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Taking a break…in Ireland!

I'm looking forward to exploring Galway on my own. Looks like my kind of town!
I’m looking forward to exploring Galway on my own. Looks like my kind of town!

Hello readers,

As of the date this post is published, I will be taking a bit of a break here for a while. As I write this, I’m about to leave today for a 10 day trip to Ireland. I’ll be in Dublin for half the week, and then in Galway and the Aran Islands for the other half of the week. I’m very excited, and even a little nervous. I haven’t been out of the US since September 2000, and Ireland is a new country for me to visit. I’m sure I’ll get over the culture shock quickly, and I usually understand the accent as I have my GPS set to an Irish male voice speaking. 😉

Understandably, this is the first real vacation I’ve taken where there’s no husband or son, and no tech comm conference involved in many years! The history geek in me is going to be let loose to enjoy and soak up the culture! While there, I will still have my handy-dandy iPad, and if inspiration hits to write a blog post or curate a cool article, I will. But it’s not a high priority. I’ll also have my handy iPhone, and I’m planning on taking plenty of photos and video, and most likely much of it will end up on social media.

I’m still waiting for my final grade for my Rutgers course. I still haven’t heard back, and I think much of it has to do with Rutgers’ servers going down for long stretches this past week due to cyber-attacks. (That’s very reassuring, isn’t it?)

I also have a lot of exciting things going  on once I return from my trip coming up, which I’ll discuss more when I get back. Some of the news isn’t official yet, so I have to wait to say anything, but I’m anxious to share with you!

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Salthill beach, here I come!

So, enjoy your first half of May 2015. I’ll be missing the warm weather of New Jersey and the late arrival of Spring while it’s expected to be cooler and rainy in Ireland. I guess the tradeoff is that even in the cooler weather, Galway City is just a 20 minute walk to the beach, so I can literally saying that I plan to have some beach time! 😀 It’s time for some rest and relaxation–the rest of 2015 is going to be busy, so I need to re-charge and clear my brain for a bit!

Talk to you soon!

 

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The Content Strategy of Marvel

David Dylan Thomas has done it again! And I think he’s trying to appeal to my geeky side. (Although truth be told, while I definitely enjoy Marvel Comics, I tend to be more of a DC Comics kind of gal…) I’m thinking, after watching this, that my beloved DC Comics is trying to take a page out of Marvel’s playbook content strategy with some of the things they are planning in the movies and in television.

Watch David in this video–geeky genius!

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Content Content Podcast – Fire fingers featuring Danielle Villegas – episode 3

fast-typing-fingersEd Marsh of ContentContent has a new podcast out, and it features me! Who would’ve guessed? Ed and I recorded this on April 11, 2015, and had a great time recording our conversation. We could’ve gone on for hours! (Or at least I could’ve gone on for hours, LOL.)

Check out the podcast, and be sure to check out more of what Ed has on ContentContent. He’s got good stuff there! Enjoy!

Content Content Podcast – Fire fingers featuring Danielle Villegas – episode 3

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Weight Loss is like Content Strategy, Part 2: It needs to be Agile

As a follow-up to my blog post from a while back comparing weight loss to a content strategy, I thought I’d provide you with an analytical progress report of sorts.

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Yes, this is really me.

I had posted this set of photos about a week ago on social media, and didn’t share it here! The foundation of my weight loss strategy has been sound, but there have been bumps along the way. I found that I couldn’t always follow a “waterfall” process because of holidays, stress, weather (can’t get outside to do my walking in cold weather with my asthma), work–lots of things that have gotten in the way. So, I had to employ an Agile plan of sorts. Eat less when I couldn’t exercise, still eat those brownies but account for them in my food tracking, and just walk at the mall when I had an opportunity. So, my plan slowed down, but the proof here is that it didn’t stop–the process continued. Even after several trips to various fast food restaurants and chocolate treats, I account for it, and get right back on track.

I am still far from done losing weight. I’ve lost about 56 pounds so far, and it’s been about 10 months in the making to get where I am now. I still have about 30 more pounds to go, and it gets harder as I continue. There are some things that will get easier to do during this summer that will help, like warmer weather to get outside to walk and bike more, and more fresh fruits and veggies to eat for variety (less calories), and hot weather makes it easier for me to want to drink those 8 glasses of water each day. But the process continues, and these photos of “before” and “after” (yes, these are me–nothing has been altered in Photoshop except brightness in the second one so you could see it is actually me) are my analytical report for now.

I thought I’d provide everyone with an update to show that as long as you have a sound foundation and can be agile as you move along, it can get done, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to be well-organized, and have room to make mistakes and recover quickly from those mistakes.

I’d also like to thank those who have supported me so far. There are several technical communicators I know who are in the same battle, and have been a great source of inspiration and support–crowdsourcing at its best!

Wish me luck on the next 30 pounds!

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How to Write a Sentence – Infographic

The Wonder Woman of Writing, Marcia Riefer Johnston, has recently created a fantastic infographic on how to create a sentence. If anyone knows how to break it down, she does!

For more information, check her website, Writing Rocks!

How to write a sentence: infographic
Courtesy of: Writing.Rocks