Getting Personal

When I started this particular spot on the internet, it was designed to be:

1. Non-work related.
2. Personal
3. Fun
4. Entertaining

I think for the most part, I accomplished #1.

#'s 3 and 4 are subjective and if I wanted to add a 5 and 6 they would be:

5. Thought-provoking
6.Fort Wayne Oriented

But one thing I've shied away from is #2 on my list.

Partially because once you post something online, it's there forever, somewhere thanks to Google and other search engines. And a few years ago, I scolded one of my kids for posting things online (dirty laundry), that she should have simply kept private, or talked in person to me about. A lot of conflicts are simply misunderstandings (especially between Teen & Parent) and I have learned over the years to listen for the core bit of truth in anyones point of view, which helps to untangle the conflicts.

When you reveal things about yourself that go a little deeper than the surface, you open yourself up which can create vulnerabilty and/or intimacy. And in the wrong hands, that can create problems.

I have a common name: Scott Howard.

Do a Google Search on my name and you'll come up with 141,000 results. The connection to me is currently #34, a link to this blog.

The most famous Scott Howard is the character Michael J Fox played in Teen Wolf.

So I created a name, ScLoHo and a Google Search resulted in 3640 results, the first 30 are directly related to me, along with most of the other results.

I purposely put myself out there with this and other blogs I write and edit. I am involved in the community through my work in radio, my involvement in the advertising community, my volunteer activities, and my connecting through local networking groups.

I also have used LinkedIn.com, Twitter, and to a lesser extent Facebook. However I registered my name with over 40 social networking type of sites and have connections accross the globe.

I have reached out and developed friendships in the local business community, the local advertising agency world, the arts community and other "communities". For all of these reasons, I have been careful to guard certain areas of my personal life and the lives of my family.

However, as I move forward, I promise to reveal more. Not that there is anything that is hiding in my life, but perhaps by sharing some of the thoughts and details, it will open new and stronger connections.