Connecting the dots.

So what's a guy to do? Given my company's recent scale back on pay, they were decent enough to trade out the pay reduction with a comparable amount of time off. So, between "furlough" time and accrued vacation time, I have about 140 hours of time off between now and the end of the year. That's 3 weeks and 2 days of time that came my way.

Granted, laying around and "kickin' back" is appealing. But, I've decided to take another route. First order of business, this blog.

While blogging isn't new or revolutionary, it is part and parcel of a much larger picture: redefining the skill set(s) that each of us need, in order to stay relevant. Especially in the world of communication.

As of this afternoon, my iPhone connects to my blog through BlogPost. I connected my blog to my Twitter feed, which is in turn connected to my Facebook account. So, to my friends, I apologize. For the multiple posts about my ham sandwich at lunch, but I was working out the kinks.

Now the next steps are coming together. Focusing on a subject I'm passionate about, and form a point of view. In my case, it's consumption of life. Food, my walk home, music-whatever. Everything is fair game, but you'll notice a heavy bias toward food and cooking. Not because I feel the world is burning to hear my perspective, but to create compelling content to keep them coming back. Part writing, part promotion-I'm trying to "crack the code".

What else am I going to do with this opportunity? A lot of intense training in software packages that should be relevant to my career. Apple Motion, Flash, Dreamweaver, Blender 3D, Director and a few other obscure programs that will give me a competitive advantage regardless of what changes may occur. Given the depth of the challenge, I'm hoping that 3 weeks and 2 days will be enough time. But then again, this was just the first 4 hours of day one.

- a mobile post from mjhardin.

(If you've suddenly found yourself in an "unexpected situation" with your job or life, what are you doing to take advantage of the "opportunity"? Share your story by commenting below.)