Hopeful vs. Hopeless

Webster describes the word hopeful as:
1 : having qualities which inspire hope

2 : full of hope : inclined to hope

And hopeless as:
1 a : having no expectation of good or success : despairing b : not susceptible to remedy or cure c : incapable of redemption or improvement

2 a : giving no ground for hope : desperate b : incapable of solution, management, or accomplishment : impossible

Today I used the phrase "less hopeful" and I wondered what that really means. I looked for meanings of that phrase is both the words hopeful and hopeless. I've decided it has to be in some middle ground. So I'm curious--does anyone know what I'm talking about? That feeling when it's not that you've lost all hope or feel that things are "impossible" but a feeling where "full of hope" seems like a distant memory.

A Writer

I have always had a love for words and for writing, but a lot of the time I find myself doubting any sort of writing ability I might have.  I have asked myself time and time again: what makes a writer a good writer? Anyone can put words on a page, but what makes them good? Yesterday was no different. As I was considering my future, especially in my new marketing position at work I asked myself, what is going to make me a good writer or what makes me a good writer now? Every time I ask myself this question I am reminded of one pivotal statement I heard in the movie Sister Act 2:

I went to my mother.

who gave me this book...

called Letters To A Young Poet.
Rainer Maria Rilke.
He's a fabulous writer.
A fellow used to write to him and say:

"I want to be a writer. Please read my stuff."

And Rilke says to this guy:

"Don't ask me about being a writer.

lf. When you wake up in the morning.

you can think of nothing but writing...

then you're a writer."

I don't know if all I think about when I wake up is writing, but every day I think of millions of things I want to write about-mostly just thoughts I feel should be recorded, yet I never have the time to actually write them down. So, am I a writer?...

4th of July

For the 4th of July I spent the weekend with my family at a condo in Park City. My brother David and his wife had some trouble getting here because of Hurricane Alex, but they finally arrived about 14 hours after the time they were supposed to arrive. We watched fireworks, learned that I need to learn how to BBQ and played a mean game of family soccer, where I remembered how much worse I've gotten since playing in high school. Overall, it was good to get some family time in. :) Especially since I don't know when I'll see David and Brandy again since they live all the way in Mississippi.

P.S. One of my favorite things was watching my mom get hooked to 24 and watch at least 10 hours worth=10 episodes. It's an interesting show, but you can't make me wait that many episodes to find out what happens-whatever happened to resolving the problem by the end of the episode?