Facing Forward
Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection
As I expect most of you know, I have a thing for writing haiku. I actually have a whole blog dedicated to them. They’re fun and packed with meaning in such a small package.
Since today’s my birthday, it seemed like a fun subject.
Anyway, enjoy! And enjoy the day. Seattle’s looking to have quite a lovely one.
Inspired by C89‘s DJ Trent Von and his Save The Wave show, I crafted my own playlist in Spotify. Give it a listen and let me know what you think. What’s left out? What shouldn’t be on this one?
If you’re a fan of Trent, here are a few places to connect with him online:
And here are some sites to learn more about his style, background, and, well, listen to his playlists.
Ah, good ol’ Gary V! I deeply appreciate his raw “get the fuck off your ass and get to work” videos. See, I dive deep into over-thinking. Churnimg through “what-ifs” is reflexive. And second guessing my choices? I’m a master at that, too. And it drives me nuts. I KNOW it’s a waste. I KNOW you can’t know how any choice would play out differently. Yet my brain churns through this nonsense. These videos are a good reminder to be vigilant against that and stop that waste of energy, that degradation of confidence. Forward! Move forward. Move, and forward. Don’t look back.
So, do you remember?
Watch “Earth, Wind & Fire – September (Official Music Video)” on YouTube
The past few days have brought a few opportunities to edit some sound files. I’ve used Audacity in the past, but it hit me that Adobe’s Audition is part of my Creative Suite subscription. I found it slick and fast. Now I was only trimming the files and boosting the audio. It felt much easier to me. That might be due to my decades of experience in Abode products. This, their UX is somewhat natural.
Next. I want to spend some time exploring balancing sound, cutting out noise and such. It should be fun.
What’s your favorite tool? I lean towards Audacity mainly, if for no other reason, free!
I easily get caught up trying to make things perfect. I know far too many folks with the same proclivity. I also know that writing is what I need to focus on. Get more posts out, I should create a podcast and vlog…and that conflicts with “perfection”. It gets in the way of my goals.
As a blogger, I need to blog (insert “duh” here). Losing focus on creation keeps me from this. I hate that. So, I am working on simply posting. Posting as often as I can, as best I can. Letting go of it needing to be perfect.
The same goes for design work. Get something done. Finished is better than perfect.
Lately, I found myself struggling with “focus”. Related, somewhat, to perfect, I guess. There’s a notion within blogging that you want your blog to have as narrow a focus as possible. And there’s validity to that. It makes the life of a reader much easier. But a blog is not a book. It’s not a magazine…blah, blah. There’s a personal element to a blog. I have a wide array of interests. It’s perfectly wonderful to explore them all in one place, too.
A blog should be a unique expression, each one one-of-a-kind. They should reflect the writer’s personality. I also believe they should be informal.
What do you like about blogging? What do your favorite bloggers do? And do you discern a particular style of writing to label “blogging”?
Well, one heck of a week, and weekend. First week at the new job. My new team is awesome! One of my challenges is to stop working and head home. Good problem. Now, this coming week has some significant demands, so I expect I’ll be more effective at leaving on time.
While I was working at Eagle Country Construction, I opted to let my license lapse. Now I’m going to renew it. Fortunately, my license wasn’t that far expired. I just need to take a bunch of classes and pay renewal fees, plus and “late” fee. I will have that done in a few weeks. After that, I can provide you and counsel.
Not sure all I will do with the license, but I am confident that real estate will be the main part of the next few years at least. What’s fun is the wide array of opportunities that entails. Besides your traditional buyer/ sellers agent, there’s commercial real estate (I definitely want to understand that better), portfolio analysis property management, portfolio management. Plus my experience in construction and permitting adds a lot of options, too.
I’m excited about the next stage in my career. There’s so much potential.
Please give me a like and follow. It helps things out a great deal. Plus, it’ll be easier to stay in touch.
I’ve known Scalar Theorem for several years and do find his bass rich perfect for focus. Techno styled music (electronic, dub step, and the like) speaks to me. Plus, as he’s a friend, I delight to watch him succeed. He’s a regular at Burning Man!
Anyway, please go check out his new album, give it a like, and think about other ways to support his music. (If you’d rather listen on Bandcamp, here’s the link to him there).
I’ve accepted a new position with Matt Steel, a Bellevue-based broker with EXP realty, who’s a decade or two of real estate experience. I’ll manage their digital marketing. This excites me greatly. I did this for C&K real estate team a few years ago. I loved this part of my job, even though I”m a bit rusty. My interest in digital marketing goes many years back and it aligns with my interests in web design, writing and social media.
Also, I’ll be managing this team’s transactions, which is another thing I’ve done (both for C&K, and also with Eagle Country construction). I’m excited to be continuing in the real estate and housing sector. I discovered how much I know and understand, and how much I bring to the table. As I’ll be renewing/rebooting my real estate license, I’ll dive deeper into this sector. I’m not entirely sure what I will do with this part of my career, but there are so many options, so many good ways to earn a living. I’m not sure which path is the right one. But as I’ve been listening to Gary Vee the past few days (updating my digital marketing knowledge), I see a need to experiment, take some risks, try some ideas out and see where they lead. I won’t get anywhere I want to go by seeking the easiest path, the easy way forward.
I’m excited to get back into the fray. And very excited to add the official title of “digital marketer” to my resume. And I’m really pumped to put all I’ve learned, and am learning, to work. Time to hit it hard!
So, one of my current projects is helping a non-profit get up and running. One of the things we need is an EIN (Employer Identification Number…the organizational equivalent to a Social Security Number). So, I go to the IRS page to request this, and keep getting the old “Can’t connect to the website. Please try again later” error. I don’t think too much of this, but after a couple of hours, it’s getting to me. So, I explore a bit and find this.
Really? A website that’s only useful during “business hours”? It’s a WEBSITE! Why on earth is this not available 24-7? I guess that there’s some manual approval that happens during the process. Even so, I should be able to apply and be dropped into a queue that’ll be checked Monday morning, or whatever. A website with office hours just boggles my mind.
Ok, this clearly is a 21st Century problem. But it’s just so antithetical to the zeitgeist.