Welcome!

I've never been able to keep up with a journal before. My first excuse for this (of many) is that I don't like writing. I enjoy the creative effort involved and the finished product is rewarding, but the regimental application of pen to paper demands a discipline I reserve for only the most critical activities (such as Waking Up, Homework, and Flossing). Even typing comes with difficulty, as there are so many more interesting things to do on a computer than simple Word Processing. As an example:

Theobald Boehm (April 9, 1794- November 25, 1881) was a Bavarian inventormusician, who perfected the modern flute and its improved fingering system. In addition, he was a virtuoso flautist and was a Bavarian Court Musician as well as a celebrated composer for the flute.

Born in Munich in Bavaria, Boehm learned his father's trade of goldsmithing. After making his own flute, he quickly became proficent enough to play in an orchestra at the age of eighteen and at twenty-one he was first flute in the Royal Bavarian Orchestra. Meanwhile, he experimented with constructing flutes out of many different materials such as tropical hardwoods (usually Grenadilla wood), silver, gold, nickel and copper as well as experimenting with changing the positions of the flute's tone holes. After a study of acoustics at the University of Munich, he began experimenting on improving the flute in 1832, first patented his new fingering system in 1847 and his new flute was first displayed in 1851 at the London Exhibition. In 1871 Boehm published "Die Flöte und das Flötenspiel" (The Flute and Flute-Playing), a treatise on the acoustical, technical and artistic aspects of the Boehm system flute.

Thank you, Wikipedia, for ruining the productivity of students and office workers world-wide.

My mom (Hi Mom!) has been trying for Ever to help me break down my mental barriers by buying me stylish themed notebooks every few years, with the hope that Philosophical Quotes or Dilbert Cartoons will inspire me to write my personal thoughts on top of them. Typically, I just read the comics and/or sayings and then set the book down. Down, on one of the many stacks of "organized" material that litter my room, to sift earth-wards over the course of tens of days and be lost for eternity... Until the next excavation party (read: me) stumbles upon it incidentally sometime in the distant future, it is lost to memory and functionally non-existent.

Now, to administration. Hi, I'm Piers. This is my journal. You may be wondering why I am inclined to begin journalling now, after my extensive excuse showed why this decision is unlikely to carry any weight. The simplest answer is this: My life is going to take some wicked curves in the coming months, and I want to document them. Posting them publicly will not only put pressure on myself to keep writing, but will also offer you, the public, the chance to comment and pass on advice from your own experience. While I'm not offering much of a prompt in this first entry (unless you'd like to rave about/harp on my discipline and organizational skills), in future weeks there will be a wide variety of issues and ideas to reflect on.

Speaking of the future, I plan to post a new article every week on Wednesdays, which are good days because they lie fairly cleanly in the middle of each week. That gives me time to goof off on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, rush furiously on Monday to complete Tuesday's homework, rush furiously on Tuesday to complete Wednesday's homework, rush furiously on Wednesday to complete Thursday's... Wait... Oh. Dang. Anywho, I may also post short addendums to supplement the main entry before the next Wednesday, to indicate breaking developments that may not flow with the week's continuity. I will edit comments for the more hideous and glaring misspellings and net-speaks, and may edit my own posts if someone points out a grammatical or spelling error(s) (Mick Jagger forbid).

To conclude posts, I will typically (as with this week) provide you with an insightful or amusing quote, though I may also provide links to images, websites, or videos that I discover and find interesting. Until next week!

- Piers

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
- Proverb