Since I have been struggling a bit to find the right intersection of time and inspiration lately, I figured I’d write a post with a few highlights of what I plan to do with this space in the future. Of course there is no timeline for these plans or anything resembling a “goal” to ensure these plans get executed. In fact, at this point, I can say there’s probably no more than a 50% chance of any of them coming to fruition, and I’m totally OK with that. You should be too.

First, I have been talking about adding to this site, building it out with one or more of my projects that I have in mind to start progressing on. I can’t really share more than that because these extra projects are still stewing and brewing in my mind. It’s hard to describe, but expect something exciting at some point.

Second, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to collaborate more on a writing or storytelling project with my dad, who is an excellent communicator/writer on his own. However, for obvious reasons, he is not the most technologically-astute guy out there. So I was thinking about opening up this blog/project as a vehicle for him to start writing again and get some ideas out there. This may or may not be related to a forthcoming book project, cowritten by me and my dad, but anything is possible.

Third, and I believe I may have mentioned this before, but with additional content, I’m toying with the idea of placing some parts of this blog (whole sections, some blog posts, etc) behind a paywall. There would be no minimum monthly figure for access, but even a couple people paying $1-5/month would feel like a huge success, like I was contributing something that was valuable to someone, which is all I ever wanted to do in the first place.

And lastly, perhaps most importantly, I am beginning to consider and taking minor steps toward truly identifying myself, coming out of the shadows and laying claim to my work on this blog with my real name. Until now, my anonymity was a bit of a security blanket, allowing me to speak more freely than I would otherwise. And while I have shared my blog link with a select number of friends, family members and supportive coworkers, they have all been advised that I was fine with anonymous sharing of my work, but they were not, under any circumstances to “out” me as the author, especially at work. As time has progressed though, I have become more comfortable and more confident with my autism diagnosis, my new take on life and my status at my current employer. My confidence is the primary reason I am considering connecting my blog to my LinkedIn profile over the next couple months. To that end, I have asked a couple of my trusted neurotypical friends/confidantes to give me some guidance if there are old posts that would be best if they were hidden before I do this.

So I am opening up to any other readers who might want to help me. You can either reply to me through the blog with names of posts that might not be entirely “professional” or drop a comment on the individual posts, specifically. If you request to keep the comments private, I will not publish them, but all input is welcome and helpful. As told to my friends, I’m OK with being fairly provocative, since I’ve already been fairly provocative on LinkedIn anyway. I just don’t want to be fired for something I wrote at 2am, after a cannabis edible, that may just be dumb. That said, I do plan to keep writing in the blog while in that enhanced creative state; I will just be paywalling that stuff in the future for my security and your enjoyment.

I think that’s all, folks! If I were more ambitious/goal-oriented/motivated, I would probably have done all this already. There is little blocking my progress, but it must be organic, flowing progress, like lava creates earth. It moves unpredictably, slowly, and in bursts. I am like Pele.