Curriculum Vitae

#drivingschool12x

We've driven this many things daylaboring / farm laboring / electric wiring / work studying.

~~~

Google's AI Gemini corrected this for me from when I did not use capitalization and some punctuation:

Thank you for sharing this deeply personal and powerful piece. This is a very moving and raw account of one person's life experiences and their journey toward positive thinking and self-affirmation. The writing is very effective at conveying a sense of resilience and finding meaning even in difficult circumstances.

Here is a corrected and edited version of the text. The primary goal of these edits is to improve clarity, fix spelling and grammar, and ensure the narrative flows as smoothly as possible, all while preserving the unique voice and tone of the original writing.

I have broken the text into sections and made corrections within each section, and I have made some formatting changes to improve readability.

Keith Hall Taft, Blogger

September 15, 2025

Church of the Lavender Stone

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Positive Quotes

I am an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church, ordained on October 16, 2019.

This Christmas and holiday season, COVID has caused many people psychological trauma and made us all re-evaluate our lives and the things that really matter. Remember, God ordered us not to worry, and our lives have been much more meaningful and happier than we knew.

I remember how lost I felt when I became homeless, without a career or a girlfriend, after my family's house was condemned. There was no work at the labor pool for two weeks during Christmas in 1991, and I yearned for vengeance.

Now, 30 years later, I have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. I see and hear imaginary people in my head who call me a loser with mean, hissing voices. They try to convince me I'm a failure so they can stay afloat in an imaginary psychological tribulation.

Since I am kind of goofy looking and not rich, with a difficult life, I have had a hard time keeping my ego healthy and refuting them. This is especially true when I review over and over the things that seemed to go wrong: games I lost and friends and family who have passed away. It feels like my mind automatically moves in a negative direction.

But I've spent the last 10 years trying to figure out online what was done to me—and maybe all of us—and what had happened because of where I am from and who I am.

I can tell from your posts that some of you are going through similar tests.

The Power of Positive Thinking

I read Dr. Peale's book, The Power of Positive Thinking, when I was a kid playing JV high school football. I believed, and still believe, that its principles teach one how to make themselves or their team much more successful by thinking positively, no matter what situation they are in. It's about changing the direction of thoughts, phrasing, and, yes, posts from a preset negative orientation to a positive one.

How to Think Positive

So, I decided to list the things I succeeded at or found self-affirmation with. I found that I had forgotten a lot of those things until I started making the lists, and the lists were much longer than I had anticipated. They are possibly not as long as yours, though you might not believe me if you really sit down and try hard and long to remember, especially if you had lived as long as I have.

Someone might look at me and think I am a failure. This was especially true the day I had to walk hobbling back to my hut in the median strip of Gandy Boulevard after my knee—which I had broken falling off a roof shortly after being dumped by the prettiest girl in the world and having my bike stolen—popped out again while playing basketball at Fossil Park. Then, one of the players called me a "pussy" for leaving the game. For two weeks, I had to painfully hobble to the dumpsters to get food for my cats and myself.

Yet, I now realize someone or something has helped me unknowingly rack up a pretty impressive score, as maybe all of you have too, but you don't realize it yet.

Reading the list really helped heal my violated, fractured psyche and my wounded ego. Now the voices have mostly stopped calling me a loser. I try to keep my spirits (the people who thought they had to say mean things when they started to sink) raised by using the elements of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's philosophy of positivity.

When you make your list, don't think of or try to ignore negative things. Just focus on the positives.

Accomplishments

Voted in the nation's first statewide election done with ranked-choice voting (RCV). Members from the band 'Phish' helped Maine get on the ballot in a citizens' referendum.
Once bench-pressed 220 lbs while our BCC weightlifting class cheered because Coach Markham told us it helped each of us lift more weight when people were encouraging us. My previous best had been 180 lbs with no one cheering.
Lost 80 lbs by fasting one day a week.
Retired at 40.
Once lived a whole year without spending any money, with only $1.75 kept in my pocket.
Accepted into the Annapolis Naval Academy.
Awarded three scholarship awards in high school.
Accepted into the master's degree program of the landscape architecture department at UMass Amherst.
Awarded Associate of Arts degree in Environmental Science at Berkshire Community College.
Earned a Doctor of Divinity from the Universal Life Church.

Bright Vibes

I was asked by the Berkshire Community College speech class professor to represent the college at a regional speech competition. This happened after a hot girl convinced the professor to give me an "A" in the class for extemporaneously defending a classmate who had plagiarized a text. I explained that speech class was terrifying for most of us, not like an ordinary class, and that we weren't doing it for the grade (the class was mandatory).
Did a self-portrait drawing for a Berkshire Community College drawing class that was displayed at the Koussevitsky Arts Center.
Was hired to do a number of landscape architecture plan drafting drawings for Mr. Manimalthieu for clients around the Pittsfield/Lenox, MA area.
Made the honor roll twice at BCC and graduated with a 3.0 GPA and 120 credits. I just realized this is how I got accepted into the UMass Department of Landscape Architecture master's degree program without having to go to or pay for a four-year school to get my bachelor's degree—all the credits transferred from ASU, BCC, and North Adams State and fit into my major.
