2008 was my rebuilding year

I lost 45 lbs.
I can now run 7+ miles with relative ease.
I lost a girlfriend and a cool apt.
I lost my job.
I lost my self doubt.
I lost my social media cherry to Twitter.
I lost a lingering infection.

I gained a ton of new friends.
I gained muscle.
I gained some lifelong relationships.
I gained a sense of purpose.
I gained a sense of what I want to do with my life.

2008 was a heckuva rebuilding year. Hope you all enjoy your successes and overcome the obstacles in even more style than I did.

And thanks.

Taking care of my sister's cats

Instructions from my sister to her roommate. Logan left for four entire days.

Taking care of my precious kitties, One and Two
(AKA Boy and Girl, Lucifer and Hades)

Taking care of One and Two is a huge responsibility, I hope you are ready to take this on. I have written out a detailed list of how to properly care for the health and happiness of my delightful children. Missing any of the following steps may result in a less than desirable outcome. I wish you all the luck in the world and know I can tell when they have been mentally and/or physically abused. Please handle with care.

1. One and Two are to be feed in the morning between the hours of 4am-7am. Softly pet each one 3 times and tell both of them individually “good morning my love”. Scoop ¼ cup of dry food from the jar, fill bowls, repeat. Each bowl shall contain ½ cup dry food. Gracefully pat each one on the head, tell them “have a magnificent day my sweets, I will hurry home to see you tonight”.

2. Check water level. It should not be less than 1 inch in the container. If water needs to be filled bring to sink, empty, and refill ONLY with Brita 42 degrees filtered water.

3. In the afternoon my pocket sized little ones like to play. Throw the soft ball for ½ hour every day with One and 15 minutes for Two. After a amusing game of “catch”, embrace One and Two in a soft gentle way. Tell them “I love you my sweet children, I hope you are having a wonderful day”.

4. At night, fill each bowl with one scoop (1/4 cup) each of dry cat food (no more, no less). If they look at you with needy eyes you can add a little water to their food. Again pet them softly and say “please enjoy your entrée).

These steps are crucial to insuring my felines are at peek performance. If you see a black devil cat tormenting my innocent kittens please put the nasty thing out side or lock it in your closet. My darlings can’t have that kind of stress in their lives; it may result in physiological distress and well as insomnia.

Good luck with this exciting adventure and know that my loving little kitties will let me know if you have mistreated them in any way.
Thank you,
Logan



If any problems arise please feel free to call me at 253-486-7272 or the local fire department.





Side Note:
I really don’t care what the hell you do with them just make sure they have food and water. You can fill all the bowls up if you don’t want to deal with it and just make sure they have water. You know how to do it! Thanks again, I owe you one!

12 seconds...

If you haven't checked out 12seconds.tv, you should. Think of it as video Twitter.

It's a helluva harder to be interesting when talking than when writing, surprisingly.

Christmas at the Hurst home

There was some confusion as to who gets what bed, as Bryan doesn't have a bed in his room anymore.

Bryan called dibs on Tyler's bed and gave Logan's bed to Tyler. Read on for more.

To my foolish misguided brothers-

My name is Logan. I am your sister. I know you try to forget about me, for your jealousy can get the best of you, but you have to understand that love can not be forced, it comes naturally. Let’s face it, Mom and Dad love me more, for I carry the best of both of them, for the two of you, they have to force themselves to love you the way one would have to force them self to dry swallow a vitamin. But this time your resentfulness has gone too far.
For 23 years I have lived in the bedroom between the two of you. It was purple until our Dad (yes we have the same one) painted it hunter orange, but that may have been a good idea for now you guys can not forget my presence. So, in this electric orange sorbet bedroom is a twin bed. Now in that same twin bed has slept your sister since she was in junior high and she loves it dearly. My question for the two of you is why is my sanctuary being handed out a like Mormon pamphlet? Have the two of you ever lived in the middle bedroom? What? Did you say no? Oh yeah that right, it’s my god damn room and I will be the one sleeping on the twin bed in my road cone colored room. Bryan, who gave you the authority to donate my room? Just because your room had to be fumigated to rid the smell of sweat, rotting boots, your musty pencil collection and gold bond powder doesn’t mean you get mine, there is nothing in there because Mom and Dad don’t love you. And Tyler, do you even need a bed? When was
the last time you even slept in one? I will give you a Tylenol PM and the floor. That’s the best accommodations we can provide. I’m glad we have cleared this up before someone got upset on a day fill with comfort and joy. Recap, I will be sleeping in my room, on my bed because it is my room and my bed. Let’s not let this little blunder happen again.

