Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.

~Arnold H. Glasow




So, this is my second post.  It has been about a week since I started.  As far as accomplishments, there hasn't been anything major yet.  I've been building a site for my aunt to make some extra money and work on my CSS/PHP skills and to make some extra money.  I met with her on Friday to talk about changes to the site, and we are pretty much redesigning it.  So, that means a more money and experience.

I also got my tax refund on Friday, so I am searching for a car.  I'm pretty excited about having wheels, but my refund was only $1500 and with the options out there under $1000, I think I'm just gonna keep it in in the bank and save some money up.  I don't want to blow all of my money on a vehicle that isn't in good shape and then have to put a bunch of money into it or have to replace it in a year or two.

Today, I'm watching some videos on CSS and I'm hoping to finish them and start on PHP videos tomorrow since I'm off.  I really want to get these done and start working with OOP (Object-Oriented Programming), and I will be able to cross one goal off the list ;-).

So here are some additions to the running list of the goals I am working towards.

• I want to have a decent car no later than the end of June.
• I want to get through all of the CSS and PHP videos that I have by tomorrow.
• I would like to get through the JavaScript videos that I have by the end of 5/18/11.
• I'm going to push my goal of having a job in technology up to by the beginning of 2012.  Two years just seems like a little too far off.

I don't really have a lot to add, this is all that is going on right now, I'll be working on making a couple more pages for this blog.  

Until next time, I guess that's it.

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session_start()

Hello and welcome to my first post.  My name is Shannon Phillips, you probably know this since you can probably see this a couple places on this page alone, but I figured I would give myself a formal introduction.
Another announcement from Captain Obvious; this blog is all about my road to self improvement.  You can read a little about my life up to now in the "About the Author" section, but I will not be going to in depth about anything other than the present and future.  I just don't want to dwell on things that are in the past.  Anyway, enough with the intro, lets dive in! :-D

Current Goals:
Long-Term:

• I need to finish school with at least a bachelor's degree within the next 4 years.
• I want to working in a position in the computer/technology field within the next two years.

Short-Term:

• I want to be in a position to move into my own place by August 1, 2011.
• I need to improve my skills with php, learning object-oriented programming, as well as my ability to work with css, and javascript.
• I want to get into a workout routine to improve my physical shape.

So that is it for today's goals.  I'm not sure how this section will change over the life of the blog.  I'm sure that they will be added to, modified, or removed all together as things happen day-to-day.  We will just have to see how things pan out.

So what have I done to push me towards my goals today?  Well, I started this blog.  I think that just seeing what I am doing for myself will be great in pushing me to work harder.  Nothing makes me feel better about what I'm doing than seeing accomplishment.  It's also pretty depressing to let the whole world know that I didn't do anything for myself today.  I know I don't want to be working at McDonald's and living in my mom's basement for my entire life.
I'm also doing some reading on creating secure logins in PHP for the website I'm working on.  This is teaching me a little about cookies, something that I haven't really worked with before now.  I figured if I want to make the scripts and sections of my sites reusable, I have to make it something that a company would be able to use, even though it is just on a site for my personal use at the moment.
Between working on this and the website, I am reading.  Lately I've pretty much been reading articles around the clock when I am not at work, or working on something like a website.  A lot of what I have been reading is about improving things in your life.  I have found High Existence a great blog about a variety of ways to help improve your life.
Unfortunately, I have to work tonight, so I can't spent all day surfing the net.  I'll probably spend the last couple hours I have reading online and working on a computer, so I guess that's all I have for today.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave any comments.  I know my grammar isn't the best, but I'm sure it will improve over time, so don't be too harsh.  I would love to hear any advice or ideas that anyone has.

Shannon

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