Prison Consultant Shows Pattern of Success
Sunday, May 24 through Saturday, May 30, 2015
Sunday, May 24 (Depart San Francisco)
Today Carole and I enjoyed San Francisco together. We left our friends’ home early in the morning and drove into the city. We walked along the same streets that we explored together when authorities first allowed me to transition from federal prison to the halfway house. For my first “day pass,” back in August of 2012, Carole and I spent the day at the Westfield Mall. We had to purchase clothes that I could wear for my first day of work. Today we strolled through some of the same stores, feeling grateful for how far we’ve come during the time that we’ve shared together. Then we boarded our flight back to Orange County from San Francisco.
Monday, May 25 (Systems)
Carole didn’t work at the hospital today, so I worked from home. We wanted to spend time together. I’m trying to create systems that will allow others to assist with efforts I’m making to spread awareness about the criminal justice system. My hopes are to recruit university students who will work with me as interns. In order to allow the students to earn credit, I will need to create “systems” through which I can measure their performance. Tasks that others can assist me with include: writing posts for the podcasts, creating a social media campaign, keeping the social media current and relevant, and reaching out to potential customers. I do all of this work by myself right now, and I need to generate some help. Before I can ask others to help, however, I need to have the systems in place so that we can track and measure performance.
Tuesday, May 26 (Ebooks)
I am reformatting some of my work into another book. Previously, I wrote a series of lessons for PrisonProfessor.com. I wrote those lessons with expectations that more people would find value in them. Yet I’ve had a problem with low traffic to the website. That means I need to restrategize. My new strategy will be to give away more free content. Resources will come from those who retain me for personal consulting services. With that end in mind, I’m repackaging many of the lessons plans that I wrote into a new book. I’ll give it away to defense attorneys and see whether they’ll pass it along to their clients who are anticipating a journey through prison. Those who see value in the work will reach out if they want personal consulting services.
Wednesday, May 27 (Mac Pro)
I drove to the Apple store to purchase a new computer today. I’ve bought many Apple products since my return to society. Initially, I purchased a MacBook Pro. Then I purchased a 27” iMac. I really loved that machine and I later purchased the matching 27” Thunderbolt monitor because I prefer to work on double monitors. All was well with this setup until I began having problems with the fan. The computer would overheat and the fan would start blowing hot air. I prefer to work in silence and the fan annoyed me. I purchased another 27” iMac for Carole when she was advancing through her master’s program, and I envied the speed of her machine. Recently, my iMac began acting up again. The fan wouldn’t stop blowing. I had the fans replaced, but that didn’t solve the problem. Since the computers are essential to my work, I purchased a new Mac Pro, today after work. I’m looking forward to setting up tomorrow morning.
Thursday, May 28 (Set up)
For the first time, I had to set up my own computer. Each computer I purchased previously was ready by the time that I sat down to use it. Carole always set up the computers for me. The drawback was that I never learned how to set up an email, or to connect to all of my accounts–and I have a lot of accounts. I learned a great deal today. But in migrating the files from my iMac to the new Mac Pro, I brought over some of the problems that was slowing down my previous computer. That error resulted in my spending more than three hours on the phone with an Apple technician, and then another 90 minutes on the phone with a technician from Adobe. When the end of the day came, I still did not have a fully functioning computer. Soon.
Friday, May 29 (New Relic)
I left my home early this morning for a light to Oakland. I had scheduled a meeting with Lew Cirne, CEO of New Relic, a technology company. What an awesome experience. After landing in Oakland, I took BART into San Francisco’s financial district. I only had to walk two blocks to New Relic’s extraordinary headquarters. The company occupies the top four four floors of a building with extraordinary views of the San Francisco Bay. From Lew’s office, I could see the Bay bridge and beyond. I’ll broadcast the interview on Monday. Following my time with him, I walked over to meet Andrew Warner, the host of Mixergy. I listen to Mixergy in the early mornings when I run or when I’m driving to work. He hosts a show that he calls “Home of the Ambitious Upstart.” I like it.
Saturday, May 30 (Set up computer)
I was happy to have a full day of office time. Unfortunately, I spent most of the morning working to reconfigure applications that I need for my computer. I record my podcasts over Skype and into Adobe Audition. It took me a long time to set up the configuration an audio engineer had set up on my other computer. I finally got the system working, but not before I wasted several hours trying to understand what was wrong. After setting up the system, I was able to record one podcast. I’ve got so much work to complete that I keep getting further behind. I haven’t published a new podcast since Monday, May 25. I expect to be back on schedule tomorrow.
Miles for week: 27.54
Miles for month: 89.05
Miles run for year: 377.14
Weight: 170