop recently decided to shun me again. It won't recognize my power cable, died, and is therefore useless. I don't have $70 to pay for a new once. Incidentally, I lost the thumbdrive with my most recent paper and my conlang documents not even a week ago. Now I can rewrite both those things, but I really don't want to.

Actually, what really got me back on this blog today is something entirely unrelated to school or work. Someone who was once far too important to me- well I don't even know how to phrase what happened. I didn't really do anything, but they certainly didn't either. But I think I let myself blame them anyway. and then, contact wasn't really cut off, it just stopped.

And then out of the blue, now that I was starting to forget, I got a message today, at 4 in the morning. It said exactly the thing I should be happy to hear. It should placate my selfishness. But I still don't know how to feel.

but my grades have lifted my spirits, and I have definite goals for the first time ever

So, I got a 101 on my math test, and a 53,5/50 on a management test. This is incredibly encouraging for one like myself, who hasn't done well in academics since...well the middle of high school.

Why isn't "high school" a compound word as opposed to a phrase? I suppose "middle school" is also a phrase. And "kindergarten" is definitively German.

Sorry, diversion.

Abruptly, I feel inclined to list my goals, in order of Chronological Attainability (c) . I just made that term up. I copyright it.

Short term goals I define as things that I can realistically achieve, if I began preparations tomorrow, within the next 5 years. Long term goals I am defining as things, I could realistically achieve, but probably can't or won't within the limitations of 5 years.

Short term goals:
get a job
set up a daily schedule that allows time for exercise, school, work, the personal endeavor
change my dietary lifestyle
get my car fixed
lose 20 lbs (well really this is a 1 1/2 year goal)
get an apartment
get my Associates Degree
become fluent in another language

Long term goals:
publish a comic
go to school to study Linguistics
lose 80 lbs
buy a house

If everything went totally awesome/secondary goals:
Peace Corp (s.t.)
Bachelor's degree (s.t.)
live abroad (s.t.)
work abroad (s.t.)
have some property (l.t.)
open small animal sanctuary (l.t.)
have a whole line of comics (l.t.)

I Can't Focus

Do do do. Still alive. My Public Speaking's instructional speech topic is due today. And before that I have a math test. I'm not the least bit concerned with the math test, however.

Caaaaaaan't focus on anything this week.

However, the Half of My Thoughts That Aren't Entirely Irrational, are Completely Stupid.

This week, the week that everyone else around seems to be starting school I am having my first test. In management. I also have to turn in a project that day. I anticipate everything going smoothly tomorrow.

I saw something earlier this week on TV about herdsmen. It was a program on either National Geographic or Discovery. This documentary chronicled two groups of herds...people? I suppose they could be called nomadic? Either way, one group herded goats in Iran.
I really kind of hope you know where Iran is.


The other group herded reindeer to the Yamal peninsula.

To be honest, I'm not too concerned about you knowing the whereabouts of the Yamal peninsula.

I realize that the following is probably very, hm, deeply rooted in the fact that I'm a lower- middle class American. The most hardship I've ever faced has been when we run out of groceries and no one wants to run to the store, and my parents' divorce. In that order.

But the notion of following a herd of animals through the countryside for the better part of a year appeals to me, in a very naive, classically romantic way.

I've never claimed to be reasonable.

Earlier this week I dropped 70 dollars (US) for my cat's veterinarian bills. So I suppose I'll have to commute from my dad's house to school this week so that I can make sure she gets the medicine/ treatment I payed for. I love my cat dearly. It's very pathetic.

But I'm Totally Cooler Than You

Okay, so my missing my first math class was apparently no problem, whatsoever. And not just that, but I knew exactly what we were doing when I actually attended the second class. The woman sitting next to me thought I was really smart. That's not the case. This is just the only stuff I ever retained from algebra, pre-cal, calc, etc. We were converting numbers from standard notation to scientific notation

4 500 000. 0 = 4.5x10^6
0. 000 3 = 3.0x10^-4

and learning how to type things into the calculator

4.2+3.65/2.33 (4.5) - 3 = (4.2+3.65)/(2.33 (4.5) - 3)

My customer service (MKT 130) teacher is the head of my major's department, so that's pretty cool. I intend to do really well in school.

I had originally wrote " I hope..." but I am making a concerted effort to remain positive and to hold myself accountable.

And then I'll publish a self-help book that'll do a million times better than Stephen Covey's books. Cough. Hack.

