Monday, November 28, 2011

America's Mafia - First Book Completed!

Well guys, as you may recall by my last posts, I have been working with a good friend of mine, J.E.M. Lewis, on a book for the past several months. I am proud to say that the first book is completely written, edited, and ready to be shopped around to agencies!

I want to thank those of you who have been with me all these years; you're being here has helped me to become who I am and continues to help me as I go along.

Along with the book, we have also released a website:
http://americasmafia.com/index.shtml

Feel free to stop by and, if you have a Facebook account, click the "Like" button in the top right corner. That is, if you like what you see, hehe.

No, this is not the first book I thought I would write, but now that it is, I am proud of myself and my esteemed co-author, J.E.M. Lewis. Thanks everyone for the support!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Update 2: The Summer

Well, the lazy blogger is at it again. I believe it's been over two months since I said I'd be posting another update soon. Well, I guess I'm not great at keeping up with that pace. One thing leads to another, and pretty soon, I'm way behind.

So, here is the story of April through September, in quick blow-by-blows:

April
Was a very interesting month for me, indeed! I will focus on just the highlights. Perhaps the best thing to to happen in April was my opportunity to meet Carol Kranowitz. That's right, I got to meet the lady who wrote the 'SPD bible,' "The Out-of-Sync Child." I was at OT one day and noticed a flier declaring she was coming to town. As luck would have it, she was actually coming to *my* school!

So, on Monday, April 11, I was able to spend pretty much an entire day in the Morris Lawrence building at Washtenaw Community College, attending a presentation by Kranowitz, herself. I couldn't miss the opportunity to go up and speak to her personally. I made sure to thank her for publishing my article in the Spring 2009 edition of SI Focus. I also offered her my services in any future projects she had, and she told me I might be able to come in handy in the near future, after all. I relished the chance to snag a quick picture of myself with her, too, of course.

Sure, I had to miss a day of work and spend fifteen dollars (or whatever it was) to see her, but that was a very small price to pay, in my mind. ;)

As far as school went during April, it progressed quite smoothly. I put in the finishing touches on all my assignments and got relatively high marks. I ended up finishing my Internet Professional requirements, meaning I now have all the credits I need to get my Associate's Degree in the INP field!

However, if April seems like it was a great month, and it was, it wasn't without its own difficulties. Primarily, my car was stolen! That's right; I parked it in front of the house one afternoon after work, and when I woke up the next morning, it was gone. No shattered glass, no debris, no car. I filed a report at the police station, and a few days later I received a phone call that my car had been found, stripped of all its critical parts, in an impound lot in Detroit. So, from that point on, it's been nothing but getting rides and borrowing cars for me. (And no, insurance didn't cover anything because it was a used vehicle and I didn't pay the boatload of money I would have needed to to cover theft.)


The Summer
I'll combine my summer all into one heading because, well, it all felt like one big blur! I spent the entire summer working at the writing center and writing America's Mafia, which is now a book. That's right; what was a television series is now a series of books, as many as six, to be exact. JT and I hammered away at this task all summer. If it wasn't so late and I wasn't so tired, I'd get into it much deeper, but for now, let's just say it was an incredible experience, and we are currently trying to find a publisher for the work.

So, that's a real quick update for now. There was much more that happened, but I think I'll save the rest for another day. I just felt like I should share something with you all. :)

Friday, June 17, 2011

Update Part 1: March

Hi everyone,

It has been quite some time since I last updated things, hasn't it? Well, things have actually been going very well on my end, for the most part. I have just been so incredibly busy that I haven't had a chance to update things. So, let's review the months I've missed updating, shall we? I'll go month-by-month with my posting, since a lot has happened and this would be a simply mammoth post if I didn't.

March: Went fairly smooth. I continued to plug away on my Web Analytics and SEO class as well as my Web Graphics II course. I needed Web Graphics as the final required INP course in the INP associate's degree program, and Analytics was needed as my final INP-related elective credit. Neither of the classes were particularly fun, but I made my way through, nonetheless.

Also noteworthy is that I put in the initial stages of development on the new SPD Support website. I have been running SPD Parent SHARE and its articles/hosting sections for some time, as well as the forum on SPD International, and wanted to combine them onto one new site. I started developing the blueprints for the new site in March.

One small problem came up in March; I was pulled over by a police officer for the first time. Eep! I was headed to work one evening, and was surprised when the officer who had been a good distance behind me for the past few blocks suddenly put on his flashers and pulled up closer to me. I pulled over and was trying to keep from freaking out. Turns out the sticker on my license plate had been expired for a few months! I hadn't even noticed. Fortunately, I did not get a ticket, but was told to get the plate renewed, which I did the next day for about 70 bucks.

Another great thing happened in March though. I became closer in my friendship with JT Lewis. He is one of my fellow tutors at my school, Washtenaw Community College. We went to see several movies together during the month of March, which were pretty much the first times I had been to the cinema in years. We must have been to about 5 movies that month, which undoubtedly shatters my old record. We are also writing a book (was a TV show) together, and put in a lot of creative work on that during what spare time we had that month.

Want to see JT? Well, unlike me, he actually has a video of himself up on Youtube. Here is JT, my co-author, co-worker, and good friend:


Yes, he is an incredibly intelligent and animated individual with a very bright personality and a cheerful persona. Now, I say persona, because there is actually much more to him than meets the eye. To make a very long story (book in progress, actually) short, he has had one very difficult and challenging life. He is a product of Detroit's oh-so-wonderful (/sarcasm) foster "care" program, and his being alive today is something we can all draw inspiration from. I am very happy (oh who am I kidding? I'm thanking God!) to have finally made a friend in my vicinity who not only understands me in many ways most fail at, but who is also actually willing to put up with my quirks and meltdowns! :P


So, I believe that's just about it for what happened during the month of March. Well, that and more occupational therapy, Woot!

Up next: April!
(Hint: This next post should be the first time you ever see Carol Kranowitz and car robbery ever come up in the same post... anywhere! Totally unrelated events, of course, lol.)

Monday, February 28, 2011

Jury Duty tomorrow

Sorry I haven't been updating in quite some time. I've been busy still with work and school as usual.

Tomorrow, I will have a new test for my sensory processing abilities. I was summoned to court back in 2008, but I got out of it by sending in a letter that stated I had SPD, anxiety, depression, and a few other diagnoses. That was good enough to work for that, and I ended up not having to go in. Granted, that was only a few months after I began Sensory Integration based occupational therapy.

A few weeks ago, I received a letter from the district court, telling me I have again been summoned. What is it? Twice in 3 years? I'm assuming my not going in '08 put me on some sort of a short list to go back in.

So, this time, I'm faced with the decision of whether or not I should try to get out of it again, since I still carry those diagnoses, or if I want to rely on the benefits I have made so far in almost exactly 3 years of OT treatment to carry me through.

You know what? I'm feeling cocky, hehe. I tried to reschedule my jury duty for June, as I thought I had school on March 1st. Turns out, I forgot I actually have this week off for a bit of a winter break. So, I am missing neither work nor school to attend the initial jury selection.

So, people, please wish me luck. I am hoping things go well and that I am able to sit through things alright. I believe I've made a lot of progress, and hopefully it's enough to pull me through something like this. Glad to be making a new post here, as I keep forgetting to update it, lol.