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	<title>Alex Priest &#187; relationships</title>
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	<link>http://alexpriest.com</link>
	<description>Alex Priest&#039;s personal blog, on marketing, social media, technology, politics, and life in general.</description>
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		<title>Gross and Exciting</title>
		<link>http://alexpriest.com/2011/06/29/gross-and-exciting/</link>
		<comments>http://alexpriest.com/2011/06/29/gross-and-exciting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:53:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Priest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Career Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[american university]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[americanu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anacostia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[au]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[challenge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[college]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crew]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exciting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friendships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[getting things done]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gross]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[risk]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexpriest.com/?p=1335</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My sophomore year of college, I decided to do something totally crazy. Crazy in my little non-athletic, geeky, technology-filled universe, anyway. I joined the crew team. Yup. I started waking up at 4 a.m. every day. I put on spandex. &#8230; <a href="http://alexpriest.com/2011/06/29/gross-and-exciting/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>My sophomore year of college, I decided to do something totally <i>crazy</i>. Crazy in my little non-athletic, geeky, technology-filled universe, anyway.</p>
<p>I joined the crew team.</p>
<p>Yup. I started waking up at 4 a.m. every day. I put on spandex. I worked my ass off for months to get in shape (and actually&mdash;surprisingly&mdash;did). It was one of the best and hardest years of my entire life, but I loved every minute of it.</p>
<p>One day in mid-November, a few of my crew mates decided to do something even more ridiculous than wake up at 4 a.m. to go row. They jumped in the river. And this isn&#8217;t some big, beautiful blue river, with nice warm water and beaches. We&#8217;re talking about the Anacostia River. A river that has the dubious distinction of being <a href='http://dcist.com/2011/05/report_anacostia_river_one_of_the_m.php" target=_blank>&#8220;one of the most polluted&#8221; waterways in the United States</a>. It was cold, disgusting, filled with garbage, and probably God-only-knows-how-many infectious diseases. Needless to say, I didn&#8217;t join them in their morning swim.</p>
<p>It was gross. But exciting. And I found myself&mdash;later on&mdash;wishing that I had joined them after all.</p>
<p><span id="more-1335"></span><center><a href="http://dcist.com/2011/05/report_anacostia_river_one_of_the_m.php" target=_blank><img alt="Anacostia River via DCist" src="http://dcist.com/attachments/Aaron%20Morrissey/2011_0502_anacostia.jpg" width="500px" style="margin-bottom:5px"></a></center>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve reached a point in my life where I&#8217;m understanding how confusing that particular emotion can be. I&#8217;m done with college. Outside of work and paying bills on time, I have no real responsibilities. I&#8217;m finding that my relationships are changing dramatically, both friendships and the more intimate ones. And I&#8217;m finding that, at times, these weird shifts feel kind of gross.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s this weird little sinking feeling you get when you jump in to something new. Just like jumping into that cold, dark, disgusting Anacostia River water. It hurts a little, and you know that there&#8217;s some serious risk involved&#8230; but it&#8217;s also exciting. You know that at this point it&#8217;s ok to take those risks because, well, there&#8217;s simply no better time to do it.</p>
<p>In short, I feel like I&#8217;m at the point in my life where everything I do is a little like that. I&#8217;m finally jumping in. Throwing away those reservations&mdash;attempting to push aside the fear and pain of the consequences&mdash;and <i>just fucking doing it</i>. It sucks sometimes. It&#8217;s a little gross.
