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| Holy crap... it's been a long time since I've been on Xanga. I'm going to start my own blog site soon, as well as get a Tumblr account. Hopefully drewfail.com will be up and running soon. My Tumblr account is here. Once I get blogging again, I may copy things into this blog, but I'm not sure just how much I'll be back around here. | | |
| Yesterday I put up a small new year's post after I got back from a party, just to have something up here. This is a little more on my thoughts of 2010 and hopes for 2011.
2010 was overall a good year for me. I can't say that it was any sort of amazing year with any life changing events. Some good things happened, and nothing really bad happened, so 2010 was a good year for me.
In business, my PC business was a mild success for just being run by me on a local basis. Of course I would have liked to have made a lot more money than I did, and maybe gained more local businesses as clients, but of course I'll always want that for my business, so no real complaints there. In 2011 I plan on stepping up my efforts locally, and I have a good many goals to reach. I also joined a network marketing company in February, but never really went anywhere with it. I spent some time researching the company, but did not spend enough time really learning what it takes to be a successful marketer. Some people can just jump into stuff like that and become successful, but I am the kind of person who needs a plan. I've really been involved in learning Internet marketing techniques for the past 8 months or so, and in 2011 I hope to see some good profits and growth in my online and network marketing efforts. I've set lofty goals for my business in 2011, but I've also got more of a game plan this year as well, so if I stick to the plan I should see some good results.
In my personal life, 2010 was far from dull, but pretty standard as well. Some highlights of 2010:
I found a snowboard in a thrift store, got all excited about snowboarding, then went on a trip with my church to a ski resort, and found out that I'm really not much of a snowboarder. I'm about to sell that board and go for a set of skis instead... something I'm much better at. The ski trip we went on was a pretty awesome trip though.
My mom came through a heart surgery to fix the issues she had been having with her heart. It's really improved her health. She still has the occasional heart palpitation, but no longer has problems where her heart is out of rhythm for days on end.
I finished my novel, War Games. I started the novel as part of National Novel Writing Month in November of 2009, and fully completed the book in June. Unfortunately I was not able to find the time to work on getting it published, but that is one of my goals for 2011. I also started work on the sequel to War Games, entitled Homeland, in November of 2010. I won my second NaNoWriMo, with 54,000 words. I'll be finishing Homeland in 2011.
I was blessed to be able to go to Canada for a second time with my church. We were able to help missionaries Mike and Patty Hampton pass out over 3,000 information packets and Jesus DVDs to neighborhoods in the Toronto area. Most of the people we interacted with were of the Muslim faith, and the Lord was able to work through us to witness to many of them when we put on a block party for the children of the area.
Some goals for 2011:
Move out of my parents house. I love my family, but it's time to move out. The problem is money, but I'm praying that I will be able to earn enough money this year to really move out into my own place.
Go back to school. This is a decision that still needs to be made for me, so it's not certain whether I will do this in 2011 or not. If a solid job opportunity comes my way within the next few months, I will probably take it and work for a little while. If not, I want to try to go back to school for a Master's degree in the fall. I already know I want to go to Liberty University in Virginia, and I have the degree program picked out as well. I'm beginning to look for job opportunities in the Lynchburg, VA area so that I can begin to transition to that area. That way, even if I don't go to school right away, I'll be there in the area and will have a job and my own place.
More fully define my theology. What I mean by this is just examining my beliefs and really form full opinions. There are so many areas of Christianity that I have some knowledge of, but do not understand enough to really make an argument for. Not the basics, but tougher topics that theologians debate. In 2010, I really began to open my mind up and start examining the things I believe and why I believe them. I realize that I've let my faith be defined by what I've always heard from others, but have not taken time to really search the scriptures or formed my own opinions. When I decided to open my mind up and think about things, I've learned that just because I've always heard something doesn't mean it's true. Now I love studying and finding things out for myself instead of just accepting them. So many new things were learned about the Christian faith in 2010, and I plan on more fully defining my beliefs in 2011.
