Happy Birthday Katrina
Katrina is my beautiful and amazing wife. You don’t see me write very much about here on here because she lives her life differently than I do. She’s not as public with her digital lifestyle. Yes, she reads Twitter, and she has a Flickr account, and a blog, and Facebook, and she does all kinds of really cool things with social media. But she’s not very public about it, so I don’t often mention how she interacts on a given day with me, my world, and the stuff she deals with.
But it’s her birthday, so for that, I want to just take some time and talk about Katrina.
We Met Online
First, I should point out that Katrina and I met online. I was in a weird place in my life, where I felt I was crazy and wrong (yes, I’m still crazy, but now I know I’m not wrong for being crazy). She was up in Canada, and I was down here in Massachusetts, trying to figure out where my life was going next. After some general friendship, we realized that we had a lot in common (well, music and a few things), and we started falling for each other.
Punks Together
We had lots of fun times in our dating, including messing around with music, and doing art projects together, and supporting each other’s various initiatives. Katrina does fabric and textile art, and she noodles with music as well. It’s cool when we have time to do art.
Mother
Though neither of us really had planned for a family life, we both fought our way into learning how to be parents. Kat’s so much better at it than me. She’s much more patient, has all of the tricks and skills of being a mom, and knows how to talk me and the kids off the ledge.
Kat and the kids play incredible games all the time. She keeps them entertained, fed, clothed (when they’re willing to wear clothes), and all around energized. With my Violette, who is a ball of fire and requires more than the average kid in the way of attention, handling, and coverage, I’d say that Katrina owns the space of “top shelf mom” without any heavy lifting. Harold? He’s easy cheesy, but he’s another human to chase around, so that counts for something too, dammit.
My Shield Bearer
I guess we all think of things from our own lens, and with regards to how Katrina fits into my world, I’ve said this a million times: Katrina does two things very well. She lifts me up when I’m feeling low, and she pops my bubble when I’m too egotistical. Kat GETS me. She understands every facet of my weirdness. She knows that I tell the worst jokes. She appreciates that I am a little greedy and selfish. She knows that I’m a handful and crazy and that I am not always the easiest guy to get along with.
Great Friend
People who are Katrina’s real friends are blessed. They know her to be caring, loving, fiercely loyal, protective, and very generous with her attention and friendship. They know her to be creative, funny, bright, and someone with a strong emotional intelligence.
Kat’s the opposite of me in friend making. She has a small, tight-knit group of friends, and that’s it. She doesn’t mind meeting new people, but rarely sees the need to be friends with them, as much as she’d rather be civil (at least from my perspective, that’s how it all plays out).
So I’m blessed that she’s my friend, too.
December Birthdays
Kat’s birthday is a week before Christmas. What a bummer that can be. Her family has always done a great job of celebrating that birthday as a very separate event. We try to do the same. (And here’s where I delete all the stuff I want to say about how December is for me, but that I try).
So Happy Birthday
I love you. For everything I do that makes you happy, I wish it could be a thousand fold. For everything I’ve ever done that’s made you sad, I’m sorry. For everything we can do together in the years to come, I look forward to it and am glad you’re with me.
Thank you. And happy birthday, Katrina.
Goodbye Marc Orchant
Husband, father, blogger, and all-around super nice guy, Marc Orchant, has passed away. I wish Sue and family peace after sorrow, and hope after grief. It’s a difficult time to know what would be the right thing to say. Everyone says that. So, my version of the right thing to say was that I spent a little time in Marc’s presence, and thought he was super swell. I was a faithful subscriber to his various projects and blogs, and I’m happy to have shared two meals with Marc. My memories of him are all good things. Safe journey, Marc, and my warmest wishes to the Orchant family at this time.
You can see the thread of updates leading up to this moment here.
Announcing Attention Upgrade
One of the recurring questions I get at PodCamps is “what’s your show?” It’s hard to answer, because I don’t regularly make my Small Boxes show, and that’s basically for me, anyhow. I started an audio project a few weeks ago, but I just wasn’t digging how it was coming out, so instead, I’ve asked Sim at Utterz to bake in an audio podcasting option for Utterz that will cook up rich media enclosures and the like. That’s probably coming out soon (provided Sim and the team dig the idea and go with it).
So, in the interim, I’ve got a new video show built on a brand new application roll-out:
Attention Upgrade is my new show (under 2 minutes an episode) where I talk about what has my attention, and this hopefully will help you upgrade YOUR experience with the world around you. The site was designed by Steve Rosenbaum and team of Magnify.net, and it’s one of the first shows to demonstrate Magnify’s new videoblog-in-a-box functionality.
I’m pretty jazzed about it. Steve and the team cooked up the underlying site in pretty much no time. MY version doesn’t take advantage of Magnify’s search-and-post functionality, which scours all kinds of video sites to find things that match your criteria, but you can do that, if you want too. I just chose to make all new stuff for Attention Upgrade.
I’ll be submitting the show to iTunes to be used on Video iPods and the like, and maybe also the Zune Marketplace, as they’re really looking for podcast content right now.
Lots more stuff coming soon on this front.
Moving On
Autumn seems to be my own personal season of change, as I’ve found that historically, things change in my life around this time of year. I’m writing to give you some news, which isn’t as useful as my typical posts aim to be, but hey, it’s a blog. Sometimes, we use them to announce things, right?
I am moving on from pulvermedia and my job producing the Video on the Net conference.
As of today, I’m officially a free agent.
There are some things being discussed, and I hope to report more interesting news within a matter of days (weeks?), but I thought I’d announce it here, so that you knew I was no longer working with the pulvermedia organization.
