The New Year for Nebraska Odyssey

Something about January inspires new beginnings. Before the digital age, I used to utilize a planner to help me think about my year. Sort of. At least I carried one around with me. Now I attempt to use “OneNote” on my phone and computers to keep myself organized, along with my google calendar. As long as I remember to enter in activities and events, I am good. Because I do like to know what is going on, deciding to delete my “Odyssey Through Nebraska” events calendar for this site does not seem to make sense, at least on the surface.

Initially I put the calendar on this blog, so that I could keep all of you informed of what is happening across Nebraska. Many people think that my state has nothing to offer. I disagree. Nebraska has SO much going on that keeping up with letting you know about all of the activities was too difficult for me. Rather than seeing the calendar as a place to share some of the events, I would feel guilty for not managing to getting them all up online. To truly maintain that plug-in, I really would need to spend an hour or two at least on upkeep every week. Since my time is a limited commodity right now, I needed to let the calendar go because rather than helping me meet my goals, the plugin was bogging me down.

Recently my friend, Lisa, over at The Walking Tourists asked our Omaha Bloggers group to share our social media goals for 2015. For me, this challenge was a good reminder that I want this site and my writing to be purposeful. Thankfully, Lisa also agreed to help with one of my initial goals: finally getting past my reluctance to learn how to use Instagram. After over two years, I only have 60 posts. Pretty pathetic, I know. (Plus this is the place where my teenage son likes to hang out – that alone compels me to be a bit more of an active follower. 🙂 )

Other goals …

To continue to post a few times a week – that seems to be a good rhythm for me.
To let all of you know about some of the upcoming area events with posts and especially with links on my Facebook page.
To continue to be ad-free. I want you to experience great content, rather than waiting on my site for extraneous material to load.
To promote great Nebraska products. Although I am not wanting to do have the hassle of dealing with selling advertisements, I am certainly glad to try out what people send my way. The only necessity – the items must fit in directly with Nebraska. Please let me know if you have something you want me to try. 🙂
To let you know about other people and organizations that are also telling more about Nebraska. Stay tuned because I am starting a new series next week that will do exactly that!
To continue updating the regions sections on my site. This way if you are going to visit one particular area, you can reference my blog for suggestions.
To share a list of possibilities in the region sections as well. Why should the fact that I have not gone yet limit me from telling me about it? 🙂 (This one may not happen for a bit, as I want to make sure that I have categorized the places that I have already explored first!)
Ultimately … to stay true to my tagline.