After being down $1,000 in my Forex trading, spending an evening filling out a few applications, and really gaining an understanding of my trading style the mistakes I made, I put another $1,000 into my Forex account and bet the farm. I placed a buy trade (five lots) @ 1.5774. If there were a time to start earning a living trading it’s now. With school starting only 58 days away, I need to start trying to earn a living trading. My thoughts are to change my style to long term rather than day trading. I need to make $10,000 in 2 months.

Weight Loss

I’ve lost 5 pounds since last week. I stepped on my scale to proudly see me weighing 228 lbs.

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What a remarkable evening to see and hear two talented women perform in one evening. Angie Stone and Chaka Khan performed before thousands at the 28th annual Taste of Chicago. What made it even more remarkable is that the concert was free thanks to the City of Chicago.

V103 radio personality Troi Tyler warms up the crowd at the 28th Annual Taste of Chicago.

National radio personality Tom Joyner was the emcee who introduced Angie Stone to the stage.

Tom Joyner at the 28th annual Taste of Chicago

Radio host Tom Joyner remembering the “Good Ol’ Days” in Chicago.

Tom Joyner claims his innocence with his ”hands up” at the 2008 Taste of Chicago.

Angie Stone performs at the 28th Annual Taste of Chicago

Angie Stone “feeling it’ at the 28th Annual Taste of Chicago.

Angie Stone giving her love back to Chicago in Grant Park 2008.

Angie Stone performs at the 28th Annual Taste of Chicago.

Tom Joyner joins the stage with Angie Stone as she sings her hit “Brotha.”

Chaka Khan performing at Grant Park in Chicago 2008

Chaka Khan taking the stage in Grant Park 2008

Chaka sings to a Chicago crowd at the 28th annual Taste of Chicago.

Chaka Khan feeling some Chicago love at the Taste of Chicago.

Is Chaka Khan gives me the “eye” at Grant Park in Chicago 2008.

Chaka testing Chicago’s memory of her old-school song lyrics.

Chaka Khan smiles at the 28th Annual Taste of Chicago.

Chaka Khan grooving at the 2008 Taste of Chicago.

Entertaining a hungry crowd, Chaka let’s us “Feel the Fire”.

Doing it “Chaka Khan Style” at Grant Park in Chicago 2008.

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After my losses last night in the Forex market, I’ve decided I’m going to take a break from trading. Just enough time to lick and heal my wounds.

Even though the Forex market is open 24 hours, I’ve come to the conclusion that day trading must be done during the day when the market has a lot of volitility. There are certain times that a good trend could yield 50-100 pips. Unfortunately for me, I’m working during those times or I’m sleep. Yes, during the night, right after 1:00 a.m. the EUR/USD seems to wake up from is sideways movement and create some excellent opportunities for scalping a few profitable trades.

So far, I’m down about $1,000.00. That’s enough for me to understand that it’s time to rethink my money-making plans. I probably could make money trading but I must be free from my job.

Weight Loss and Diet Change

This morning the scale looked like it wanted to touch 230 lbs. Each morning for breakfast I’ve consitantly had 2 oranges and 2 pieces of lightly buttered toast. I’ve also cut out my sugar intake. Just yesterday at work, I turned down a bag of M&M’s, a cookie, a root beer float, and ice cream that was being handed out by the vendors.

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Over the weekend, I decided that I was going to focus on my diet and weight. Coming home from the Smooth Jazz Fest, I stopped in at my local bookstore to buy a weight loss/diet book. I chose Robert K. Cooper’s “Flip the Switch Lose the Weight.”

I skipped past the first two chapters because of time and I really wanted to get to the “meat”. The third chapter talked about how to start your morning. Robert’s research found that people will start to lose weight when they exercise in the morning. It had something to do with boosting your metabolism.  I thought I would start Monday morning by taking the little knowledge I learned and using it. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. Got my body adjusted to the light. I had planned on running but I remembered that I threw out my jogging shoes last week. Instead of throwing the idea out the window and crawling back into bed, I put on my exercise attire (shorts and a tee-shirt) and took my bike out for a ride at 5:30 a.m. I was able to get back home at 6:05 a.m.

I felt so good. Right now my energy is high and I’m ready for work. I did want to weigh myself as I’m starting a new journey. I weighed in at 233 lbs. I’m going to be following more of the information I read in the Cooper’s book.