Still a Friend
Now, please don’t confuse this with my relationship with Jeff Pulver. Jeff and I are still friends, and still have plans to keep each other’s lives interesting. For instance, we’re in Boston together Tuesday night. So, don’t get that idea, okay?
I’m just no longer an employee of the organization.
Quick Housekeeping Note
I’m turning in my cellphone and laptop in a day or two. I’ve used my work phone number on every business card and contact you have. As such, it’s not worth much to you now. Just hold your horses. I’ll send you a new number soon. I’m still debating whether or not I want to use my GrandCentral number as my primary contact #, but I haven’t figured out how I can change a few features to make it do what I want. Stay tuned.
What Comes Next
My focus over the last year has been on community, and particularly how social media and networks build and enhance relationships, either business or personal.
Beyond that, my talent seems to lie in a few places:
- Connecting
- Explaining Things
- Sharing and Being Helpful
While I’m working out my next role, you can rest assured it will take my technical knowledge, my business understanding, and my human-centric view of both those worlds and use my abilities to their full advantage.
I have a meeting tomorrow with a prospective employer, but in the spirit of doing what’s best for my future, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, I’m always open for a conversation. My email remains blog at chrisbrogan dot com.
This blog and my passions remain the same. Fear not. More posting will ensue. I’ve just been tired from travel.
Photo Credit, Steve Garfield
Thanks for Coming to Video on the Net
This is just a quick note to people I was lucky to meet and spend some time with at this year’s Video on the Net event. It was an interesting time, with an engaged community, and I felt there were lots of interesting points to take home. For those who came, I’m glad you were there, and for those who couldn’t be with me, I hope to see you at some other event soon.
Why You Matter to Me
Because it’s on my mind, I wanted to offer you a fairly brief, lightweight post to start the morning off with, but something that’s been poking at me asking to come out for the last several days. Being around all these great people at TechCrunch40 was a great way to remind me to post this, because I was lucky enough to spend time with a gaggle of amazing folks. So, here’s a thought: I’ll post a quick list of reasons why YOU matter to me.
- Because you care about things.
- Because you’re very smart.
- Because you use your voice.
- Because you have your eyes open, and are thinking about this all.
- Because your comments and conversations and twitters and connections with me make for a relationship.
- Because you answer my calls for help all the time.
- Because you will show me how to grow and explore and develop, and re-imagine.
- Because you are finding me business.
- Because you care about the people *I* care about, and will reach out to help them.
- Because your attention and feedback and participation spurs me on to write even better posts, make better media, etc.
- Because you advise me often.
- Because you’re the best, and you keep getting better, and that inspires me even more!
So thank you. Thanks for those of you who comment here, who bring the conversation to their blogs and podcast, but track back so we can find you and keep the dialog coming, and for those of you who are still lurking and haven’t found their comfort level to comment here, maybe just drop a quick “hi” into the comments to say howdy do, or “you’re welcome.”
You’re truly what keeps this all moving forward.
And if you’re enjoying this blog, please consider subscribing for free.
Reminder- Rockstars Page
Here’s a friendly reminder: I *love* to talk about YOU, the people who come and participate in this conversation. I’ve even built a special page just for you.
If you want to be listed as a rockstar, and you ARE my rockstars, please drop me a line with your URL and your RSS feed. It can be your podcast or your blog, whatever media you’re making. I want the conversation to span, not just stay around here.
Where are you? Share it, baby!
Construction Coming Soon
Friends of mine have been delivering kindness upon kindness. I’m not sure if they want to be named for their kindnesses, because I forgot to ask if I could blog about it, so I’ll just say thank you, and you’ll know who I mean. The thing is, there are LOTS of people for me to thank, as things have been really wonderful lately. But for now, let’s talk about construction.
Observant readers of [chrisbrogan.com] know a few weird things about my site. You know that my site redirects to http://grasshopperfactory.com/cbc . There’s a reason for this, and it’s mostly user error on my part. But now, with several years of blogging on top of those links, I’ve got a two-fold problem. I’ve got a lot of self-referential links. So, I never wanted to “fix” my blog so that it actually lined up right from a search perspective.
Thankfully, I have friends who are smarter than me. (Most of you are smarter than me, truth be told, but I never let that stop me).
Over the coming weeks, my site will be re-built to line up properly. And then everything will be at the baseline domain of http://chrisbrogan.com. For most of you, this won’t make a difference. If any of you are referring to http://grasshopperfactory.com/cbc , I’d suggest you come to chrisbrogan.com. Most of you do, but just in case, you’re going to be SOL shortly.
Also, if something breaks. Bear with me. We’ll be back online soon enough.
That’s all, except to say thank you to those people who’ve helped me bring myself forward a bit.
photo credit, Paul Keleher
Advising The Conversation Group
Chris Heuer is telling the story about how his new gig, The Conversation Group starts. Chris is joined by Ted Shelton, Giovanni Rodriguez, and Stephanie Agresta in this venture. (You can go read the press release for the details on the rest of the rockstars on the board and the like).
But I’m on the advising team. Me, and Deborah Schultz, Shel Holtz, Todd Parsons, Mitch Ratcliffe, David Thorpe, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger.
So what will I tell a group dedicated to conversations? What would YOU tell them?
Your Blog This Weekend
My friends are amazing. I’m a very lucky guy and these days have been really good for me. Things here have been crazy, and I’m going to use this time for an idea I had the other day, and haven’t done yet.
I have several hundred incredible, brilliant, engaging friends. You are the reason I keep blogging. There’s no better reason than that. To that end, I wanted to try an experiment. Are you with me?
I want you to write a post in the comments section here. On whatever you want (keep it clean, kiddies). But I want YOU to write about things that excite you, and then I want to be your reader. Right here on my blog.
For the weekend.
Is that a deal? Ready… go!