<p>But exciting.</p>
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		<title>Pre-Resolutions</title>
		<link>http://alexpriest.com/2010/11/23/pre-resolutions/</link>
		<comments>http://alexpriest.com/2010/11/23/pre-resolutions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2010 02:57:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Priest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pre-resolutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resolutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[temptation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexpriest.com/?p=1254</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So as I was getting on the train today, burger and milkshake in hand, I realized that maybe I&#8211;and perhaps you, too&#8211;have been going about resolutions all wrong. The usual method is to indulge throughout the holidays, whine about your &#8230; <a href="http://alexpriest.com/2010/11/23/pre-resolutions/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a rel="lightbox" href="http://alexpriest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/resolutions.jpg"><image width="200" style="float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:5px" src="http://alexpriest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/resolutions.jpg"></a>So as I was getting on the train today, burger and milkshake in hand, I realized that maybe I&#8211;and perhaps you, too&#8211;have been going about resolutions all wrong.</p>
<p>The usual method is to indulge throughout the holidays, whine about your indulging on January 2, then set some resolutions on January 3 that are usually broken by January 15. Am I right? Well what if we started setting resolutions when we&#8217;re most tempted, instead of waiting until we&#8217;re the least motivated to keep them?</p>
<p>I know this doesn&#8217;t really fall under my usual subject matter here on the blog, but there&#8217;s a few reasons I think setting resolutions now is a much better idea than waiting until January.</p>
<p><b>First</b>, now is the time when you&#8217;re most tempted. If you can force yourself to obey some of those resolutions now, at the end of the year and through the holidays, then chances are you can easily stick it out after the first of the year. I mean, if I can make it through Thanksgiving and Christmas without gorging on ice cream, then I can certainly manage it well into 2011 as well.</p>
<p><b>Secondly</b>, now is the best time to find support. If you want encouragement from family and friends, now is probably when you&#8217;re spending some of the most time around them. And you can leverage both your <a href="http://twitter.com/alexpriest" target=_blank>social</a> <a href="http://facebook.com/alexpriest" target=_blank>networks</a> as well as your &#8220;real-life&#8221; relationships to keep you in line and sticking to your &#8220;pre-resolutions&#8221;.</p>
<p><b>Finally</b>, bragging rights. Just think, if you can kick off your resolutions an entire <i>month</i> in advance, just think about how great it&#8217;ll feel rubbing that in your friends&#8217; faces once they struggle to get started in January. And more importantly&#8211;and more constructively&#8211;you can act as motivation for those around you to stick to some of their new year&#8217;s resolutions, too. Or hell, maybe you can convince them to jump in on some &#8220;pre-resolutions&#8221;, too.</p>
<p>What do you think? What kind of resolutions do you usually make at the beginning of the year? Will you make any pre-resolutions this year? I&#8217;m still compiling my list&#8230; but I&#8217;m sure I can think of plenty of pre-resolutions that need to be made!</p>
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		<title>Refresh</title>
		<link>http://alexpriest.com/2010/08/09/refresh/</link>
		<comments>http://alexpriest.com/2010/08/09/refresh/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:07:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Priest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[appreciation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[friendship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[habits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opportunity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reboot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[routine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexpriest.com/?p=1035</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I need to reboot. To refresh. To hunker down and get my crap together. Or at least that&#8217;s how it feels this morning. I&#8217;m a productive person. I&#8217;m busy, I&#8217;m kind of all over the place, and I like to &#8230; <a href="http://alexpriest.com/2010/08/09/refresh/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a rel="lightbox" href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/4868220893_bbd6cfd946_b.jpg" title="Early AM 0810_66 by alex.priest, on Flickr"><img style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-top: 4px" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/4868220893_bbd6cfd946_m.jpg" alt="Early AM 0810_66" /></a>I need to reboot. To refresh. To hunker down and get my crap together. Or at least that&#8217;s how it feels this morning.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m a productive person. I&#8217;m busy, I&#8217;m kind of all over the place, and I like to have fun on occasion, too. But this morning I woke up and realized I need to refresh and mix it up a bit.</p>
<p>The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. They&#8217;ve been a mix of strange relationships, overwhelming opportunities, exciting adventures, hard work days and hot summer nights. It&#8217;s been fun and all that jazz, but it&#8217;s also cost money, time and patience. So there&#8217;s a few things I want to work on.</p>
<p><b>First, I&#8217;m going to fix my routine.</b> Several days in the past few weeks I&#8217;ve woken up early. Like super early. Like 4 a.m.-holy-crap-am-I-really-awake-two-hours-before-the-sun-comes-up early. It&#8217;s an absolutely amazing feeling and every time I wake up early and kick off my day with some good exercise, the rest of my day is 100 times better for it. So here we go. Enough of the late nights during the week and rushing to get to work. Enough of thinking <i>oh I shouldn&#8217;t bike today because I woke up late and I&#8217;m still tired</i>. Enough!</p>
