My memories, my friends, my family, my life

We had a BLAST at Club Spotlight in Florence, SC on this past Monday night. It was a birthday party for Mannie Man. Artists from different parts of SC came to perform and show their love. Many of them rocked the mics! Here are just a few pics, all others can be seen in the Picasa photo album linked on the pics.

The Birthday Boy, Mannie Man

From Spotlight

My cup of "HAPPY JUICE" :O)

From Spotlight

Left - Right: The Hustle Boyz (A.B.S. Ent.), Future (Drama Muzik Ent.), Trigga (Konvict Muzik)

From Spotlight

Wow, February is almost over! I haven't posted to my blog for a while. Well, obviously I have a few short stories to catch up on. Hmm, where to start? Okay, yesterday my church had a Black History program. My daughter played Rosa Parks. She had on one of my mom's skirts and a white button down shirt of mine. Of course everything was too big for her, but she still looked cute. The kids did a small praise dance and we had a speaker who talked about the different times she grew up in and how things have changed. I'm sure if and when we reach their ages we will talk about how we grew up in different age. Instead of cell phones, we grew up with pagers. I still remember black and white television sets! We had one in the living room and the colored TV was in my mom's room. Yeah, times have changed...

I am officially a student at Grand Canyon University! Yes, I changed my school. If you look further down, you will see a post talking about online college and the University of Phoenix. Hats off to UOP because that's where I got my AA in Business, but I had to change and hopefully it was the right move. I honestly feel it was the correct move to make. Since I ran into a few small issues with UOP, I decided to look elsewhere to see what else could be offered to me. I went to http://www.elearners.com/ and narrowed my decision from there. So these area few of the questions I asked since I already knew what I wanted since I had some experience being an online college student.

How much is tuition per credit hour? UOP-over $500; GCU-$395

Does this include books? UOP-NO! Your books are online in a PDF and after a while you will get sick of reading everything on a pc! Printing them off will drain your ink cartridges too. You do have an option to buy the books but that's a waste of money since you are being charged so much! GCO-Books are NOT included in tuition, but they are mandatory to buy. Amazon.com or buy from the online book store... I personally prefer books than reading everything online!

Tutoring? UOP-NO; GCU-Yes, online.

Any discounts available to people who meet certain criteria? i.e. military or prior service members? UOP-NO; GCO-NO, but tuition is better. Kaplan offers a 34% discount if you are discharged with at least a General Discharge on your DD-214. Tuition is then $230 per credit hour at Kaplan! Not bad, but I have my reasons why I didn't choose them.

Length of classes? UOP-1 class every five weeks. GCU-2 class every eight weeks. I don't mind taking two classes at once if the weeks are a little longer. One class per five weeks does not give you enough time to understand anything. You are too busy trying to get the assignments out of the way and not retaining anything. Just a word of wisdom.

Now, these were just a few of my questions. If you do decide to go to online college make sure you ask as many questions as possible and do not commit to any college until you have checked out other colleges. Let the Enrollment Advisors who WILL CALL you know that you are doing some homework and will make a decision in a day or two. Don't go with the 1st college who calls. Every one of them will claim his or her school is the best and will even try to throw in a negative about another college while telling you they don't normally do that!

I chose GCU because of the eight week courses. I get to take two classes at the same time and do it in eight weeks instead of one class every five weeks. I also chose GCU because it is a college with a sports team and an academic honors society. UOP doesn't have the sports. I almost chose FIT-Florida Institute of Technology, but the advisor wanted me to put in my credit card number! RED FLAG!!! Um, no!
So, if you do decide to got to an online college, check out eLearners and view the many colleges. Look at what degree programs they offer, and then fill out a few of the contact forms. Oh, they will call you! OR, you can go to the college's personal website and ask to speak to an enrollment counselor. Have your mind set on what you want and don't want! Also, check out http://www.ripoffreport.com/ for complaints made by actual students and employees. This will give you an idea of what you MIGHT run into at a certain college. Not to say your personal experience may not be better! If you have any question, feel free to contact me! My info is in my profile )

Yes!!! I watched the SUPERBOWL and loved every minute of it! I was on the phone the whole time with a friend of mine. We were covering the action as if we were there too! Amazing how the Steelers came back! I am in shock and awe! This first photo was the game winning touchdown; twinkle toes!!!

This second photo right here was an awesome play too. Larry Fitzgerald, the Cardinals' wide receiver, got a hold of that ball and boogied with it to a touchdown! Everyone thought that the Cardinals had it, but good ole twinkle toes up above did the move on the Cardinals which made the Steelers take the glory home.

BOTH teams were impressive, even though in the first half the Cardinals were pitiful! Seriously, I could have slapped a few of the team members and did a better job with just my daughter and I!!! But they came back in the second half and almost took the game over...

I do not have a preference in teams, I just call it like I see it and the Steelers got the victory. Like I stated earlier, BOTH teams did a magnificent job! I can really say that I payed attention to what was going on and now I am a football fan. Next, the ProBowl!

Credit to NFL.com for the photos!

Well, I am almost complete with my sports agent course with Pro Sports Group! I have one more test to go and that is chapter 5. That test is the longest of the seven test I need to complete. After I complete Ch-5, I'll get my certifications and recognitions from Pro Sports Group. I'll also be able to take my tests for whichever sports I want to represent. I am going to start off with CFL (Canadian Football League) and maybe some international basketball. The test for FIBA is coming up in march in San Juan, Puerto Rico & in Geneva. I wish I could make it to the test, but the information which I need to learn is too much for me to try and cram by March. Anyway, I am hoping that there will be another test which I can take further down in the year. If not, I'll wait another year and make sure that I am ready to take the next FIBA test. So, phase one is almost out of the way. Ya!!!

Okay, I had a bunch of kids over yesterday for
my daughter's little birthday party. I stress little because there were only 12 or 13 kids over, but it felt like 50 of them were running around the house! I was tired as a man who ran 40 miles!

So, my daughter turned nine on the seventh of January, but since her birthday landed on a Wednesday, I had a little party for her on Saturday. Fair enough right? Yep! I invited some kids over to the house for some cake, ice cream, and hot dogs. The party was supposed to start at 1:30pm, but in my time that meant 3:00pm!

I got things rolling with cans of spray string. I bought five cans and let them go berserk with them and my friend brought over six more cans and they had a blast with them too. For a while, I thought that the kids were going to be bored out of their minds, but spray string saved the day! They loosened up and was playing tag, took the radio outside and had a dance off, the boys got a football and threw it all over and around the cars... They made up some stuff to do too.

I must say after everyone left, I was worth a nickel. I cleaned up, got myself ready for bed, and called it night. I got the opportunity to write in my journal, but that was about it. I closed my eyes to rest them before the Justice League cartoon came on and when I opened them, it was Sunday morning. Lol!