Software I Use and Admire: Macjournal

Written on July 23, 2010 by Oaks in Uncategorized

The best program I use on a daily basis and something I feel most of everybody can benefit from is a program called macjournal (pc people, they also have the same program conveniently named winjournal).

Why This?

This software has saved me more than anything, gotten me organized when I was everywhere, if I wanted more privacy I can easily lock a journal with a password, can put any type of document in an entry, can record my thoughts are export them through itunes, upload blog post to my blog with no problems whatsoever. If Mariners Software needed a spoke person for this product I would quickly jump at that opportunity. It really is just that good.

The main reason why this program and not a paper journal or tons of files of text files is because everything is in one place. I can also organize it the way I want and my thoughts and ideas can be analyzed easily and quickly. If there is anything that I want to start than all I have to do is make a new journal or entry.

My Favorite Functions

Like I stated earlier, some of my favorite functions of macjournal are the ease to organize my files, full screen mode, can put mostly any files on the system. I didn’t realize how big organization was to me until I got this software. I had plenty of paper everywhere on my computer and was hard to get my mind on what was important and what it actually was. So just putting everything in my computer has helped me to stay focused and find out what is important to me. The full screen mode is the ultimate distraction killer, coupled with cutting off the internet. I can focus on one thing at a time, which I have a problem doing often. The writing is what gives me fuel for the day and keeps me centered, this is the main reason why I feel that can get so many activities done because of the concentration I have. The putting-anything-in-macjournal allows me to not worry about where everything is because mostly everything can be placed anywhere in the software. Besides my novel, music, and photographs, I have a dump station for everything else (I can even put my novel and photographs in this system if wanted to). I like the fact that I can put a pdf to read in one spot and also comment about it on the very same journal entry.

Why I Love Macjournal

The reason why I love macjournal so much is because it is extremely simple. No real bells and whistles involved, just something where I can put a couple of words and thoughts into and can have an experience where I can utilize all of the ways a journal can help someone: writing, speaking, video and so on. The other reason why is because it is more than a journal, it is where I organize other ideas that I’m dealing with or want to focus on. The system allows me to be as creative as I want. That is the thing that I didn’t think was possible with any program and that is what keeps me smiling every single time I use it or tell people about it.

You just never know which products will help you out in life. Most of them are pieces of shit or time wasters. There are a couple that are cool, but don’t add much value and would actually get more done if that very thing wasn’t even used. Then there are some that we simply can’t live without because it makes our lives better. I think I will be extremely lost and didn’t know where I was going because things would be out of control. Being organized in the things that matter helps me to see what I have to do and start being organize in those areas, too. This is what I crave the most and happy with my choice.

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My Personal Thoughts to the World

Written on July 13, 2010 by Oaks in Uncategorized

This is more of a get-in-Oke’s head-kind-of post. I’ve written this a couple of days ago and felt a need to let people in my head’s world of what I go through when I journal about myself. I usually write for an hour each and everyday and at times get inspiration from somewhere and write whenever during the day. This is one of those post. The journal entry explains everything that I felt and still feel now. I was able to write nearly 1400 words in 34 minutes–enjoy!

I just don’t know what is up right now. I’m happy, I am doing the things that I want to do, but am constantly thinking that I’m doing too much. I already don’t get much sleep: just over 4-5-6 hours of sleep during the work week. I know that is shitty and now I’m trying to get up even earlier. One thing that is keeping me going and ahead of doing the things that I’m doing is the writing for an hour everyday. It is magical what I can get accomplish when there isn’t anybody around me and I can devote the time to myself, craft and whatever project I want to work on.

Last week I worked on my schedule. I split it up into 3 categories: writing, photography and photojournalist. I mapped out my to-do list for everything, ordered it of importance and put everything on my calendar for the month. I’m going to be a very busy mofo and I know that there is still something not right about it. I’ve been talking to myself about this for awhile and know that I’m setting myself up for overkill and might result in me burning out very soon. What is it that I have to cut? What do I have to get rid of for me to operate at a more normal level than what I’m used to?

It could be the passion stuff. Right now I’m devoting quite a bit of time to reading about photography, not actually doing it. I take my camera everywhere, but it still doesn’t get used. I think I have another 30 page pdf to read and I will be alright. But what will happen after that? I think the thing that I need to start doing is what I used to do. One of the pdf’s that I’m currently reading is talking about that very thing. I can’t even take a decent photo right now, everything to me seems like shit. I’m starting to notice things around me and what a good picture would look like, I’m just stuck and know that I need to stop something, I need to isolate something.

