A Little News on Goings-On and Musings on Plans for the Future

So, over the past few weeks, I've been procrastinating. I have (or rather, had) three essays to write (two now). One for Mythology, one for British Literature, and one for Women in Chinese History (due the day before yesterday). I did get the Chinese one in, but I have yet to start on the other two. This procrastination can be blamed on two things (besides laziness, which should be obvious).

Number the first: I have had an absurd amount of drama at my dorm. My girlfriend and I ran an amazing campaign for such short notice -- we were only told two days before the election that the election was coming up. Usually, we have two or three weeks, this time, we had only just signed up to run when it was already time for the election.

After some amazing campaign posters done by yours truly, and some good promises, which we intended to keep, we sat back and waited. I got the position I wanted -- Vice President. However, my girlfriend did not win President. Then, we discovered a series of fishy circumstances where ballot boxes may have been stuffed and the Resident Director may have rigged the results to put one of his friends in office instead. Regardless, we decided to stick it out. Until we saw the rest of the results of the election...or rather..the consequences.

The entire government was outrageously one-sided, with virtually every position filled by one of my Resident Director's friends. No matter what any of my fellow government members decided to do, it was vetoed instantly if my RD didn't like it. Beyond that, he began lying to us, making threats if we didn't do what he wanted, and doing things that were way beyond what power his position as RD is capable of.

I have taken steps to report him to the people in charge of all of the dorms, and I would like to start an anonymous letter writing campaign of complaints, but as of yesterday, I have also resigned my position. I refused to be berated by someone who was my equal in power and an underclassman and had no idea how the dorm community worked.

Number the Second: I might have stumbled upon one of the greatest things in the history of my entire life. A video blog on YouTube known as Brotherhood 2.0. They're known as the Vlogbrothers now, and they're fans are...Nerd Fighters. How cool is that?

I decided, one day, to start watching from the beginning up to now. I'm only about a quarter of the way through, I've already experienced so much with them -- new jobs, new books being published, having to move, the drama of your house almost being sold out from under you, and through it all, they greet these challenges with a great sense of humor.

Beyond that, though, they do more. They realized, after a few posts, how popular they were becoming, and not only set up a "scholarship to decrease world suck" which went to help one of their friends' family who died of cancer, but they also began donating money to help people in poverty stricken nations start up small businesses. They share many of the same causes I do, but they also differ from eachother enough to have actual, and interesting, discussions.

The thing that has me hooked the most? One of them is a literary aclaimed YA author. John Green, author of Paper Towns, An Abundance of Catherines, and Looking for Alaska.

The other, his brother, Hank Green, is a computer programmer, and a writer for magazines like Mental Floss.

It's so amazing, because to see they interact with the world, their jobs, their wives, life...it makes me think about how I'm going to be when I'm they're age.

I will turn 21 in April, and then I really will be a man. I will have earned every right that you can earn in this country with the exception of lower car insurance, which won't kick in until I turn 25. Anyway, I digress. I'm in my Junior year of college. I've taken the Praxis I already. I aced it. I'm that much closer to becoming a teacher. I'll be graduating in a couple of years, and it scared the bejeezers out of me.

I haven't told my mother this yet, because we're a very, very close family, but I'm thinking about moving out this summer as well. I've been looking at apartments. I've been calculating my budget, based on what I'll earn over the summer, my refund check when I return that fall for school, and other things. I've also been looking at where I want to settle down and spend my life. I would like to move to Chicago and experience the Big City Life for a couple of years. I'd like to get an apartment and a teaching job and just teach for a couple of years, and then move to a 'burb somewhere and get started on the rest of my life. I want to go to England sometime before I settle down so I can say I've been to Europe at least once, and I'd like to get married somewhere in there too.

It's very interesting, but I feel like I'm staring at my own mortality. Planning out these steps for what will begin the real beginning of my life -- and not the safe "Real Life" that college creates, but the real Real Life that comes when you've achieved your goal of having a career and now you're stuck with it for the rest of your life.

I think part of the reason this has been on my mind is because those guys, specifically John Green, are how I want to be when I "grow up." He's a full time writer, he's married, he has a few odd hobbies that keeps him busy, and he's also very worldly, intelligent, well-read, etc. His life is pretty much the goals I've been setting for myself since I was in high school. And seeing someone living the dream -- my dream -- has sort of re-focused me on my dream.

Yesterday, I was looking up cities I might want to think about moving to either after I leave Chicago or if Chicago doesn't work out. I found it. It's amazing. It's everything I want in my future town -- MUCH bigger than my home town, and actually even bigger than my college town. It's cold, it'll get lots of snow, it's not too big, either. It'll be a good break from the city life. It's also really close to some cities that will keep me entertained on the weekends. It's basically my dream place.

And between shopping for apartments for the near future and looking at houses for the somewhat more distant future, I've been so excited I can't sit still. I've also been so scared I've had a hard time going to sleep. It's what I want to do with my life, and really look forward to it, but leaving my family and striking out on my own is...mind-boggling, terrifying, and foreign.

