This is a wonderful season and a great opportunity to give thanks to those special people in our lives and celebrate the greatest time of year. Take it easy, drink warm apple cider and watch movies with your family or read a good book. Be ready and rested to kick some butt in 2010! Happy Holidays everyone!

Last week, I did a contest at school that parodied American Idol, hence “Mission Idol”. First I sang “I’ll Be There” by The Jackson 5, and then sang “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke and covered by seal in the showdown against my awesome opponent Nicole Gabel.

After the showdown it was time to vote. The crowd was so loud for both Nicole and myself that the judges ended up deciding who it would be. Out of the many many contestants, I won Mission Idol! That was really cool because I’ve been singing forever, and although I’ve took a break in my music ambitions for my web business, I am looking to get them right back on track again and this is a great start.

Thank you very much to all my friends who came out supported me, and I would like to give a special thanks to Amy Lam for pre-show support and the great footage. Hope you guys enjoy the videos!

At the beginning of the year, there was a lot going on with family, and my cousins stayed with me. It was so different having more people in the house, and definitely something I had to get used to.

I have changed a lot since the beginning of the year. In the beginning of the year, I looked at myself as someone who didn’t always know where he was going, and always sought others approval to be very uniquely himself. I don’t think, looking back, that I was scared about what people thought, rather that I did not know how I would be perceieved, and always thinking about what people would think, wanting to set a great first impression. The more I went through the year, and with the help of some great friends, it all became clear to me.

What I learned set me sturdy and stable. You must always be yourself, I know people say that a lot, but its dead true. Its going to come out eventually, and you must put in a touch of you. When your doing something thats not authentically you, then you fail, always. Also, whats the worst that can come out of someone not liking you? What are they going to do? Call yo momma? Even if they did, she’d tell them off. That sucks for them if they have a problem.

Second, you should never worry too much about friendships, and relationships, because they will work out if they are meant to be. My secrets for staying cool with pals and your girl or guy is that you need to be real with them, frank, and just do the stuff they teach in kindergarten, to be nice, to share, and to look out for them. You’ll know the ones that love you for you, and those are the keepers.

Third, I learned you have to speak up for yourself all the time. Many times, people have to learn this the hard way. If it won’t work for you, say it, because at the end of the day you have to look after yourself, period. No one else will. Like I tell my friends, if you get hungry and want some chicken, you need to say so because no one else will know. Speak up for yourself, you can be polite about it. Again, if you speak up for yourself, whats the worst that could happen? (If you think too much, don’t answer that one.)

Fourth, If you want to do something, just do it. Even if you tried doing it before, do it again, with a fresh start. If you rake leaves for the first time, even if the wind blows them away, you’ll know how to do it the second time. In other words, you can only succeed if you take the risk of failing. People who succeed at something usually fail many times before they make a hit record, or a great movie, or invent something millions of people use every day. Don’t let failure frustrate you, use what you learned, and turn it into your own success story.

Those are some of the many lessons I learned from this long year of 2008. I hope that you will be able to apply some of them to your life, and see how it gets easier!

In the 60′s and 70′s, you had good looking black men and women with great voices, and dressed to impress kings and queens of the world, the president, and many others. There were Supreme, and tempting as well (The Temptations & Supremes). They dazzled, doo dahed, and paved the way for all Black Americans, and really Americans still to come, and showed America that black people are just as capable of achievement. Then, you had shows like the Cosby Show and Family Matters that had middle class black families with doctors, policemen, and other great professions. They spoke regular English, and were dressed as any other American would dress.

Now, fastforward a few decades to the year 2008. Now, turn on BET, you see young men dressed many times like a thug, and there are songs like “It’s hard to be a pimp”, and “Gangsta Lovin”, and theres a song that goes “If yo status ain’t hood, I aint checkin on ya…”. Suddenly our culture went from one emphasizing respectable values and morals, looking up to the stars, to one where in a music video, Nelly swipes a credit card down a girls behind. You see black people on television getting arrested or letting chains hang low. That is what is usually aired.