Okay. Writing is going well. I’m writing like nobody else. I wish I had this much energy to write in my novel. The main reason is because I am rewriting and have a brain fart. That isn’t a good excuse. I need to just sit down and write. That is what I’m learning about all of the interviews I’m writing. I spend 2-3 hours preparing for the essay, but once I sit there I just write and hardly look at my notes. I don’t know how I will begin the essay, but something just comes out. I think the planning is indeed helping me, but I am ultimately just sitting down in my writing chair and writing. I’ve been thinking of the novel lately. Mainly because I haven’t written shit yet. But by me listening to other people and getting information from all corners I’m noticing that I am in a state that I have to cut a lot of the story, let the reader play their role of reading and the story will be understood accordingly. I shouldn’t preach anything at all and that is what I’m thinking. But, I’m still at the end of the month have to be able to write the first chapter. I’ll give it more thought soon.

The thing that I am thinking that I am doing too much of is listening from other people. The main way I do so is reading plenty of blogs and listening to podcast constantly. Last year I had about 5-10 podcast and about the same amount of blogs. My shift has turned to photography, but those people have just as much things to talk about as writers. All what I’m reading is good, but there comes a time that I need to find my own way of doing things. I have to be smart and do things the way I know that will help benefit me. I need to start cutting the podcast and I need to think about this. Also the blogs. Well, lets say that I cut 2-3 of each. I will still listen to them and will constantly feel that I’m on the move and won’t be allowing myself enough time to myself. I think I need to set times to look at all of this. I need to go back to that system. I have to treat myself that way because I can easily spend the whole day wrapped around myself and occupying my abilities to perform at my best when I want to. I’ve already got gmail on wraps. The only thing I need to do there is to modify the folders. But I also need to do the same with mac mail. I need to limit the amount of time that I am on there. I’m going to go for twice a week for mac mail and once for gmail, this is for work. Over the weekend I need to limit the amount of usage, too. Once a day is good enough. I will stop using it on my phone and just get the things that I need to get done. On the podcast I will monitor that as I need be. If I don’t want to listen to anything than I won’t. If I need to get something done than I won’t listen to the podcast. And if I do want to listen to the podcast I will think twice about it and think of other things I can do to better myself. I think those things are great. They are a start and something that I will have to constantly monitor myself.

I think me getting this business afloat is going to help me get to where I want to be. Also me focusing on work more now is going to help me in the long run and establish me as a person with skills that will guide me through life. Just like Rick said during his interview, what he is doing at work is only helping him in life. I admire that. That is the main thing that I take from his interview.

What I’m learning about my new schedule is that I just have to do the things that are on that day. I can’t simply move it over to the next day. I have to stick with it. I know I give myself enough time to do things–even though I’m compulsive when it comes to getting too many things done all at once.

I think I’m going to stop asking for help from photographers or people in general. It is like I’m writing in the wind to them. If I do get something back it is usually some bullshit that I already know about. The only way that I wouldn’t know about it is if I was sleeping under a rock. Fuck it, I’ve got to do me and continue to go through this world with my own ambitions and understanding. Besides, this year has been truly amazing with the way I’m learning everything about photography. Now I need to apply all of the reading and go with my creative side of letting the images and process come to me. That is the best way that I learn anyway. I just have to put the damn books down and stop thinking about it and just do. I am looking forward to my project at the end of the month. I’ll get the cd later this month.

This is a good start to everything. I know there might be something else that I’m forgetting, but I will work on this stuff right now and will see how I do with everything. All I won’t is for my head to have some time where it doesn’t think about anything. I’m realizing that everything in my body needs rest and mundaneness to operate at high capacity.

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The New Look of the Blog and Why

Written on July 6, 2010 by Oaks in doing things

It has been 3 or 4 months in the making and I’m glad that it is almost done. I have had this idea for some time because my blog looked outdated, buggy, and resented the fact that I it had so many issues after going back and forth with the previous designers.

The Reason for the Switch

I needed to spice it up some. I wanted to do something that didn’t cost me much money and would allow me to change things if I wanted to on the fly. I know the learning curve would be high, but the amount of time that I spent with getting the design right last year didn’t sit well with me.

There is no reason to mention the previous designers that I dealt with. All I’m going to say is that it was expensive as hell. For this blog redesign itself I spent more than $2,000 dollars and it took the designer and I to agree on the look, feel and functioning of the website 7 or so months. We exchanged upwards of 150 plus emails and at least 20 calls. I was on a mission to getting it done and nothing was going to stop me, not even my wallet.

What Did I Do About It?

