[Note from the proprietor: This post is an entry for the What I Learned From... groupwrite project. Our topic this month is community, and we'd love for you to join us! Just click on that link for details.]

I just returned from a fabulous weekend conference in Chicago: SOBCon09. (If you’d like to get serious about your blogging and/or writing, you should seriously consider joining us next year. Just sayin’.

This year it lasted from Friday thru Sunday, although I had some obligations such that I had to leave on Saturday afternoon. Oh sure, I’ve been to Chicago many times before (although I must admit it’s usually just passing through O’Hare). In fact, I’ve even been to downtown Chicago at least twice. The problem is, on previous occasions I never took the time to just, y’know, look around.

But it seemed a cryin’ shame to waste this opportunity, since I knew I would be leaving early. So I decided to spend an hour or so Saturday morning wandering around downtown Chicago and enjoying the early morning sunshine. Hey – why don’t you join me as I mosey around for a while?

[NOTE: To view the photos, just click on 'em. Totally worth it, in my humble opinion.]

It should come as no surprise to know the first thing I wanted to check out is that big, shiny gizmo officially called the Cloud Gate (but which everyone affectionately calls “The Bean”). I knew Millennium Park (where the Bean resides – or maybe landed, depending on which theory you currently hold to) was just around the corner from the hotel (I stayed at Hotel 71 on Wacker Drive downtown), so I headed that way.

While moseying down Michigan Avenue, though, at one point I happened to glance up at the windows in a building that turned out to be the Chicago Public Library. Every window had these nice cast-iron, flower-filled window boxes. Although the display of Spring flowers was pretty enough, what really caught my eye was the reflection in the glass of this particular one. Very Gothic, don’cha think? Hey, I wonder what it looks like in black-and-white…

Anyhoo – entering the Park from the West side, I was amazed by the sight of all the apple trees, covered by about a bazillion white blooms! I’m tellin’ ya; it looked like the park was growing its own snow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bloomin’ apple trees in one place!

The early-morning light and delicate scent of the surrounding blossoms made this picnic table particularly inviting. I could easily imagine a young tourist family eating their lunch here, or possibly a couple of old codgers playing their 5,298^th game of checkers.

Of course, the centerpiece of the park is the Bean itself. I mean, this thing is literally out of this world! I love the lines of it, from certain angles almost forming a sortof infinity sign – which rather neatly complements the remarkable reflections one sees within its polished bulk.

Reflecting back (Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Er, sorry), it occurrs to me that of all the sculptures I’ve seen in my travels (and I’ve run across a few), the ones that always manage to impress me most are usually of relatively simple form coupled with elegant execution. That describes the Bean to a “T”. You can tell it fascinates a lot of other folks, too.

Now, I’ve seen photos of this thing before. Heck, with very little effort you can probably find countless herds of ‘em over on Flickr. But I never knew there was a surprise hidden underneath! It turns out there’s a sculpted hollow cavity underneath, and that moment I gazed upwards into infinity… well, it’s what I imagined looking into a time warp might be like. (For the best effect, view it in its largest size.)

It felt almost as if I’d somehow fallen into one of M. C. Escher’s prints or something. It was mind-bending, to say the least! Take a close look at this photo on the right. Once I started counting, I found at least 17 images of yours truly reflected within the curves of this photo. I mean, even without SOBCon, this one sight practically made the whole trip worthwhile!

After returning to Earth, I had a seat in one of the many park benches, just to spend a few minutes soaking in all the amazing beauty provided by countless flowering redbud trees and, of course, the apple trees. Nothin’ like settin’ a spell to give the ol’ dogs a rest, y’know? I’ll tell ya; I don’t think I could have imagined a more beautiful spot in Chicago to take a load off.

Early-morning light just happened to create a play of shadows on the ground in front of me, producing a nice little self-portrait I couldn’t help but capture. I really love the way those shadows all sorta lead upwards. Kinda symbolic, that.

And just to prove somebody around here has a sense of humor I can appreciate, here’s one little thing that – had I not looked in exactly the right direction – I would have completely missed! You really must click on the photo for a larger view to see what I mean, but I’ll give you a hint: look right next to the trunk…

Since I still had a little time, I wandered over to Wacker Drive (does anyone else bust out laughing when they say that out loud?) to check out the river. What the hey, right? And again, just by accident, I happened to glance in the right direction and spotted this street sign. Ironic, huh? Maybe this explains why I feel so much at home in downtown Chicago!

