Got some great news to share, today, gang: When HARO was acquired by Vocus in June of 2010, I promised that there’d be no changes to the HARO – It’d still be free, it’d still do everything we told you it would do, and that when we did have changes, they’d benefit you, and you’d hear it here first. All of those things are still true. And today, we’ve got some really, really great news. First off – Still want the HARO the way it is, free, with nothing else? Done. You got it. We promised we’d never take that away, and we won’t. There are some good optional changes coming, though, and I want to share them with you. [...]

Another in the continuing series of How to Be Taken Seriously – This one involves knowing when NOT to talk. I used to have this totally insane, very loud friend, who’d call me up on random weekdays and be all like, “I don’t want to go to work today. Let’s go to a spa.” I usually turned her down, but the one time I went, I remember the spa having a sign that’s stuck with me to this day. It said simply… “Embrace the Silence.” The concept was simple. You were in a spa. You were waiting for your treatment, or just got out of one. You were relaxed. It was quiet. There was no need to talk, or jump [...]

You don’t realize how important friends are until you need them. You don’t realize the concept of “followers” and “fans” means so much more than just a number on a screen. To everyone who reached out to me this past week during what was a really, really bad time for me: Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Ignore the giant stress pimple on my forehead. Apparently, I’m 16 years old.

To do: Self-portrait at Bay of Bengal with hammock in foreground, ocean in background. Done.

In the early spring of 1999, I was living in a studio the size of a pizza on 43rd Street and 10th Avenue. It was a cold day, and I was walking into my building against a cold wind. As I’m opening the door (I had a doorman who didn’t do anything at the time) I hear the quietest and meekest “Mew” that you could ever hear. I look down, and there’s this shivering ball of fur staring up at me. I couldn’t just leave here there, as pitiful and small as she was. So I picked her up. She immediately scratched me, then looked up at me with those eyes. That set the tone for the next 13 years. [...]