Last night the girlfriend was looking at Facebook and such on her computer while she was winding down for the evening, and she commented to me that I haven't posted anything on here for a while. She says this is the only way that she knows what's going on with me. I guess I'm not the most outgoing, talkative sort of guy about stuff that's bugging me. Sorry.

And I haven't been posting on here because sometimes it just feels like a long litany of boredom interspersed with episodes of failure. I still haven't applied to NCTC yet. I'm still working at the same crappy job, which I rather despise. I look through the paper now and again to see what jobs are out there, but most of the things that are any better than where I am now, I'm not qualified for.

I guess the band thing is going all right, but I doubt it's really going to go much further than playing in the drummer's spare room. We missed an entire month of practice. We've only been practicing once a week anyway, at most, and it's taking us a long time to get even a few songs down solidly. I know that I don't do enough practicing when I'm not there with the guys, and I don't think anyone else in the group really puts in the necessary practice, either. It might be time to move on and try to find a more dedicated group of folks to try to play with.

My own musical efforts fail because I don't follow through on things, much like many of my other efforts. The combination of laziness, lack of follow-through, lack of self-confidence... That's pretty much a recipe for certain failure in most endeavors, I think. I've been trying to at least keep myself a little more organized, get myself sort of a ritual that I go through to try to get things checked off my to-do list. It's working for some of the little things, but some of the other things, not so well.

Anyway, it's back to the moping and depression, so I suppose I'll sign it off...

It's snowing lightly outside. Last night, I heard the rain coming down, too. This morning, the girlfriend had to open. Her co-worker was feeling ill, the same way she feels ill every time the weather gets icy or snowy out there. Unfortunately, this morning, the ice wasn't coming off her windshield very well, so she got me up to go help her. Last time she slipped and nearly broke her ankle, so I don't feel bad about going out and giving her a hand. When I was out there, it was sleeting and her wipers were frozen to her windshield.

Now I'm up, because I really couldn't go back to sleep after being outside. And the sleet which was coming down then has turned to tiny little flakes of snow over the last hour. It's just a dusting, barely covering the ground, but the wind is also blowing rather strongly at times, so it's probably going to be something of a skating rink out there this morning. I just hope I don't get crushed by a truck that takes a wind gust or something like that.

Daily Stuff, February 8, 2011

I've started making myself little lists of things to do for the day. Actually, I've been doing that for ages, but I'm trying to make another go at doing it again, and keeping myself in the habit. My current list of things is something like this:

• Wake up when my alarm goes off, on weekdays at least.


• Drink my liter of water a day.


• Shave, put lotion on my legs, and brush my teeth each morning.


• Eat something for breakfast every day.


• Clean up Ernie's poo area in the back yard.


• Scoop Kala's litter box.


• Check the mail when I get home from work.

I'm sure I'll add more stuff, and there are things that I really should be doing, like recording music and such, that aren't on there but should be. But if I can just get to the point where I'm checking those items off every day, maybe I'll get a smooth pattern going and have more time for the rest.

Today, or technically yesterday, I managed to accomplish all of those things. Yay, me!

Daily Stuff, February 8, 2011

I've started making myself little lists of things to do for the day. Actually, I've been doing that for ages, but I'm trying to make another go at doing it again, and keeping myself in the habit. One of my running goals for February is to try to keep all the dishes clean and out of the sink. Yesterday I got everything done. Today there is a pot and a few bowls and such in the sink, although I did put some of the stuff in the dishwasher. If the girlfriend doesn't finish them tomorrow morning before she goes to work, I'll go ahead and get them done then.

This weekend while we were driving around, I went to put on my sunglasses and noticed that one of the lenses had popped out. I tried to stuff it back in, but it didn't want to stay. So today at lunch, I stopped at J.C. Penney, where I'd purchased the glasses a year or so ago. All it took was for the lady there to loosen a couple of the screws, pop the lens back in, and re-tighten the screws. I was out of there in about ten minutes, of which about half was just waiting for someone to see me at all.

Overall, I'd say it's been a decent day, although nothing really spectacular. The weather is supposed to get pretty nasty tonight, although I doubt it will be as bad as it was last week. Anyway, we'll see what tomorrow morning brings. For now, I'm going to head off to sleep...

There's snow again today. The service manager had the girlfriend call me from work and tell me to stay home. In itself, that wouldn't be such a horrible thing, but I don't really have the vacation time to get paid for today. The Weather Channel and such were saying that there should only be accumulations of about an inch locally, but I'm looking out the back door at about four inches on top of the barbecue. I need to find a better job, where I get more than one vacation day every three or four months...

11 Reasons You Won’t Get Published

11 Reasons You Won’t Get Published

This is a blog post from another blog. Even though it's about writing, and the things that will keep you from succeeding in the writing biz, many of the lessons included apply to a lot of other fields of endeavor. Like, nearly every field of endeavor. In my case, I've fallen into most of the 11 traps he lists in my music, in my blogging, in my writing, in job hunts, and in nearly everything else that I've done. I'm always trying to find ways out of the ruts, with little success. Which explains why I'm making little money at my job, never playing my music live, have over a hundred unfinished drafts on my blog, and have dozens of started stories on my computer. I do really need to get my ass in gear and quit starting projects that I don't finish...