Breakfast

• 2 pieces of buttered toast
• 2 small navel oranages
• 1 Lo-Carb Monster Energy Drink

Lunch

• White rice/Spicy Chicken/Egg roll
• 20oz. Water
• Lo-Carb Monster Energy Drink

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What a talented man Stanley Jordan is. Last night, his trio took the stage at the 2nd Annual Smooth Jazz Festival. His performance was will worth the surprise $5.00 donation particpants were asked to pay to enter tonight.

Stanley is a verteran in the world of jazz. His debut album “Magic Touch” was released in 1985. It’s hard to believe as Stanley doesn’t seem to have aged a bit since his explosion on the jazz scene some 23 years ago. However, his playing spoke volumes about his musicianship and years he’s been peforming.

As a guitar player, he’s mastered the art of harmonic playing. Tonight he gave the crowd a sample of his wide musical taste. From jazz, classical and pop. Not only did he entertain us with is guitar but he also showed us how multi-talented he really is with playing the keyboards and his guitar.

Stanley Jordan at the 2nd Annual Smooth Jazz Fest in Chicago.

Musical converstations happening between Stanley Jordan and Charnett Moffett.

More dialog between musicians.

Stanley Jordan performs at Pritzger Park in Chicago.

Stanley Jordan at the 2nd Annual Smooth Jazz Festival 2008.

Stanley Jordan performs to a Chicago crowd in Pritzger Park.

Stanley Jordan feeling the music at the 2nd Annual Smooth Jazz

Fest in Chicago.

Charnett Moffett solos at Chicago’s 2nd annual Smooth Jazz Fest.

Bassist Charnett Moffett performs with Stanley Jordan in Chicago.

Bassist Charnett Moffett with Stanley Jordan at the 2nd Annual

Smooth Jazz Festival in Chicago.

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By happenstance I was having an after-hours cocktail with a few friends after-work. During our conversation, one of them mentioned going to the jazz festival afterwards. I wasn’t aware of any activities on Friday night. After dinner, we walked over to State Street heading west on Van Buren. We could all hear the music before we turned the corner. The Second Annual Smooth Jazz Festival was undergoing and voilinst Micheal Ward was playing when we got there. I was so impressed with Michael’s playing and his band that told my friends that I was going home to grab my camera.

Within an hour I was back in time to catch Corey Wilkes. Corey and his band were hot!!! I have to admit, I’ve never heard of Corey Wilkes before hearing him tonight.  His playing was electrifying. His hour long set was full of entertainment. Corey shared his performance with some remarkable players and entertainers. Wilkes offered the spotlight to a soulful singer named Yaw (pronouced Ya-oo) and three beautiful dancers that closed the show with Corey with their improvisational African dance. 

The Chicago’s Smooth Jazz Festival will continue until Sunday night. I plan on returning Saturday night to hear guitarist Stanley Jordan at 8:30 p.m.

 

An entertained crowd enjoys the Second Annual Chicago Smooth Jazz Festival.

Corey Wilkes plays center stage at the 2nd Annual Chicago Jazz Festival.

Guitarist performs solo on stage with Corey Wilkes.

Saxophonist Jabari Liu for Corey Wilkes plays a solo for the crowd.

Keyboardist William Kurk raises his hat at the Smooth Jazz Fest. 

Corey Wilkes and Friends at the 2008  Chicago Smooth Jazz Festival.

 Corey Wilkes performs a solo for the 2008 Smooth Jazz Fest. 

Soulful Yaw sings on stage with Corey Wilkes. 

Chicago Soul Singer Yaw performs with Corey Wilkes.

Soul singer Yaw singing at the Smooth Jazz Fest.

Corey Wilkes and saxophonist Kevin Nabors play for crowd.

Saxophonist  Kevin Nabors solos for the crowd. 

Dancer performs on stage with Corey Wilkes.

African dancer performing on stage with Corey Wilkes. 

Dancing onstage to the music of Corey Wilkes.

Corey Wilkes playing intensely for the crowd.

A couple dances near the front stage at the Chicago Smooth Jazz Festival.

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I work for a large I.T. reseller for my day job. Part of my job is to find new accounts. Today I decided to call on a few network marketing companies for several reasons.

The first reason is to generate some new accounts as well as make my dial quota for the day. The second is to evaluate and investigate an opportunity for me as I await my exit in August to pursue my education full-time. I thought calling on these companies would and how they dealt with me as a “salesman” would reflect their attitude towards a distributor/representative of their company if I became involved. Here are a few things I experienced while dialing for dollars.

