My mentor, the mayor

After high school and growing-up into college I had a lot of fine opportunities to meet a lot of fine folks.  One of them was Barb Tolbert.  She became my mentor in that she taught me a lot about my profession of the time (public relations and marketing) and, like all great mentors, bestowed upon me her wisdom of many general life lessons that I still use to this day.  She encouraged me, and sat me right-down on my butt when needed.  She is one of my cherished friends, even as time and life have escaped us.  I admire her, and I know she is great.

It did not surprise me when I learned a few months ago that she was running for mayor – how cool!  And she did it!  Barb Tolbert is the Mayor-elect of Arlington, WA.  I am so proud of her and the community she continues to build, encourage and foster.

Barb – you are one of my personal heros.  I just know that you will continue to do great things and that your constituents are very lucky to have somebody as impassioned as you are to lead them.

Congratulations!  You’re a rock star!

A decade of blogging

I’ve been blogging for a decade. 10 years already… huh!

While this is certainly an interesting point in a time line, it’s really only an electronic analogue to a diary. I’m sure many people have been keeping diaries for longer. Nonetheless I’m kinda tickled to meet this milestone. I started “blogging” before “blog” was even a noun or a verb; indeed before it was even a popular catchphrase. Indeed I had my first web page back in 1995 (See my “Deep Archive” link above)

That’s a lot of time and bandwidth (timewidth?) dedicated to my own banter. What have I accomplished in that time?

As it turns out quite a bit. I became a true adult (still out for some debate). I had a successful consulting company (official corporation even!) and then transferred clients/closed it after my clients became successful and got gobbled-up by other, bigger corps in what became the dot com bomb. I moved to California and back. I bought a house. Got cats. Sold a house. Bought a condo. Used five different types of blogging software. Stumbled into a great relationship. And generally observed what made me laugh and ranted upon the stuff that irritated.

As I look back at some of my entries it makes me smile and laugh a lot. Also I cringe a lot…was I THAT shrill, really? Or was I THAT stupid, really? But that’s the deliciousness of time and becoming older — the cumulative benefit of your experiences always makes you wiser and wiser.

So what will the next decade have in store? Who knows….That is what is fun, and worth living!

-Garrett

1998:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1998/

1999:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/2/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/3/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/

2000:

http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/1/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/2/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/3/

2002
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2003/1/

2003:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2003/2/

2004:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2004/1/

2005:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2005/1/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2005/2/

2006:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2006/1/

P.S.: I’m going to attempt to add these old entries to my database. So if you subscribe to the RSS feed you may see a slew of new entries. I’ll be careful to set the date in the posts properly, but I’m unsure if they will appear in the RSS feed because they are “new” entries as far as the database is concerned…

Vote.

Do it — it’s the job every American has in common.

And yes it should come as no surprise I voted Obama and think you should, too.

Vote for Lauren Briel!

My good friend Lauren is running for Seattle city council!

Lauren Briel is a focused, independent new voice in Seattle politics running to restore accountability and rekindle the spark of decisive leadership in our City Council. Our city is a beautiful, diverse community, and it demands an inclusive political process involving not just the policy makers but key stakeholders and the community at large.

http://www.votelaurenbriel.com/

This summer just got a whole lot more interesting! 🙂