Four Years and Scattered Days

I started Occam’s Razr during the New Years’ break of 2007. And I was fairly regular in writing (with the occasional hiatus) up to the start of 2011.

Four years of material, and I stand by every bit of it.

Listen to: Four Years and Scattered Days

In fact, I sometimes go back through the archives looking for one piece, and re-discover something else that I didn’t remember writing until that moment. But I remain proud of the words, and believe I have lived up to my charge of writing things that aren’t focused on the here and the now.

2011 started with a bang, and only sped up. I was asked to take on some additional projects in the office, which didn’t cut into my “writing time” as much as it did my “thinking time” and “recording time.” I still have ideas mixing and mashing in my brain, but they don’t get a chance to congeal long enough for me to commit them – and by the time I get my scratch pad or Evernote active, it’s another phone call or meeting or something…

Not that I am complaining. I enjoy my work.

Lately, that job has included monitoring of social media, updating the company crisis communications plan, earning buy-in from key executives for that plan, shaping our social media strategy, RenewOurRivers.com, online research, planning an ongoing video project, and working with our Customer Service teams. Last week, a lot of things changed.

Back Out In Front

In between the two waves of storms that battered the state, I was given new responsibilities. I became an official spokesperson for Alabama Power. My “beat” will be here in the Birmingham metro area, as a media liaison. I’ll still be doing everything that I did before, and even more that connects with my self-described title as a Communications Strategist.

I have a lot of areas of responsibility now, and as a hyper-connected communicator with a love for technology, being plugged into so many things is exhilarating. It can also be exhausting.

What it boils down to is prioritization. I don’t want to be the guy who lets his personal need for expression get in the way of the things he needs to do. I also don’t want to get so stretched thin that I end up sloppy, saying things over here that would reflect strangely on my employer (which I am proud to represent as a spokesperson.)

Moving Forward

So, this isn’t goodbye. It’s hello to something else. I won’t be posting here nearly as often as I do on my Twitter or my Facebook or my Online Scraptacular, which is a very quick place for me to share things that require little thought.

I never considered Occam’s Razr to be a home for “things of little thought”… I aimed for big and deep thoughts that went against the grain. Sometimes I hit, sometimes I missed, and I often made people scratch their heads (in both good ways and bad.)

I’ll still be writing something somewhere… maybe this will evolve into a hub that brings it all together.

For those of you who have been with me for a long time, I am still around. And I appreciate your support and encouragement…