Next order of business is our activates for Christmas Eve and Day. Law and Order will be limited to 2 hours per day. There will be no popcorn eating with in 25 feet of the Hurst residence. Video games are to be played from the hours of 1am to 8am, with quite time from 2am till 10am. Participation of after dinner dishes is mandatory for all. For the chatty Kathy’s of the group (you know who you are) talking will be capped at 15 minutes in a one hour time frame. Phone calls and text messages are to be restricted to your personal time which is 12am to 10am but please stay in compliance with quiet time regulations. Newspapers are not permitted in the restrooms. Toilet paper will be rationed; four to eight squares for women and nine squares for men. Plungers will not be provided, so you better think of another way to clear it out, yes that means your hand. Kitchen cabinets are to be closed with in 15 seconds of opening them. Combining laptops, cell phones, ipods, zip drives ect. to cons
truct a command center in the kitchen and/or living room is not allowed and frowned upon. Drinking of beer, wine, hard alcohol and malt liquor on the other hand is highly recommended. Consuming Zima with jolly ranchers, wine coolers or mike’s hard lemonade is banned and may result in a hate crime. If any of the above measures are not properly followed monetary action will be taken.

I will accept your apologies in an email or in person, depending on your level of disgrace/embarrassment. Payment for above violations can be directly transmitted to me.
Thank you and Merry Christmas.

Logan Hurst
Safety and Health Administrator
Environment, Health & Safety (EHS)

What I learned today...

...from running. I'm sure these could be adapted to anything in life.

When it rains, either run faster or find a warm, dry place. Anything else is just stupid.

Running more often makes it easier, no matter the distance. It's easier to add 5 five minutes every four days than to add 10 minutes every week. Strange, but true.

The less often I run, the harder it is every time. The opposite is also true.

High fiving, smiling or waving to people I see on the way makes them smile and makes me feel good.

Buy good equipment and you won't get as many blisters.

Don't stop to deal with the barking dogs.

Overcome known obstacles first, like obvious geographic landmarks. I was forever leery of running past the I-17, but it really opened up my run today.

If you want to be efficient at something, do the same thing over and over. If you want to be great at something, either go the same distance or do it the same way every time, but never both.

Never, ever save anything for the way back.

Job Hunting ain't so bad...

The greatest thing about having many freelance projects is that it's hard to lose all of your jobs at the same time. While my corporate health benefits might run out in two months, my paychecks, thankfully, won't.

For the first time in my life, I have the time to do all the little jobs I've always wanted to do. Apply as an editor for a global news organization, so some freelance technical writing and even some contract PR/Social Media work.

Hell, if I keep this up, I'll never have to go back to "work." What I'm doing now sure doesn't feel like work, but I'm definitely going to get paid for it.

I might have found my niche.

Look who made businessweek.com...

Hells yeah, I did. The story might not about me, but I'm definitely the most interesting source.

http://ping.fm/MUdUA

Yes, I still am looking for a gig.

The state of downtown Phoenix...

I understand what downtown Phoenix looks like to most people. Deserted after dark, nothing to do and only bums to hang out with.

But I get none of those people have any idea where to look, nor have they ever asked someone who lives downtown.

Funny, I live in the heart of downtown and have plenty to do every single night.

Stories like this are NOT helping. http://ping.fm/E4TBZ

From an AZ Republic writer, no less!

I especially love this quote from a COPPER SQUARE AMBASSADOR.

