Erwaman's Personal Journal - June 2008

First few driving experiences (haven't crashed the car, yet)

I went to do some practice driving for the second time with my dad on Monday night (6/23/08) in the huge parking lot of the office complex next to my house. Tried reversing for the first time. Then, I headed out into Trailwood and did circles around all four cul-de-sacs along Forest Way. I felt particularly adventuresome, so I went on Poplar and did a loop: Sycamore-->Larch-->Manger-->Cypress-->back to Sycamore. Learned visibility is very poor at night. Learned how to use headlights and high beams. When I got back home, I drove into the garage for the first time.
Yesterday (6/24/08), after an unsuccessful day of job searching at the hospital and the library, I drove home from the MCLib with The Shipping News (I wrote an essay for T on this book, but I never read about 100 pages in the middle.). This was my first experience out on the road with lots of other cars. I'm glad it went smoothly.
Today (Wednesday, 6/25/08), I drove to and from Staples for the first time. I made my first 4-way intersection left turn at the Hanover Ave/Martin Luther King intersection. Still have to get used to that. I noticed I was speeding on Martin Luther King Ave, a cop-infested road.
I also noticed that sometimes 40 mph on one read feels like 25 mph on another. It probably has to do with the smoothness of the pavement, the windiness of the road, and the scenery around me. Driving is still pretty intense for me - it's still gonna be a while before it becomes second nature.
Tomorrow (6/26/08), I'm leaving for Atlanta, GA, for the national FBLA competition. I'm excited to visit the world's largest aquarium, the New World of Coca-Coca factory, and the CNN headquarters, among other things. Just gotta remember to bring lots of sun screen! I'll be back Monday evening.

Ciao.

About Money Found

I remember a car conversation with Greg LaLuna once, when he told me, "My parents always tell me the importance of picking up money you find." Then he told me he didn't really care about an extra ten dollars or so you might find in a year. At the time, I don't think I'd found ten dollars, yet. But now, a year after I started recording, I've found $22.07, certainly more than the ten dollars he estimated, but certainly no significant amount. I mean, if you're living on an annual budget that only has an error margin of $22.07, you're basically living with one foot off a cliff, and you had better seriously review your spending.
So, in conclusion, money found is not going to make a difference, but it's still fun for me to rack up a few cents here and there. Finding a penny always brings happiness to me. It's a good luck charm. I believe it.

Can't wait till I find that Franklin.

Summer Goals

I was reading the Costco Connection today (I've been reading for the past week or so, and it's a good magazine - I wonder why I never read it before?), and I happend on this statistic: 3 percent of adults write down their goals and those who do earn 10 times more. It's interesting to think that just by writing down my goals, I could distinguish myself from 97% of adults (once I am an adult). Writing goals down must do something, if those adults who do are making 10 times. Yes, not 10 percent more, 10 times more. Hmm...is that accurate? That's saying you could add an extra zero to a typical salary. So suppose those working full-time in retail are earning 20,000 to 30,000 per year. Ten times more is 200,000 or 300,000! Hmm...that seems a bit off. I'm sure a significant percentage of median-ranged persons write down their goals.
Anyways, what's important isn't a likelihood perhaps to earn more money, but a greater likelihood to accomplish the goals. So here are my goals for this summer before college (besides relaxing and partying and hanging out):
Get a new job. It's not that Staples is no fun - it's just time for a change of scenery. Oh gosh, I wonder if I will be able to stand doing the same career for 40 years.
Learn enough Chinese to comprehend the Chinese newspaper. The plan is to grab a copy of the Shi4Jie4 Ri4Bao4 along with multiple Chinese/Chinese-English dictionaries (I have seven in my room) and analytically decipher words and build my vocabulary. I also plan to use pen and paper to practice my characters for some added variation to the analysis and to improve my writing (I figure why not - if I'm learning to read, I might as well learn to write as well.)
Learn to juggle five balls and also three in one hand. These are my next two juggling goals. I can currently do a four-ball shower (record is 15 catches) and supposedly it is harder than three in one hand. But my many attempts at three in one hand have still yielded little progress.
Learn the Mills Mess (juggling) pattern. Wikipedia has a very nice animated illustration of the routine here, but I still can't figure it out (get it to work). It's supposdly easier than the the four-ball tricks I know (fountain and shower).
Learn the Guimond Method for 2x2x2 and achieve a sub-5 average. Currently I use Ortega and have a best average of 5.66. According to 2x2 master Erik Akkersdijk, I should be able to get to 5.25 with Ortega, and then Guimond can bring me down to 4.80.
Learn the M2R2 blindfolded method and average sub-2 minutes consistently. Or average sub-2 using the cycles method I currently use. I think I need to experiment more with memorization methods.
Learn how to and successfully solve the 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 blindfolded. I already know how to solve the 4x4x4 blindfolded, but I still haven't been able to actually do it, even with writing down all the steps.
Set a sub-1:15 4x4 average and a sub-2:45 5x5 average. I've been stagnant on the big cubes for many years now. It's time I tackled them with a vengeance and learned some better methods to solve them.
Average sub-1 minute for the Square-1. I can currently solve it in an average of about 3.5 minutes using 3 memorized move sequences.
Read five books. Leisure reading is non-existent in my current life. My writing sucks. I believe reading more will give me greater life satisfaction and improve my writing and interpretive skills. Why not just practice writing? Well, honestly I don't like writing that much, except I don't mind rambling in my journal, except I doubt that helps improve the communication and quality of my writing (and perhaps even deproves it through its casualness and freeform structure). I could not motivate myself to practice essay writing or story writing or poetry writing.
Get more sleep! I want to try to at least get on track on a more normal sleep schedule that would avoid things like sleeping from 6 PM to 2 AM and then staying awake from then through the entire next day. I'd like to sleep before midnight or 1 AM every day, but let's start with going to sleep before midnight every day for a week.
Well, I could just keep jotting down every little goal I have, but then I'd go on forever, and I've already gotten pretty extensive, so this is good for now. I don't realistic expect to accomplish all of this over one summer, but the list is now set and there for me to refer to. I'll be coming editing these goals over the summer.

Let's get started.