jesselear's Xanga

My blog has moved...

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:10:25 GMT

Hey! Thanks for stopping by. My blog has moved over to the new website listed below. Head on over and let me know what you think of it!

http://copywritersdiary.wordpress.com

Best,

Jesse

Thinking about Quitting...

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:56:19 GMT

Well...not exactly. But that headline definitely got your attention, didn't it?

I think it's time to realize that this blog has gotten pretty stagnate over the past few months. I'm thinking about pulling it off the 'net and continuing my journaling in a private notebook. Yes, I know, that kinda sucks...but here's my reasoning:

I have very little time, and when I write on a public blog, I tend to spend too much time making each post interesting, entertaining, and "perfect". Because of this, I tend to procrastinate my writing and write less often because I know that each post is going to take a lot of valuable time. Not only that...over 150 people each day were reading this blog at one time, and knowing that sometimes made it a little difficult to write as I would in a true diary.

Not only that, I began to realize that certain people with close ties to my family or to Cedarville University were beginning to watch my blog like hawks and negatively "spin" the way I live my life. I have very little patience for this kind of ignorant, judgemental behavior and I normally avoid wasting my time thinking about it. However, the fact that I value peace (especially in the family) makes this particular situation worth considering.

Anyway, that's the story. The good news is that I'll soon be starting a new and improved blog on another website which I will reveal on here in the next couple of weeks. It will be focused on a more specific "theme" (like life lessons, success principles, or profound thoughts) rather than simply documenting my life. It'll be launching soon, and I promise it'll be worth checking out! Stay tuned.

OK...now that we've covered those things...here's a quick scoop on what's been happening in my life lately.

I'm now back in the States from an incredible three months living in San Jose, Costa Rica. What an experience it was. Although I'm still not truly fluent in Spanish, I feel like my goal to reach a conversational level was successfully met. My Spanish went from a vocabulary of about 20 words on the day of my arrival to the ability to hold a decent conversation. The beaches, the rainforests, the food, the culture, the girls...I truly loved living in Costa Rica. The day I returned home felt a little weird...but it always does. For a day or two, I feel like a foreigner. It's as if everyone can look at me and know that I'm not "from here". Kind of a cool feeling, actually. It's been great to see everyone again...especially my family.

I spent the past weekend at Cedarville catching up with some old friends and hanging out with my sister Lacey. It was amazing to hang out with them, but being there also brought back the negative feelings I've had while studying at the school. I've lived in several different parts of the world now, I'm beginning to realize that I feel happy, balanced, and successful pretty much everywhere EXCEPT Cedarville. Is it me, or is it the place? Probably both. But it is what it is. I'm going to check to see if there's any possibility of finishing school online. If not, I'll deal with it. After all, I only have a year left. But there's no harm in checking!

In about 2 weeks, I'm packing up and moving to Florida. I was fortunate enough to land a very attractive summer internship with Citibank's Latin American Headquarters in Miami. Until August, I'll be living in a Miami highrise and working on Biscayne Boulevard in a Spanish-speaking office. Should be an incredible experience and I'm looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, I'm finishing up my latest travel eBook "77 Secrets of Costa Rica" and also writing a really cool little eBook for a real estate agent in San Diego. Both should be finished and launched within the next few weeks.

OK...time to get to work. Lots to be done. Stay tuned for the link to my new blog!

Weekend in Hermosa and a Jungle Spring Break

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:47:41 GMT

I don't know why I keep doing this, but once again, a couple of weeks have passed since my last post. And an incredible couple of weeks they've been. Just this past week, it has occured to me that my time here in Costa Rica is quickly running out. Just two and a half weeks remain. No quiero irme! But, I do miss my family, so a part of me will be happy to go back to the States.

Right now, I'm lying on the one of the couches in my host family's living room. The futbol game between Mexico and Saprisa is on TV...a huge game...and my host dad and roommate are around me watching it unfold. Right now it's 3-0 Saprisa. Speaking of Saprisa, the leaders of our CEA program here arranged for us to go see a Saprisa game live a couple of weeks ago when Travis was here visiting. What a cool experience! I was glad they scheduled it while he was here.

