one mo blog

I mentioned a couple posts ago that changes are coming. It’s time.

First a little reflection: Can you believe that one mo blog has been up in one form or another for over five years! From Blogspot to Squarespace to Wordpress, this blog has been through a lot of changes. Now, it’s time for a big change, my blog’s biggest change yet, for a couple reasons:

1. I’ve changed. I’m no longer a youth director, or a church planter, or a graduate student. I’m a counselor. In my other roles it was good for me to put out personal information for folks to see. It helped me connect with them better. Now, putting out personal information can be as much a liability as it can helpful, maybe even more so. It’s time my blog started reflecting that and became more professional.

2. Blogs have changed. The personal blog is not the mainstay of the blogosphere anymore. Most people are using social networking sites like Facebook to connect personally, and blogs in general have become more professional. I’ve been putting off making that transition, but when coupled with my new career path it makes sense to do it now.

So what does this mean?

First I’m going to take some time off from blogging. I’m not sure exactly how long, but probably a couple months. I’m considering targeting October 1st as my return to the blogosphere, but I really don’t know. When I return you can expect a more professional blog that combines my interest in counseling, faith, the Bible, and my own personal anecdotes…hopefully with a little of the humor you have come to expect from my writings thrown in every now an then.

Ultimately one mo blog as it exists now will be taken down. I will archive old posts and comments on my computer, and possibly re-publish posts that make the grade for the next phase of my blog life. My goal is to be writing posts 2-3 times a week, so one of the things I’ll be doing for the next couple months is to write off-line and have some stuff ready to hit the ground running.

But what about my personal updates? I’ve considered this a lot. I still have a handful of friends who keep in touch through this site, but most have moved on to Facebook, or I just keep in touch with them old fashined ways like the phone and e-mail.  So for now I’m going to move all personal updates and networking to Facebook. I may revisit that in the future, but for now that’s the plan.

Now, before I sign off, just one question: What should I call the new blog? Is one mo blog professional enough for what I’m considering putting together? Should I stick with something simple like the Matt Otto Blog, or go with something new and different.

Thoughts are appreciated.

Oh, one last thing:  Check my main site (www.matt-otto.com) for future updates.

Ok that’s it.  Last one out turn off the lights.

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Jenny and I have both been sick for the past few days. I’m finally feeling better today, Jenny is still feeling pretty awful though.

It’s a bit frustrating. We didn’t plan being sick into our crazy schedules. We’ve been working really hard to get done what we need to and having things pushed back a couple days seems to create enormous amount of work to get back on track.  Plus, when both of us are sick at the same time there is no one to watch the kids so the sick one can relax.  We took turns napping while the other one watched the kids over the weekend and first couple days of this week.

*deep breath*

The good news is I got a little ahead of my school work last week, so by slowing down this week I’m only a little behind. It’s all the other things (bills, taxes, etc.) that seem to be piling up.

In happier news: I received paperwork about Graduation yesterday. Let the countdown continue! I also handed in my resume to that counseling center I mentioned last week and they quickly got back to me with a list of interview questions.

Exciting times.

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Baltimore 13
Tennessee 10

What a gutsy game. The big difference was obviously turnovers and can you really say enough about Joe Flacco. Sure, he didn’t have stellar stats, but he did enough to win the game, moved the ball when it counted and, most impressively, didn’t turn the ball over.

I’m psyched, this city is psyched, and if you think for one second that any work will get done in this city this week…especially if next weekends opponent ends up being Pittsburgh then you are kidding yourself.

That is all.

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Hey folks,

Sorry I’ve been gone. I was just enjoying my time with my family over break way to much to blog. You know what strike that first sentence, I’m not sorry at all. We had a blast over break. We moved Emma into a big girl bed! Zach got a week with his Dad, and we started putting the small room back together as a nursery. Things are starting to fall in line for the new baby, but we still have a lot to do in the next two months.

Oh, and what about Mia Elizabeth Otto?

We’re pretty set on Mia at this point, but the middle name is still up in the air.

Cayla, Emma and Mia…I like that set of girls names a lot.

Anyway, I know some of my friends and distant family are wondering what is up with us more specifically, so I’ve got a year in review and 2009 preview posts coming up. In short: God has been good, God will continue to be good, and we are SO blessed. Oh, I’m also going to finish the Jehovah-Shammah series…I haven’t forgot and the best posts are still coming.

Thanks for stopping by!

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I feel pretty dumb.  When I posted my intro to the new Jehovah-Shammah series I copied and pasted from a rough draft of the paper.  The revised intro is posted now.  There are only some minor changes, but they do set the stage, so to speak, for the rest of the series.  I figured I’d get this up now before I post part 2 tomorrow.

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I just upgraded to the newest version of Wordpress, and I have to say I’m really impressed. The new administration interface is wonderful. I especially like the recent comments and QuickPress posting built right into the dashboard. Very nice.

The bad part is it seems the archive pages of my style template don’t like the upgrade. I don’t remember having that problem before so the upgrade is the only thing I can think of. It seems like a pretty simple CSS fix so I’ll try to take care of it later this week, or change my style. Until then, just avoid the archive, category and tag pages.

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A friend sent me the link to this article about the O’s new road Jersey:

http://www.pressboxonline.com/story.cfm?id=4415

Pretty cool that my dad had such a big quote, here it is.

Dave Otto, an Ellicott City pediatrician, entertained his stroller-bound granddaughter with orange foam fingers while his son hunted autographs after the ceremony. Otto, whose father was a veteran who used to take his son to Memorial Stadium during the team’s glory years, was happy to see the team’s home proudly identified.
 
“I like it, and I especially like going back to the old Baltimore [script],” he said. “There’s a tradition there with the team and the city.”

So pretty cool right.  I would just like to set the record straight though and say that I didn’t just ditch Emma with My dad so I could go get autographs…well I did, but I took Cayla with me, and about the time Dad was talking to this reporter Cayla was getting her ball signed by Jim Palmer.

That’s all

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For my absence around here this week.  I upgraded wordpress over at the Christian Gamers Blog, and have been dealing with fixing bugs associated with the upgrade with most of my blog time this week.  Blah.

The rest of my free time has been spent playing with my new birthday (and early christmas) present from my family, a PS3…woot.

More to come soon, and thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, both on my blog and facebook.  I felt very loved

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This summer session has been a lot busier than i thought it was going to be.  Taking research and clinical 2 together was not a good idea.  The good news is that my last research class is this Thursday and my last presentation in clinicals was last week so things should slow down this weekend.  As luck (providence?) would have it this is just in time for me to split town with my wife for a romantic weekend at a friends wedding.

For those who want the quick update:

Zach has moved in and the adjustment is going well.  We still have a lot of things to iron out, but for the most part it is all good.

I’ve decided to slow down on my schooling just a little bit.  Internship plus three other classes was a bit much this past spring.  I’m cutting back to internship plus two other classes for the fall.  I’ll still graduate next spring, but I won’t get my counseling license until after next summer semester.  Two months of waiting for some extra sanity seems well worth it.

We still don’t have the Subaru back.  I didn’t really expect it back yet, but I miss my car.

The fourth of July was great.  I’ll have some pictures and a fun story posted next week.

That’s it for now.  Hopefully I’ll be back with more interesting stuff next week.

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Welcome to the new blog home of Matt Otto.  If you’re one of my regular readers you’ll notice some things have changed.  Please give me some time, it’s going to take a bit for me to get this new site up and running, and get content transfered from the old site.

Thanks!

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