I was reading a couple of blogs and noticed this one guy using a design template that he had full access to. He didn’t know much coding but his website looked decent. I went to the website that he bought the template and was sold on the ease of moving things around and getting the look and feel that I was after. I didn’t buy immediately because I didn’t want to get something and leave it sitting there and not being used. I was trying to change my ways and began a month or two research of reading as many reviews as possible.

I finally purchased the software in March or so for $200 bucks. I messed around with the template interface for a couple of months and got used to moving things around. But, it got to the point that it was taking me longer than I wanted so I went ahead and bought a skin for $75 bucks a couple of days ago. I spent a couple of hours this past weekend working on the design and for the most part done with my design. The only thing left to do is get somebody to redesign my header banner.

Even though it took me so many hours to learn the software, which is called Headway Themes, I’m happy because I got a basic and up-to-date looking website for under $300 bucks. The thing that I love about this is that I can use this template on any other website I own and do all of the design on my own at no extra cost to me. This is the thing that I love and will continue to get better. I might even learn some coding to help me out with my design even more.

In the next couple of weeks I will do a write up of the process I went to in designing my photography website.

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My Favorite Time of Year.

Written on June 18, 2010 by Oaks in challenges

Let’s  go ahead and write a blog post.

Just last night the basketball season ended. I’m happy that the Lakers won the title and will look at some of the highlights today and probably tomorrow. However, this is my favorite time of the year. This is when I have more time to do more things for myself. I don’t watch much television anyway. Whatever my fiance has on tivo is what I watch. Now that I don’t have to stay up late nights watching basketball, which it seems I’m doing less and less of as I become more mature, I will devote my attention to my passions and seriously putting down my foot down to making money.

There are plenty of people at work and all around me who hate when the basketball season ends–I love it. People say that they won’t have anything to do and they can’t wait until the preseason starts up again. This post isn’t a dig on everyone else that occupies themselves with television and can’t find anything to do, it is an insight to why I crave this time of year and what I plan to do.

This time of year is the time that I get most of my goals done. Like I said before, I don’t watch much television and now that the basketball season is done I will be on hustle mode. I don’t know what that is, I haven’t struggled in my life before to actually take the plunge into exhibiting this. From what I hear from other people and see all over is that hustling is a mode of survival and is something that we instinctively know how to do. Who knows what is write. I have to figure that out for myself and will need to guide my was and just do what feels natural. As the weeks and months go by I will learn something about myself. I think that thing that I will learn is how bad I want to do what I want to do in life. I will learn that their are things I have to give up in order to reap the reward in the long run. Again, this is the time that I do more, find more, and learn more about me as a human being.

Some of the goals that I have for the rest of the year is to finish editing my novel, develop cash flow from my side gig, and to do more projects that challenge me as an individual. That is it. Oh, and to also set a wedding date.

The summer days are longer and will allow me to generate while everyone is awake. When it gets dark this is when I will be about my craft and be ready to tackle the next day. It did amaze me when I saw people doing so many things and achieving their goals. I wondered how they did it and how come I couldn’t do the same. Last year taught me that I can also do it. I simply went on a diet of friends, time wasters, activities that weren’t important to me, and whatever else that I’ve forgotten about. Most of it didn’t matter and this allowed me to get busy about myself. When I hear people saying that I don’t have time to do a certain thing I just shut my mouth, hold back the anger and nod my head. When they can look at me in my face telling me that they have watched so much television I tend to tune them out. We make time for what we want to do. If I didn’t want to get better at photography than I would do something else that I love. We have to remember as human-beings that we make all of the excuses for ourselves and we are the only ones to blame about if we don’t get anything that we want to do done. Besides, those people we are watching on television have made their money, don’t care about us and I’m sure secretly on the grind continuing to hustle their asses off so that they can enjoy the lifestyle that they want.

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New Direction of Website

Written on June 14, 2010 by Oaks in Uncategorized

I’ve been busy lately writing this essay and it is some hard shit. I hope to be finish with it today, but we will see.

Anyway, I’m writing this quick message because I’m going into a new direction with the blog. I’ll be posting a max of 5 times a month. Each week will be a post of some kind and either at the end of the month or in the middle I will be posting a mega post. This mega post will be a project that I give myself or others give me. It will be about 2000 words and crafted around images. It is a creative way for me to give back to my readers and also for me to challenge myself on topics I find fun and worthwhile to do. The first one should be up later this month.

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The Thought Process of Finding My Business Through my Passions

Written on May 31, 2010 by Oaks in entrepreneurship

It has been a couple of months since I’ve talked about photography and the business side of it. For the most part, I’ve been busy trying to figure out my avenues and the best way possible to be who I want in this type of business.
The Process

I didn’t think it was going to take me nearly two months to figure out why I liked photography over everything else besides writing. I think it was because it is something that I think about daily and the only thing that I’m doing right now is trying to get better and learn everything I can possibly can.

