Readers of this blog might have noticed I am still posting but infrequently. Maybe one or two blog posts per week, sometimes even less. For a blog that is pretty unusual and violates the first rule of blogging which is to provide a constant stream of fresh content for your readers so they will come back and hopefully frequently.
A busy life the past several months is to blame for my slacking on the blogging end — I simply have too much going on in my personal life. My day job (thank God I still have one in today’s horrid economy!) of course is taking up much of my time. But I am also letting things like my guitar-playing hobby slide as I’ve been out of practice for several weeks now.
Some of my recent activities off-line:
- I recently moved to Montgomery County, Maryland a few months ago after eleven years in Adams Morgan in Washington DC. I’ve settled in nicely to my new digs and am thankful that everything went well in my move.
- I’ve contacted the local chapter of Democracy for America, joined their Facebook group, and am now plugged in to when local events and chapter meetings are going to be held. I’m a Progressive and I thought what better way to get acquainted with the local Progressive community than to attend their meetings, get to know then, see what they are about and perhaps volunteer if it is a good fit?
- I’m still heavily interested in Independent politics and have sent in an inquiry to CUIP independent stalwart and blogger Nancy Hanks, AKA, The Hankster if she knows of any Montgomery County independent groupings. If she comes to me with suggestions it will be good to contact them and see what activities local independents are up to in the area.
- Professionally, I am exploring options in the web field for someone like me who is not a programmer or a designer. I’ve started conducting informational interviews with Metro DC area folks involved in various aspects of web work such as information architecture and web content management. I’ve talked to two professionals so far and have gotten excellent advice on what directions I can take in my career given my skillset and experience. I’m also keeping my ears open in LinkedIn and Facebook for events held by DC area web professional networking groups such as Web Content Mavens, DC Information Architects, etc. I’m not looking to switch jobs anytime soon but I am thinking hard about what the future holds if I continue in my current path.
- My Filipino community and human rights volunteer work recently ratcheted up a bit by happenstance when I was able to attend a briefing at the U.S. State Department offices as a part of an outreach by the State Department to Filipino-American community leaders and media. The group I was with had a productive and insightful meeting with the State Department folks and learned a few important things regarding future plans by the Department in outreaching to diaspora populations. I even proposed (and got a good response) an idea of an outreach using new media to bloggers, Twitterers, and other social media users in the disapora communities. So with these latest developments I look forward to my volunteer involvement with Filipino-American human rights issues to deepen and to really get going in the coming months.
- Now that I am officially a Montgomery County resident, I need to keep tabs with local news and politics and events. A good way is to follow local blogs and I’ve bookmarked Just Up the Pike, the Maryland Politics Watch and Rockville Central to keep tabs on local issues and educate myself on the movers and shakers in Montgomery County.
- I also recently discovered the Open Forum Foundation, an organization that does great work relating to bridging the divide between citizens and their government representatives through the innovative use of social media and technology. They are the folks responsible for the awesome GovLuv which allows anyone in the US to hook up their Twitter accounts to directly contact their local, state and Federal government officials. I looked up the bios of the Executive Director and their Board and was highly impressed by their mixture of youth, technological savvy, political creds and idealism. Needless to say, I am exploring ways to get involved in some way with their organization as a volunteer or as a tester of technological solutions. Stay tuned for updates on this one as I am extremely excited by the work this organization is doing and the potential for me to meet people and learn the various projects on the cutting edge where technology is being used to bring citizens closer to the ideal of participatory democracy.
Whew! Writing all this out only served to remind me how busy I’ve been the past few months, and how exciting the next few months of the coming year can potentially be! I’ll certainly do my part to keep this blog updated so if you enjoy reading about this type of stuff please continue to come — and feel free leave your comments!
