Tag: blogging

New Zealand, New Mike: Living in Wellington one month in…

So we are now officially a month and a bit into my stay at Wellington. A couple weeks of fun in Auckland and now adjusting to living in a city versus simply traveling. The fact of the matter is… It can be a bit boring to talk about! This trip is very much a personal journey, one where I’m learning to adapt and make appropriate adjustments to my life. I’m learning to take things less seriously and just simply be. Which is a story I’ve told a thousand times before but one that’s always worth telling.

A journey of self discovery

So I’ve been learning a lot about myself on this trip. What I like, what I don’t like. And I’m learning to relax. The hard reset is in full effect. I don’t have to do anything here. I can just live and adapt. There’s no rush to be anywhere and I have become reinspired to improve my life. I went to church (once) and have been going to ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) meetings on a consistent basis. I’m also trying this new thing where I take full responsibility for my problems and don’t play the blame game. It’s been a while since I’ve lived on my own, so it’s been a big adjustment getting into the swing of things on this trip. No money? Get a job? Need to save money? Don’t eat out. Buy secondhand, don’t buy new. Learn to sew instead of throwing away clothing. It turns out, a lot of basic necessities and skills I need to simply survive as a human being I am simply lacking, so I am slowing leveling up my skillset. It’ll take work but I’m up for the challenge.

Living vs. Adventure

So it turns out if you’re living in a foreign country, you can’t travel all the time! I am grocery shopping, I am going on swims, I am going on hikes. Wellington is absolutely beautiful and the city is fantastic. The activities I enjoy, I can do for free. There’s been a live concert series and night lights in the botanical garden for the summer, so it’s been something to do while I pass the time.

Coffee culture is great and I only had coffee a couple times! I’ve opted for a thing called “freeze-dried” coffee which is cheap and not too bad. I’ve been to the bars and they’re also fun! A lot of the bars have live music, so I’ve been doing some dancing as well. I’ve also been spending a lot of the time with the British since my arrival and have learned of wonders such as “marmite” and “beans and on toast”.

No Money, No Problem

My first job will be this week and it’ll be a casual job for a Foo Fighters concert! I was sick for a week so I was unable to apply for other roles. Since office work is hard to find with it being the holiday season, I’ve opted to send out applications to restaurants and work there while I wait. I spent a lot of time in the US obsessing over money so here I’m trying to relax a bit more and just have faith that it’ll all work out. Rent is cheap and I’m in a nice area (beach 20 minute walk, next to the city center, and hiking 7 minutes away), so I can’t complain. Basically all I want is to watch concerts for free, get free or discounted meals, and maybe do some catering work so I can get fed gourmet meals.

Still Figuring it out

So this travel series is a little different than when I was in Germany. Germany I traveled every weekend, ate delicious food, and had a lot to talk about. Here, not so much. It is a quiet, simple life where I lay on a beach without sunscreen and burn myself to a crisp. I’m starting to do more writing related activities outside of my blog so it’ll be interested to see where those go. Right now, I am reading a draft for a book and am hoping to write a review for it here on this very blog. It’s nothing crazy but it’s a start after 10 years of blogging.

And that’s a wrap! Unlike study abroad, this isn’t the most flashy trip! I picked a place to live and am living. Once I get a bit more established, I’ll write guide articles on how to navigate traveling abroad! I’ve done study abroad and now I am living abroad, so I am gaining a lot of knowledge on this subject. Cheers!

State of the blog: 2022

Ah, January. A month of promise, a month of hope. With my resolutions written, it is time to take a look at my blog. My bastion, my slice of the internet. Whatever storm weathered, this is my safest port (if not my only port in the storm). With this post, I wanted to take the time to talk about the past and look forward to the future. All my plans and dreams (blog related), laid out for the world to see.

2020

A lot of planning went into my blog for the year and the effort showed. My goal was to provide consistency without burnout and to that end I am extremely proud of the work I’ve done. I have no pressure to write and have a lot of freedom when it comes to what I write. I’ve situated myself as a poetry, short stories, and articles blog and made the brand Mike Cole, so there’s no confusion as to what you’re getting into.

2021

I could better understand what was working and what could be improved upon. Overall, a great year. A year of growth and progress and I really have no complaints. Some minor tweaks here and there and 2022 is poised to be another great year.

Come this year

I didn’t want to take too long going over the last couple years as this year is the most exciting to me. This year is simply refinement of the core concepts developed in 2020 and 2021.

The Newsletter

The Newsletter is now official. It was experimental in 2020 and was my way of adding cohesion to the blog itself. In the past, if I disappeared for a while, I would occasionally write an update to let people know what was going on. The problem was, it would be completely random. By having a monthly update 7 or 8 times a year, I’m able to better communicate what’s going on. I find it enjoyable to give a glimpse into my life and the reception to the updates has been fantastic. The Newsletter had a bit of a branding crisis early on but this year I’ve worked out most of the kinks and have a better idea of what I want the purpose of the posts to be.