Heading south on Michigan Avenue, on my way back to the Summit, I almost missed this one. It’s an alley stuffed in between a couple of the big buildings that line the street on both sides. The graffiti is what originally caught my eye; although I’ve never been able to read that stuff, this one seems to clearly say “CEEP” – or maybe “DEEP”. Anyone?

But after absorbing the scene a little bit longer, I began to notice a few nuances. For instance, check out the way the soft morning light plays on the bare branches of that tree – it almost resembles spider-web silk, doesn’t it? Nice.

Anyhoo – it was about time to for the conference to start, and finally I was back at The Summit for our first session. Time to get to work, y’know?

But I’ll tell ya what, y’all; this ol’ Texas boy will never forget that early May mosey in the downtown area of the remarkable city of Chicago!

So What Does This Have to Do With Community?

Now at first, this post was just gonna be a nice little trip around the block, you know? But as I began to write it, it hit me (sound of dull thud) – there’s more than one interesting lesson to be drawn here. So let’s throw some of ‘em up against the wall, why don’t we, and see what sticks.

First of all, the most obvious thing was, the only reason I was even in Chicago was because of SOBCon09! I mean, if that ain’t a community influence, I don’t know what is! After all, with thanks to Liz Strauss, Terry Starbucker – and all the rest of the SOBCon bunch – I wouldn’t have had any reason to go.

And bein’ a part of that particular community has taught me, oh, about a million wonderful lessons – not the least of which was the realization that I was, indeed, a writer. (Hey, it sounds kinda obvious now, but believe me, at the time, I was struggling mightily with that idea. Tip o’ the hat, Liz!)

Another thing I’ve learned from community is how so many different kinds of folks can still have fun together! All weekend, we had a blast sharing news, hopes, dreams, and plans with each other. It was exhilarating, to say the least!

In addition to that, this progression of photos yields lots of simple little parallels with community. Just one example: the whacky reflections of myself in the Bean are a lot like how folks that get to know me reflect who I am back to me – helping, in a way, to shape where I’m going and what I’m doing. I mean, I keep writing stories because folks tell me they enjoy ‘em, right? But how would I know if I never heard from anyone? It’s not that it’s all about me, mind you; but it is an excellent feedback mechanism to help me keep on track.

Finally – and quite possibly this is the most valuable benefit of all – community taught me to actually see what’s around me. Before my writing took hold, I rarely even gave two scrubs to my surroundings, y’know? Well, maybe if something came up and bit me on the, er, nether regions – but otherwise, I simply wasn’t all that observant.

Nowadays, I’m just glad I carry a camera on me at all times! Hey, you never know what you’ll find – right under your nose.

[Further note from the Proprietor: As I mentioned at the top, this is an entry for this month's What I Learned From... groupwrite project. The topic is community, and if you've learned something from your community, then we'd love to have ya join us! You have until Sunday night at midnight to get your entry in, so hurry! Just follow this link for all the details.]

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All photos by Robert Hruzek

1. Dawn’s Early Light
2. Window Box
3. Snow Trees
4. The Bean 4
5. Inside Escher’s House
6. Just settin’ for a spell
7. Keep Off the Lawn!
8. I’m home!
9. Alley
10. The Summit

If you’d like to see the rest of the photos from the trip, click here for the Flickr set.

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Howdy, y’all!

Hey, no post here today; yesterday was my birthday and I’m takin’ a few days off. But I do have an article over at Joyful Jubilant Learning where I ask the pointless deeply profound question, “What’s a hill o’ beans worth, anyway?”

So pop on over there if you’re so inclined!

I’ll be back on Monday. If the creek don’t rise.

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Image: Homie on a Hill of Beans, by boeke

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Yee-Haw, y’all! No, wait… lemme say that again, with feeling: YEEE-HAAAW!

I’d like y’all to give a big round of applause (sound of big round of applause) for all the folks who participated in Blogapalooza! I’m tellin’ ya; it puts a tear in the eye when I see how many folks from all over the world decided to join us for this year’s event.