On the Friday before Travis left, I arranged a little trip to Playa Hermosa for us and two friends I had recently made here, Ashton and Tamika. We stayed in this cool little hotel, right on the beach with a beautiful pool. It was a great night and we had a great time. I wanted to stay longer, but Travis' flight was scheduled for Saturday at 5:15PM...so we took the 11AM bus back to San Jose. I think I he had a great time while he was here, and I did too. It was cool to catch up again and somewhat "relive" our times as good friends at college back in the States.

In "other news", I've realized lately that my Dublin Secrets eBook business has reached a "plateau"...a fork in t he road. It's becoming obvious that I need to either begin investing a LOT more time and effort into building the business, hire someone else to build it effectively for me, or sell the business altogether. The latter sounds like my most favorable option right now. In all honesty, I'm tired of writing about Ireland all the time...and also tired of investing time in a project that I know only has short-term growth potential and small-to-medium income potential. I want to be investing my efforts in something more long-lasting...something that could become an empire. I have a few ideas that could make this happen. But for now, if you know anyone who would be interested in buying an eBook business, let me know!

I've been spending quite a bit of time lately trying to decide what exactly to do this summer. A lot has happened lately to shape those decisions. First, the Dublin Secrets decision...and my progress with my new eBook on Costa Rica. Second, through a connection gained by my dad, I had an interview last week for an internship with CitiBank's Latin American division in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The interview went really well, so it'll be exciting to see where it goes from here! I feel like the internship would provide some great experience and help me develop some key skills. It lasts for 6 months and even allows me to become a project manager for the last half of the internship. It also pays pretty well for an internship. If I do this, I'll have to take a semester off from classes at Cedarville. That wouldn't be a problem, though...I mean, who says I have to graduate in 4 years? Gaining experience and taking advantage of great opportunities is far more important. And it's not like I've done things traditionally up to this point anyway, haha. So...at this point, I have 3 options to decide between. 1) Move to San Diego, California (my plan for several years now) and begin creating a life for myself there while continuing to build online businesses. 2) Take the CitiBank internship in Florida (if it's even offered to me, that is) and move to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, or 3) Move back down here to Costa Rica and continue my efforts to become fluent in Spanish while building online businesses. It will be interesting to watch these options unfold over the next few months.

That's it for now. I just returned from a very unique Spring Break in Puerto Viejo last night. Throughout the 6 days there, I wrote in my little black Moleskine journal. My entries there will be posted here on my blog soon...maybe tomorrow. Until then...tenga una buena noche!

Below: The pool of our hotel in Playa Hermosa (taken from the edge of the beach)

More Adventures in Costa Rica

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:49:03 GMT

Our weekend in Carrillo was a blast...very relaxing and just an all-around good time. The beaches there were absolutely beautiful with nice big waves and soft sand. And my host family's beach house was great as well! I really enjoyed waking up each morning and hanging out by the pool, reading a little bit or jumping in for a quick morning swim before breakfast.

We returned to San Jose late on Sunday night after a long, tiring drive. Traffic was crazy and bumper-to-bumper much of the way. I didn't realize I had fallen asleep in the car, but I must have because suddenly Diana told me that she had just talked to her mom and that my friend Travis had arrived. Travis is a good friend of mine from Cedarville and it's been incredible to hang out and catch up over the last few days.

Today, I skipped class (for only the second time in 2 months) and we went on an all-day guided excursion to the zip lines (canopy tour) at San Lorenzo. What a day! The zip lines were actually better than the ones I did in Monteverde a month ago, in my opinion. It was a blast flying along hundreds of feet above the ground through the rainforrest...the views were spectacular. One of the guides (the photographer taking photos of the whole thing) was a girl about my age and she was beautiful. Actually, stunning would be a better word. All the guys in our group of 7 or 8 were talking about her, and she seemed pretty elusive too...which was even more attractive to me. I actually saw her flat-out turn down an older guy who asked if he could get a picture with her. I don't have time to tell the story right now, but one of the highlights of the day for me was that I ended up connecting with her somehow and leaving with her contact info. Speaking of that...I've been meeting some really interesting Costa Rican girls lately...including a really cool 23 yr-old preschool English teacher and a model for Coca Cola (and several other famous companies). It will be fun to see what happens as I follow up with them over the next few days.

