Life-in-Progress

Life is more than a day job.

We Never Called it “Cyber Monday”

Posted by Alora Posted on Dec - 02 - 2009

I’ve been feeling nostalgic this week. After so many years in ecommerce, supporting catalogers and retailers whose year entirely revolved around the Christmas season, I am almost at a loss for what to do if I’m not running around putting out fires from Thanksgiving weekend up until the week before Christmas. Strange as it seems  [ Read More ]

Keeping Your Spirits Up During a Job Hunt

Posted by Alora Posted on Jul - 01 - 2009

Job hunting is rough for oh-so-many reasons. One of the things that is hardest about it, though, is managing your own attitude and spirits. If there is one thing that is liable to get you into trouble during a job hunt, it is unmanaged anxiety. I’ve written before about some of the things that I  [ Read More ]

20/20 Hindsight – Being Pioneers in a New Space

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 24 - 2009

Ask anyone who got into an internet-based business prior to 2000, and you’ll hear nostalgic “good old days” stories, the way my grandparents talk about ‘when Kennedy was President.’ It’s hysterical to hear, and it saddens me endlessly to think about how long ago that was, but it really was an exciting time — and  [ Read More ]

20/20 Hindsight – Getting Your Start in a Startup

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 23 - 2009

People who did not meet me until at or around my 25th birthday would never believe it, but in school, I was the Queen of Slackers. Truly. School was too easy, too routine and I spent too long doing it to be able to breath new life into the experience. I could dodge classes, do  [ Read More ]

20/20 Hindsight – How Early Career Choices Can Set the Stage

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 22 - 2009

I had a couple of discussions this week that got me thinking back to the early days of my career. Aside from leaving me feeling older than I care to think about, it did spark a pleasant memory or two that I’ve been mulling over since. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about how early career choices  [ Read More ]

Why Agile Isn't Just for Development

Posted by Alora Posted on Apr - 21 - 2009

It’s been years since the evangelism for Agile development started truly gaining momentum. Super sexy buzzphrases phrases like “reduce time to market,” “improved ROI,” and “lower development costs” have all been invoked to support the case for adopting an Agile methodology over the old-school Waterfall approach. The fact is, most experienced professionals have lived through  [ Read More ]

My First Visit to California in Over a Year

Posted by admin Posted on Mar - 27 - 2009

The hardest thing about leaving JetBlue last year was giving up the travel benefits that helped ease the difficulty of living 3,000 miles away from my family and so many of my friends. One of the things I’ve realized lately is that, even though I am really loving being in Austin, I have been horrendously  [ Read More ]

Highlights from SXSW 2009

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 17 - 2009

Highlights and lessons from my first time at SXSW Interactive.

Blogging from SXSW – Monday

Posted by Alora Posted on Mar - 16 - 2009

Today seems to be the opposite of my previous two days. After deliberately taking everyone’s advice on taking a ‘go with the flow’ approach to the SXSW experience, somehow today has proven crazy-ass busy. 10:30 panel: Beyond Aggregation This was a great panel where we got to hear wonderful speakers, including blogger Louis Gray, discuss  [ Read More ]

Time Management & New Projects

Posted by Alora Posted on Feb - 12 - 2009

Well, things have been crazy as I’ve been learning the ropes for my new roles: Principal & Co-Founder of The Indigo Heron Group, Inc. and Managing Editor of Social Computing Magazine. Lots to learn and lots to do, much of which has taken it’s toll on my blogging efforts. I’m working on some new time  [ Read More ]

Entrepreneurial Lessons from Growing Up in a Family Business

Posted by Alora Posted on Jan - 19 - 2009

As with most major life lessons, it has been many years of gradual recognition that have allowed me to finally begin to understand the full impact of growing up in a family-owned small business. As with most other major life events or conditions, the lessons I thought I was learning at the time often evolved  [ Read More ]

A PM Sans a PMP

Posted by Alora Posted on Jan - 05 - 2009

As I have been looking for new employment as part of our relocation to Austin, I have found myself having to explain (over and over and over again) why it is exactly that, after a decade of working as a project manager, I still have yet to be certified as a Project Management Professional. Unfortunately,  [ Read More ]