We also had an amazing cross-section of demographics represented this year. Folks from all over the world, published authors, university professors, home makers, teachers, reporters, high tech – and not-so-high-tech – folks; you name it, we probably had someone representing that group. (NOTE – In case you missed ‘em, a complete list of participants is here, while a list of the army of kick-starters is here.)

But naturally, that’s not the whole story. In fact, I’ve identified at least three very important lessons to be learned from the experience (not that there aren’t more, of course!) Naturally, I’d like to share a few of ‘em with you (which should come as no surprise since that’s, y’know, what I do).

First, a Few Numbers

Although some may not have realized it, this was actually the second Blogapalooza at the Zone (here’s the results of the first one), and statistically, this year’s event was nothing less than a blowout!

The first Blogapalooza had 33 entries. (Note I didn’t say “only” – hey, it was my first time; I was thrilled to get any!) This time there were 128 entries. Not bad, considering I was, well, only goin’ for 100, don’cha think? That’s a 388% increase over last year!

Not only that, but this year I asked a whole herd o’ folks if they’d be willing to help kick it off by sending me their posts early (to “prime the pump”, so to speak). Out of 62 people asked, 31 followed through and contributed their post prior to the kickoff date (Jan. 5), which translates to a 50% response rate – not bad by anyone’s standards! (By the way, no problem if you were asked but couldn’t do it. I promise you’ll not be gettin’ a midnight visit from Guido and the boys for a pep talk or anything. Really.)

OK, now for the payoff. During the course of the last three weeks, there were 1,258 outgoing links to your posts (well, not all to yours… you get my meanin’, right?) Now, divide that number by 128 participants and you get… well, lemme see now… multiply by 3… carry the 7 (hold on, I gotta get my shoes off to calculate this one)… that averages out to 9.828125 links per participant! (I’m tellin’ ya, it’s amazing how accurate you can be when you use all yer fingers and toes, ain’t it?)

Anyhoo, now on to three simple, yet powerful lessons I learned from this year’s experience.

The Power of an Invitation

One of the most interesting things I learned was related to everyone’s favorite topic: social media. The fact is, bein’ sociable is what social media is all about, right? But is it really all that valuable? Is it desirable? Is it kosher?

Well, maybe that last one is for better folks than me to decide… but on the first two, I’d say the answer is a resounding “yes”. As exhibit one, let’s take a look at what happened here.

When you get right down to it, folks contributed an entry to Blogapalooza because, well, I invited ‘em to! (Or someone else asked ‘em to.) That’s pretty much it! No money, no prizes, no book signing offers… well, you get the picture, I think. (Although a book offer does sound kinda nice, doesn’t it? Maybe one day when I’m rich and famous. Or when pigs fly, which is a far more likely occurrence.)

But if you think about it, this event is a great illustration of the (if you’ll pardon the much over-used expression) power of social media: people doin’ somethin’, simply because they were invited to take part. (Oh, sure; I’m greatly simplifying it for the sake of illustration, but I think you get my meanin’.)

Who Do You Trust?

Now, a corollary to the previous lesson is that little word we all love to hate: trust. See, folks also did what I asked because, for whatever reason, they trusted me. I don’t say that in a proud way, mind you; the truth is I’m tremendously honored that so many would do so enought to participate in this event. (Yep; It’s all I can do not to insert a line here about a bridge I’d like to sell you. But I, uh, won’t.)

Anyhoo – I think part of why folks trusted me (at least, for this) is because they believed I would do what I said I’d do: point folks to their websites. And that’s the lesson: do what you say you’re going to do. Hey, it’s a “three-fer”: plain, pithy and powerful.

Guilt Virtue by Association

One of the reasons this event was so much bigger than last year’s was through my association with the fine folks over at HighCallingBlogs network. There are over 300 (and counting) blogs in the network now, and thanks to Marcus Goodyear and Dan Roloff, I was given the opportunity to appeal directly to the membership for help in kicking things off.

What amazed me, though, was how many folks jumped aboard right from the get-go! Now that was gratifying, I’ll tell ya! And it illustrates yet another point: that some folks will trust you based on who you associate with. Because of many of these folks, we had a great start to this year’s project. And because of you fine folks, we topped my goal of 100 posts – by a considerable margin!