Series

In 2020, when I made the decision to make my blog a more consistent, cohesive experience I looked into what specifically that would look like. The Newsletters were a big aspect of that change. Every month, even if it was a busy month, there would be a newsletter; I wanted practice writing them and it makes a lot of sense from a blogging perspective. The second aspect of the blog was to give myself a time and place to write about what I enjoyed. Up till this point, the articles I wrote were great but once again inconsistent.

Short Stories

For the series, I decided early on there needed to be four. This gave my content a rounded out feeling and would allow me to have exciting content throughout the year. Short Stories are something I had always pondered writing but usually make me blush in embarrassment with how dorky they can be. I equate them to a similar experience as a D and D campaign (I have only played one, I swear!).

The reason I’ve been so adamant regarding scheduled time to write short stories is I truly believe it helps with creative thinking and problem solving. I love any activity that challenges my brain so being able to create a world from nothing is extremely enticing. What I’ve written has garnered positive feedback and it’s an aspect I’ve been wanting to expand upon for a while now.

Sustainability Month

Years of brainstorming and it’s finally come to form. I picked two issues I cared about and chose those as my hills to die on. Sustainability has been near and dear to my heart ever since I was a young lad. My first memory is that of the garden we had at my preschool, picking peas from a pod and remembering how delicious they tasted. In my later years, I joined Students for Environmental Action and built a community garden at my high school. In college, we had a garden in our backyard and even made our own compost from our leftovers. Now, I can at the very least write.

Last year was the first year I started my sustainability series. It was exciting, fun, and for the most part lighthearted (except for the Oregon wild fires). This year, I plan to continue all that was good from the last year and expand upon it. Sustainability is a broad topic so it gives me a lot of ground to cover. I could talk about corporate greed, consumerism, and all in-between. I can also talk about walking, cooking, and all other manner of fun topics. The goal is for the series to be engaging and not go into climate crisis mode. There are many pieces written nowadays that stress the urgency of action but as far as effectiveness I don’t know if I believe it works. I’ve read about terms such as “climate anxiety” and it all seems very peculiar to me. Our world is complicated and my hope is to make it simpler. I’m excited for what this year brings!

Mental Health

Mental Health is a tough subject to talk about. In my everyday, I brush it off when in the company of others. I tell everyone everything is fine and it’s rare I’ve been vulnerable around anyone. A lot has happened to me the last couple years so the articles planned for this year will reflect that. I have a rough outline of what I want to talk about and overall I’m excited to share as I work through my life. This year will be a mix as I experiment with articles, only one is planned to be heavy subject matter with the rest being general mental health articles that are more on the lighthearted side.

Poetry Month

Celebrating national poetry month was fantastic last year. I opted to return to form to when I had started this blog all the way back in 2015. A simpler time filled full of questions of the weeks and a bunch of random other topics as I tried to gain a foothold on my chaotic world. It is rare that I have the opportunity to reach back into the past and pull it into the present, so the fact I can for poetry month has brought a smile to my face.

Most poems I write nowadays I simply write and leave up to the readers interpretation. I have my inspiration but the beauty of poetry is applying your own meaning to the poem you’ve read. To make poetry month special, I brought back analyzing poetry from my ‘Fruitful Friday’ series, a now ancient relic of a bygone era. The best part is now the analysis is of my own poetry rather than famous poets. Poetry month will stay the same for this upcoming year.

In Sum

There won’t be any major changes this year. The website is easy to read and follow and the content has been solidified. I am talking about what I want to talk about and the final piece of the puzzle has been resolved this last year. Horror Month is no more and Short Story month is here to stay. There are no creative restrictions and basically the sky is the limit for what I can write about. Two to three articles a month is reasonable for me and writing now takes top priority over other activities.

That’s it! This is just an overview for the upcoming year! Of course there will be updates through the Newsletters and more to come as we get closer the series. I’ll be back soon for the February Newsletter!

December 2021 Newsletter: A crazy couple of months.

So it is now officially November December. A lot has happened since September and I’ve risen from the dead to give an update.

The New

Towards the end of September, I had accepted an offer to become an insurance account manager. Come mid October, the offer slipped from my hands and within a matter of weeks I landed a new job as a Welcome Desk Associate. October was stressful but ended on a high note as I’m now making money and can take a deep breath after what has been pure chaos for a little over a year now.

Horror Month: Oops

I had big plans for October and ultimately, they fell through… Horror Month I still think will be fun but I have begun questioning the limitations of making it a story centric month. I had great ideas for horror themed poetry and articles but was so focused on short stories that I ultimately did nothing. That said, I might repurpose some of the drafts that never saw the light of day for future short stories. Horror month is my most experimental so I honestly don’t know if I want to keep it. All other series from last year were a resounding success (Mental Health, Sustainability, and Poetry) but Horror Month has proven tricky. I’ll be tinkering with the final series category yet again… I’ve done Horror Month for one year so I might try simply making a Short Story Month.

Thanksgiving

It has come and gone. I sang, I ate, and even got my haircut. For the first time in about four years, I was able to spend it with my cousins and relatives. No Black Friday and no Cyber Monday! It was fun, cheery, and motivation to get my life in order.

