Here we go

Yes yes, yet another "blog" on the internets. I know, there are already more of these things out there than atoms of hydrogen already, but I thought this one would be good reading for others looking to improve their speaking, leadership, and other skills by reading about what I do right and wrong, and what I've been interested in.

A little about me: As of this writing, I'm a 30 year old guy living in NW Houston. Currently I work for HP, but I'd rather much be doing public speaking and training for profit. To that end, I've been with Toastmasters International since November 2005 and have earned my Advanced Communicator Silver and Advanced Leader Bronze certifications. To those of you who have no idea what that means, the AL-S entails performing around thirty two speeches (ten for the first rank of Competent Communicator, ten more for Advanced Communicator Bronze, ten more for Silver along with two special project speeches). I've served as an officer for much of my time with the three clubs I've been involved with, and am set to become the area governor for L42. My goal with Toastmasters is to earn my AC Gold by the end of 2008 and my DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) as soon as possible (I have to complete my term as area governor for that, however).

My interests include computers and technology, writing, collecting (this usually takes the form of books and certain tools - the books I sometimes actually read),

My other speaking goal for 2008 is to have my first paid engagement -- either as a speaker or as an coach. I still feel I have some improvements to make before I can do this, however, which I'll try to chronicle here as well. My number one concern is what content to bring to the table. I'm thinking about focusing my content on using technology to make your life better, but haven't defined it past that.

As far as my objectives with this log, I'd like to keep track of things I've learned over the week, mention things I've done with the site, or any other speaking related news. My schedule is to update it at least once a week. Yes, I know, there aren't comments available on the site yet -- this is because the available plug ins for Joomla are either dumb, or non-existent. Hopefully this will change soon.