G'day

I am such a bloody cancerian. Nope, I don’t go in for horoscopes or astrology, I’m not into religion, tarot or water divining. But this cancer description thing has got me pegged.

Tomorrow morning I take an early flight to San Fran for the SES conference, followed by a short week at home then off to the long awaited Burning Man. Tonight all that I’m thinking about is how I’m not going to see my Reason for quite a while and of the other people, close to my heart, though now distant; who I would have loved to have come to Burning Man with me.

So tonight is yours – Jess, Carita, Mike, Paul V, Paul S, Dave, Cookie, Pete and Kev.

I miss you guys. I know we’ll see each other again. The sooner the better – or when the stars are in alignment! One warm, cloudless, super twinkly night.

I’m so amped up about going to Burning Man . I’m just a big kid, aren’t we all? I’m treating this year as an expedition and if everything is as expected my Reason are joining me next year. I’m their hippy-at-heart dad! I found some more pics this time the people of the playa . I have to share them, I just have to!

Kids on the playa

The girls and guys in the red parade

Black and White

Dust storm

The critical tits ride

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

My hopes are not always realized, but I always hope.

Ovid (BC 43-AD 18)

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

English proverb

I am a fine one to talk about hope. For years I have been misquoting the English proverb above, instead saying “Hope for the best, but expect the worst.” Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy! It is human nature to be condemned to, or elevated by, those things we repeatedly tell ourselves. We are victims of our past only as long as we keep telling ourselves that it will be so. Like many parents I will not hear my Reason use expressions like “I can’t do this” or “I won’t like that” or “I’m not good at that” first they have to attempt each task and keep trying until their words bear the mark of an indisputable truth. That rule has been extended to my adult friends. No negative self-talk is tolerated. That isn’t to deny that there may be truth in their statements – rather it’s about recognizing and seeking our strengths, not exposing our weaknesses.

The wisest and most successful amongst us work to their strengths and seek help with their weaknesses.

Rather than be preachy I’d rather send a message of hope.

Work to your strengths find joy and honor in the fruits of your labor. And when your efforts don’t seem to be fruitful – persist, in the knowledge that there are forces (family and friends – seen and unseen) who will help, wish you well and bring you strength not just now, but in all of your life’s endeavours.

In all things it is better to hope than to despair.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without the words, and never stops at all.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

SIMONS NEWS AND TBS NEWS

For those not already aware, the company I was working for decided to pick up stumps and move to Phoenix. I was invited, but had to graciously decline their offer. So for weeks now I have been scrambling to find a new position.

It seems as though the worm has finally, finally turned.

Enter the Fishkin/Muessig clan who introduced me to Dennis Yu, CEO of BlitzLocal who wanted to talk with me about the possibility of my writing Facebook ads for them. The meeting was very productive indeed, and concluded with Dennis offering me the position of Director of Client Services at BlitzLocal, a considerable leap from writing ads!

I can’t begin to tell you how ecstatic I am, but I have a long and serious learning curve here that extends to building a strong working knowledge of SEO SEM and SES with particular emphasis on social media, (especially within Facebook) as well as solid understanding of the many tools and programs developed at Blitzlocal. It is a daunting task but a task at which I am determined to succeed.

The position was offered to me at 9pm Monday night on Tuesday at 3pm I attended a client meeting in Portland and from the 16th-20th I’m attending the SES Conference and Expo in San Francisco.

TBS will be in hiatus for a good time to come, not through lack of passion or will to continue, its simply the case that moving forward is of paramount importance and of course I am thrilled to be part of the BlitzLocal team. I will continue posting to the TBS FB page and will post updates both personal and TBS related as they occur.

I also told Dennis of my vacation/adventure plans so Burning Man remains on the agenda, as each day passes I have more and more to be excited about. An exciting new challenge and a long awaited vacation. I’m working furiously at conquering the FB ad beast, meanwhile I’ve got the cooler, the camelback and my beach cruiser bike is fully fur pimped (photos will be upped next post). I’m ready to hit the playa – only 29 days ’til the man burns! Woooo-hooooo! Life is at long last looking up!

I’ll leave you with some more BM images to go on with.

Ciao for now.

Black Rock City 09

Opulent Temple (rave venue)

Cubatron

Mondo-spider

TBS NEWS

Since the last post, I’ve spoken at length with friends and co-collaborators about the direction The Bloke Show should take and there’s been drastic changes to the plan. The comedy series will continue in a scaled down low-budget form, but will only be a part of a much wider web based approach that will incorporate multifarious comedic concepts via this very web page. There’s nothing like running before you can walk I always say. Anyone wanna run?

Instead of specializing we are going to create an EPIC site of BIG BLOKE proportions, a one-stop comedy site, filled with contributions that are both editorial and crowdsourced. Watch for the miraculous site transformation in the coming weeks/months.If you’ve got any ideas -let us know!

SIMONS NEWS

There’s been some goings-on. I recently celebrated my 44th birthday in grand style – no…I know what you’re thinking…. don’t ring or send chocolates or flowers or anything … really … its alright … besides, you’re too damn late. The reason I mention this- years ago (I’m guessing around 1996) in Australia I watched a news story about a festival that takes place in the Nevada desert every year, I can recall thinking how cool it was and that it was an event I’d really like to go to – an Arts based, free-expression, counter-culture (at least it was then) week-long festival, at the end of which, they burn a huge effigy of a man. Burning Man. Fast-track to my birthday, when a good friend presents me with the gift of a ticket to that same festival. Yeah baby!

So, all things being well, in late August I’ll be heading to Nevada in an RV to camp with 50,000 or so Arts loving, peace loving… well just… loving friends in the middle of the playa at Black Rock Desert. I’ve got the Kaftan, got the goggles and am going op-shopping with friends to put together some costumes – ready to go mama. There’s nothing like an Arts festival and hippy love to get the creative juices flowing.

Mr Sugars wish you could be there! And Mr Gibson – yeah I’ll be squeezing into the Kev-Rock t-shirt with pride!

Rock on August!

Trucks

Inflatable Art

The Pink Bus

Woman

Til next post ciao,

Simon