We need to change this media culture of making black people look like gang baners, thugs, or other horrible examples. This messed up media sends terrible examples to our own people, and to the world about hwat it means to be black. Seems like now, many people expect a black man to be gangster, a rapper, a basketball player, or a football player. Seems like a black woman, defined by many videos out there, is being a video girl, a singer, or a dancer.

We don’t have to start over, but we do need a fresh start. We need to stop making thug life, criminal activity, and degradation of anyone look good. Videos with that content should not be aired! Songs won’t be empty without cussing every 5 seconds, if cussing makes a song or a rap complete, its not legit to begin with (lets face it cursing all the time doesn’t make what your saying any more meaningful, we all do it but do we need that in our videos to make it look like we all need to?). However, glorification of foolishness, and ignorance have to stop. The Proud Family, That’s So Raven, Family Matters, The Cosby Show, House of Payne, Sister Sister – just some of the many positive black shows out there, and they are good shows that people love to watch. They are wholesome, and funny as heck! So we obviously don’t need “hood life” and thuggery to make great shows, music videos, and entertainment for people – Motown didn’t do that.

Me, and my fellow young people are ready to move on. We need to leave this bull behind and clean this mess up. No Nelly swiping cards down butts, no its hard to be a pimp, and why would any respectable person make love in a  club? That’s the stupidest thing ever. We’re better than that. Look at the oldies, and the legends that reigned in the 60′s and 70′s. And look at all the other ignorant crap we’ve had in the past. Forgotten.

Lets make it right my fellow brothers and sisters, and even those from other cultures, we really have similar and the same media these days, we can all change this.

P.S. I don’t have a problem with these rappers and other celebrities and musicians personally, I just think they need to know the effect the material they put out has on so many young people.

1. Notes

If you can’t find your notes, there is no point in taking them. I used to have a thousand notes trapped in files scattered all over my computer and binders. What I have found, was that organizing my notes with a notebook service, such as Notely, or Microsoft OneNote has helped me increase my organization tremendously. You can find notes you took previously a lot easier, and most important, remember they are there.

Notely is free and is a web based service, but I believe OneNote is worth the $99.

2. Files

We have files everywhere now a days. In the computer, print outs, bills, receipts. The best thing to do with all this information is FILE IT! Don’t just create a random file for various things, or chances are you will never find it. While there is no right or wrong way to develop a file organization system, I recommend that you create sections in your file cabinets, such as College Course, Finances, or Work. From there, you can subdivide into “Bills”, and then “Cell Phone”, etc. The same goes for digital files. After that, write down a diagram, and draw how all of your files are categorized and where they are. This will take a lot of headache out of filing.

3. Scheduling

It is so important to keep a calendar of all events you have planned, from a birthday, to a visit to your friend, or an important deadline you can’t miss. Keeping one calendar of events is critical to being organized, on time, and impressive. If you keep it updated, you are sure to never miss a lunch with a friend or a meeting again, or sign up for two events at one time. Make sure you only keep one calendar though, so that you always see everything you have to do.

4. Contacts

Keeping all of your contact information in one place is a basic part of organization. You might have 100 contacts, or 1000 contacts, but keeping your addresses and phone numbers in one place is critical. If you prefer to keep things in writing, you might like to get a day planner. However, it is most convenient to use a computer program such as Microsof Outlook to keep all of your contacts listed in. Another great tool is Plaxo (web based), or Bento (for the mac).

If your interested in really getting organized, and getting your life together, read To Do Doing Done! Its a great book that can help anyone (and I mean anyone) get organized. It’ll help you accomplish what you need to do, and make sure everything you do reflects where you want to go in life.

Get it here.

I have fallen down many times, too numerous to count. An example is when I thought I was done making a website, and then I discovered it had bugs in different browsers, and it was quite a horrible experience (one you could only get from Austin! Well I am a part time geek…what?), like the horror of being locked up in a room with a clown. However, I took a rest, and despite my anger at Microsoft, I was able to pick myself up and fix those annoying problems. No one likes to fall, but learning how to pick yourself up keeps failure away.