Yep; half the battle of getting to know new folks is knowin’ enough about ‘em to know you’d like to associate with ‘em, right? But how do you do that when you don’t know them at all. Well, you can start by looking at who (or is it ‘whom’?) they are associated with. Hey, it’s not a perfect system – and you need to be careful about judging a book by its cover (so to speak) – but at least it’s a place to start.

Kinda begs the question, though: Who do folks associate with you?

So What About YOU?

All right; enough bloviating from yours truly.

What about y’all? What did YOU learn from Blogapalooza this year? Was it worth your time? Did you make any new friends? Was it everything you hoped for? And… what about Mary Lou?

Leave a comment and let us know, why don’cha? As always, we’ll leave the light on for ya.

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Howdy y’all!

Hey, just so ya know, a big part of the success of this year’s Blogapalooza was due to the help of some truly wonderful and generous folks! Yessir, there was whole herd o’ folks (31 in all) who volunteered to write their posts – and submit them early – just so there’d be a full week of posts already scheduled when Blogapalooza kicked off back on Jan. 5.

In fact, I want to give a special mention to Karen Hanrahan who zapped her entry to me within hours of the call goin’ out! I mean, the ink had barely dried on the email! Pretty impressive, I’ll tell ya, and it earned her the honor of havin’ the first post. (Hat tip, Karen!)

Now, to ALL my fellow writers who helped get things goin’ this year, I hereby award y’all the honorary title of “Bubba“, and salute you with a great big ol’ tip o’ the Middle Zone hat!

Here’s the list of Bubbas, in order of their appearance. To read their guest post here at the Zone, click on their name; to visit their blog, click on the blog’s name. (However, do not pass Go, or collect $200.)

• Karen Hanrahan – Best of Mother Earth
• Robert Hruzek – Middle Zone Musings
• Brad Shorr – Word Sell, Inc.
• Joanna Young – Confident Writing
• Karen Swim – Words For Hire
• Andy Cottichio – The Narrow Road
• Gina Conroy – Portrait of a Writer… Interrupted
• Dena Dyer – Mother Inferior
• Thomas Turner – Everyday Liturgy
• Red Letter Believers – Red Letter Believers
• George Angus – Tumblemoose Writing Productions
• Heidi Plumley – Moms, Ministry and More
• Lyla Lindquist – A Different Story
• Christa Allan – ChristaAllan.com
• William Tully – LOGICal eMOTIONs
• Barry Wallace – who am I?
• Mary DeMuth – Relevant Blog
• Ulla Hennig – Ulla Hennig’s Weblog
• Maria Henderson – Spiritual Birdwatching
• Dan Roloff – Ramblin’ Dan
• Lorrie – Grow Up Deep
• Rich Bordner – The Pugnacious Irishman
• Jennifer Lee – Getting Down With Jesus
• Luke Gedeon – Luke Gedeon
• Marcus Goodyear – GoodWord Editing
• Erica Hale – These Three Remain
• Lillie Ammann – A Writer’s Words, an Editor’s Eye
• Tina Howard – Spaghettipie
• Ken Leonard – A True Believer’s Blog
• Dan King – BibleDude.net
• Jean Browman – Transforming Stress and Cheerful Monk

Thanks for makin’ this year’s Blogapalooza so extra-special, y’all!

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OK; you may be wondering why the above image is upside-down. Well, that’s because (wait for it now)…

… it’s OVER! (Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Sorry.)

Yessir, as of midnight last night, the 2nd annual Blogapalooza extravaganza officially ended, and lemme tell ya folks, it was one heckuva party!

That’s right y’all; the gravitationally challenged human person of the female persuasion (and you’re free to interpret that any way you like) has expressed herself musically, and we all know what that means, don’t we? (Sound of bell) Yep, it means BLOGAPALOOZA is now history (sound of audience crying out in disappointment)!

My goal this year was 100 entries, but I’ll tell ya folks; we kinda blew the top off the ol’ Palooza-Meter over there on the right! Now that the smoke has finally cleared, the grand total came to… 128! (Sound of crowd cheering) That’s right, y’all were part of something really special here at the Middle Zone! I’m proud you folks would honor me enough to take part, just because you were asked. No prizes, no money – just honoring a request from a friend.

Now that’s social media at its best, wouldn’t ya say?

