[zak]

I live with my parents, but we have a big house next to a lake, with a yard and such, and one in town where I usually spend a few days alone during the week, so it's not bad. I'm not shut-in or depressed at all; I see my friends for drinks at least once a week. I go to parties, but not too often because I'm not a very outgoing person (I like meeting new, interesting people though).

Never had a job in my life (I'm 19 now). Actually, I worked for a gaming magazine last year, but it went under in about six months, and I got really shitty pay for lots of work. Last December an internet gaming oriented tv station offered me a a job. It involved translating news, riding the subway, and two busses, for two hours, five days a week, and the money was a joke, so I passed.

Right now I'm doing book reviews for a major site (not getting paid), some freelance work (also not getting paid), and writing for literary contests (sure as hell not getting paid). Won one of those early this year, and it netted me about 50 dollars and some books, so I mainly did it for fun. Entered another one this month, we'll see how it goes.

Also, because I want to be a writer, I dropped out of college. I studied literature and english, for a year, and noticed it did absolutely nothing for me. I'm going back this fall, only this time I'm gonna study philosophy, and I really think it's gonna work out this time.

So this summer I'm just sitting arround the house, playing guitar in a band, working on a short story collection, and maybe swinging by the beautiful sea for a week with my friends. My parents give me a hard time sometimes, beacause (to the untrained eye) I don't seem to be doing anything at all, but this is usually remedied by doing some yard work (fucking hate mowing the lawn, washing the car is ok). My only real chance of getting a job in the future would involve working at newspapers or doing translation work anyway.

[zak]