The other thing that I was concerned about was making some type of business around it. Many people will frown at this notion of making a hobby a profession. I wrestled with this for sometime because I don’t want this to be a chore or a regret. So, I told myself to think about the photographers I liked, to get into my head to figure out which direction I wanted to go in with everything.

I was talking to my brother a couple of months ago and mentioned to him that I wanted to do something big with the photography, to be the Anthony Bourdain of photography. He quickly got interested. We haven’t talked about it yet today, but that though stuck with me. I thought how I can make that possible. What were the best ways I can angle myself in that respect. However, something did catch my attention, which was to combine writing with photography. It seemed far fetched, but I kept digging deeper in my thoughts.

I Gave Myself Lessons

As I was thinking and analyzing the situation. My fiance gave me an assignment to find out why I admired photography. I had two weeks to make it happen. I searched online. I looked at anyone that was associated with photography. I listened to documentaries on youtube. I was diving in all the way with this and it was extremely mind-moving. After that assignment, I gave myself another challenge, what about photography.

I got to the point that I needed to keep the two passions separate, however, felt a need to combine them to make a mega passion out of both of them. The thoughts I was thinking didn’t make any sense at all. I realized that I had to take a break and do something else. I needed to write about topuics pertaining to the novel, take photos of something interesting, or be a bum and get inspiration from television or spending time with friends and family.

What Gave the Spark?

I don’t know how it came into manifesting. Just the fact that it popped into my head instantly I knew this was the best way to get started. So I start writing down more of my thoughts. I didn’t talk to anybody during the first couple of days because I wanted to see how real it was to me. I wanted to see if this was just a thought or rush into doing something that was reactionary. But as time went by. It became real. I started telling people, just to gauge their opinions. I wanted to see how the public would take it.

Most of the responses were positive. I continued to refine it and go about my way to make sense of it more. But the more I kept thinking, the more I knew that I just had to try it out before I exhausted my mind with the vision and future of how big this could be.

What is it?

The simple answer is that it is a mega appreciation, public relations business targeted around writing and photography.

Here is a more in depth explaination. I will be doing a photoshoot of friends who exhibit some kind of passion. I will be doing a photoshoot, interview and writing an editorial piece on all of that information. I will ask them questions about why they like/love what they like/love. Why this particular passion. What drives them to do the things they do and so on. Once this is done I will gather the photos and listen to the interview again. I will write a compelling piece with the images sprinkled around it.

I will do up to five pieces for my portfolio. I already have three people picked and will get one of them interviewed and image captured by the weekend. I will also be tracking the amount of time it takes me to do this. Even though it is something that I want to, I have to figure out how long the whole process is going to take. Just by thinking about it all, the task that is going to take most of my time is writing the article. I’m estimating it will take 10 hours for each. I’ll get back to you all about this in the next couple of weeks. The main reason I’m doing this is so that I can see how much it will cost me to do this with my particular cliente.

This will be mainly marketed to anyone who wants to improve their self-image to whatever audience they are reaching and of course to people with money to spend. This service is going to be a public relation business to get images and words to tell the story of that individual.

Why This?

If I was to put a label around it, I’m a photojournalist by heart. I love to tell stories or just write for that matter. I love to look at things in a peculiar way and give the audience an angle that isn’t just different but insightful. I think the thing that has interest me the most after leaving college 5 plus years ago is the dynamic of what makes people click and do the things they do. This is what I think makes me click and want to explore this thought even more.

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A Quick Update and Look Forward to Next Week

Written on May 21, 2010 by Oaks in Uncategorized

I’m in one of my last installments of the novel rewrite, which is the actually novel rewrite. I took nearly 2 months to write about my game plan and don’t even know if it was the “right” thing to do and all. I don’t care. I feel less compulsive and nervous about what the next 2 months is going to bring me. For the next week and a half I will be not doing anything towards the novel and getting some much needed rest and reading done. I’ll also be posting more in that time period, which I’m looking forward to. I haven’t wrote 3-4 blog post for a week in a long time.

For the people who frequent the blog you can see that I am constantly changing everything. I didn’t know this was going to be as involved as it has been but it is something I like and learning many things about this particular software I’m using. I’ll give myself another solid week to get it to look the way I want. Once that is done I will work on a write up on the process and give yall in cost benefit of everything.

My business. I haven’t talked about this is some time. The reason is because my head has been spinning trying to think of the things I don’t want to do. And now I have thought of something that I feel completely confident about. This secrecy will be expose just in a couple of days. The hint though is that it is combining my 2 passions of writing and photography together.

