"Each day's a gift and not a given right."

I am rather disgusted with myself. I didn't get myself out of bed until nearly 1pm yesterday. I remember waking up at about 9 and then kept drifting in and out of sleep. And then, when I finally got up, I spent a good two hours on the internet.

Once upon a time, my internet usage would be in small spurts- 15 minutes or so just to check and reply to e-mail. But then I discovered Facebook and Youtube. While the former is a common time waster, I'm not addicted to the site. The latter, on the other hand, effectively kills all intentions of productivity. By the time I forced myself to do something school related, it was after 6:00!

I repeat- I am rather disgusted with myself.

Seriously, what am I doing with my life? And what are you doing with yours? Let's face it, a good amount of our population is addicted to the internet. To those who aren't, how do you do it?. The ones who are truly admirable, though, are the ones who put their internet time into good use. Exhibit 1: Paul Carroll.

This 18-year old is co-founder of a non-profit group, The Literary Den. They had spent some time talking about promoting literacy but, finally, started their campaign earlier this year. Besides blogging and vlogging, his group is putting together an anthology, collecting pieces from writers in the UK, Ireland, and the US. Here's some proof if you don't believe me: http://paulcarrollwriter.blogspot.com/2009/10/need-magazine-help.html

Next we have Michael DiMartino, Exhibit 2. He is a 25-year old New Yorker who has some of the best ASL music videos. The enormous amount of attention that his videos have received have only further motivated him to achieve his goal- bring mainstream music to the deaf and hard of hearing. Right now he is recording his own music and making videos to go along with them. I highly recommend that you check him out at http://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelDiMartino

And last but not least, we have Stephen Torrence, a 21-year old Texan who is also a signer. He started out by just wanting to share his passion for ASL and, like Michael, his videos have received a lot of attention. Now the guy is starting to book performances. But that's not all! Someone from America's Got Talent contacted him, asking if he would be willing to audition! I guess it's to be expected when your signing is this good http://www.youtube.com/user/CaptainValor Oh, and did I mention that he's a blogger, too? I'm starting to think it's necessary in order to be successful. http://www.badphilosophy.com/blog/

So what have I accomplished lately? Um, well, I've written first drafts of novels...oh! And a couple of screenplays, too. I've dabbled with media editing, though my skills are quite mediocre. Computer programming, though interesting, is not my forte. So um, yeah. With that said, I have created a list. A Big, Fun, Scary list of what I would like to accomplish in the next year.

Big:
- WriDaNoJu, Write a Damn Novel in June
- 3-Day Novel Contest
- finish editing Bounded and Love Thy Sister, Love Thy Home.
- don't die from the "Scary" goals

Fun:
- NaNoWriMo (duh)
- My own channel of ASL videos...or just some cause that's important to me

Scary:
- TEG for Irish
- Find a literary agent
- research in the Psych department
- take the GRE
- graduate early??

That's my list at the moment. If you're like me and spend too much time doing absolutely nothing, then I encourage you to join me. Make your own BFS list and work hard to achieve it. Now, it's time for me to unplug the Ethernet cable and get back to work.