Anyhoo, without further ado (because as you know, further do would be just plain silly) down below you’ll find all 128 participants, listed in the order of their appearance here at the Zone. The post titles were all the same, of course (“What I Learned From 2008″), except the names were changed to protect the innocent to identify the author, thus: “What I Learned From 2008 – (writer’s name)”

In this list (which keeps on goin’ like the Eveready Bunny), the writer’s name links to their guest post here at the Middle Zone, while the blog’s name links to, well, their blog. Works nicely that way, don’cha think?

• Karen Hanrahan – Best of Mother Earth
• Robert Hruzek – Middle Zone Musings
• Brad Shorr – Word Sell, Inc.
• Joanna Young – Confident Writing
• Karen Swim – Words For Hire
• Andy Cottichio – The Narrow Road
• Gina Conroy – Portrait of a Writer… Interrupted
• Dena Dyer – Mother Inferior
• Thomas Turner – Everyday Liturgy
• Red Letter Believers – Red Letter Believers
• George Angus – Tumblemoose Writing Productions
• Heidi Plumley – Moms, Ministry and More
• Lyla Lindquist – A Different Story
• Christa Allan – ChristaAllan.com
• William Tully – LOGICal eMOTIONs
• Barry Wallace – who am I?
• Mary DeMuth – Relevant Blog
• Ulla Hennig – Ulla Hennig’s Weblog
• Maria Henderson – Spiritual Birdwatching
• Dan Roloff – Ramblin’ Dan
• Lorrie – Grow Up Deep
• Rich Bordner – The Pugnacious Irishman
• Jennifer Lee – Getting Down With Jesus
• Luke Gedeon – Luke Gedeon
• Marcus Goodyear – GoodWord Editing
• Erica Hale – These Three Remain
• Lillie Ammann – A Writer’s Words, an Editor’s Eye
• Tina Howard – Spaghettipie
• Ken Leonard – A True Believer’s Blog
• Dan King – BibleDude.net
• Lucille Zimmerman – Rumors of Glory
• Deb Boyken – Punctuality Rules
• Merry Mary – A Merry Life
• Kevin Martineau – Shooting the Breeze
• Jean Browman – Transforming Stress and Cheerful Monk
• Marty Gordon – The Renzntzman
• Julie Donahue – Mom Two Ways
• Ashley Weis – A Weis Writer
• Lore Ferguson – Unskewed
• John Koetsier – SparkPlug
• Lucy Nixon – Corporate Eye
• Lori Poppinga – Thoughts From the Tub and Life, Love and Laughter in a Large Family
• Conrad Hake – Leveraged Intelligence
• Peter Pollock – Rediscovering the Church
• Robert Henru – Reason 4 Smile
• Lelsie Doyle – Scripted Notions
• Karin H. – kiss 2
• Melissa Donovan – Writing Forward
• Kay Martin – Thrive Christians
• Linda Clinton – Literacy, Learning and Sharing
• J.D. Meier – Sources of Insight
• Elizabeth Howard – Letters From a Small State
• Tillerman – Proper Course
• Nichelle Strzepek – Dance Advantage
• Amber Naslund – Altitude
• Carla Williams – The Spiritual Mom
• Chris Brown – Branding & Marketing
• Michael Snell – Life by Design
• Jennifer Linkous – 12 Steps Closer
• Deanna Gernert – Soul Like a Spider
• Arun Rajagopal – Arun Rajagopal
• John – John is Fit
• Sheila Glazov – Sheila Glazov
• Jesse & Sarah Lopez – God Is Not Finished With Us Yet
• Sara Hutchinson – Unblocked
• Reeta Pindoria – Paradox of Reality: Better Thinking, Better Success
• Mark Dykeman – Broadcasting Brain
• Julie Richardson – Bloom Blog
• Jacob Share – JobMob
• Alexander Estrom – Day 8 Debate
• Steve Woodruff – Sticky Figure, Steve’s Leaves, Impactiviti and MarketingProfs Daily Fix
• Michelle Vandepas – DivinePurposeUnleashed
• Nick Grimshawe – Beautiful Summer Morning
• Anita Bruzzese – 45 Things
• Steven Norris – Thy Grace is Sufficient
• Lance – The Jungle of Life
• Aaron Unnasch – Living the Dash
• Angie Haggstrom – Freedom Freelance
• Jennifer Tidwell – Dust Bunny Hostage
• Gavin Heaton – Servant of Chaos
• Paul Merrill – My Part of Colorado
• Derrick Sorles – Business Blogging Tips
• David Zinger – Employee Engagement Zingers
• Ronnica – Ignorant Historian
• Billy Coffee – What I Learned Today…
• Adam Sicinski – IQ Matrix Blog
• Phil Gerbyshak – Make It Great Guy
• Richie Lawry – An Arkies Musings
• Kevin Lam – Impacta Blog
• Elissa Baxter – Squibblog
• Travis Stephens – Your Everyday Christian
• VickyH – Remarkable Parents
• Geoffrey Philp – Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot
• Terry Starbucker – Ramblings from a Glass Half Full
• Meryl Evans – meryl.net
• Nancy Kourmoulis – Treasures of Darkness
• Shelley Krause – But Wait, There’s More!
• Christine Sine – GodSpace
• Vanessa Rogers – Vanessa Rogers
• Cynthia Morris – Journey Juju
• Chris Garrett – chrisg.com
• Mike Shields – The Rant, Who Is The Watchmaker and Poker Riot!
• Rick Mahn – Rick Mahn
• GL Hoffman – What Would Dad Say
• Nancy Babyak – Work Life Balance Blog and PMO Training Wheels Blog
• Chris Godfredson – Experiencing Grace and Peace
• Giovanna Garcia – Imperfect Action
• Kimberlee Ferrell – Freedom Writing
• Charlie Burlbaw – Stress Management Tips
• Drew McLellan – Drew’s Marketing Minute
• Danny Brown – Danny Brown
• Scott Roche – Spiritual Tramp
• Tabetha Gedeon – Denim & Silk
• Alina Popescu – Words of a Broken Mirror
• Cindy Streams – Citystreams
• Tony Cradic – Tony C Today
• Tracy Rosen – Leading From the Heart
• Phil Gerbyshak – Slacker Manager
• Chris Dawson – cdawson
• Jacob Share – Group Writing Projects
• Janet Kaderli – Preach It Sister!
• Mary Ellen Merrigan – ProfitMeister
• Glenda Watson Hyatt – I’ll Do It Myself Blog
• Daniel Needlestone – E-Learning Experiences
• Kevin Tracy – Kevin Tracy
• Jeanne Dininni – Writer’s Notes
• David Bowles – Westward Sagas
• Brett Duncan – Marketing In Progress

