There were pieces of the site that I just hated using or working with. Why? Because I was doing things manually, and anytime you do something manually, it becomes tedious and a pain to do. What next? You just end up not doing those tedious things. Like posting. Keeping track of the events that I’m speaking at. Add to that the additional work of managing and responding to comments and that lead to inactivity.

So, with that, we unveil this new version — a new design with new functionality via some WordPress plugins. Jeff Smith, (the perfect hybrid designer/developer) who works with us over at Further Ahead created something that I just love — a beautiful design that inspires me to fill the screen with worthy writing. He also did the coding and WordPress integration, and some custom WP plugins (and mods to existing plugins) to help manage the speaking/training events listed over in the sidebar and the tumblelog that pulls in content from the pieces of me scattered across the internets. All in record time so that we could go live. The wonderful illustrated bench graphic was commissioned from the brilliant artist Anton Peck. Huge thanks both of them for such a wonderful job on this project!

The first version of the blog is archived for historical purposes, and with the magic of some rewrite rules (we hope) we haven’t broken any incoming links. I’m sure there are a few things that still need some tending to, but for the most part, here it is. Welcome!