It is no secret that I am looking for a job right now. One of the most frequently asked questions I’ve received since I’ve started looking again is, “Why do you want to stop doing the self-employment bit to get back out into the corporate world?” My answer to that is pretty simple. My work has taken over my life. I need a healthier balance between personal and business. I often find that I have so much to do that I’m unable to find the time to update many of my blogs or social networks. If you’ve paid any attention to the dates on this blog, you’ll see that I’ve neglected it as well.

Why did I choose to pursue self-employment in the first place? Many of my reasons are personal and for those, my plan worked out fantastically for a time. The other natural desire of self-employment is to be your own boss. That was great too, but the reality is that you’re never your own boss if you have clients. Each job comes with its own job description and someone on the other end who will approve your work; I’d call that a boss. Bosses are good for all of us because they give you goals and something to strive for, even if sometimes they are a bit warped. Let’s face it though, who isn’t? I’ll wait for comments from the peanut gallery on that one.

Aside from the reasons I’ve already mentioned, self employment is lonely. Sure a lot of what I do is in new and social media so I get a lot of opportunity to talk to people every day. The difference with that is my interaction is on a computer, not always verbal and usually not in person. I’ve found that I really miss the personal interaction with others, even if it’s just a few people a day. Who would have thought working alone would be lonely? Bring on the office politics I say!

Seriously though, it’s just time for me to get back out into the world and take on someone else’s new and social media desires or their requests of graphical goodness. I’m good at marketing for others and making it look fantastic. Let me work someone else’s projects so that maybe I can get back to my new and social medias being just for fun. Don’t get me wrong, I still have fun in what I do. It’s all the requirements of what I’ve taken on that have eaten away my desire to continue the personal consulting full time. I’ll continue to do some freelance consulting, of course. When I work for someone else, their priorities will come before those of my own, as I feel that it should be.

I want to talk about breasts here for a moment, and not just for the sake of talking about breasts. I’ve been doing a lot of work lately helping out with raising funds to support finding a cure for breast cancer. I have a number of friends who have been affected by the disease; maybe not directly but have friends or family who have.

This Saturday I’m going to be helping and participating in a fundraiser called Bowling for Boobs. During this event we’re going to plan a game. It’s similar to the game that women play at baby showers where you Measure the Mommy’s Belly:

(Materials- String or yarn and scissors) Have each woman pull the yarn to the size they believe would fit perfectly around the Mother-To-Be’s center of her pregnant tummy. After everyone cuts their string, compare the results to the Mommy-To-Be’s actual tummy. Give a prize to the woman who is the most close! This is a baby shower favorite.

The obvious twist is that we’re going to do this for the bust instead of the belly. We need a new and clever name. I posed this question on Plurk not too long ago and got a bunch of ideas.

Fundraisers that I’ve helped out with so far have been called:
Cooks for a Cure (cookbook)
Buy a Pear, Save a Pair (Farmer’s Market stand)
Bowling for Boobs (bowling event this weekend)

Here are some ideas compiled so far:

1. Judge the Jugs
2. Size ‘Em Up
3. Boob Barometer
4. Measuring the Mammaries
5. Take Size of the Ta-Tas
6. Less Than Equal
7. Rack ‘Em Up
8. Guess the Breast
9. Guess a Cup for Cancer
10. More Than a Handful
11. More Than a Cupful
12. Gauge the Girls
13. Size up the Sweater Stretchers
14. Calculating Cleavage
15. Ample Appraisal
16. Notice the Knockers
17. Calculate My Curves
18. Are the Breasts in Here Bigger Than They Appear?
19. Rate This Rack

Let’s see if the power of social media can evoke some of your creative juices for a name to this game. What ideas do you have?

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If you’re able to, help support this cause financially. Someday you might be affected. Wouldn’t it be nice to find a cure? Donate to support a young boy on the team who’s grandmother is currently fighting breast cancer.

I spent much of a whole day playing within Plurk. Yes, it has quite the peculiar name. When I first registered and began using the service I found it to be rather buggy. I got a lot of “File Not Found” errors and even the style sheets wouldn’t load properly. After a bit of clicking around and fidgeting with the browser, all things became right in the world.