Many thanks, y’all – and of course, a big ol’ tip o’ the hat to ya!

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[Note from the Proprietor: In case you're wondering what it's all about, well, we're smack in the middle of BLOGAPALOOZA! Hey, you're welcome to join in the fun if you like! All ya gotta do is click that cute little link and read all about it!]

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Guest post by VickyH who writes over at Remarkable Parents

May: Who Taught My Kid That Four Letter Word Why my daughter needed to acquire enough confidence to fail.

June: Life Strategy: R U Living Or Merely Existing (Part 2) As role models, we need to consider the way we live our everyday lives and how this is perceived by children; both those we have chosen and those we haven’t chosen to be the role models of.

July: Your Life Today In 25 Words A sample:

A Random Twenty-Five Words

Might Not Convey Meaning Or Power.

Yet Translating A Thought

Into Precisely Twenty-Five Words

Can Transform A Thinker Into A Writer.

Aug: Missing Children Alerts on Twitter – Twitter for a Social Cause (Part 1) I love this idea! I love using a social media tool like Twitter to make our world a better place!

Sept: Only The Good Stuff As I’m reviewing this week, I am reminded of all the things and events I am thankful for. Those special, sparkly individuals in my life who encourage me daily, whose support gives me strength, and who when I see the glass is half empty, they remind me of the glass half full-isms. So here we go, my week and only the good stuff!

Oct: The Scoop on Blog Action Day 2008 Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day.
Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion, “One Issue, Thousands of Voices”

Nov: Amazon Must Be Having a WTF Moment A look at the new “frustration free packaging” available from Amazon.com. My readers disagreed with me on this one, maybe they were right?

