Bird by Bird – Anne Lamont

Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg

On Writing – Stephen King

IV – Chuck Klosterman

Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendental Movement – Professor Ashton Nicholas (The Teaching Company)

I’m currently preparing for a trip to LA from the 8th-13th.

I’m kicking it off with a “Meet Your Guides” session with Gil Alan. It was introduced to me by a friend as a 4 hour psychic reading and later I found out it was more along the lines of seeing past and future lives, as well as major turning points of best and worst current life outcomes. Yeah… sign me up.

I’m attending James Malinchak’s College Speaking Success Bootcamp. I’m not really sure what it’s about… but the premise is 4 days of this guy who made millions, speaking, and he’s gonna show me how to do it too. Guest speakers would include, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, T. Harv Eker and Jason Alexander.

The Masters of Harmony are singing their christmas show. I spent the extra money to get golden box seats, these guys are an international champion barbershop chorus. I’m expecting this to be one of the most phenomenal things I’ve ever heard musically. I could watch those faces all day.

My dinner and entertainment before the drive home will take place at the Magic Castle. It’s an exclusive fancy shmancy coat and tie dinner spot with 3 rooms of magic performances all night. They’ve got a library of magic books as well. Geminids meteor shower will be at its peak on the drive home, I’ll be expecting between 160-240 meteors an hour. I’m looking forward to it.

The Four-Hour Workweek- Timothy Ferriss

For the week I worked, I am exceedingly pleased with the results.

For the week I played, I went hiking 2 days and 1 night, I read an enjoyable book, went shopping, played my favorite board game for multiple hours on multiple days and spent the rest of the time with friends.

I think this next two week cycle is going to be even better

It’s incredible how fast time moves, after the weekend, we’ll be half way through March.

World champs?

Yeah! World Champion of Public Speaking. And Hall of Famer Lady Fripp with the british accent.

I get to hang out with the Lady and the Champs huh?

I feel like a real smoocher here, but I’m excited to go. I think I’ll be impressed and learn a lot.

Sunday night I’m going to discover the musical talents of, New Orleans funk, Galactic. I hear they know how to put on a show.

There’s this gold medal that I’ve grown up wanting, and it’s lead me to try many different sports. I got further with some than others; I even tried fencing. The first day of my trial week, I found out the person assigned to teach me the basics had in fact gotten a full ride scholarship to Harvard. We parried for half an hour, he scored a thousand times, but I clawed out a handful of plays. It was a ton of fun for the both of us. He was good, but not out of reach. I trained diligently for a few months when an olympic competitor made a guest appearance. We watched some of her favorite fencing duals and she gave us a break down on strengths and weaknesses of defensive and offensive plays. Then I had the chance to try my foil against hers. I appreciate fencing now more than ever. The innovation of sport and the performance of two people pushing each other past personal bests.

A small medal in recognition of excellence, absolutely miniscule to the accomplishment.

Have you ever heard of the Congressional Gold Medal? How about it’s equivalent, the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

“…awarded to an individual who performs an outstanding deed or act of service to the security, prosperity, and national interest of the United States…”

“An especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

Obama has given 16 already.

I had this teacher who I will always remember in middle school. She allowed me to give speeches to the class in order to raise money for a local teen shelter. She invited me to speak if we had extra time and when we raised about $1,200 between all 6 of her classes, my speeches raised us from 5th to 2nd most donations. There was a little ceremony with the staff in giving that money to the shelter spokesman and the whole class would clap. I remember Ms. Leschak stopping all of them and asking me to stand up. She said she expected a lot from me and she’ll be cheering for the great things I’ll do in the future. It meant a lot to me as those were troubled years.

I’ve got an idea.

I get in the swing of things and then it ends.

Frustrating.

Why is such a wasteful, unrhythmic sequence so popular? How do people get anything done in such a groove?