Travis wanted to check out the VIP theater here in San Jose, so we went there tonight to see Meet the Spartans. I'm not usually a fan of spoof movies (at all)...but I have to admit..this movie was fantastic. Haha! It was just plain ridiculous and I couldn't help but laugh almost constantly.

Tomorrow is a normal school day. I'll be getting up at 7 AM to go to Spanish class, and Travis is coming along for the ride. I like this new Spanish class much better than the last. The professor in the last class treated my classmates and me like 5 year-olds. Literally. This new professor in Intermediate 2 is fantastic. She treats us with respect and the class is filled with constant conversation. It's exactly what I need to improve my Spanish. Tomorrow night is dance class and Castros.

That's it for now...gotta finish up some homework and go get some sleep!

The End of Basico II...and a Weekend on the Beach

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:05:38 GMT

I awoke this morning and rolled over to see the large, digital numbers on my alarm clock saying, "7:49 AM". It wouldn't have been a problem except that the final exam for my Espanol Basico II final exam was scheduled to begin at 8!

I jumped out of bed and stumbled toward the shower. Ten minutes later, I had showered and shaved and thrown on a clean t-shirt, my camo cargoes, and a pair of flip flops...and I was out the door. Joey came to check on me just as I was leaving to make sure I was awake. I was. Sort-of. It was now one minute until 8. Thank God for Tico time!

By the time I walked quickly into the entrance of Veritas 10 minutes later, I was wide awake and had my review sheets out trying to drill those direct object pronouns into my head one last time. The first pleasant surprise came when my professor handed us our exams first-thing when she came into the class room. Usually, we spent the first hour or so of exam-day singing Spanish songs and doing other weird activities, which they probably think helps us calm down before an exam. The second pleasant surprise came when the exam that she handed us was only about 4 pages long. The midterm exam was more than double that!

Yesterday, I scratched all my plans (including my daily 1.5 hour workout at the gym) and devoted the afternoon/evening to studying for today's exam. I walked to Bagelmans after lunch (very similar to Panera) and spent the day reviewing all the material from the past few weeks and writing up review sheets. It was a really cheerful, productive afternoon and, now that I've already finished the final exam, I can see that it was also very worthwhile.

This weekend, I'm going with my host sisters and my roommate to my host family's beach house in Carrillo. I hear the place there is beautiful and the beaches are amazing. I can't wait! It'll be a great getaway after studying so hard for that exam. I'm looking forward to relaxing on the beach and getting some more sun. Maybe I'll finally finish Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins, too. I've put it on the backburner lately, but it's a fantastic book and I can't wait to get back into it.

One of my best friends from my university back in the States, Travis, is flying in on Sunday evening to visit for a week. It's going to be a lot of fun to hang out with him again and show him around San Jose.

More updates soon...have a great weekend. Off to Carrillo!

A little overwhelmed...

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:54:32 GMT

Whew...as much as I enjoy taking these intense Spanish classes, sometimes they feel like they´re getting a little too intense. We´ve learned an unbelievable number of new concepts in the past week alone. Yesterday, for maybe the last 20 minutes of class, we learned the command form and a new future tense. Think of it as an "introduction" to the concepts. Our homework was to go home and study these concepts and be prepared to give a 3 minute presentation in Spanish (using those concepts) the following morning (today). As confident as I usually am, I felt like I was going to bomb it. To my surprise, it actually went pretty well. Maybe my professor knows what she´s doing after all. That said, tomorrow morning is our final exam for La Clase de Basico II and I'm feeling pretty concerned about it. These direct and indirect object pronouns have been giving me a lot of trouble. So confusing!