Dec: Free Online Business Classes From HP Hewlett Packard offers free online business classes.
Very handy to learn at home, at your own pace, without an financial investment. Classes include: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Writing a High Impact Business Plan, Build Your Business Identity With a New Logo, and How to Build Your First Website

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Twitter. Google Docs. MySpace. Facebook. When you hear these words, does it sound like a foreign language? Is MySpace your idea of outer space? Try to communicate with your kids using these new social media and software tools and you’ve probably thought Forget it

Don’t Forget it. Get it, with the help of Remarkable Parents. Use technology as an ally not an enemy. Remarkable Parents don’t fight the flow, they roll with it.

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[Further note from the Proprietor: Hey, if you're interested in having your own "best of 2008" posts highlighted right here at the Middle Zone, then by all means, click on this link: (BLOGAPALOOZA: What I Learned From 2008) and read all about it! BLOGAPALOOZA will be open for entries from now until Sunday, January 25.]

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Well, here we are, y’all; facing a brand-spankin’ new year! Yessir; we got us a clean slate, just sittin’ there waitin’ for the squeak of a new piece of chalk.

It’s a fresh white page, ready for those powerful and purposeful words locked up inside of us. A big giant turkey, ready to be stuffed with all sorts of good things. (OK, maybe that last metaphor was a little strange… but hey, we are at the tail end of the holidays, you know.)

Anyway, the point is, the start of a new year is traditionally when we take a moment to consider the things we expect, hope, or even dream will happen this year. And yours truly is no exception.

A Look Ahead

First off (and I know you were expecting me to say it), there’s our big annual Middle Zone Musings extravaganza: Blogapalooza. I truly hope y’all decide to participate, ’cause it’s really gonna a be a great time! I’m accepting entries right now, as fast as you can get ‘em to me. (And I’ll take ‘em as late as January 24. But I beg you – please don’t wait until the last minute!)

Now, one of the benefits of goin’ through all the old posts from last year (you know, for my own Blogapalooza entry) is I had a chance to reflect a bit on the things I’ve written. I’m tellin’ ya, after reading so many good posts (if I do say so myself), I am amazed and tremendously blessed for the great friendships and interesting conversations generated throughout the year.

Lemme just say how grateful I am to you folks! Many thanks, and of course a big ol tip o’ the hat to ya!

An Inadvertent Theme

While perusing my posts, though, I did notice was one interesting thing. Starting back in January and continuing over a period of several weeks, I happened to write several articles about facing big changes, taking a leap of faith, and stuff along those lines, namely:

Jan 25 – A Leap of Faith

Jan 28 – Just Close Your Eyes and Floor It!

Jan. 29 – Three Points to Ponder When Your Ship Comes In

Feb 20 – 4 Fundamentals to Overcome the Fear of Change

Feb 21 - How to Reach Your Goals: 8 (plus 2) Tips to Stay on Track

What was ironic (which I believe is a Tasmanian word that means made entirely of iron) about writing these posts is, unknown to me, fellow writer Joanna Young happened to be dealing with some big decisions that required her doing that very thing. As it turned out, Joanna was struggling with a decision to move to an entirely new location in Scotland – a decision that required a leap of faith.

How did you know, she asked me once. Hey, the truth is, I didn’t. I just write ‘em as I get inspired, y’know? Who knew my words would be of any real value to anyone? I mean, you write and you hope, but still…

Learn It and Live It

So it’s a mite ironic, don’cha think, that this year, Mrs. MZM and I are facing the very same thing. That’s right: Comin’ down the pike, right at us is a (sound of terrified scream) big, honkin’ change!

Yup; Mrs. MZM and I are facing a rather large change in our lives. Guess I’d better go and read those articles again, y’know? And of course in the coming days, weeks, and months, you will be regaled (and no doubt amused) by our journey as we discover just what the heck is goin’ on.

In any case, rest assured Middle Zone Musings will still be here, swapping lies stories, laughin’ it up, and learnin’ stuff from that most ubiquitous of schoolmasters, Life.

What About You?

Now, if you’re facing a few big things this year, I’d like to humbly suggest you take a gander at those five posts above. And if you find anything of value in ‘em, please let me know.

So now the Big Question is: Are you facing big changes this year? If so, then would you care to share ‘em with us? Do you need any help, or, if you’ve recently experienced such things, can you offer any great advice for those of us about to take the leap?

As always, the door is open; I’ll leave the light on for ya!

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Photo: Looking Ahead, by jigsawpuzzle

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