Playtime Is Almost Over

For more years than I care to remember I have been blogging for my personal enjoyment, information and education. I  have not written my posts for promotional purposes. I have only written for my own use, and for those who happened upon an article that I either posted or posted about. It will not be an overnight change, but I am starting to make a change.

Better World Media, my current primary blog will one day soon cease to exist. However, almost ever article that has ever been posted in Better World Media will be in the archives of the blogs I am now preparing to go commercial with. This blog contains articles about all of my passions in life outside of my family. However, successful commercial blogs are not operated that way. Successful blogs are like magazines that you would buy at a news stand, except they are on the internet. And, they each serve their own special niche. And, that is what I will now try to begin doing. BWM has 3 primary niches, - music, photography, and travel. I will now have 3 blogs, one for music, one for photography and one for the travel industry. I have already started preparations for establishing each of these blogs under the following names:

Better World Music: BWM is my blog about all phases of the business of music. Music has been a lifelong passion of mine. However, due to the business of life I was separated from the industry for many years. Today, however, I am a musician, I am a songwriter, and I am a performer of sorts. BWM will be about all of the aspects of the music industry that I deal with as I write, perform and promote my songs.

Better World Photography: BWP is my blog about the hobby and business of photography. Photography has been a life long passion of mine. I have made several half way attempts at establishing a business in freelance photography. I now know enough about what I like to photograph that I am establishing two specialty niches, but clinging to my stock catalog because I do have a tendency to start clicking the shutter at anything that interests me.

Better Word Travel: BWT is a blog that deals with what I have done all of my life, travel. However, it is my hopes that I can build a business of my own within the travel industry, and travel in a way that I was never able to do before due to time constraints and commitments.

The blog you are now reading will remain active for now, but will be deleted as my other blogs are ready to go on their own. I have some editing and design work to do on each of the above listed blogs. And, very soon I will add an affiliate program to each of them. Together these 3 blogs, and more are in mind for the future, will form a media corporation under the flagship banner of Better World Media.

City View Trail, Henderson, NV.

Welcome to City View Trail.

*****

It was a spur of the moment decision if it was a decision at all. I had planned to spend the evening at home playing the guitar and watching television. I’m not even sure what made me click the button to get off of the internet, but the next thing I knew I was in my car and gone. Twenty minutes later I was parked at the bottom of a mountain taking photos of and looking around at my surroundings.

City View Trail is a private property owned my Sun City Mac Donald Ranch Community Association. It is a big hill at the edge of a large housing development. Facing the hill there were nice home to my left, to my right, and behind me. There looked to be nothing on the hill but desert bushes, boulders, rocks, gravel and a path that I knew from experience as a teenager that someone had worked very hard cutting through those rocks to build. The trail is only 1.2 miles long, and rated as a moderate walking trail. I was about to learn that the write-ups on this trail may have been factual for an 18 year old athlete fresh out of Marine boot camp, but it was far from factual for a 68 year old flat lander heart patient.

Sunset Mountain

*****

I had walked less than 500 yards on a trail that headed upward and southward for about 150 yards before turning back to the north and going further upward for about another 300 yards, turning south and doing it again. By the time I had gone about 500 yards I was about 150 feet above where I had parked my car, and taking heavy breaths. The walk was something like stairs climbing up the side of a 300 story building, but in the winter time and fighting snow and ice on the stairs. Here is where I made my first of three stops to take photos and catch my breath. There was a fourth and fifth stop before I reached the top. I would like to say that it was for taking photos, but the truth is it was more for catching my breath than anything else. It was at the fourth stop that I started asking myself, “What am I doing here?” When I reached the top I was looking for a level place to lay down and die.

I clicked off a few photos along the way and at the top as I marveled at the scenery below me. But, all the while I was thinking that if any of them turned out decent I would be lucky. My whole body was shaking, and I was wondering how in the world I was going to get back down that mountain. But, when I saw where the sun was at on the horizon I knew I had to get going back down.

And that is where I made another mistake. Instead of heading down the long, winding path I had hiked up I chose to descend the back side of the mountain on a narrower path that turned out to have about 20 places where the path seemed to end with a 3 foot jump downward to where it started again. But, about 2/3 of the way down that mountain my legs gave out on me on one of the jumps, and I landed on my butt with my camera held above my head in an effort to save it from harm.  I stopped here for about five minutes to whether I should try to use my phone to call for help. My body was trembling, and as I tried to stand up I found that my legs were as wobbly as Jello. But, I did not make the call. Instead I clung to bull headed strength and my faith in God (yes, I was praying) to get me through this ordeal. Besides, there was a sign at the beginning of the path that said my car would be towed at owner’s expense if it was still there after dusk.

Coming in at McCarran International Airport.

*****

A few more minutes later on legs that wobbled like my second day of navy boot camp I rounded a turn in the trail and found myself looking less than a 100 yards out to a paved street. I had made it.
Like I said at the beginning of this writing, it may have been a moderate walk for those who do it often. Maybe someday I will know that I am right when I say that for a 68 year old man that retired from a sedentary life sitting behind the steering wheel of a truck it was pure Hell. And, I am happy that I made it, and proud of accomplishing the walk. It was the happiest I have been for several years. It was the first of what I hope to be many more paths I walk. I learned a lot about myself, and about what I could expect from the walks that are ahead of me. Isn’t that what life is all about? 

*****

 My name is Keith Birmingham. I click as a photographer, journalist and writer. I busk as a musician, singer, and songwriter. I travel as a photographer, and musician. My home base is Las Vegas, Nevada. I own Better World Media, a corporation dedicated to my life passions of music, photography, and travel. http://bw702.blogspot.com/

The Fight to Save Hunting

*****

The Fight to Save Hunting

or copy and paste

https://www.nrahunting.com/

New Business Plan

*****

Now, here are the only 3 options I have regarding the blogs of Better World Media. BWM is the corporate name that combines photography, music, travel, and writing under one umbrella name.
1.) Choose one passion to work on and discard the rest.
2.) Give up and close them all down.
3.) Keep them all, and accept my limitations.

Without a staff of writers, editors, secretaries and go-fer's I cannot work on my blogs on a daily basis. So, here are the only three choices I have:
1.) Stop working on one of my passions.
2.) Give up and delete them all.
3.) Update them on a monthly basis.

So, here is what will basically be my new business plan:
1.) Keep them all, and accept my limitations.
2.) Update them on a monthly basis.
3.) Don't worry about it if I still can't keep up with my work load.