Upcoming Plans

For this month, this is it. The blog was set up last year to make it easy to post while having a job, so I’m finally putting that theory to the test. Write a book? I now have time. Create a podcast? I can really dive into that. Gain certificate after certificate to build credentials for work? Also very feasible. And of course, blog!

The Winter season (aka now) will be slow filled with poetry and delight; two poems, spread out between the December weeks. Come 2022 I’ll be doing Poetry, Mental Health, and Sustainability Month so that will keep me quite busy as I explore those topics further. I have some great ideas and am looking forward to begin work on each. And the Fourth Series will land one of these days. Short Story Month is sounding much better the more and more I say it.

This Last Year.

Has been a huge success. I am grateful for how much the blog has grown and however crazy my life has gotten, through the ups and downs, my blog has been here. From a blog I never expected anyone to read to now, it’s been a journey I’ve enjoyed. As we get closer to January, I’m glad to keep writing and improve myself in the process. Thanks for reading and stay safe as we usher in a new year!

February 2021 State of the blog

Truth be told, I am writing this in the middle of January. We have a lot to cover this year and I’m excited to tackle what will hopefully be the best year of the blog yet.

The Month of January

With January I tried something new; I took my New Year’s resolution post and tried to make it a hybrid of my goals and the status update posts I did throughout 2020. In the future, I will leave the two separate. The formats I’ve come to realize are completely different even if in theory it could “work”. It’s better to take the time to do both as January is the month I have the most to say and really sets the tone for the year. So with that said, what’s in store?

Poetry and Short Stories

Last year, I took time to evaluate stock and see what I valued as a writer. I played with business articles on Linkedin and even considered a second blog on Medium. I also, had an informational for writing roles and ultimately decided not to mess with the formula. Poetry I’ve always loved and short stories are great writing practice. I’m obsessed with dystopian fantasies and realized I could write my own stories to further my own writing abilities and entertain. In fact, October I’ve dedicated to the pursuit. A spooky month to write and this upcoming year will be combining horror with various genres rather than strictly horror.

I’ve found my strength in writing Sci-Fi stories and thus I’ll primarily be sticking to this genre until my writing improves. Poetry will cover any topic that comes to mind as I’ve been doing it the longest and there are few barriers when I sit down to write.

Articles

I’ve been meaning to write more, however, articles take a while and do not always have the intended payoff. In the past, I just wrote whatever was on my mind as I navigated the world. As I’ve become more articulate, there has been less of a need to write about such topics. As such, I’ll be reassessing how I approach articles and see if I can’t find ways to innovate my process. The month of May is dedicated to Mental Health and will essentially be my “article” month but ideally I would like to do more if I can find a nice flow.

April, May, and October

This will be the first year where certain months are focused around a theme. April will be Poetry Month with a new poem every week. May will be Mental Health Awareness Month and will be an article every week covering various Mental Health topics, and October will be Horror Month with a focus on writing Short Stories. No more guessing when I’ll be writing, I spent a year figuring that part out!

Status Updates

Overall, status updates have added a cohesiveness to the blog that has been much needed. It gives me a chance to keep everyone in the loop and helps to organize my monthly thoughts. I’ve played around with a couple ideas and have decided 9 status updates a year works for my needs. I thought about doing a seasonal update (Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer) but realized 4 a year might be too little and my initial concern of my status updates getting in the way of writing other posts has all but disappeared. I also thought of a bi-annual update in an update mega post but have opted for gradual updates even if I feel I don’t have much to say in a given month. Short or long it matters not as I can shift the focus of what I cover in each update.

Marketing and other Goals

I’ve had limited success with Twitter and Facebook. Without a dedicated marketing team, that leaves success up to the fates. Last year I put a lot of pressure on myself to expand inorganic growth and learned quite a lot about social media along the way. This year, I’m taking a step back. I now have a Facebook page and Twitter is still around. Social Media I find to be exhausting and not where the majority of my readers come from. Organic growth through the WordPress reader is how most find my blog and I’m ok with that; this is a hobby blog and I’m not a company, so growth will come naturally.

Asking for Follows: The Stats

While it doesn’t hurt to ask for a follow or a like, I found that asking for support only made a real difference in the first months of 2020. After that, it was more or less the same as it has always been. For the last quarter of 2020, I stopped asking for follows at the end of each post and didn’t notice any changes. As such, I’m making the change for 2021 to make a mention on my update posts and thus free my other posts from the clutter. I also may draft a default statement rather than write out a new statement each time; this change should be cleaner and I expect to see positive results for 2021.

Patreon and Ko-Fi

The ultimate goal is to have the blog pay for itself, the dream is to make a little extra spending money on the side. To do this, I will need to invest more time and energy into both sites, which is easier said than done. 2020 was a successful year for Patreon and was happy to receive some support during the year. Unlike asking for a follow, I may simply keep adding a link to my support page after each post or I may simply ask here. While there is a tab on the website, I’ve found more engagement when I’ve taken the time to mention it should you feel inclined to help out this one man blog. All in all, 2021 is looking to be the best year of my blog and my hope is that it dwarfs 2020, which is now officially the best year the blog has had.

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As always, thanks for reading!