"Steffin Newman, a downtown ambassador employed by merchants to assist visitors, said he often sends tourists to Scottsdale and Tempe when they ask about night life. "Since I started here six months ago, it's looked like recession to me," he sighed. "It's a ghost town."

Mind you, this person's entire job is to direct people to hot spots downtown. What about Cibo? The Roosevelt? The Sheraton's new bar? Lost Leaf? Bar Smith? Sidebar? Hob Nobs? Conspire?

There's plenty to do here, so why don't those that are hired to promote us know about it?

UPDATE: I emailed David Roderique, CEO of the partnership, and he responded in less than 25 minutes to both agree with me AND to tell me that the ambassador has been suspended. He pledged to better inform all ambassadors or what there is to do downtown.

This is great...but what were they telling them before?

Social Media in Education

http://ping.fm/5HOPY

It's about time

Time to stop doing what you think you should do, and what you want to be doing.

Time to stop doing what others want.

Time to be you.

I need wacky ideas. Pitch them, tease them, flirt with them, whatever. Let's do this.

Sustainable/Green Energy Experts in Phoenix

The Biltmore is hosting a sustainable energy conference tomorrow.

Featured will be T. Boone Pickens and the following energy experts.

Arizona Energy Options

Moderator: Barry Broome, Greater Phoenix Economic Council

Brad Albert, APS

Rob Early, SRP



City of Phoenix Sustainable Transportation Alternatives

Moderator: Kevin Olson, Steptoe & Johnson

Jim Harger, Clean Energy

Maria Baier, City of Phoenix Councilwoman

Colleen Crowninshield, Pima Association of Governments

Does ANYONE know these people?

Fight Cancer in Phoenix

I'm not big on cancer. I had an infected cyst once, and that sucked. I can't imagine having cancer. So help me raise money to stamp it out.

Join fellow cancer haters and shop local all to help fight colon and ovarian cancer.

Wednesday, December 10.

All details can be found at bizarrebazaarforcancer.wordpress.com

Letter to the CEO, Part #3

After my initial meeting, I was asked to write a job description for a Social Media Strategist position. Thanks to help from @sheila_dee, I submitted one, along with this letter.

David, please see the attached Social Media Strategist description. It's fairly broad, as I wrote it thinking more of it as an entire department, rather than one position.

It is very important that this position be able to float from department to department, with full access to projects in the works and sales executive's contacts. This position should have very, very little to do with the PR department, as it is about listening to highly-connected parents, educators and students on THEIR level.

If our foray into social media looks like just another PR ploy, people will see through that. Our OUTGOING communication should definitely be handled by the PR department, but this position is a behind the scenes type of interaction.

I realize that this position requires a tremendous leap of faith and a lot more trust than many positions. While corporations certainly have had issues with this in the past, it's extremely important that we are active in this field in the proper way. There are already people out there talking about us on blogs, on Twitter and in Wikis and we haven't been listening.

Typical ROI in this type of industry doesn't exist yet, making it tough to define success in financial terms immediately. This is our chance to SET the market rather than catch up.

If we do this properly, listen well and are honest in working with those educators, parents and students that are already talking about this, Pearson becomes less of a textbook/digital software publishers and more of a partner in education.

I'd be happy to share more of my thoughts with you on this plan. Kathy mentioned you having time on Monday and I'd like to speak with you then if so. This industry is my absolute life goal and I would very much like to assist Pearson in growing beyond its current physical boundaries.

NOTE--what do you think?

Stages of lay off grief

1. Fuck yeah! Severance! I'm getting paid to do nothing!

2. Damn, I have no more money than I did before.

3. Drinking during the day is fun.

4. Shit, what happened to last week?

5. Oh no...I need to get a job...really, really bad.

6. I'll take anything. Seriously.

7. Would you like fries with that?

In all seriousness, getting laid off sucks. You have zero control over what happened, so the best advice I've taken is to not worry about it.

Think of it as a paid vacation to job hunt in your underwear. See? That's not so bad, is it?

NOTE--I reserve the right to completely freak out if I don't have a job by the end of January.