• Poor Web Design

I was amazed at some of the companies websites. There were a few websites that were so primative in regards to web design that I thought it was 1994 all over again. No graphics, one color or two colors, and presentation done in cells?

• No Phone Number Listed

It frightens me of the number of companies that don’t list their phone numbers on their website but will gladly guide you to sign up to become a distributor or offer you a place to give your credit card information.

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I’ve learned some valuable lessons from the lastest book I’ve been reading. I think it might even get me to become a better trader.

Trend Following by Michael W. Covel has been an inspiration and has given me new insight into my trading style.
Since I’ve been trading the Forex, I’ve been swinging at everything. I’ve placed trades within the trends, at the support and resistance levels, broken my own rules of trading without stops, which explains my I’m down almost $1,000 to date.

In his book, Micheal takes a examination of some great trend followers. The anlagy of trading to baseball really hit home for me. Does a batter swing at every ball that pitched to him? No. He waits patiently for the right pitch. Then he swings for the fence (home run). Well, that made a lot of sense to me. Why am I up all night losing sleep over my trades? I’ve set a new set of rules and that is to wait for the right pitch. I’ve set buys on each side of the trend way outside the trends almost 20 points and stops about 50 points above the buys.

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I love Free. Who doesn’t? When a company offers you to try their free product or service in order to gain your business, why wouldn’t you? I’m no exception. That is why I can proudly recommend VistaPrint.

Last year VistaPrint offered me to try FREE 250 of their business cards (I had to pay for shipping). I took them up on their offer. I designed my cards right on their website. They had many templates to choose from. With all the other offers I had thrown at me once I got started, I wound up with over 2500 business cards for cheap. And I mean cheap like under $25.00.

The quality of the paper stock was excellent too. I wasn’t embarrassed to hand out these cards. Actually, quite proud since I knew I saved a bundle on them. I would never been able to get such a great deal at an Office Depot or my local printer. To impress me even more, VistaPrint had my order arrived faster than they promised. It seems they have mastered the WOW factor.

VistaPrint offers more than just business cards. They have an entire line of business products such as sticky note holders, cards, party invitations,
stationary, invitations, and promotional give-aways. Every product is customizable too.

In this economy, if you can save a few dollars to add to your gasoline budget, you’re way ahead of the crowd. If you do a lot of networking, this is one deal you can’t pass up. Try VistaPrint’s free business card offer at least. They really do have the Best Printing, Best Prices. Tell them The Blog Novice sent you.

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My blog finally got approved for Pay Per Post. It’s been a long three months and many, many post along the way. However, I’m finally able to add another way to monetize my blog. So my first advertising opportunity that I’m going to write about is Pay Per Post which pays a whopping $20.00.

How I found out about Pay Per Post was observing the more successful bloggers and I kept noticing the name Pay Per Post popping up in their documented blogger’s monthly income. Then one Saturday morning, reading a few of my favorate blogs, I learned of the web-based company responsible for Pay Per Post, IZEA.

Pay Per Post is user friendly. When I log on, I have my blogger’s dashboard. This shows featured opportunites, opportunities that pays very handsomely in a section called “Big Green” as well as a section of top earners. I like this very much as I can take a peak at what bloggers are really earning for the day, month or an “all time” high.

With Pay Per Post, when you sign up, be ready to start posting. Posties are given about 6 hours to honor the commitment of the post. This allows others to have an opportunity to post.

Another requirment is bloggers must also post at the end of each post a disclaimer that lets readers know that you’re getting paid for the post.

The only downside that I noticed is that most of the advertising opportunities have a waiting period. I’ve logged on several times and seen that an opportunity was posted only a few hours but is already filled up with posties waiting in line. The demand for opportunities are limited but the supply of bloggers is plentiful.

Pay Per Post also offers the blogger an additional way to make money with another feature called Pay Per Post Direct. This allows advertisers to directly offer bloggers advertising opportunities. Bloggers create a Pay Per Post badge widget for advertisers to directly negotiate with the blogger about advertising opportunities. I personally like this feature.

The Pay Per Post University is a place where new posties can get acquainted with the service. What I like most about the university is it’s video tutorials. I can just sit back and watch and rewind again rather than read.

It seems Pay Per Post is a recognized leader in the social advertising media. I’m glad to be apart now of a community of bloggers promoting advertisers products and services. It now allows me to strengthen my writing skills which I most desperately need to do.

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