Abandon Nest

If you’re a regular reader of this blog (which you better be) then you’ll have noticed that my posting frequency has gone down lately. Because of this decline in productivity, I’ve decided to go ahead and take a blogging break until September, and I’d like to list out the reasons why (for those of you who are interested.)

1. My Job is at Its End – On the 18th, my spring/summer co-op will be over. This is a good thing because I’m ready to be done and get back to school. However, it also brings the negative consequence that I will not have very much good business material to build on. Unfortunate, I know.
2. Reevaluate Priorities – I love this blog and I love writing for it. I really think that I’ve helped people understand a lot of things about living on their own and self-sufficiency in general. That’s great! However, there are a lot of other projects that I really would like to work on that I think may be a little higher in priority for the next few weeks. One example is my personal blog that I’ve been planning for some time. I want to get a good design and get it off the ground.
3. My Girlfriend is Coming Down! – Unfortunately, I have not seen my significant other in over three months. That’s a really long time. Really, it is! She arrives soon and is staying for a week. During that time, I don’t want to have to worry about posting to Abandon Nest. Plus, I’m sure she’ll think I’m really thoughtful for stopping and I’ll make her feel special (which she is).
4. Moving Out – A consequence of going back to school is that I need to move out of my sweet apartment. Unfortunately, this involves lots of packing and negotiating getting my stuff moved 250 miles northwest. Bummer, right? I’m still trying to decide how to get all my stuff up to my dorm, considering I drive a 1987 LeBaron. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
5. Blogger Burnout (kinda) – All right, I’ll admit it. Pumping out a ton of content everyday really got to me. Fortunately, it was worth it. I feel like I have a lot of great content in my archives and on my site. I have over 210 articles now, and that’s awesome! Sure, I don’t generate a lot of traffic, but the little that I do get read my articles intently. I’ve had a few people go through every article on my site and that’s a really great feeling. By working so hard to create all this stunning content (modest I know) I think I kind of wore myself out a bit. I feel that in a couple of weeks, I’ll be ready to start again and I’ll have new fresh experiences to build on. Excellent, right?

So there you have it. Those are my 6 reasons for taking a break for blogging. On a side note, this list is part of Problogger’s List Project. I highly recommend you check it out.

As luck would have it, I was sitting around on Thursday night at about 8:45 PM, and the power goes out. Now, common sense would say at that point you just go to sleep. However, I had just got done with a three and a half hour nap, and there was no way I was getting to bed again so soon. Sitting there, I remembered when I was younger all the fun games I used to play when I was younger and the power went out. If I still had them, I would’ve done so on Thursday too. I figured you would enjoy a quick list of
games you can play with candle light when the power goes out.

1. Find the Candles and Matches – OK, remember this game? It’s when the power goes out and you have no idea where the emergency candles and matches you’ve been saving up have gone. Oh, you didn’t play this game? OK, moving on.
2. Sorry! – This has to be one of the most vindictive, hate mongering board games of all time. Sure, it starts out innocent enough, but wait until the same person has bumped you back to the start 4 times. Awesome, isn’t it? Bust out this game and you’ll have a ton of competition and a great sarcastically apologetic time.
3. Monopoly – Otherwise known as the game that lasts forever, Monopoly is a perfect game to play by candle light. Sure, it may make it easier to cheat the bank, but the game will probably last until the power comes back on half a day later. By then, you’ll be ready to do something cheap, easy, and mindless… like watch TV
4. Trivial Pursuit – Is there any game in the world that can make you feel so smart one moment and then completely brainless the next? If there is, I haven’t found it. Trivial Pursuit is the ultimate team game, but make sure you stack your team correctly. You need to make sure you have science guy, history girl, pop culture whiz, and sports nut or some combination thereof. Mess up this winning combination and you may find yourself stuck with no chips and waiting your turn over and over again.

Well there you have it. If the power goes out, play some board games. It always makes the time go by faster and before you know it, your power will be back on and you can go back to your regularly scheduled life.

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Today I had to give a big presentation in front of the general manager of my entire subunit. This was a huge deal, and I had to make sure I got it right. In the end, I think I did because I got only positive feedback about the work I did and the job I’d done. So, based on my experiences the last few days, here’s a few tips for when you have to give a big presentation.

• Know your stuff! – If there is one thing you don’t want to be, it’s lacking knowledge in what you’re talking about. Make sure you know everything that you possibly can about your project or assignment, and commit it to memory. This will do two things. First, your boss will be impressed that you know so much and can seem to pull it off the top of your head. Second, your project will receive a boost because you’ll have learned more about it than you already did and this may lead to some discoveries that could improve productivity, etc.
• Anticipate questions – You know questions are going to be asked, the hard part is figuring out what they’ll be. If you can anticipate the questions that will be asked of you, you can appear to be really, really quick on your feet and in control of things. You may even want to beg the question. Intentionally leave out a piece of information that you know is semi-essential. When your boss asks what the answer is, you’ll know right away and look great!
• Practice, practice, practice – I think I must have practice my presentation 5 or 6 times. I sat here at home with my Powerpoint slides up and went through them until I knew them all by heart. During my presentation, I didn’t even have to look at my slides and I could talk directly to my audience. That is a great thing to do, because it shows that you’re confident, you know what you’re talking about, and you’re not dependent on anything else. Practice may not make perfect, but it certainly makes better.

These are the three things that I keep in mind when preparing a big presentation. What do you do?