It's quiet in the home while I'm on a short vacation from the regular 40+ hour work week job.

Short Stack is taking a nap, and my Better Half is resting for a few minutes.

Sleep is something you have to steal to get when your child's routine is a bit off.

I was watching some of our local news anchors online, from WTKR Newschannel 3.  Kurt Williams was doing a live broadcast on Facebook, answering some questions to the people watching behind scenes.

This brought back some memories of when I was diving into the world of broadcasting, pulling my hours doing broadcast radio at a local radio station in Hampton Roads (88.7FM).  The format was Classical Music, which allowed for me to learn the boards and keep track of time.  That is broadcast time.  Let's just say that a lot can happen in 5 seconds.

While there I obtained my FCC license, which was my goal.  Don't know if it's still there as it has been many years.

I also had the chance to talk with a couple of other News Ancor's, Alveta Ewell and Terry Zahn.  I still remember them sitting in a classroom setting answering questions from several other 'students' such as myself.  It made me pause for thought as to what I wanted to do with my life.  Did I want to go down the road of broadcasting? Or did I want to stick with my initial plan of adventuring onto becoming an apprentice at a local shipyard?

It was around that time I was looking at graduating High School and wanted to be sure that I had a good plan of action for the foreseeable future for me.  At least to carry me another 5 years.

Life has a funny way of providing these opportunities to you, presenting you options that on hindsight really wouldn't make a difference either way which direction I would've taken.... career wise.

I asked both Alveta and Terry a couple of questions, mostly surrounding the issue of the balance between family life and career life.

You see, I've seen how a career can impact a relationship - and I wanted to make sure that whatever path I chose allowed for me to be able to make that balance.

Sure I had the ability to do voice-overs and be on the radio in terms of broadcasting.  Of course I enjoy doing PSA's and commercials.  But, let's face it, radio broadcasting doesn't pay a lot and doing voice over work can be a challenge by itself.  Longevity in the world of broadcasting is something you have to consistently strive for, and you have to regularly be subject to public scrutiny - especially if you mess-up.

I was young, still trying to figure out what direction I wanted to go.  But, that time spent with Alveta Ewell and Terry Zahn required me to think forward... to think long-term.

I was told I could be a great journalist, an excellent broadcaster.   "yeah, right" was (and is) the response I still give.
I know enough to know I don't know anything, even though I put in some hours as a late night classical music DJ.

The decision to adventure down the road of apprenticeship made practical sense.  I could get my associates degree, a journeyman's certificate, and have enough experience that could carry me to any career I chose to do.

The apprenticeship program promised a lot.  But, after a year and a half, the shipyard laid off all of the apprentices in the program - thus changing the course of my life once again.

Am I angry?  No.  Disappointed was more like it.

What happens when your plans are changed beyond your control?

You move on.  You move forward.

Since that time I have had a few other moments like that, either by choice - or not by choice.

I was asked how have I dealt with these life changes.   How do I deal with the past?

I'll put this as plainly as I can.  You learn from your past, you recognize how going through those moments made you who you are - and move forward.

We are all products of our past, the influences of those life experiences help us to make decisions - but they should not be shackles that bind us to what 'could have been', but rather keeping us in the direction of 'what will be'... providing hope to help others in their journey called life.

I have hope.  Let's keep that moving forward.

 

For those that are unaware, here's a little bit about me...

I've spent over 20 years in the world of inventory and logistics analysis.  For the past decade, I've been blogging and entering into the world of digital content marketing.

If you are curious about what this all means, in short - it's a major career change.

I'm loving it!

There are a lot of elements of logistics in what I do now, but instead of physical products I'm purchasing and analyzing... it's content and audience.

Working on Autisable and blogging here on Xanga has helped me understand content marketing from a blogging and social media perspective.  Where I work regularly now is helping to hone and craft my skill set to be even better at what I enjoy doing.

Suffice it to say, I have a lot to still learn, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to do such.

Enter Hubspot and the world of Inbound Marketing.

To share the difference between regular conventional marketing as opposed to inbound marketing I could take awhile to dive into the minutia.

But, Inbound at its core is about developing trust and building customer relationships - and not about being intrusive with 'you must buy this now!' stuff.

Let's just say for over the past year I've been learning from a firehouse... and I don't expect this process to slow down.

In fact, I expect this effort to speed up over the course of the next several months.

As good as all this sounds, it still a lot of hard work and effort  - and much to still learn.

Now, as promised, here is a few small updates about Xanga...

1 - nothing to report about the site - (surprised yet?)
2 - Feel free to email 'help@xanga.net' with your username and email address associated with the account.  IF you don't have access or don't remember the email address - send whatever info you can to help the Xanga team confirm who you are.  It's a verification process so you can gain access to the account.
3 - Just out of sheer craziness - I'm still managing the Xanga facebook page with Dan and Maurice.  This is more of an effort to keep the community lines open.  However, I think we'll try some fun on the page to keep it active and moving forward.

Not much else at the moment, except the usual.   Until later, back to the grind...

It's been awhile since I've updated this blog, but that's ok - there's still plenty going on behind the scenes...

First, let's address some of the items that are Xanga related so we can knock those out of the way...

A.  I have never been an employee of Xanga.com, LLC.   I have, however, been paid by Xanga for my work on Autisable.  I was paid from whatever google adsense and blogads.com generated.  Let's just say I never made a lot, and what I did make was poured into helping to build and develop the site... and an odd meal or two for a date night with my better half.

B. Mark and John at Xanga have given the Xanga Facebook page to us Xangans to manage.  Yep, it's not run by Xanga.com, LLC anymore.  It's managed by me, Dan and Maurice.   We do not have access to anyone's accounts on Xanga- so we cannot help you out regarding your xanga account.

C.  Our standard response, if it's a Xanga account issue, is to email help@xanga.net and to include your username and the email address associated with the account.  IF you don't have access or don't know/remember your email address associated with the account - do what you can to provide information to help the Xanga team verify who you are.

D.  There is a rumor going around regarding Eugenia no longer being employed by Xanga.   Let's address this rumor directly.  It's true.   However, Eugenia is still helping with that level of site and account management out of the kindness of her heart. Although she isn't employed by Xanga.com, LLC. She is still providing oversight for official Xanga team needs while John figures out what he's going to do.  She's still our point of contact to make sure accounts are updated/upgraded and any other account questions/concerns.

For now there are no worries or concerns regarding any major issues regarding the overall website and/or management thereof.  I'll be talking again to Eugenia soon to make sure everyone's accounts are taken care of and as many issues are addressed as soon as possible.

Ok... that's it for the moment for Xanga.

Now...another side of things going on...  the world of autisable....

Autisable has officially moved to a new server and is now SSL certified.  The server that it was on was provided by a fellow autism dad.  But, it had to move in order to grow.

We have over 270 members on the site, and syndication is now officially back online.   This past week marks the point where Autisable is essentially back, functionality wise, where it was prior to Xanga shelving its proprietary platform.  Although there is a lot more work to do, people can now join, connect with each other socially and submit blog posts for the main page.

I'm looking into another feature for the site to allow people to 'journal' for their own account - which would make it more Xanga-like.  But, it's finally at a stage where we can state that Autisable is back in full force.

I'm sharing some notes regarding Autisable so that we could look into doing similar things for Xanga.

Ok... until later, back tot he grind...