Hiatus

There have been a few instances over the last few months that I've wanted to write about here, but I just haven't.  (Inauguration, Godfathering, Pirate Festivals... the usual)

My head has been in a million different spaces, and I've been trying desperately to get some sort of focus and direction.  My apologies for the extreme lack of posting the past 2 months.

I am still mostly unemployed - "mostly" meaning "completely" - but I have been busy (a little) networking and trying to find work as a photographer and or writer... ANYWHERE.  I've followed up on a few leads here and there to do freelance work, but nothing has come to fruition just yet.  I will keep at this for a long time because I realized definitively that this is the course I want to follow for myself.  

That said, I have a few projects lined up for myself over the course of the next few weeks/months:

1- My own website

It will be a comprehensive collection of my photos from the last 4 years, as well as be the new space for my blog.  Once that site is up and running, I will stop posting to this address.  It is extremely difficult to design a [good-looking and interesting] website from scratch, especially for someone with very little web design in their past.  I have contacted a few friends for assistance, and they have been more than helpful in referring me to resources I can use.  If any of you out there would looooove to help me get this thing under way any faster, please do contact me.  I'd love some help.  

2- My Album

As in, a musical album.  It will be a collection of songs I'd written since being in South Africa, plus one or two since my return home to the States.  At last count, I had 22 complete songs.  That may be too many for one album, so maybe I'll just have to do two.  I start the recording process in March.  I expect the project to take a few months.  

My album won't be so hardcore

3- My First Book

This first book will be a collection of all the blog posts and mass emails (plus a few long personal emails to friends) I had written during my time in Peace Corps.  For any avid followers of my online life for the past 2 years, it will be things you've most likely come across before.  But now it will be in book form, with all the pictures to go with the stories, plus a few extras that I may not have included before.  I intend to use a self-publisher for this book.

Sadly, neither one of my books will be about Gnomes

4- My Second Book

This aptly titled bullet point means just as it reads.  My second book will take [by a conservative estimate] a few years.  It will be everything and more from my time abroad.  That's all I have to say about that.  

I write about these projects here now for two reasons.  The first is that some people have been asking me what I've been up to lately.  Besides working out, getting huge (141 lbs! First time breaking 140 ever!), eating a million pounds of dad's home cooking, being a pirate and buying guitars, these are the goals I have set for myself.  

The second reason I am writing about all this is so I can hold myself responsible for reaching them.  It's one thing to say I will do something, another thing to follow thru.  I also hope that anyone reading this will hold me to my word and help me reach these goals.  

If any one out there has any input, advice, or may be able to assist in any way, please do contact me.  We can share our goals and help each other to reach them.  It's nice to be back in a life situation where communication flows freely (or at least inexpensively) and human contact is considered to be more the norm, rather than the exception.  

Until then, keep your eyes peeled.

Ciao...