I'm always excited at the beginning of a new year at the prospect of what might happen during that year. Who knows what 2011 holds for me, or for any of us. Looking back on 2010, I see a lot of things I never even expected would happen, and a lot of things that I'm happy with. I'm praying that 2011 will be just as good as, and even better than, 2010.
I hope all of you had a great 2010, and that 2011 holds great things for you! | | |
| Quick post here. Happy new year everyone! I know I skipped over the Christmas season, but after Thanksgiving, life got busy and I couldn't really post. Thanks to all of you who have made my 2010 a great year, and I hope to make 2011 even better.
Also, happy birthday... or anniversary... or whatever it is... to my blog! I started my Xanga blogging journey on 1/1/07. I don't know where this year will take me, but I'll be here posting as much as possible. | | |
| Well, happy Thanksgiving to anyone who might be reading this today! I didn't think that I would be writing anything today, but my family hasn't fully arrived at my house yet, so my grandparents and parents and sisters and I are waiting on them, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and cooking food for the big dinner. I love this time of year. Starting today, all the way through Christmas and New Year's Day, the whole time of year just makes me happy. It's the time when my family is around, and the atmosphere is energetic and happy. Like we're all releasing the stress of a whole year, knowing that the year is coming to an end soon, and there will be a new year coming up.
The one thing I'm not really pleased with this year is the weather. Seriously, in the South here, it's like 70°. I wish it were colder, my body doesn't feel like it's the holidays because I usually equate the Thanksgiving/Christmas season with cold weather and all. Oh well, I'm sitting here in a t-shirt, but I guess I'm getting used to it.
Anyway, happy Thanksgiving everyone! | | |
| Wow, what a crazy month for me. I can't believe it's almost the end of November already. As for NaNoWriMo and my novel, I'm actually a little ahead of schedule as of today, but not by too much. It's coming along well, better than I expected it to with how busy I've been lately. Official word count for me:
37,053/50,000
I must be very behind on this, but I just now noticed there is no longer the "Currently" option for Xanga posts (like currently playing, currently reading, etc.). That disappoints me.  I was going to put in there that I have been recently playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on my PC. (Giving my newly-installed GeForce 8800 GTS a good workout I might add.) I rarely have time for gaming anymore, but I love the Call of Duty franchise of games, so I knew I wanted to play Black Ops. So I spent a little time after finishing my writing each night last week and beat the campaign mode. I thought it was very well done, very cinematic, and had a pretty good story line, although I had it figured out by the time I was halfway through. Still, I enjoyed playing through the campaign, and it gave me a good break from the writing I've been doing. I beat the campaign in about 6 hours (all total over a few nights), but of course the online multiplayer mode provides endless opportunities for combat. So I would definitely recommend Call of Duty: Black Ops if you're a fan of FPS games and want a good game to play.
I want to put a little here about how grateful I am for friends who I can sit and talk with for hours on end. I have a lot of friends, many of whom are awesome to talk to and hang out with, maybe play a little pool or go bowling or watch a movie on the weekends. Then I have those friends who I just love to sit and talk with. The friends who, after everyone else has left, still want to sit around talking about things, serious things, not superficial topics like the weather or what happened on some TV show last week. I'm not only talking about my adult friends here either. I have several friends who are in their teens that love to talk about more mature subjects than you usually hear from their age group. We sit around discussing theological topics, political topics, values, Christian beliefs, and all sorts of deep subject matter. Instead of filling our minds with junk, we're expanding our opinions on things and learning what others believe. Sometimes we argue, but we always respect the others' opinions. It's good healthy conversation, and we all regret having to stop at the end of the night. There have been nights where I will sit talking with my friends for 3 or 4 hours. I don't really know why I put all of that here in this post.... I guess right now I'm just very appreciative of the time I've spent with the people in my life.
One last random thought here before I go..... I hate that it gets dark at 5:30pm now. Seriously, by the time 8:00 rolls around, it feels like 10:00.... it's just throwing me off.... | | |
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