Dharma Bum

Missing this hippy..

Inspired

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to get together for lunch with my friend Suzanne Broughton. Because of our schedules, it seems that Suz and I can only get together once every six months. For those that don't know, Suz has been the biggest influence on me with all the online/social media stuff that I do. Suz was the one that bullied me into starting Dharmabum, getting on Twitter, and hooking me up with the OC Metro writing gig. At some point yesterday our conversation turned to the influence of Twitter. Suz is a big proponent of the power of Twitter and its potential reach. I wont bore you with all of that, but she did suggest that I get a little more detailed with my Twitter profile. There's not much you can do in a 160 characters, but surprisingly it did cause me to pause and think about who I am these days. In a nutshell this is what I came up with:

Narrative Therapy/Inquiry Practitioner. Blogger for @OCMetro Magazine, Social Entrepreneur, Community Worker, Art & Poetry Enthusiast. Test Pilot & Raconteur

Now that might not seem like such a big deal to anybody, but two pieces hit me in a enlightening way.

Social Entrepreneur: Yes, I have a long entrepreneurial background, and have even spoke about social entrepreneurship at a conference, but I never identified as a social entrepreneur. Until now. It struck me that what Anne and I are doing with the Narrative Project of Orange County is establishing a social enterprise. A low/no cost community counseling clinic that will serve our community in need. I have to say, it felt good to try on this new identity.

Community Worker: But I think it felt even better to discover that I am at a place, where at times I wasn't so sure I wanted to be, working in the community giving back. As I look back now it all makes sense, all the schooling and training, the amazing people that have influenced me and my world view, the theory, the practice, the hard times, all of it has brought me to this place where I can call myself, a community worker. I'm right where I've always wanted to be.

So who knew a conversation about Twitter would lead me here, but that's what happens when you have lunch with Suz. I suppose I should also apologize to all my friends in advance, now Suz wants to me to get on Foursquare. Sorry.

The Crew

The ones that save me from myself..

Andrea

Andrea asked me today if I want to go skiing with her in a couple of weeks. Well, she'll snowboard I'll ski. I was just thinking that I would like to go one more time before the end of the season. She's also selling her VW Bus, it's the total surf mobile. I want to buy it. Time to start working on the wife. Here's Andrea:

Jeffrey

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Kai & Stacy

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Lovers Part 2

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Gerri & Courtney

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Lovers

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

The Bot

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

B-Day Boy Nicky

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

At the LAM Auction w/Mindy & Karen

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Bobby

Kai

Lunch With Scott

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Carrie

My friend Carrie Paterson has an interview at Huffington Post up right now. Check it out. She's one of the smarter people I know. Lit major at Yale, MFA at UCI, etc., etc. She was on the schedule to show at The office before we closed. This project needs to be seen around here somewhere....

Free kisses

Here's a cool little video My friend Suzanne made. Watch out for them again on Valentines Day 08. Free Kisses!

Jeff

Tina in my office to yell at me

Lunch with Glo

Just in case anybody is wondering who Glo in the comments is, here's a pic from lunch at Lazy Dog today, my sister from another mother.