Built a mailbox with the base formed by 4"x4"s shaped like the pi symbol, with bed springs holding up the mailbox from the base so the snowplows couldn't knock it over after taking a 3-D design course.

Stories

The 3-D design course professor, Benigna Chilla, took a photo of me and a girl named Maureen wearing the projects we had made that were accidentally similar. The photo was for a yearbook or something. I was wearing a giant white paper eyeball (the idea of which I stole from the group "The Residents") with a lobster claw white paper glove. Maureen was wearing a fierce all-white hawk-like mask with a talon-like white glove. While the professor had us holding the pose, I pinched Maureen's butt with my pincher glove, so she attacked me with her talons, causing the class to laugh.
Once put out a car engine fire with a MASSPIRG petition, which the car owner then signed.
Helped pass the Massachusetts bottle bill—the one in New York might have saved my life.
Once avoided being mugged while riding a bike back from the beach on Central Avenue in St. Pete, Florida. I kicked the gears into high-high and used the adrenaline to speed past my attackers, swerving into oncoming traffic to block them. I heard one of them dejectedly saying, "Sh...t," in a decreasing tone as my tires skidded while spinning forward on the pavement from the massive torque.
Once helped the BCC Environmental Science Department clean up trash, old bikes, and lawnmowers from part of the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, MA, even though some kids threw rocks at us on our boats from a bridge and before we even knew it had PCBs from GE in it, too.
Joined MASSPIRG and lobbied to promote fairer legislation because a girl I liked had joined.
Gave a choking friend the Heimlich maneuver three times—it really works.
Fixed up a friend's double-wide trailer that she was later able to sell.
Fixed another friend's toilet, bathroom sink, and replaced her kitchen faucet, and helped her get a cheap water heater so she could take baths and showers again.
Helped change a woman's tire who had a special nut on her wheel bolts that couldn't be taken off with a lug wrench. I had a pair of cheap vice grips that did the trick at my homeless camp on the Gandy median strip. I left before she could thank me while another guy finished changing the tire. I think she was the woman who later beeped her horn as I was riding my bike out of the Publix parking lot and yelled at me, "F*ck me!"
Once worked a day labor ticket 72 hours straight with 20-minute breaks every four hours, chipping up a linoleum floor.
Once got mad at Lynne Austin at the Gateway Crossing Publix because she kept asking me why I was in line behind her instead of the 10-items-or-less line. I truly was an admirer of her "Hooters on the Radio" program—she, Tina, and Brenda were very, very funny and cheerful. I had gotten in line behind her because there were a lot of people in the other checkout lanes, and I was very tired, but she liked to talk about the people she met at the checkout on the radio, and maybe she had wanted me to say something more so she could make a joke.
A homeless cat, who I had known from a kitten of a feral cat, placed her three kittens on my stomach while I was sleeping in a camp on Gandy Boulevard. She could call them with three different meows, and they would come running to her.

"Meyers said that the supercentenarians they've spoken to across the world "universally tend to be really positive." Keeping positive was one of the surprising tips for healthy aging he and Villatoro previously shared with Business Insider."

-Yahoo

Built two small cabins that my homeless friends stayed in after I was kicked out of them by police. I built another kind of bubble tent cabin for a homeless girl and another cabin made out of pallet boards that I lived in pretty happily for 10 years.
Once fasted four days in jail after being arrested for getting coffee from a dumpster.
Once cracked a safe.
Went out walking very early in the morning and helped shovel out a couple.

The corrected version retains the personal details and the heartfelt nature of the original. The changes were focused on improving the reader's experience without losing your unique voice.

If you'd like, I can help you create a title for this piece that captures its main theme.

Things I've driven image links:

Ultimate-U-Haul-Truck-Guide-27333/

https://www.lawnandlandscape.com/article/lawn-0411-aquatic-weed-control/

https://todaysmower.com/stand-on-mowers-is-one-right-for-you/

https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/global-industrial-8482-self-propelled-electric-pallet-jack-truck-3300-lb-cap-2-60ah-batteries?infoParam.campaignId=T9F&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyLGjBhDKARIsAFRNgW8j_KUHEIxSz81FWQQpAANGos0FMVyk2XGqPxBfGa58TLi7pMEss60aAhMhEALw_wcB

https://www.google.com/search?q=white+10+passenger+van&oq=white+10+passenger+van+&aqs=chrome..69i57.12731j0j4&client=ms-android-americamovil-us-revc&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=Swex8WShDiaRcM

https://www.bigrentz.com/equipment-rentals/scissor-lifts/electric/32-ft-electric-scissor-lift-narrow

https://www.lowes.com/pd/John-Deere-S100-42-in-17-5-HP-Riding-Lawn-Mower/5001418905?store_code=2209&cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-sol-_-ggl-_-SS_SOL_000_Priority_Items-_-5001418905-_-local-_-0-_-0&gclid=CjwKCAjw36GjBhAkEiwAKwIWyf-E7LtWWRzhCarY8iJXt5_9P6I0c7vsGgSTfzHPboFKzhGwfh2doxoCS7gQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used-Pickup-Truck-bg5

pinellas auto auction

#drivingschool12x