Anyway...my new weightlifting schedule at the new Diamond Gym down the street is going great. I've been doing my own routine for a couple of months now, but 2 days ago I began following a plan made for me by the personal trainers. Wow. While my own routine was working pretty well, these guys know how to really isolate each muscle so that it's worked properly. It makes a difference. I tried one of my American Eagle polo's this morning (hadn't worn it since I was in the states), and it was quite a bit tighter than usual. Nice!

OK...gotta go. More update soon!

I'm back online!

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:17:12 GMT

Our Internet here has been out of service for about 4 days now, and it is finally working again! Spanish has been challenging...we're learning past tense, pronouns, progressive tense, and a bunch of other stuff at once. It's tough to stay ahead of the game, but I'm doing my best!

I'm still loving life down here. Sometimes it's hard to figure out if you're happier in a certian place just because you're in some sort of "vacation mode", or if you're actually genuinely happier in that place. Does that make sense? Regardless, I'm realizing that even after almost 2 months, I really do feel happier and more fulfilled here in Costa Rica than I did in the States.

I love learning Spanish. I love the Costa Rican people. I love the challenge of meeting Costa Rican girls and trying to talk to them in Spanish. I love the weather...it's beautiful. The mountains, rainforrests, beaches are incredible. I even love the sound of the frogs as I'm going to sleep every night.

It's a tough thing to think about. Should I just enjoy the time here for what it is, a 3 month trip, and just go back to normal life in the States? Should I come back down here? Who knows. A lot will happen in the next month and a half...I can feel it. And I can't wait to see what unfolds.

Speaking of life in the states...I'm really not missing Cville right now. Yes, I know I agreed to the lifestyle of the school when I decided to attend. That's true. But. That doesn't erase the almost sad absurdity of making a responsible, law-abiding student feel like a criminal because he had a glass of wine with dinner. According to some pretty trustworthy sources back home, I'm "being closely watched" because of several photos I posted on Facebook recently. I wonder if it was the photo I took of my friend jeremy pouring a half-a-glass of coke and rum in the kitchen? (Can you believe he did that?) Or maybe it was the photo I took of a good friend of mine on the beach wearing a....(sshhhh!!)....bikini!!

Come on guys. Seriously. Are you really that bored?

Anyway...next topic. Several of my friends and I went whitewater rafting on the Paquari River yesterday, and what a blast! The Paquari is rated one of the top 5 rivers in the world to raft on by National Geographic magazine, and I could see why. The rapids were action-packed and the scenery was breathtaking. Every moment was something new...lush canyons with waterfalls pouring down the sides, colorful toucans flying by, sloths hanging from trees overhead, bright blue butterflies fluttering around, it was great.

OK...off to bed. I've got to get up early tomorrow for another week of Spanish classes! Tomorrow, I'll be giving a 3 minute speech (in Spanish). It'll be a challenge, but should be fun!

Nights Out in San Jose

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:40:31 GMT

As planned, I spent the entire weekend here in San Jose. And, as expected, it was a great weekend. After my exam on Friday, I grabbed my laptop and spent the rest of the day lying on the couch watching movies and working on some of my online business projects. I awoke yesterday morning at 8 AM feeling rested from the extra 1 1/2 hours of sleep and got started on my to-do list for the day. Spending an entire day just lying around watching movies and working online may sound boring, but this kind of day was exactly what I needed. It was incredibly rejuvinating.

Later in the evening, I went to the mall with Joanna to find a gift for a lady who had played an important role in her life while she studied architecture at Universidad Veritas. Her graduation ceremony was yesterday morning, so it was a big day for her. Around 8 last night, a bunch of family and friends came over for a dinner and it was a good time for everyone.

After the festivities here at the house, a group of us jumped in a few cars and took off for the Escazu area to go to Utopia. Like everything else in Escazu, Utopia was a somewhat high-class place. The lights, music, and people were all great and I really liked the atmosphere there. I met a few beautiful+fun Ticas as well, which is always a bonus. Definitely a place I want to go back to in the near future.

Today was another relaxing day. I didn't get up until 9 this morning since we were out so late, but a rich cup of steaming Britt coffee woke me up nicely. I spent the day here at the house working on some projects and hanging out with my host sisters.

