This weekend, I decided to switch my schedule up a bit. I needed to shave some activites off as I have come to conclude that I just have too many things I’m trying to do. This week went extremely well. My singing lessons went good, and I managed to get a A in my speech class. I do realize that I need time to put into making a living online just as I have put time into school, singing lessons, relationships and work. I’ve shaved off the time I would have gone to church and bible study. I’m going to go to church once a month.

I’ve bought some new books which I’m going to be using along with redesigning my blog.

I’ve created a new website called Blogger Institute. I’ll be documenting and implementing a new idea every day to the website. I’ve created it for folks like me who might not have any design experience.

 I also received in the mail yesterday my monthly book from BookWise 

So, I’ll be redesiging both websites as I go along. While I’m in school, I won’t be able to do too much.

Last night, I gave my first speech in speech class. It was a remarkable experience. Especially, talking about yourself in a classroom full of strangers. I received a 95% on my speech. I felt very good.

 I also found out last night that I can go to school on a scholarship in I maintain a 3.0 average. I have something to shoot for. If I can only manage to learn how to earn a living online in 11 months.

Over the weekend, I did an experiment that turned out to be very helpful. I have a little white board that hangs over my office desk. I erased my daily habits and replaced it with”Weekend To Do List.” Saturday morning, I wrote out all the things I wanted to accomplish that day as I didn’t want to do any activities for Sunday. It worked out pretty good. What spilled over into Sunday, I was able to look at and see where I need to place them during the week. These things must be accomplished. I will add a few things during the week and again, start over on Saturday.

I’ve decided after Saturday, that I really need to buy my time back. So I created another website. I tried Saturday, to get some instructions on how to redesign this page. I put out a question on WordPress.org forum. I was told that I needed to learn more that html and css to be able to redesign my webpage (all I’m looking to do is put some advertising on the side). My hosting company wouldn’t help and the answer I got back didn’t help. So, I thought how many people are in the same boat as I am.  So, I’m going to start a blog on learning html/css.

Since I’ve started this journey, I’ve become very conscience of time. I’ve been home for almost an 1 1/2 hours. The only thing I’ve done is take out the garbage and start writing this blog. I have a to-do list of 9 items that I want to accomplish over the next 2 days and I’m wasting time.  Well, not wasting but having hours of no-activity. I spent most of the moments on the internet. What did I learn? Who visited my MySpace page, who emailed me, read about the picture from NASA on Mars looking like a man, how much I lost in my HSX account, and visited a few of my MySpace friends webpages.

All the things I’ve learned seems to be falling apart. I didn’t practice singing this week that much. There were a few days, I didn’t sing at all.

 This was suppose to be a book club but it’s turning out to be a personal diary. I haven’t read a book (other than my school book) in a few weeks now. What happen? Well, I realize I have a lot on the plate. If my time wasn’t filled up with work, I would probably have been able to finish these things. Maybe not.

Well, after reading Chapters 8 & 9 over the weekend, I was ready for my test of 50 questions on Tuesday. I only got 3 questions wrong. I was one of the two students who got very high grades. The other students got really low grades. Each question was worth 2 points.

We got our first speaking assignment. On January 31st, I have to speak for 3-5 minutes about myself. I’m going to video tape it and put it on this blog.

I must say that with all this ideas I’ve been implementing, my life has kinda fallen back to somewhat where it was. It was too cold over the weekend to go grocery shopping, so I didn’t. That meant I been eating a lot of fast food and drinking 2-3 energy drinks (low carbs) a day. I haven’t been able to wash dishes or clean when I get home because school has started. I have homework to do. I’m still practicing my singing because I pay for the lessons, and I don’t want to waste my money. I actually have heard improvements in my voice.

What I realized here (an ah-ha moment) is that I can’t do everything. I can’t want to be a journalist, photographer, author, singer, guitar player, writer, film maker, musician, entrepreuner, bass player, keyboard player, actor, and screenplay writer. I’ve got to narrow my desires down to a few things here. It’s only taken me 30 years to figure this one out.

So, I really would like my time back. This is the utmost desire. To be able to make a living online while going to school.

Last week I started school. Since I have to read these books, I thought I would discuss as I go through my courses.

“The Art of Public Speaking” by Stephen E. Lucas. This weekend, I have to read chapters 8 & 9 for a test on Tuesday. Either 50 or 100 true or false questions.

“News Reporting and Writing” by Melvin Mencher is the second book I’ll be reading. I’ve enrolled in the school newspaper and I’ll be writing an article on Black History Month for Feburary.

Remember when you were a child, how excited you were to open up the presents? Then after a couple of days, the excitement left and you didn’t even play with all of your new toys. Well, that is what it feel like for me with these new habits. I get up every morning, just to practice 15 minutes of singing. Then I put on all my extra layers of exercise clothing to go jogging for 10 minutes. The newness of the habits are gone now. It’s a routine that has become part of my day. The excitement has left and now I must stay motivated to continue. This is the processs.

Time. Last night, I didn’t do any of my habits, personal, dish washing, blogging, singing or even read as I spent two hours on the phone talking with a friend and then my girlfriend. Relationships take an investment in time to. I do value them but I never thought about how much time is really needed to build and strenghten them.

What would make a grown man cry? Hearing his own voice as he learns to sing. I had to arrange my singing exercises for the morning as I did not do them last night. When I started to practice what I had learned from my Saturday lesson, I became very emotional. I began hearing the negative voices in my head shout ”you can’t sing.” I wasn’t aware of them when I was young, but now I am. And, I refuse to listen to them.

What I wanted this blog to be is a more open forum book club. However, I’ve streched my schedule so tight that I don’t have time for even fit in reading it seems.

In each hour, there is only so much activity that you can put into it. As I look at my New Years resolutions, I ask myself how realistic have I been? I have a ton of goals and dreams that I would like to seen happen.

This week, I was able to take the ideas from the books I’ve been reading, and implement some of them to try to create the life I want. With school starting this week, it’s going to be hard to try and fit that in because I don’t know where.

What would be really great is to by my time back from my job by creating a second income. That’s what I’m really trying to focus on but it’s hard to find the time.

Today, I decided to develop my spiritual self and committed to being a member of my girlfriends church. I think I’ve put as much as I can handle on my plate.