I spent a week with my wife and our two sons in Ocean City, Maryland from August 22nd till August 29th. On Sunday, August 30th, we celebrated my wife's 36th birthday. On Monday, August 31st, I started my online Psych 140 class. I studied hard. From Monday into Tuesday I put in close to 9 hours of studying. I didn't quite understand Chapter one, so in my own words, I outlined the chapter in notes so I could better comprehend the information. After rereading the chapter again, I comprehended it 100%. I revised my notes to add in little tidbits of info that I felt were important. With my cell phone, I recorded myself reading my notes and then played the notes through the bluetooth in my car while driving to work. By the time Thursday rolled around, I was completely exhausted and beyond bored with Psychology, and I started bumping the musical stylings of Christopher Wallace AKA Biggie Smalls. The Psych recordings bored me to death, though it is a good idea. I got too distracted by the sound of my breathing in the recording.
On Thursday, September 3rd at 6:30 pm in room 2279 I attended Mangini's English Comp I class. The class was a shitload of fun. Mangini does a great job of engaging the class and keeping it interesting. He gave us 3 assignments: Why I Write, My Writing Process, and The Writer's Round Table. All 3 assignments were fun, mostly because it gave me the opportunity to write about myself. I had a bit of a problem with the hyperlinks in microsoft word, but figured it out by watching youtube videos. Another challenge I had was in My Writing Process assignment, where I had a concept that I wanted to express in the form of an analogy. I was at my wits end and didn't believe I was going to find my analogy, until a conversation I had with a client of mine sparked inspiration. I wrote soon as I got home from work. I wasn't confident with my writings until Mangini and my wife both read my work and followed up with positive feedback and criticism.
I really enjoy this class. I've been going hard in English Comp and Psych 140, but I enjoy English Comp more. Between school work, my job at the Hair Cuttery, and my home life, I have little to no time for much else. Since class started, I value my time more and try to spend it wisely. This week I was getting burnt out from writing and studying. I felt guilty, as if I was neglecting my kids by keeping my face in books and on the laptop. I have to keep in mind that my boys are the number one reason that I am in school. I want to offer them a better life and set the example by being a college graduate. I want to help pay for their tuitions one day. I want to make them proud. This past tuesday I put down the books, laptop, and notepads and packed my sons in the car. We drove to my mother's house in Prospect Park and swam in her pool for 3 hours. I needed that. They needed it too.
A lot has changed in this past week. I value my time more than ever before, especially with my wife and kids. In life, family is the most important thing to me.
When I was driving to work tonight, among many other things, I thought about my wife and kids. I thought about this website and how I had a hard time selecting a pic for my cover page. I came to realize the subliminal reason that I may have chose the illustration of Thomas the tank engine getting tagged up by graffiti artists while he sleeps as my cover pic for this site is because the photo fuses the interest of my children with mine. My sister tagged me in that Thomas pic on Facebook. She knows that my kids love Thomas the tank engine, and she knows of my days when I used to moonlight as a graffiti artist. I added the phrase "Writers Never Die"... because of the fact that even when a writer dies, his or her words become immortalized, and live on to inspire future generations of writers to come. Also... for those don't know, graffiti artists refer to themselves as writers.. "Yo, you a writer? You got a nice hand, bro"
I think too much and that's why I'm introducing an idea that I may utilize that I call "The Blog Blurb". If I think of shit that I want to post that may have some kind of relevance to a previous post... I'll post it in what I call a Blog Blurb... Its still a blog post, but by calling it a Blog Blurb, you will know that it has relevance to my earlier post... I'll include the name of the previous post in the Blog Blurb title. It’s just an idea. I don't know if it'll stick... but it may be a good resource for my memoir piece.