Lately, I've been working on re-writing a fascinating eBook for a good friend and mentor of mine in San Diego, California. He had hired a ghostwriter to write the eBook, but while it featured valuable info, it was just plain boring to read. Kinda like a high-school research paper. This friend and I were talking about this on the phone a couple of weeks ago when he asked if I would take a look at it and try to revise it to make it interesting to read. He said that he wanted the kind of writing that Eben Pagan does (Eben is one of my most influential role models)and that my writing style was the closest he had ever seen to it. What a compliment! I just finished re-writing the first couple of chapters, and he really liked the results, asking if I would do the whole book. I was happy to be able to help him out...and maybe this is the beginning of a profitable venture for both of us.

I've been thinking a lot lately about my interest in writing. It seems that there is more money in marketing than in writing, but I'm beginning to realize that I have a gift for writing and it's hard to ignore the feeling of fulfillment I get from doing it. Maybe it would be smart to enroll in an one of the popular online copywriting courses this summer and take on a couple of actual projects. Maybe this would help me figure out if it's something I enjoy every day...and it would probably put a solid amount of money in my pocket in the meantime. Hmm. I'm thinking about going out to San Diego for the summer, and doing some copywriting along with my current projects (all of which can be done from coffee shops and wherever else I choose) sounds like a great summer. We'll see. There's a lot to think about. But for now, I'm signing off. Until later...

An update...(yes, FINALLY)

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:14:35 GMT

Wow...the longer I go without writing on here, the harder it is to do it! I think it's mostly because so much has been happening lately that it simply takes too much time to record it all. Time is something I haven't had very much of lately. Don't get me wrong, though...I'm not complaining. Life is good and everything has been going well here in San Jose.

One crazy thing that happened recently, which pretty much everyone knows about by now, was the tornado at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. It caused some unbelievable damage and destroyed most of the dorms, making them look like they had been hit by a bombing. My former roommate Kyle, who just left here a couple of weeks ago to go back to the states, is a student at Union and was in Jackson at the time. Fortunately, he and his friends were able to get out of the storm's path and survive the disaster safely.

Last weekend, I went with CEA on our final group excursion to the National Park at Manuel Antonio. By now, I've seen several different areas of Costa Rica...and I would have to say that Manuel Antonio is my favorite. Rumor has it that the default screen saver on new Mac computers actually includes a photo of a beach at Manuel Antonio. I can believe it...the beaches there were pristine...absolutely beautiful. I'll have to post a few photos on here as soon as I upload them from my camera. One of the coolest parts of Manuel Antonio was the spider monkeys and white faced monkeys...they were everywhere! We had to be careful on the beach so that they wouldn't steal our backpacks. One of our leaders said that sometimes the monkeys will unzip your packs and root through them, tossing out items as they try to find food. If they don't find anything they like, sometimes they'll chuck the backpack through the air and stomp off angrily. Haha. I love it. I had plenty of time to lie on the beaches...especially since our hotel was only a short walk away from them. I got a nice tan (a little too nice actually...it's all peeling off)...and had a great time swimming in the crystal-clear water and watching the sunsets with my friends.

Today was an eventful day...the midterm exam for my Spanish class. I didn't feel confident enough about it last night, so I stayed home instead of going out to the VIP theater with my friends. It paid off, and I did well on the exam this morning...although it took almost 3 hours to complete and my brain felt like mush at the end! Whew...I'm glad that's over. I still have a long ways to go in learning Spanish, but it feels good to know I'm making fast progress!

The new Diamon Gym down the street is opening on Monday, and we're pretty excited about it. As it is right now, Jeremy and I are wasting about 45 minutes to an hour each day just walking to and from the gym on the 5th floor of the Mall San Pedro. I like the trainers at that gym, though...we've made good friends with them, so I hate to leave. Hopefully the new gym will be just as nice.

