For a while now, I've been admiring the way other bloggers cope with the schizophrenic mess that is their digital wake, especially on those days when I'm really swirling around in mine.

Chris Guillebeau, who has rightly taken off like a rocket ship in the past few months, does a monthly look back at his output to catch up those who might have missed stuff; Merlin Mann flirted briefly with the Monthly Pimp (spicy lad!) before deciding to strip down and focus his considerable brainpower on...well, some as-yet-unnamed mystery project that hopefully will be for sale or view in the future. Because I love pretty much everything that boy has produced so far, especially this. (Note: that last was a co-production.)

Rather than turn this into a dig-me parade, I will take my cue from Chris and Merlin and offer this up in the way of curation. I make and do a lot of stuff, more than anyone in her right mind would want to keep up with. So I'll comb through it upon occasion and serve it up here: a neat, edited compendium of what's up, what's coming up, and what's gone down in the previous month. Or month-ish.

You know me, right?

Colleen of the future (places I'll be)

The Monthly Los Angeles Biznik Meet-Up at Jerry's (Tonight, Wednesday, July 16, 5:30 - 8pm) Every four weeks, some of L.A.'s finest independent biz folk gather for cocktails, conversation and oversized plates of deli food. It's awesome, and it's free. (Well, not the drinks or the deli food.) Just register (free!) to become a member of Biznik, then sign up (also free!). Easy-peasy, Cousin Weezy!
The Escape from Cubicle Nation Workshop in Chicago (Friday, July 17) My friend, Pamela Slim, is one of the smartest, funniest, most generous people I've met in recent years. I totally joked about horning in on her all-day extravaganza of awesomeness, and she totally called my bluff. So somewhere during her day of brilliant advice, exercises and encouragement for anyone on either side of the cusp of entrepreneurship, I'll be doing a little song and dance on branding. Expect much merriment.
The Creative Freelancer Conference in San Diego (August 26 - 28) A fantastic, action/info/inspiration-packed 3 days with 200 of your peers. And just 200. Incredible. Read what I have to say about it here, then sign up immediately. $50 advance registration discount ends today!

Colleen of the Past (stuff that went down)

New interview! Here's why you expand your horizons and meet new people: one of them might be the incredible Valeria Maltoni, author of my new-favorite blog on marketing, Conversation Agent. After I left a note in her "About You" page (how's that for a great feature?), she asked if I'd consent to being interviewed. Would I!? Would I!? Yup, I would. Thanks, Valeria!
New interview! Speaking of interviewing, Tracy Pattin is one lady who knows her way around a microphone. A longtime voice-over talent, Tracy interviewed me in my capacity as former Shill for the Man for her popular Voice Registry Podcast.
New blog features! Regular readers will have noted that of late, Thursday has been devoted to poetry, and Friday to recommending cool, non-corporomegalopolic stuff. There's also a landing page of stuff I recommend and an Amazon aStore where you can buy stuff you were gonna buy anyway that makes me a little money so I can buy more stuff to read and review (book reviews are mostly happening on Tuesday now), and on my newsletter.

Colleen of the Present (ongoing projects)

The Virgo Guide to Marketing I'm just over halfway through a year-long project where I work on my marketing daily and blog about it weekly. People seem to dig it, as well as the podcasts I record weekly. Go figger.
communicatrix | focuses My monthly newsletter devoted to the all-important subject of increasing your unique fabulosity. One article per month (with actionable tips! and minimal bullsh*t!) about becoming a better communicator, plus the best few of the many cool things I stumble across in my travels. Plus a tiny drawing by moi. Free! (archives & sign-up)
Act Smart! is my monthly column about marketing for actors for LA Casting, but I swear, you'll find stuff in it that's useful, too. Browse the poorly-updated archives, here.
Internet flotsam And of course, I snark it up on Twitter, chit-chat on Facebook, post the odd video or quote to Tumblr, and bookmark the good stuff I find on my travels at StumbleUpon and delicious.

Please let me know if you find this kind of curation at all useful, and/or if there's a better way to handle it. Thanks!

xxx
c

Photo of Arno J. McScruff housed on Flickr, where I also occasionally stick pixels.