Minimalism

Things look a lot different around here, huh? Don’t worry, it’s not the spiked eggnog talking. I have spent much of the weekend completely revamping my blog. My reasons are threefold:

• I’m all about minimalism these days.
• I had a perfectly good domain name gathering dust.
• I paid $79 for a premium theme that was going unused.

So, I decided to get creative. I’m using my markpetruska.com domain instead of Mark My Words, though my blog is now incorporated directly into the site. You might have to update your bookmarks eventually, though everything should automatically redirect. I mean, Alexa can tell me that Tim Conway is 83 years old in a mere four seconds, so I have faith you’ll still be able to find my posts. You’re reading this one, right?

What a wonderful time it is to be alive.

I’ve also activated the new theme, added an online portfolio showcasing my professional work, a Hire Me section with a contact form if you want to throw gobs of money in my direction, and a Fiction page with information on and links to my books. Yes, plural, even if Dream Sailors won’t see publication until next summer. Oh, and the snow is still falling. I couldn’t get rid of that.

This just allows me to consolidate a lot of information in one place and should give me a more professional site in which to direct potential clients to.

That’s the plan, anyway!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…

An elf factory exploded at work.

Christmas, I mean! It’s beginning to look a lot like that around ye olde office. For the past couple of years now, we’ve had an office-wide holiday decorating contest. You might recall that Team Content took first place in 2015 and was a close runner-up last year. It’s pretty easy to see why.

Naturally, expectations were high this year. So when the extent of my holiday decorations involved this, people were a bit underwhelmed.

Scoff if you must, but I like it.

Why the abrupt change this year? Remember what I said above, folks: minimalism.

Don’t worry, I’m not a Scrooge. I still love Christmas bestest of all the tree-themed holidays (sorry, arborists). But my team of four is now down to two thanks to promotions and cross-aisle moves, and I didn’t want to use the tent for a third year in a row lest I become a parody of myself, so I decided to ease up this year and let others around the office have fun. And it’s certainly paying off. Coworkers have gotten into the spirit like never before. To wit:

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Pretty impressive, huh? It makes coming to work an absolute joy. Call me crazy, though: I still think I can pull off an upset victory.

Got a busy rest of the month planned. This includes the company Christmas party on Friday, a trip to Seattle to see our favorite band’s annual rock ‘n roll Christmas show with Anne on Saturday, a jaunt to Tacoma the following weekend to visit Tracy and family, and our usual trek to Newberg on the 24th for our Very Russian Christmas Eve.

This year more than ever, traditions are important to me.