The Long Weekend Road

I'm sitting on a National Express train back to London after a great weekend hiking in North Yorkshire. I needed a little time off, to myself, by myself. Booked three nights in a roadside inn (constructed 1680), grabbed some ordinance survey maps, planned some hikes and enjoyed getting away from London.

The trip originally had three purposes: to relax (done), to write (also done), and to try to figure out a general direction for myself. I'm pushing 30 and feel like I've been drifting, planless, long enough.

But what I realized before I left was that life isn't necessarily about plans. I discovered that I've never really gotten over my aborted plan to go to New York and Make It Big in Publishing, which was the sum total of my plans after college. In retrospect, as the magazine and publishing industry continues to contract and I'm enjoying a fairly lucrative career in digital PR, I'm not disappointed that I didn't Make It Big. But I've felt as though I've spent most of the last eight years adrift with very little in the way of a 'plan.'

My realization was this: life isn't necessarily about plans. It's about opportunities, about recognizing them and taking advantage of ones that are good for you. It's about seeing something that could potentially be good, whether it's for a career or a relationship or a hobby, and just doing it if it's right. Like moving into digital PR, or moving to London. Or taking a long weekend to Yorkshire and cranking out 10,000 words and a bunch of story and novel notes.

For the first time in my life I feel alright with not having a Plan. I regret some decisions I've made, but they have taught me much, and I stand by each one either as being good for me overall or at least teaching me some kind of lesson. And I can get caught in a snowstorm and still be prepared for it and recognize my limits - when it's time to turn back and try the mountain again the next day.

The funny thing about this is that the insight came before the trip on which I wanted to have it. I'm not complaining. I did get a lot of writing, and hiking, and thinking done. And had some really good Yorkshire ale. The black pudding, not as good. But still an experience.

I feel wholly confident that I can make time to do what I love and to separate my personal life from my work life - something I haven't been great at recently. And my Plan? To enjoy it as it comes. To go with the flow. It's funny: in college, if I'd said that, I would reply "that's Taoism, you took an entire course in that philosophy, remember!" And it only took eight years for the lesson to sink in.

Where I Been? Where YOU Been?

OK, I know where I've been. Drowning at work. No kidding. Gug. The Beautiful Competition is doing no better - last night I woke up at 2:15, realized she wasn't home yet, called her, found her still at work. She rolled in around 3:00. That's 3:00 AM. On a Thursday. With more work on Friday. She's worse off than me, but for different reasons.

This isn't a bitch about my job post or anything, but being drained so much at the office hasn't left me with a lot of motivation to update the old bloggie or do any creative writing, although I did start hammering together something that may or may not go somewhere. If it does, I anticipate it will go beyond short story into novel territory, but I'm keeping an attitude of cautious optimism about that.

In other news, I'm going to Germany for a couple of days on Sunday. Team meeting. I suppose that's not all that different than saying 'I'm going to LA for a couple of days for a team meeting,' but it's a lot cooler because it's a different country. And I get to practice my German!

"Wenn den Katze nicht zu Hause ist, die Mause spielen auf dem Tisch."

Unfortunately that's really the only single phrase I know. Five years of German and all I can say is a rhyme, the word for 'masturbation,' a few exotic animals, and enough of the language to order off a menu, get a room for the night and find a toilet. Go American education system!

Those Who Get It (And Those Who Don't)

Last night was my first real introduction to my London office, where we all gathered for the 40th birthday of Edelman in the UK. Richard Edelman, whom I'd never met, gave a great presentation about the future of PR, which he referred to not necessarily as 'public relations' but as 'public relationships' - as good as way as any to codify where our industry is headed as online and new media begins to achieve greater and greater footholds, like it or not. It's refreshing to see the upper management at my company 'get it.' I also got to meet some people I've only known by name thusfar like David Brain, our European CEO (who also blogs.)

It was timely that on the heels of that presentation the Beautiful Competition sent me this article that made the rounds a few days ago while I was in transit, about a Quorum of Twelve (nerd alert) 'Corporate Bloggers' who got together to, in their words:

"Deliver a responsible and effective corporate message, but we need to do it in the complicated environment of the blogosphere. We have to speak for a corporation, but never sound 'corporate.' And we have to learn to do it live, and in real-time."

I don't take quite as dim (or to poach a term from the Beautiful Competition, obvious) view as Mashable did of the whole thing, but suffice to say my proverbial monocle fell out of my eye when I saw one of my former clients listed on the Quorum roll-call (ain't sayin' who.)

The optimist in me wants to think that the 'Blog Council' is what it appears on the surface - an effort to become responsible in the new marketing age. But the pessimist realist in me thinks it's more along the lines of what Mashable thinks it is: an attempt to try to control the so-called signal.

Not that there isn't a place for a unified corporate blogging code of ethics; far from it. In fact, an open declaration of transparency would give corporate bloggers a degree of accountability that they currently lack, except through the efforts of attentive online watchdogs.

