Summer Goals?

Alrighty, so now that summer is nearing its end, I thought I would take the time to evaluate my progress in reaching several goals I set for myself back in June. Since I go back to school in two days, I thought I would do this. I have no more time to try to accomplish them.

Goal #1: Buy a longboard.
Check. I bought my longboard the first week of my summer vacation. It was pretty much amazing. I walked downtown to this skate shop called Exit where I picked out my board and trucks and wheels and bearings and probably some other skate-y stuff that I forgot to mention. I bought it with the refund from my dining dollars. So yeah, my board is pretty much the best, coolest thing ever. It is from Arbor and it has this picture of a bear roaring on the back. That was why I bought it, because I liked the bear.

Goal #2: Practice on said longboard and become pro on it.
Eh, not so much. I kind of bailed on this one. I wish I hadn't, but oh well. I was pretty good about riding it every day for the first month, maybe the first month and a half. Then, when the hot weather and sun all the time came around, I kind of stopped. I have some measure of skill on it, but not much anymore. I have slipped. Very far. And I have much work to do in order to not look like a retard.

Goal #3: Learn Japanese - or at least some kana.
I did pretty good on this one. I didn't totally complete it, but I came pretty close. I checked out like a million books about Japanese and Japan from the public library. All sorts of culture and grammar and history books. And I read them all. I even made two different sets of flashcards for the kana syllabaries. One that I made myself and one that I printed out and made. I pretty much practiced them every day. I was pretty on top of this goal for a while, but then, I also kind of fell off the wagon. It turned into an on again off again type of thing. I only practiced every once in a while. But I did succesfully learn all the hiragana and I can write them all pretty proficiently. Haha, I also know a few words and the general grammar structure. but that's about it really. I think I did an alright job.

Goal #4: Learn how to play guitar.
Epic fail. I didn't even pick up the guitar once. Actually, that's a lie. I did pick up the guitar one time, to play a sad little G chord. The guitar wasn't even tuned, so I gave up. I don't know how to tune anything.

Goal #5: Learn how to play "I Like Bread and Butter" on the piano.
This one was only a half-fail. I actually made more than just one puny little attempt. I tried pretty hard for like three days. But, in the end, I was bested by a page of sheet music.

Goal #6: Start a blog.
Well, I did this one! Like in the last month of summer, but hey, I still did it.

Goal #7: Buy all my school textbooks for cheap.
Epic win! After spending 200 dollars on two books last year, (I did use them both for three terms though...) I decided that I would do anything it took to not have to do that EVER again. s, at the beginning of the summer, I created an Amazon account and went hunting for book bargains. I must say that I did myself pretty darn proud. I probably saved close to 250 dollars from my college's bookstore price. I was so happy! And I even started reading some of them. I know, I am a major nerd. I pretty much memorized the aforementioned two textbooks. But, i thought I'd get a leg up in a few of my more difficult classes...

Goal #8: Get a job.
Fail. Not epic, but it was still a fail. I tried everywhere that I thought might hire me. I tried two canneries, the state fair and several other places. But to no avail. No one hired me.

So these were my summer goals. I pretty much only accomplished three out of eight - once you add the half from longboard practice and the half from Japanese of course. This is quite pathetic actually when I think about it. I had barely a 30% success rate. Oh well though. I guess the important thing is that I tried to make goals in the first place. Maybe next year's goals will be different.