Speaking of self-help books, I have to read a time management book this week, for a class. The whole book, that is, and I managed to knock out 4 chapters while sitting in the waiting room at the hospital today. This is before I was abused/mauled by the nurse. I had blood drawn just two weeks ago, and with all the extra bruises I got today, I'm gonna start looking like a heroin junkie.

Or I would if I weighed a little less. Which reminds me, I saw a skeleton driving a car today. She stood in stark contrast to the fat lady on the moped.

I have this project that requires me to document my day in 15 minute increments for a week. It's becoming a little tedious. And I feel guilty when I've done one thing for a long stretch of time.

And to be honest I thought things were going great

So I had thought that my return to school had begun swimmingly. Albeit, I did learn how to use this Campus Cruiser thing which I am under the impression that I should have known about all along. After class, I went home and signed on, only to see that my Math class, which on my paper schedule says Thursday, online says Tuesday, and upon further clicking, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I did not go to a math class yesterday. This leads me to believe that I have already missed one of classes. This is one of the things that I have seriously had nightmares about, months before school starts, every semester.

I'm mortified. I emailed the teacher, as soon as I saw, but I have not heard back.

In relation to an assignment, I need a small notebook.

EDIT: I've heard back from my teacher.

But I must admit that I've become a bit nervous

School technically starts today, however my first class isn't until tomorrow. The best, or most awkward conversations I've had over the past few days have most often taken place with bank clerks and bookstore attendees.

They'll say something akin to "Oh, so you're starting school soon, right?" and I'll say "Yes." Then they'll say , "did you just graduate?" and I'll say "No."And then they'll give me this funny look and ask, "how old are you?" "Nineteen," I'll say, to which they counter, "So you're a freshman." And I simply say "No." And that's usually the end of the conversation.

Technically, and I thought the world was all for technicalities, I am supposed to be Junior. This just throws people for a loop. What really confounds people is the fact that I never skipped a grade. Now, I'm no genius, clearly. And I'm really only a year and a half ahead, but for some reason I always feel so isolated and, well, freakishly young in school. Especially in the fall, prior to my birthday.

Now, I feel the need to mention how outlandishly expensive my textbooks were. I don't know if I'll feel comfortable carrying them around. I almost want to wrap them in bubble wrap, foam, and six layers of plastic, before I put them in the lead backpack inside the armored car, followed by an escort of 64 ex-navy seals.

Switch of topics: I keep trying to type a specific set of words in the British spelling: labour, colour, armour, etc.

This is Just an Acknowledgement of the Citation Issued

I always hate writing the first entry of a blog. So I present to you, My Blogging History.

Having written that, it sounds like I start new blogs all the time. This isn't the case. I do tend to reboot my journaling process at the onset of a new phase of my life, or when something changes with my school situation. Education casts a shadow over everything I can dream of doing.

So when I started high school, I discovered blogging. When I transferred high schools sophomore year, I started a blog, in order to kind-of-sort-of-not-really keep in touch with my friends/quasi-friends.

I started a new blog when I started applying to colleges, to better shed my childish ways (fail).

When I got to University/College, I started another. Both of these endeavors (college and the new blog) fell through. But I was going through some head-stuff.

So now, I start afresh. This time I will succeed at everything! Well, maybe not, but I will definitely behave like I will, and I shall document my progress here.

So allow me to introduce myself.

Please call me Sal.

I'm a marketing major in a small tech college in South Carolina, US.

I'm a little bit of a geek.

I was raised in an artistic atmosphere, and a majority of my high school education was geared toward making me a artist, for lack of a better word. I am not an artist. I do draw all the time, and I may post some sketches. I have an unfinished web comic lying around somewhere...

In my free time (I have lots, at the moment) I love to work on a conlang, that's a constructed language, or "crap I made up". It entertains me to no end and bothers no one else that I know of.
I enjoy gaming of both the console and pc varieties.

At the same time, I love learning (although I seem to flounder in school), I love researching things, and I love reading.

I've always got some music playing in the background (right now some dance/rave radio). I can play a little guitar, and "Heart and Soul" on the piano.

I tend to be mistaken for shy (and I am when it comes to interpersonal matters), but more often than not I'm just holding my tongue.

English is unfortunately the only language I can claim to be fluent in. I can understand a little bit of German and some Latin. I can understand enough spoken Spanish to know how many chicken wings someone is ordering and if I'm being hit on. I know a few Japanese phrases, and how to count to 3 in Mandarin. What I'm trying to say is that I'll bend over backwards to communicate with anyone unless your language is English and u tIpE lyk dis.
/walloftext

Cheers~