What is Plurk?
Well it’s similar to Twitter in that it’s a micro-blogging social network. You can send out messages that are 140 characters or less. It’s your choice if you want to use a qualifier “kimfenolio IS writing about Plurk” or choose not to “kimfenolio: I’m writing a post to encourage others to micro blog.” Using the @ function like you do in Twitter works the same in Plurk only it creates a direct link without the @ sign having to appear in the final message. They’ve even supplied you with a list of safe Plurking habits.

How is it Different?
There are a number of things that set it aside from Twitter. First is the interactivity. You and your friends have the ability to comment directly on a message that you Plurk. The really neat thing is that if you have that message open while someone else responds you can see their reply appear right before your eyes.

Alerts
You are continually appraised of new Plurks and new updates with an alert box in the bottom left-hand corner of your timeline. It is unobtrusive, no sounds and no pop-up windows for it. It will simply appear when there’s something new for you to check up on. I will admit that with multiple people responding to Plurks, it certainly gets old after you have to keep going back to each message time after time. I suppose that’s why on the alert’s menu there’s a “Mark all as read” option.

Visual Timeline
While I’m talking about the timeline, let’s expand on that for a bit. The timeline runs from right to left. Updates appear as if they’re almost floating in the sky based on time. If you hover your mouse over an update it’ll highlight the time at the bottom of your timeline. Clicking on an update will expand it so that you can read the entire update as well as any responses. You can also view the mobile timeline if the visual timeline is too conspicuous for you. Either I don’t like this visual timeline or it takes a lot of getting used to.

Friend Filtering
I can create “Cliques” and add people. Once I do this I can send out a Plurk to just the users in that specific group. Apparently there’s a way to filter incoming messages from just those in that group but I haven’t found it available to me just yet. The only thing I don’t like about adding folks to the clique is that you have to type their names rather than selecting people with check boxes in a list.

Friend, No Need to Follow
Friends can be friends but you don’t have to follow their timeline. I really like this feature. Someone asked me why I would want to be friends with someone but not read what they have to say. There are folks that I’m friends with where I want to see what they have to say some of the time, not all of the time. It allows me a certain amount of discretion by letting me hit a button to turn timeline updates on or off.

Drawbacks
I was in at least 35 different conversations today and I can’t remember where I said what. I want to be able to search for things that I said. Make “me” searchable. I still can’t find out how to view just people in my clique. I want that to be an option and if it is, I want that to be more intuitive. Due to the instant interaction and the instant alerts I’ve found the use of this network to occupy a lot of my time. It’s hard to just walk away from a conversation. This is by no means the fault of Plurk, but a human trait we all possess.

I wonder how Plurk will do with scalability? Twitter has experienced a lot of trouble and downtime lately and it doesn’t have the type of interaction or interface that Plurk does. I wonder what kind of plans the creators of Plurk have to combat the inevitable?

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I think Plurk has some real potential though I don’t know that I’m ready to migrate from the familiarity that is Twitter just yet. What makes it different and sets it aside from Twitter are all huge advantages for me; aside from the timeline view. I can see using Plurk as a means by which to have more personal interaction. It’s like interactive polling. Twitter is much easier to just output and walk away. Plurk, however, is a more like instant messaging in groups at your friends’ leisure.

Have some fun. Play around. What do you think about Plurk? What drawbacks, bonuses or other features (or lack there of) should we talk about?

This entry has be Dugg!

Welcome to the Kim Fenolio redesign and rebrand. The goal is to embark upon a career path that will not just be monetarily rewarding but also enjoyable. The concept is quite simple, the road however is a bit more rugged.

As I design, tweak, code and create myself again (did I mention again?) on the interwebs I’m finding new and different things that I can do and also enjoy doing. I don’t just put my mind to something. I put my mind to something and I finish it. If I don’t have the answer, I will find someone who does.

I’ve built this great network of people by means of social networking. Some of these folks I’ve met through podcasting, through Twitter, through Facebook and other forums. The point is that I have a large pool of talent and knowledge available to me. All I have to do is ask a question and so many people are willing to share and give of themselves and their knowledge. It’s actually quite amazing. Without my having met and spending some time to create a relationship with each of these people, I wouldn’t be the talent that I am today.

The point is that when you get me, you also get connections. I have strings attached, but they’re not in the conventional way that you would think strings are attached. It’s the idea that you get more bang for your buck.

Welcome to my personal brand. Welcome to my life. Welcome to Kim Fenolio.