Two months and a week ago I wrote up some goals to be accomplished.  I feel that I got most of them done in some way, shape or form.  Goals are in bold, my response to them is in regular text.

1. Make a portfolio of art that will get me accepeted into another college.

Sadly this did not happen the way I wanted it to.  I created a portfolio of photography, drawings, and digital art to submit to Rochester Institute of Technology, and they just didn’t like it.  So I really didn’t accomplish the portfolio or art bit.  But my academic portfolio, on the other hand, was good enough to get me into another college besides RIT.  You win some and lose some.  Besides, I am not even sure that I really want to go to school for New Media or Digital Media now, and am currently listed, at my latest school, in a business major.

2. Read three more books about investing/business.  Read as many books as I want for pleasure.

I got through the investing and business books. I read Rich Dad Cashflow Quadrant, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and The ABC’s of Real Estate Investing.  For pleasure, I finished Abhorsen and started the Great Gatsby again.

3. Put another 30 hours into drawing to improve my skills.

I am not sure if I got this accomplished or not–I would imagine I did because of class and the homework for class.  I definitely came out a better drawer than I went in.

4. Do another 10 photoshop tutorials.

I broadened this goal myself to include Illustrator as well as Photoshop.  Then I went and began a three hour, twice a week class on Illustrator.  Which I think counts towards my tutorials.

5. Read more about / do more web layout.

I created a layout for my site which I then hated and replaced with the older one.  I also created a layout for a nonprofit group.

6. Design a new layout for my site.

Did, hated it, replaced it.

7. Get a job???  If it is possible — but honestly I am learning so much with out one right now.

Still doing odd jobs.  I am in the workings for a part time job after Labor Day.

8. Do more work on my car in order to learn more.

I haven’t really completed this goal.  I have learned some things about cars since I went shopping for used cars.  And I still have not been able to find one for purchase. Ugh.

9. Take a trip to Philadelphia and Baltimore.  Not on the same weekend like last week.

Well I made it into Baltimore to see the Arts Festival that they had going on.  It was very commercialized, everyone was selling their art instead of displaying it well.  Even the stuff that was on display felt sort of cliche.

I did not make it to Philadelphia in this time mainly do to lack of money and reason.  I plan to go in the next week or so.

Those were the goals that mattered.  I should really set some new goals in the next day or so, but right now my only goal is to play some Source for a few minutes before getting back to reading and breakfast or something of the sort.

I was out looking at used cars this weekend with my father.  I was just glad that he didn’t bring along his own 100 point check list or something like that.  But he is a bit of a car guru so he was telling me what to look for when buying a used car.

1. Look down the door line for ripples in the sheet metal.  This could be an indicator that the car was in an accident.

2. Look at the doors, is the space around the door even on all sides?  This could also indicate that the car was in an accident and that something was bent.

3. Look at the rubber pieces around doors and windows.  If the car was in an accident and was repainted, usually you will see some paint on the rubber.  In most cases people wont have paint jobs of excellent quality so the painters will just cover up the rubber with masking tape.  Some paint with inevitably get on the rubber.

4. Make sure bumpers look like they fit well with the car because this could be a sign of an accident.

5. Make sure body parts look their age.  If some of that grey plastic that they like to use for bumpers or on the side of doors looks like it is new compared to other parts, this could indicated that it has been replaced and that their could have been an accident.

6. Look under the car, if their is a new undercoat, this could indicate that the dealer is hiding something.

7. Look under the car at the sheet metal, does it look buckled or rippled?  Does it look original?  If either of these are wrong, it could be an indicater of an accident.

8. Open up the trunk, inspect the sheet metal around the trunk, if it is buckled or rippled or obviously new, it could incate an accident.

9. Look for straight lines in paint like masking tape was peeled away, this indicates that something was fixed or replaced.

10. Check for any leaks in hoses or gaskets.

11. Ask the dealer or person you are buying it from how many owners the car has had, if it was a leased car, if it has been in any major accidents, if it has had water damage, et cetera.

12. Check the interior for rips, tears, stains, holes, missing knobs, broken levers, et cetera.

13. Check if the windows, locks, AC, 4 ways, turn signals, lights, wipers, cd player, cassett player, mirrors, and sunroof work.

14. Check if the car smells of mold.  Could indicate water damage.

15. Check if the steering wheel wobbles while driving the car.  This could indicated an assortment of problems such as wheels are out of alignment or balance, or transmission problems.

16. Get the VIN number and run a VIN check on a website like CARFAX to get the lowdown on the car before buying it.  CARFAX will tell you how many owners the car has had, accidents it has been in, any time the car was serviced at a dealership or place of service, warranties remaining, and it will spit out safety reports based on the cars reviews.

17. Optional but recommended - Take the car to a dealer that specializes in that type of car and have them inspect it for you.  This may cost you 50 to a hundred dollars, but it saves you surprises.