<p><b>Second, I&#8217;m going to change my habits.</b> My work habits. My spending habits. My eating habits. This all needs to change, especially if I want to continue being successful this fall (when I add six classes to my schedule). I need to start doing work from home, or in a quiet, focused environment. I need to stop spending so damn much money (I&#8217;m sorry, parents!), and I need to work hard to find ways to make my school more affordable. And I need to eat better, and start taking the time to cook more on my own. Does it take time? Sure. But it&#8217;s just as relaxing as sitting down and watching TV, or wasting time online, and sure as hell a lot more productive.</p>
<p><b>Finally, I need to appreciate more.</b> I need to spend less time complaining about silly things (relationships, metro, weather, ya know) and more time appreciating the simplicities <i>and</i> complexities in life. Appreciating nature, appreciating friends, appreciating the opportunities thrown my way almost each and every day. I do my best to never take things for granted, but I find myself slipping into a trend of not recognizing how lucky I am. I&#8217;m very lucky&#8211;for my friends, my city, my opportunities, my school, and even my problems (they could be worse!)&#8211;and I need to take note of that each and every day.</p>
<p>Do you ever feel like you need a refresh? A quick reset? To mix things up a bit? How do you do it, and what do you do it for? Let me know.</p>
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		<title>A liberal blogger, a conservative blogger, and a journalist all walk into Microsoft&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/24/a-liberal-blogger-a-conservative-blogger-and-a-journalist-all-walk-into-microsoft/</link>
		<comments>http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/24/a-liberal-blogger-a-conservative-blogger-and-a-journalist-all-walk-into-microsoft/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:24:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Priest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[DC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alanrosenblatt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[briandresher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[capaction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dcevents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[panel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rebeccawales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sgp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smcdc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[socialmedia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[usatoday]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexpriest.com/?p=654</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sounds like the beginning of a bad geek joke, doesn&#8217;t it? Well actually, it was the setting of tonight&#8217;s Social Media Club DC event, titled &#8220;Leveraging Online Relationships,&#8221; and hosted at Microsoft&#8217;s Friendship Heights office here in Washington, D.C. Organized &#8230; <a href="http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/24/a-liberal-blogger-a-conservative-blogger-and-a-journalist-all-walk-into-microsoft/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sounds like the beginning of a bad geek joke, doesn&#8217;t it?</p>
<p>Well actually, it was the setting of tonight&#8217;s <a title="SMCDC" href="http://smcdc.wordpress.com" target="_blank">Social Media Club DC</a> event, titled &#8220;Leveraging Online Relationships,&#8221; and hosted at Microsoft&#8217;s Friendship Heights office here in Washington, D.C. Organized and hosted by the awesome <a title="@sarahwurrey on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/sarahwurrey" target="_blank">Sarah Wurrey</a>, the event blew our geeky little minds, as usual. The panel consisted of:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a title="@drdigipol on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/drdigipol" target="_blank">Alan Rosenblatt</a> &#8211;</strong> A digital strategist, liberal organizer, professor and blogger, Alan is <em>also</em> the Associate Director of Online Advocacy for the <a title="@CAPaction on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/CAPaction" target="_blank">Center for American Progress</a>. Lucky me, this has been my second time to meet him in the past five days (he can&#8217;t escape me, haha!) and I swear he teaches me <em>so much</em> every time, not to mention every day via Twitter/Facebook/etc.</li>
<li><strong><a title="@becs09 on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/becs09" target="_blank">Rebecca Wales</a> </strong>&#8211; Rebecca is the Director of Communications for Smart Girl Politics, a conservative action network. Now obviously I have my qualms with her cause, but she&#8217;s got some real talent and she&#8217;s an incredibly nice person. She&#8217;s a ton of fun to talk to and I learned a lot from her tonight. Plus, know thy enemy, right? (Just kidding, Rebecca!)</li>
<li><strong><a title="@bdresher on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/bdresher" target="_blank">Brian Dresher</a> </strong>&#8211; He is the Marketing Manager for <em>USA Today</em>, and boy is he smart. Not only did he provide some excellent insight into social media, but he provided the unique viewpoint of someone who&#8217;s industry is changing rapidly and dramatically&#8211;journalism. He told us a little about what <em>USA Today</em> is doing to continue to connect with its audience, and even told us where you can get a little bit of a <a title="social.usatoday.com" href="http://usatmedialounge.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">behind-the-scenes glimpse</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, clearly, you missed out. Anyway, be sure to check <a title="Twitter Search: #smcdc" href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23smcdc" target="_blank">the hashtag stream</a> for more learnings from the evening. Also, see my photos from the event embedded below or <a title="SMCDC February" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexpriest/sets/72157623379760041/" target="_blank">here on my flickr</a>.</p>
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