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Self Projects- Everyone Needs Them

Written on May 11, 2010 by Oaks in Uncategorized

I have been giving myself projects to do for the longest now. It breaks up the mundane and brings excitement to oneself. As everyone knows, I’ve been on this photography kick for the whole year. I change it up from time to time but now I’m getting to a special place of being more direct and understanding what I want out of my photography. These past couple of weeks I’ve been challenged by my fiance to do more and to have a plan of action. They have been hard challenges and I thank her for them.

In the next couple of weeks I will present the third installment of this challenge and would like to see what everyone thinks.

I especially like the direction the photography is going for me. I like that I’m not focused on gear as much now and giving myself challenges to do in order to get better and to spike my creativity.

I advise everyone to have projects. It doesn’t matter what it is, everyone needs something to do. I assure you that life will be fun and bring back some excitement.

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Don’t Tell Me, I Already Know, the Blog Looks Like Shit…

Written on May 4, 2010 by Oaks in Uncategorized

If you are looking at the website in a browser and not in a rss reader, don’t be shocked or surprised. I’ve been working on a new design and have come up with a couple of difficulties at the moment. I was pissed at first with this road block, but know that it is something that I have to deal with with what I am planning to do.

I don’t know when the site is actually going to go up, I have to still upgrade to the latest wordpress, I’ve got a couple of ideas, but I just don’t know.

The reason why I’m updating my blog are for a different number reasons. This one right here is one of them. I was talking to a friend a couple of weeks ago about what I’m up to and he told me that I should make the blog more interactive, give people an idea of what the hell is going on in my head and see what type of things I’m using to get my stuff done. I was planning to do this anyway and it was cool getting that reassurance from somebody I admire, so this is the first installment of everything. Trust me, I will be writing more than one blog post a month.

The wordpress format I’ll be using is something called Headway Themes. I’ll explain this more as the days go on. I will also talk about why I kept certain things over the over and the direction that the blog is going to go in.

Also, I have plenty of stories to write. Just like everybody else, life keeps moving. My life is filled with stories and I am going to be sharing them with you all.

Until next time…

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A Quick Update of What’s Going On…

Written on April 9, 2010 by Oaks in Uncategorized

I haven’t wrote much of anything in some time now. I could blame it on pure laziness, but the truth is that I’m been busy with exciting changes in my life. Here is a quick update of what has been going on lately.

The Photography.

The photography thing is a real thing. It is like the writing thing of last year. It is taking hold of me and now I’m obsessed with the notion of getting better with snapping a photo. It is cool that I can express myself in many ways and one of them is one of the vividly apparent way possible. I’ll be showing a couple of my top pics from last month probably in the next post or whenever.

I’m continuing to take more and different types of photos. I’m reading books on the subject. And going to get ready to work on my short, mid and long term goals with my photography as a passion and a profession. I wonder what I will learn from this crazy passion. I will also talk about how hard it is to joggle 2 passions at once and my master plan of combining the 2 for my biggest career move, ever, or should I say yet. You will see.

Whatever Happened to the Novel?

A couple of days ago I started rewriting my novel. Well, sorta. I have wrote an outline of what I want to get accomplish and the ways I’m going to. I wrote about the books I’m going to be reading in lieu of doing my rewrite. This whole thing is bad ass. The thought of having something that I made (a pile of shit right now) and turning it to the best thing I could ever do is absolutely amazing and excites me in other ways.

There will be updates here and there and will actually do more video of the things I’m doing with the novel.

The Move…

3 weeks now my finance and I have moved into our own, brand new house! It is a great feeling and have been taking the time to adjust and get used to taking the bus into work, figuring out the neighborhood, and loving the fact that we bought something that we are going to do what we can for each other for a long time. I have taken pictures of when the boxes were out, I will show more of those with the new-cleaned up version soon.

No More Business Experiment Anymore

It has been around 4 weeks since I stopped selling shoes online. I actually didn’t sell shit this past month. It wasn’t a hard decision. I wanted to do it soon. I wasn’t making any money and was more of an hassle. I’ll write about this in more detail, but I wanted to also say that all of those shoes are not any where in sight has given me so much gratification and determination to do the things I want to do in my own life.

I Work Best When my Back is Against the Wall

I say this because it is true. I have to worry and do more things since I’ve moved into the house. I have to pay for more bills and also make sure that I’m doing a great job at work so they won’t have a reason to get rid of me. The pressure hasn’t kicked in yet, but it will soon. I’m not scared right now. But I know that I can do more for myself and will do so. I will talk about these type of pressures on another level when I see fit.

This is it for now. I’ll try to post more often this month.

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