18. Check the value of the car at retail on Kelly Blue Book, NADA, or Edmunds.

When going to buy or test drive a car, take someone along with you to ease the pressure and think of things that you wouldn’t.  Test drive the car to your hearts content.  Don’t buy the car if you feel uneasy or pressured.  Tell the dealership that they can do better on price and normally they will groan but get back to you with a lower price.

Hope this has helped.  Anyone have other things to think about or add?

I was going to start this by saying that I look forward to the day when I can tell my grand kids about how the internet used to be, but then I started to get really depressed and didn’t want to think about how old I would be.  But hey maybe they will have made some really good age retarding drugs, removed a bunch of protiens from our body to slow down organ failures, or I will have died and been put on ice for 15 years.  It doesn’t matter because even though it is depressing, I am still excited.

Excited to be able to say to them, “You kids don’t know how good you have it.  With all the information feeding into your brain directly.  Hell, you even got iBubble where music seems like it is playing within a four feet bubble all around you, only you can hear it.  Back in our day, we actually had to sit down in front of a thing called a personal computer to access the internet.  That lasted until about the time I was 17.  But lets talk about the internet on the personal computer first.

I guess you kids don’t have any idea what a browser is?  No?  Well that is a hard concept to explain seeing how your brain does all that work for you now.  God, you have it easy.  We actually had to double click (physically), wait for like two minutes for it to dial through a modem and phone line, shit you guys don’t even know what a phone line is, just for us to connect to the internet.

Once we were connected, this is like 1997 you know, all we could view was black text on white back grounds, and occasionally, very occasionally.  I mean so f-ing occasionally, we got a picture, in black and white, from the Hubble telescope.  The 1998 rolled around and finally we got some color.  It was bad, you ever heard of 16 bit Nintendo?  No?  Alright then, bare with me.  We were limited to like two shades of green, blue, yellow, red, black, grey, pink and purple, oh yeah and of course white.  So naturally people put yellow text on pink background.  Horrible.  And!!! You know that font we saw in the museum the other day?  Yeah? Comic Sans?! Yeah that one!  They actually had the nerve to use it to make websites.

It got better when we got more colors and more pictures from the Hubble.  A few years after the turn of the century, we were hit with Web 2.0.  And that was really cool.  Green and purple bubbly fonts were everywhere.  You had your blues and pinks in Helvetica, and green, blue, red and yellow in something like Times New Roman.

Things were looking up when we finally got cell phones.  I know, I am showing my age, I was around for that.  And they came with really low level browsers that distorted all we had strived for with Web 2.0.  Then came the iPhone and it has all been down hill from there.”

That is what I am going to say to my grand kids.  Plus all the new stuff that happens until then.  What with cloning and all, that could be like 18 months.

I just stumbled across this in flickr.  I think it is amazing.

And thanks to John Blackbourn for the quick fix to the HTTP uploading error.

The last week or so has left me with little to write about.  Today I started a class on Adobe Illustrator which I am extremely thrilled to learn.  I am starting to look at pictures that people have created and am understanding which parts they used Illustrator for and in which parts they used Photoshop. I personally find it hard to stay motivated and inspired on my own, and have a hard time focusing on tutorials or reading the help menus of programs.

That is why I was not exactly thrilled today when I asked the professor teaching Illustrator, what he knew about InDesign.  He said he knew a lot about it and a good place for me to learn was the Adobe help files.  Granted I could take the InDesign class on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I would have already missed a session.

Which really makes me sad, because recently, my friends and I thought it would be a good idea to start putting together a PDF magazine.  Which means, I will be the one looked to, to do layout and spread the word via the internet.

I may also note, that spreading the word via the internet, will probably be hard, because this site doesn’t pull in more than several visitors a day right now.  I makes me sad, but what content am I offering my visitors?  I mean really, there is nothing of use on my site, just useless babblings.

That being said, lets continue.  I kind of want the new Samsung Instinct and because I have Sprint, I could get it for somewhere around 50 dollars when my contract has matured.  However, I do feel that it wont replace an iPhone an would probably be a waste of my time.  In which case, I can’t wait for Google to release Android.  I think I read that Spint is getting into that because they have dim future.  Oh well.

In other news, I was almost scammed the other day.  Some guy tried to get me to wire him money be sending a check that I knew wouldn’t clear and saying to send X number of dollars to some other person right away.  I didn’t and he hasn’t contacted me since, add another oh well to the list.

I might have a sprained wrist, and I have a semi-recovering ankle.  Both injuries are from skateboarding.  Plus I met some new people to skate with. Which brings me back to the post I have been trying to write all day and failing miserably at.  “Find People, Progress” was going to be the title.  My theory is this, find people who share the same interests, will help guide you and hold you accountable, and then you have to pursue a relationship or at least a correspondence with them.  In this way you will learn to your fullest potential because they will see to it.  If you don’t have anyone holding you accountable, or no one where you live shares the same interests, then you are going to find it hard to learn, progress, and become better at what you like.

So find some people who want you to do your best, exchange knowledge, learn and progress.

Soon I will be doing heelflips, making cool images in Illustrator, and getting a new car.  All because people are holding me accountable.  I just wish someone would hold me accountable for falling less.