Hi folks.
It’s been a while.
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me well when I say that I’ve had (and am having) a very difficult year.
As anyone who has ever had a difficult year (or month, or week) knows, going through hard times makes it easy to lose track of projects that can be seen as extracurricular, extraneous, or otherwise extravagant. That said, anyone who knows me can easily extrapolate that those projects are the reactor core that propels me through the “interminable abyss of wackness” that is the future.
So lately, I’ve been trying to get back into my regular swing of things. It hasn’t been easy, and at times it’s a very two-steps-forward, one-step-backward kind of struggle. But I have been making progress, and the more I can create, the more I feel like myself, which is nice.
As such, I’d like to show you all what I’ve been up to lately.
ZKLocal
First off, I’ve just launched a new website: https://zklocal.com
Over the past few weeks, I’ve identified a growing need for Local SEO services both here in Portland and in a broader, global sense. With that, I’ve pursued (and attained) an SEO Certification and have begun building a portfolio of Local SEO work. This website is designed to function as the hub of my business in that sense, as well as be a resource for business owners who are trying to do their own SEO work.
My one ask for this post is that if you know anyone who owns, manages, or does web marketing work for a local business, please point them towards https://zklocal.com. Part of what I love about Local SEO specifically is the aspect of community and knowing that the work provides real, needed value to (mostly) small business owners. With that in mind, I would be overjoyed to offer discounted discovery and consulting sessions to anyone referred through this post.
Soccer
With the business stuff out of the way, we get to talk about the fun stuff. Fear not sports fans, for soccer continues to be a large part of my life. I’m still the Managing Editor over at Stumptown Footy, and despite facing some challenging losses of some longtime contributors, I think the site is continuing to move forward in a good and positive manner. We’ve really ramped up our Timbers 2 coverage this year, which I think is important especially as we’ve seen increased integration of T2 players with the first team in the last couple of months.
Bad Lads Athletic Club is still going strong and we’re currently ramping up for the 2019 Fall GPSD season. Our first friendly of the season is this Saturday, and I’m extremely excited to get back on the pitch. We’re unfortunately losing some key players from last season, but have a good number of tryouts lined up so I’m pretty confident we’ll be able to fill the gaps and put up a strong performance.
Additionally, I’m excited to say that I’m pursuing youth coaching through a local club here in Portland. So far, I’ve experienced soccer as a fan, referee, player, and journalist. I’m excited to add coach to my growing list of soccer perspectives! I’m in very early stages of joining this club, so I won’t say too much now, but I’m definitely planning on talking more about that journey here as it unfolds.
Content
Consistently creating more content is another current goal of mine, and obviously, this post is a step in that. More regular blog posts are on the horizon, so I hope you like reading about my [opinions] on [topics].
I’m also trying to stream more (although I’m far from having a regular schedule), so if you’re interested in watching me play video games every now and again, you can follow me over on Twitch. It’s mostly Rocket League or Football Manager, but I’ll occasionally pick up an indie title I haven’t played yet and stream that.
As far as larger creative projects go, I’ve been working on a couple of those lately as well. Granted, progress on these is slower and much more off and on, so I don’t want to talk too much about them at this stage. I will say that one of them is new music (the last time I released a song was way back in December 2016), and the other is something entirely new to me that I’ve really been enjoying working on.
Curator’s Corner
Lastly, I’ll close off this post (and likely others) with a media recommendation.
I just had the absolute joy of reading Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s new collection of short stories titled, “Someone who will love you in all your damaged glory” and let me tell you, it is fabulous. One of the stories featured is his already-well-known craigslist missed connection (which I highly highly recommend you read. Seriously it’s okay, click the link and stop reading this, come back when you’ve finished), and most of the others capture that same sense of quiet, unassuming wist while simultaneously and effortlessly incorporating RBW’s signature absurdism.
If you liked the above craigslist post (which I know you read, because c’mon, this is Curator’s Corner and you gotta trust my recommendation) or are at all a fan of BoJack Horseman, you will love this book. Buy it from your local bookstore, read it, and then talk to me about your favorite story. Mine was the one with the opposite door.