Happy New Years!!!

And so it begins. As we turn the page and leave behind all the events, newsmakers, triumphs, failures, and memories that three hundred and sixty five days can contain, a new year enters waiting for its history to be made. 2008-enter stage right. And we've already seen Britney Spears suffer yet another self-destructing, bulb flashing moment before the eyes of the world. Go Britney! She! Could! Go! All! The! Way!!..as for me, I just watched my home team of the Washington Redskins go down in flames against the Seattle Seahawks. Go Skins! Oh well, better luck next year, or next season I should say. This may not be their year, but I intend on making this my year. Of course this is the time of the year where resolutions are made so they can be broken next month. For those of you that will actually be able to stick it out, and lose the weight, kick smokin', or cut down on the money spent on porn, I congratulate you in advance. As for myself, I never really make resolutions - not at least according to any calendar. For anything that you can do on the first of January, is something that could have been started on the 31 of December or even before. But still, I think every New Year presents itself as the most logical moment to sit back and reflect on the past year of moments that will forever be remembered. And they are different for everyone. Honestly, I can say that 2007 was a pretty insignificant year for me. I went to Las Vegas on my birthday to see Toni Braxton perform. Cool..but can't wait till I'm able to travel somewhere like Hawaii, or an exotic location in some islands somewhere for my birthday instead. It's not often that I'm able to go home, but I was able to for Thanksgiving this year. It's always nice to go home, if nothing more than to escape the hurriedness of L.A. But I can't wait till the day where I go home, because I'm looking to lay low from a busy career - career being the operative word. But I guess the one thing that sticks out most important for me in 2007, is the loss of someone I knew back from my days of clubbing and kickin' it back in d.c. Actually, a friend of a friend, we were all cool together, and spent many nights out on the scene in D.C. What made his death different from that of my father, though an untimely death for my father as well, was his age. Though my father was sixty two, he was the same age as me and our mutual friend. We were all separated by months in age - she being the eldest, our friend, then me. When you are young, and someone your age dies, you can't help but to think how life can be so short, unfair,..and cruel. If you dwell on it enough, a familiar saying comes to mind - "There, but by the Grace of God..." Although Mike wouldn't want us to dwell on his death, I find myself somewhat personally connected to it, because we both had pre-existing medical conditions. He lost his fight with his...

...it's January 1, 2008, and I promised myself that I would call a good friend of mine's that I hadn't talked to in a long time. Actually, that decision to call him, was sparked by a conversation I had on the phone with someone we both know. How many times has that happened by the way? It took someone to say, "Hey, how's so and so doing?", or "When's the last time you talked to so and so?", which became the impetus for you to pick up the phone and call an old friend. This particular friend of mines, lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and two kids. Although, I hadn't talked to him in so long, that I expected maybe three when I called him. I tried to fool him and disguise my voice when I called, but he pegged me by the area code. Not too many people he knew out here in Cali. In the course of conversation, what I find out is, that people get easily lost in their own world, with their own life, and family, and work, that is somehow becomes difficult to just pick up the phone to say 'hi'. I'm guilty of that myself. A lot of people are. But when you got peeps hundreds, or thousands of miles away even, sometimes it's hard to stay connected to just the really close ones. You know what they say though - "out of sight, out of mind." But when we talked, we both found out that we were on each other's coast more often than we thought, and had the chance to catch up with each other in person more than we thought. Now we know. In the course of catching up with each other though, he of course asked how things were going for me. It's been a while since we've seen each other, and he knew of me coming to L.A. for industry. I basically explained to him, for the past several years that I have been going through experiences that have shaped the current path I am now. In essence, I realized starting three or four years ago, that it was time for me to concentrate on me - to start getting my life together, get it going, and to get it going in a way that works best for me. Since about that time three or four years ago, I've earned my Master's degree which I received in 2005. I figure I am a couple of months away from testing/receiving my brown belt in Aikido which I started in 2005. And I am now in the process of securing funding to start my business, which started with an idea in 2005. Anyone who might be reading this might say, "well, what about the comedy career?" The comedy career has not been forgotten, but getting my business going, which is directly related to comedy, has taken slight precedence. It's just that I've realized that I must put myself in a more accommodating position to pursue comedy well. I've realized that comedy will take time. And I've realized that in order to pursue it well, I'll need to be able be in control of my work time - eventually phasing out working a '9 to 5'. And I must do this while remaining strong, which is priority number one...I distinctly remember one of the last conversations with my father, in which a piece of advice in a matter of words, was to get going with my life and what I want to do, before I turn around and realize that my life's behind me. Realizing this, and in light of remembering those close to me that have fallen, it's most important for me to have a legacy established sooner than later. 2008 is a year destined to be a year teemed with excitement, and positive change for our country, and hopefully, most people. Personally, 2008 will be a year that will allow me to solidify purpose and accomplishment even if, God forbid, something stops me from achieving those goals I have my eyes set on in the long term. Carpe diem - that's the most important thing I've learned over the past couple of years, and I owe that to a couple of people looking down on me right now. Some of you might be thinking that I sound so serious for someone looking to be a professional comedian someday. Am I actually going to take some time to enjoy and do some fun things in 2008? To that I say, " I don't know." Ask me in New Year 2009 if I got a chance to do so in 2008. In my plan, I got time for fun as well, when the time is right. Right now I got a business and a legacy to build from the ground up...Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous year....Happy Birthday 2008!!!...R.I.P. Mike...