Lots of change is afoot.
For starters, I completely revamped my site. Or rather, sites. Plural. For years, I’ve had a professional(ish) site, first name last name dot com, plus a separate blog. Once upon a time, that was Mark My Words. Then, when we decided to move to South Dakota, I started a new one called Swinged Cat. So blogs, plural, too. Whew. This led to a lot of stuff in different places and was turning into a pain in the ass.
So, I decided to just combine everything together. For the past three days, I’ve been working on pulling off the tricky feat of balancing a professional website/portfolio with a blog that leans heavily on humor. But I think (hope) I’ve pulled it off. Doing so involved a new theme, new headline/tagline, and new look. The cool thing is, now I’ve got blog posts dating all the way back to 2009. Like this one.
Now, if you’re bored or suffering from insomnia, you can jump back to the beginning and read all about the many twists and turns in my life. You’ve got enough reading material to last you for months, and yes, you’re welcome.
Another fun thing: in doing all this updating, I couldn’t help but notice that I’m very close to a major milestone…
By the time you’re reading this, I’ll have had 50,000 views. Maybe you were the one who put me over the top! I would’ve had a contest if I’d been paying attention.
Sometime in the coming weeks, I’m going to switch my primary domain to my name. Fingers crossed that everything redirects correctly. So far, so good!
As if that weren’t enough, I also decided to create a new primary email account. I attempted this once before with disastrous results. Hey, it’s not my fault people see the number 69 and their minds go immediately to the gutter! That was a lesson in humility, one that my friends, family, and coworkers lorded over me for a long time. It’s taken four years for the dust to settle, but I’ve now got a spiffy new nonsexual email address and all is right with the world.
It’s no easy task setting up a new email address, by the way. You don’t realize how many subscriptions you have until you suddenly have to update them all. And that involves verification codes, two-factor authentication, and sometimes, you even have to contact another human directly for help. Madness, I tell you.
But it’s also a great excuse to purge. Shake free some of those annoying folks who slip through the spam filter. I’ve done a lot of purging and shaking over the past week.
I also suspended my automatic weekly crypto purchases. I’m not giving up on cryptocurrency, but I was getting a tad uncomfortable watching my bank account balance fall as those funds disappeared into a virtual void that may or may not ever pay off. I started thinking of all the things I could buy, but not for much longer. Like that remote starter for my car. So, I put a temporary hold on any new contributions. I’m happy to report, though, that I have made money from my investment. Check it out!
Woot! I’m in the black, baby! By a whopping $1.45.
Man, I wish this post title referred to my portfolio and not my site visitors. Guess I’ll need to figure out another way of getting rich…
Finally, in keeping with the spirit of change, ol’ Mother Nature’s about to dish out her share!
Now, we’ve been burned before. Rapid City keeps missing out on these big storms and our drought just continues to worsen. Our grass is dying before it’s even gotten a good start.
They’re saying we are right on the line between rain and snow, so it could be either showery or blizzarding this weekend. Either way, we’ll take what we can get…so long as nothing interferes with our Chicago concert tomorrow night!
Any big changes happening in your life these days?
Mark My Words 
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