It's been a crazy last few weeks, so I and several of my friends decided to stay in San Jose and just relax this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it...it will be good to just hang out. For the last month, we've been running around constantly. Getting up at 6:45 in the morning, 4 hours of intense Spanish class, about 2 hours of homework, an hour and a half of intense lifting in the gym, dinner, and then a little bit of free time before bed around 11 when we can no longer stay awake. Pathetic huh? Haha. I was just telling Jeremy tonight that before I came down here to Costa Rica, it had probably been 2 years since I remembered going to sleep before midnight.

I've been working on my Dublin Secrets website and advertising campaigns quite a bit lately...the damage caused by the Adwords hacker has been fixed and my campaigns are back up and running...finally. It feels good! I also implemented many of the suggestions given to me by my mentor Murray in Canada to improve the copy on my web sales page. It will be interesting to see the changes in sales!

OK...that's it for now. I'll update again soon, Diana...I promise!

A Note from Tamarindo...

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:50:27 GMT

6:30 PM - Saturday, February 2nd 2008

I'm sitting here on the balcony of my penthouse in Tamarindo, my feet propped up on the round, glass-top table in front of me. Out over the balcony is a spectacular panoramic view of the ocean, and down over the hill are silhouettes of palm trees stretching along the beach as far as I can see. A little ways out from shore, twenty or twenty five boats of all shapes and sizes are scattered across the water where they are anchored for the night, rocking gently with the waves.

I've been sitting here for about 30 minutes and the sun has just finished disappearing behind the ocean's horizon leaving a bright orange glow across the sky that reflects off of everything. The wooden sliding doors along the wrap-around balcony are all open, and their long white curtains are dancing slowly back and forth with the warm breeze. The air is filled with the relaxing sound of the palm trees' leaves brushing together, and of soft latin music drifting out through the doors from inside. I've always loved the smell of the ocean, and right now, it's as good as ever. A steady wisp of rich, flavorful smoke is rolling lazily from the end of the cuban cigar in my left hand, and I'm setting my pen down only to take an occasional sip from the small glass of Frontera Rose beside me. Life is good.

We arrived in Tamarindo last night after a miserable 7 hour ride in a public bus across Costa Rica. When we finally arived in Tamarindo around 10PM, Melanie from The Oaks was still waiting for us as arranged. She laughed and said she had wondered if we had known what we were getting ourselves into. We hadn't. Jeremy and I got into Melanie's SUV and she drove us to our penthouse. When we arrived, the owner of the establishment, Hans, was there waiting to meet us. He gave us a tour of of the penthouse and then left us for the night. We were impressed with the place to say the least. We walked down near the beach to get something to eat, then took advantage of the rare opportunity to sleep freely with no obligations the next morning. We slept in until 8, ate a delicious breakfast at Frutas Tropicales near the beach, and then walked back to the penthouse to meet up with Melanie. She arrived around 10 and we met her by the pool to leave for a tour of the town's real estate development projects. The three of us left together in her SUV and drove around to some of the best projects she was familiar with. I'm always looking for good opportunities, and Jeremy's dad is seriously looking for a place in Costa Rica to invest in as well, so we found the tour fascinating. Melanie showed us some incredible properties and was very helpful and respectful to us the whole time. Respect is something you don't take for granted as a college kid, so I really appreciated it!

We returned to the penthouse at about 1PM to find that the girls had arrived and were in bed just waking up from a nap. After some relaxing and joking around, we drove over to the supermercado and the girls went crazy buying groceries. We (Jeremy and I) didn't know that Diana and her friend Mariela had planned to cook for us throughout the weekend, but they had, and I certainly didn't complain! We stopped back by our place to drop off the groceries in the fridge, then made our way down to the beach for the afternoon. We relaxed on the beach having fun and taking crazy photos of each other until the sun began to set.

And now, here I am...sitting on the balcony with my pen and notebook, the orange glow from the sunset almost gone. It's been a good day. In the trees a few dozen yards from my balcony, a group of spider monkeys are swinging and rustling through the branches on their way back from the beach for the night. From inside the doors, I can hear the sound of silverware clinging in the kitchen...dinner will be ready soon. My pen has done it's work for now...

Below: Two photos of the Tamarindo sunset...the view from the balcony of my penthouse

Below: Short video clip of a sunset's beginning