A Triumphant Return


Like a phoenix rising from the ashes… I have returned with a fresh new look and outlook!

As many of you know, I encountered some problems when my blogging life was exposed in my real life. It caused me a lot of trouble and was completely unnecessary, in my opinion. I was in hot water at my job and facing a possible termination, but luckily sense prevailed and I am still gainfully employed.

I will not mention the party that was involved; suffice to say they knew me in a professional capacity, discovered I was a blogger also, then used my personal and (what I thought was) confidential information against me. The ironic thing was that they really just ended up biting the hand that feeds them–I’m not sure what they were hoping to accomplish by getting me fired. Some of my friends on here know who I’m talking about.
As a result of this breach of privacy and tresspass, I had to shut down my personal blog for a while. Once I was in the clear and decided to continue blogging, I used the downtime to whip things into shape.

Of note:
  • I got a new layout. Do you like it?
  • I tried to streamline everything
  • I blew away the budget tracker section. I’m not sure how comfortable I feel about sharing that stuff now
  • I improved the Contact Ginger section
  • I added disclaimer and disclosure documents to cover my ass. Please be sure to read them before continuing on this blog.

I will be posting some tips and my thoughts on internet security for bloggers in the future. I don’t want anyone else to have to go through the hell that I did.

One thing I would also like to mention is that I was astounded by the amount of positive feedback and support I received once people realized the blog was shut down. I can’t describe how warm and loved it made me feel–we truly are a blogging community. So many of you reached out and asked what happened, and also offered your condolences. That outpouring from our community is a large part of why I have decided to march on and continue writing in the face of adversity.

A special thank you goes out to the following bloggers who were kind enough to post my message on their blogs; informing our audiences of my situation:

Krystal of Give Me Back My Five Bucks
FB of Fabulously Broke
Mama Bear of I’ve Got A Little Space To Fill
Canadian Saver of Saving4Later

Ladies, you are truly wonderful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Moving forward, things will be much the same as they were before. I’m looking to expand a little, perhaps doing some guest posts, hosting some guest posts, entering more carnivals, reviewing more stuff and setting up partnerships with other blogs. If you’re interested in doing something with me, gimme a shout!

Most importantly, I’m going to try and write more. Not being able to post, even for a short time was very difficult for me. This blog, while popular, still remains my personal journal. It’s an outlet for my thoughts and rants and dreams; a place to nuture my creativity. Being unable to write in it and get feedback was incredibly stressful and made me appreciate just how much it has come to mean to me in my life. And how much all my readers and fellow bloggers mean to me.

I missed you, guys.

I think this is my cue to sign off–I’m starting to get all mushy inside!

Thanks for sticking with me, and I’ll see you on the flip side!

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13 responses to “A Triumphant Return”

  1. Welcome back!

    Look forward to reading your blog again ๐Ÿ™‚ Glad to see that things worked out okay!

  2. YAY!!!!!!

    I am SO EXCITED that you are back – when I saw your post in my Reader I literally jumped out of my chair, hehehehe.

    LOVE the new layout – it's fresh and pretty and I just love it. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Can't wait to see the amazingness that will come out of your triumphant return!

    And BOOOOOOOOO to those that shut you down. They lose! ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. HOORAY!!!!

    Good for you!

    This is one of my worst fears, well, it was before I got fired anyway.

  4. Glad you're back and it all worked out in the end.

    I am looking forward to your tips because being discovered is one of my fears as well though I try my best to not talk about work just in case it does happen.

  5. Love the new layout. Very clean! ๐Ÿ™‚

    And you're v. welcome…. re: posting ๐Ÿ™‚

    Welcome back!

  6. You've just got to love back-stabbing folks!

    Glad to see you back. And I do very much like your layout. What template did you use?

    Also, I hate to break it to you, but a disclaimer actually won't really stand up much in a court of law. I was in a media law class and the prof told us that the "all characters are fictional, any similarity is coincidence" thing isn't really worthwhile. But they do it anyway, mind you, so they can at least point to good intentions. Still, if you can prove that a character is sufficiently like you that it translated to denigrating your actual character, you can sue. (In fact, Terry McMillan of How Stella Got Her Groove Back was sued by an ex that she wrote about in another book. Apparently, he recognized himself in this book where the boyfriend is a total, unsupportive prick. AND HE SUED TO PROVE IT WAS HIM! He actually did get a ruling in his favor, though, and some amount of money.)

    Anyway, point is, it's good to show your intention that you're not an expert in finance. But technically it's not REALLY going to cover your ass — as in, automatic dismissal of a case — if someone decides to sue.

    At least, that's the semi-informed opinion that I've formed from those media law examples.

  7. Abby, thanks for the lesson!

    I actually need to include it in there so that I don't end up with another problem between my blog and my career. It's not an iron-clad way to get out of trouble, but it will certainly help.

    The disclaimer isn't so much for my readers as it is for the companies who work with me. Plus, Canadian law is a little different from US law ๐Ÿ˜‰

  8. […] This has admittedly been a long time coming. I’ve thought about revealing myself for a while, but the time never seemed right. Working in advertising for the past 5 years, I had to be super careful of my image, and what I did online. In fact I had a pretty close brush with some dastardly ad people and almost lost my job because of my blog. […]

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