Anyway, enough rambling. I just had stuff I needed to muse on for a bit.

50 Books Challenge in 2009

So, PJ Hoover has an absolutely awesome idea for 2009. Her goal is to read 50 books by the end of the year. Since I read 30 in 2008, and 26 in 2007, this will be a challenge for me -- but a good one. I need to read more instead of sitting around doing nothing. I watch probably way too many movies. Don't get me wrong, I love movies. At one time I had considered becoming a director and going to college for film and stuff because I loved to watch movies. Anyway, so this will give me the kick in the butt I need to read more.

Anyone who wants to participate in this little adventure is more than welcome to. She has rules for her posted on her site, but said that you can change them however you want to suite your situation. For the most part, they work for me, but I'll have to tweek them a smidge.

My rules
* Cannot count anything you've read before
* No picture books.
* Reading my own books doesn't count. Even if I read them 50 times during revisions. (I don't have an books per say, but I won't count any of the stories I write or revisions or anything)
* Reading critique partners manuscripts doesn't count.
* Mix it up. This was a great idea. I'm gonna try to add in some YA, and branch out beyond fantasy, which is what I've been focusing on. I'm gonna try to work in some Non-Fiction as well.
* When making my list, leave room for spontaneous reads, new releases that are "must reads", and anything I happen to pick up at the library during a given week.
* Record what I read on Goodreads. (I don't know what Goodreads is, so this is some what up in the air at the moment. However. I always keep a running account of books that I plan on reading, and books I've already read on my website here. It also contains what I've read for the past 3 years.) I don't normally talk about what I read, but if something really speaks to me, I'll try to pass the recommendation onto you through the trusty ol' SoaM here.

With that said, you may be wondering what I plan on reading. Well, I've got a few things bouncing around.

1. The Smoke Thief - Shana Abe (This is one that I started a while back and never got to finish because school kicked me in the teeth.
2. Homeland: The Legend of Drizzt Book 1 - R.A. Salvatore (My roommate got me this for Christmas)
3. The Golden Compass
4. The Subtle Knife
5. The Amber Spyglass - all by Phillip Pullman. Yes, the infamous His Dark Materials trilogy. One of my friends got it for me for Christmas last year, and I haven't had the chance to read it yet.
6. Blaze - "Richard Bachman"
7. The Inferno - Dante (trying to work in some classics)
8. The Rocketeer - Peter David (I've had this forever, and I liked the movie, so I decided I wanted to read the novelization.)
9. My Father - Nancy Sinatra
10. The Chamber - John Grisham
11. The Last Days of Krypton - Kevin J. Anderson (Because I'm a Superman nerd, and this intrigued me)
12. Te King of Torts - John Grisham
13. The Children of Hurin - J.R.R. Tolkien
14 & 15. When my money comes in from my refund check (and after I have budgeted out my money so I don't go crazy broke) I'll have to figure out a way to get my hands on The Emerald Table by P.J. Hoover, and I So Don't Do Mysteries by Barrie Summy, debut's for both of them, and I can't wait to read them and support them.

I think I'll leave it off there. I want a few surprises and too much planning will make reading seem like a chore.

Obligatory Resolutions Post

What? An actual post?! Surely this is a sign of the apocalypse.

Did you all have a good New Year's party? I sure did. I volunteered at the local theater to help watch the kids. It was...an adventure. The downside was someone decided to give out the horns and buzzers 10 minutes early. I had my first horrible headache of the New Year!

Other than that, everything was fun. I was forced into getting on stage and singing a song on the Karaoke machine. I chose Fergalicious. What better song to usher in the new year, right?

Anyway, my resolutions:

1) Continue to work on getting healthier -- cutting out junk food, working out, running, drinking mostly water, etc.

2) Manage my money better. I was way to loose with it last semester, so my resolution is to budget it out better so that I don't blow through it with thoughts like "Oh...it's only $5..."

3) Try to get out more and meet more people. This is one that will be really hard, as I'm usually content just hanging in my room when there's nothing going on. The biggest problem will be that I don't know how to meet new people.

4) Try to write more. I have epically failed at writing this last year. I need to work on writing more -- I think I'm gonna try to set up a goal that I can keep at a sustained rate. What I'm thinking about right now is 2000 words a week, and a short story a month. The amount of words may go up or down, depending on how I do, but I will also have a ton of reading from my lit classes, writing from my Creative Writing class, and a play that we'll be doing come February. When that's over...I'm probably gonna want to take a break.

5) Work on doing my homework early rather than procrastinating. I have a problem with putting off my stuff until the last minute because I'd rather do other stuff -- like Facebook. My goal is to make REALLY good grades -- hopefully all A's, but I won't hold my breath, because I've got Physical Science.

So, for the new year, what are your resolutions? Any big goals you want accomplished?