But I suspect greatly that some of the other aspects of the council relate to some of the things I heard about last night - namely a token effort to participate in online 'conversation' that turns into something more one way. I'm willing to shelve my early opinions, as always, but I'm very curious to see where this is all headed.

Interviewing A New Boss

It's always strange interviewing someone who might be your new boss, or a person of authority to whom you would be accountable. It always makes me think of this:

If you want this choice position,
Have a cheery disposition.
Rosie cheeks, No warts,
Play games, all sorts
You must be kind, you must be witty.
Very sweet and fairly pretty
Take us on outings, give us treats
Sing songs, bring sweets.
Never be cross or cruel,
Never feed us castor oil, or gruel.
Love us as a son and daughter,
And never smell of barley water.
If you won't scold and dominate us,
We will never give you cause to hate us.
We wont hide your spectacles so you can't see.
Put toads in your bed and pepper in your tea.
Hurry nanny, many thanks
Sincerely,
Jane and Michael Banks

The New View From My Office

My old office was four white walls in an interior hallway with no windows.

It was lonely to say the least.

This is what I see when I turn around in my cubicle at my new office.

Not too shabby, eh?

Also, I love the way the clouds look in this shot. Anyone who says clouds can't be expressive has never been to Seattle.

(Picture credit to a coworker who asked to remain anonymous.)

What I Can and Can't Blog About

My employer recently updated its employee blogging policies, which have always been kind of nebulous for us online folks but became slightly more concrete. Basically, we're not really allowed to blog about specifics related to our business or about our clients, or if we do, we have to get those things approved. Which is all pretty much no-brainer stuff, but has been somewhat restrictive of what I can talk about on this site.

Starting next week, I can talk about video games again. Not that I've followed this rule 100%, but I can talk about the next-gen console "wars" and my thoughts on the Wii.

I can't talk about Apple stuff. That includes the iPhone or my considering (or not) buying a computer made by Apple.

I can't discuss health care, or the upcoming Michael Moore film. Yes, I used to work for him. It's a strange world.

I can't discuss eBay or its competitors. I can, however, use eBay.

I can't discuss Microsoft's Surface computer.

I can't really discuss Microsoft Office or its competitors, which is too bad because I have some interesting likes and dislikes of Office 2007 and my recent re-try of OpenOffice.org I'd love to delineate.

I can't discuss certain pieces of computer hardware.

And I can only discuss new marketing in general terms unrelated to specifics at my company.

So if you're wondering why I haven't joined the rest of the blogosphere in talking about the iPhone, that's why.

When I Grow Up

From the crayon blog: a spoof of the Monster.com Superbowl ad that pretty much sums up working for an agency:

Yeah, that's about right.

Office Jargon

One of the most interesting parts of a job is learning the "language" of the office. At DHS, we spoke in numerical code - "fill out a B-38 form" - and while WizKids was far more casual, we still had our office jargon - LEPOs, sprues, and so forth. Edelman is far more corporate, and I'm glad Lifehacker provided me with a awesome translating tool for office jargon.

Since we deal with Microsoft so much, I suspect we've picked up some specific Microsoft terms that aren't on this list. I wonder - does anyone else call a Powerpoint presentation a "deck?"

Waiter? There's Something Red in My Soup

Today, I'm taking ten minutes at work to eat my lunch, catch up on some website monitoring (translate: reading the Something Awful forums), and talking with Brook about tonight's Pirates game. I'm not really paying attention, and I feel a slicing sensation along my upper lip. Turns out the cheap plastic spoon provided by the sandwich shop for my soup has a rough edge. A very rough edge.

A minor setback. I continue eating my soup, when I look down and notice it has taken on a distinctly red tone. Like blood. Like I'm bleeding in my soup. Sometimes, it takes a moose.

So now I'm sitting here with a largish cut on my lip much worse than I thought. I can only imagine it will be a nasty canker sore in a day or two. And the soup? Not all that satisfying.

I finished it, though.

How Busy Am I?

How busy? Let's just say that the last two days, I have worked from home - because I didn't have time to communte in.

It's Late, It's Late...

And I'm online! Why you ask? Job stuff. The last couple of weeks I've shifted into hyperdrive at work; we've got upcoming back-to-back trade shows (starting tomorrow) and I've been running point on the prep work for both. I've been getting pretty frazzled (and trying - and failing - not to take it out on the ones I care about), but I'm hoping this will be the end of it for a while, and I can return you to the Puppet Show's regularly-scheduled absurdity and zombie posts.

Warning: Emo Post

Why do people have to be mean?

I mean, intentionally and calculatingly mean. What's the deal? Does it really serve a purpose? Does it make us stronger if it doesn't kill us? Or is it just a way to keep things interetsing?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: mean people suck.

Work and More Work

When you've had a crummy day at work, what's the best solution?

Come home and do more work!

The good news is: more fiction writing came my way on Friday. It's small, but significant. It's not really paying, but it's a credit. It's fucking fun and I get to insert surreptitious references to my friends and family. And thus is the life of a writer.

Full disclosure: I had to look up the spelling of surreptitious. I won't forget it.