Some of you may know that this blog use to be a pretty active place. It started nearly 10 years ago. Just before the 2004 presidential election I started PunditGuy. It was great then. There were few political blogs in those days. It was relatively easy to get noticed. Most of the other bloggers were happy to link to PunditGuy, and many took my posts. It didn’t take long to get a following, and in just a few months, I had over one thousand unique visitors reading me per week. Talk about fun! I loved blogging. It became my hobby, and I put a lot of time into it. For the next few years, I blogged every day, got mentioned in the mainstream media, and had stories written about me in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. I had links into PunditGuy from MSNBC, CNN, and many well read blogs. More and more people read what I had to say. It was really great.
Then, something changed.
I started getting bored. I missed a few days, then a week, then a month of blogging. I stopped caring. I was distracted. I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I became disinterested in it all. Little did I know then, but I was entering into a moment of my life that would occupy my mind for the next 7 years.
Yep, 7 years.
I’ve been struggling with a myriad of issues. Family problems. Drug addiction in an immediate family member. Mental issues. Anxiety. Confidence issues. Professional issues. You name it, I have probably been through it in some form or another over the past few years. It’s been exhausting. Doctors. Tests. Treatment centers. Counseling. Pressure. Stress.
Fear.
All of this zapped every ounce of creative energy from me. Oh, on the outside I looked like I was coping. Inside, I was a wreck. I just didn’t want to do a lot of stuff. I didn’t want to deal with a lot of stuff either.
I lost a solid 7 years of my life.
Recently, through the help of professionals, and confidants, I’ve been looking into these things and realizing their cause. They aren’t simple things. They are lifelong things. But I’ve learned some interesting information, and I’ve gathered some tools to address them on a daily basis.
A friend asked me recently to recall a time when I was really happy, and interested, and “in the zone” with things in my life. I thought about that, and the truth is, I was in that place when I was writing on this blog every day. I felt good. I really loved meeting other bloggers, interacting with readers, and keeping up to date with all that was going on in the world of current events and politics. I really had a lot of fun. My friend asked me why I don’t go back to that. I immediately had a bunch of excuses. I didn’t have the time. There were too many political blogs now. Politics is exhausting. Blah Blah Blah. My friend then said something interesting. He said, “Who cares? You were having fun. You were doing something you liked. You were keeping busy. Your mind was focusing on things that you were really interested in. Go back and start over. Do it again, and light those areas of your brain back up!”.
Wow. I had never thought about that. I never thought that just the exercise of writing on this blog again could bring back some of those memories in my brain. Those fun times. A time when I was a little less troubled, and a lot less narcissistic.
So, that’s why I’m back. I don’t care if I get a thousand readers again. I don’t care if I get mentioned in mainstream media. I don’t have to be famous. I don’t have to worry about trying to get linked by a big time blogger. I don’t have to look at my blog stats every few minutes. I just have to write, about everything. Not just politics, but anything I want. The act itself is rejuvenating. It’s what I like to do. It’s what brings me a bit of happiness.
I’m going to be in this place. I’m going to spend time writing again. And it will be fun.
So, welcome back if you’re reading this and you used to read me here. If this is new to you, then, I’ll just say, “Hi”, and “Thanks for reading”, like I used to say, every day, years ago, right here on PunditGuy.
I love coffee. Not the buzz, but the actual coffee taste. I know, that might be weird to you, especially if coffee is simply a means to get you up and going in the morning. I have purchased dozens of specialty machines. I’ve ground, tamped, pressed, and Keurig’d (did I just invent a word?) coffee.
Lately, I’ve tried to cut down. I struggle with general anxiety disorder (GAD) and everyone I’ve read or talked to has said that caffeine doesn’t help. Still, I need the bean.
1. A healthy daily dose of caffeine can be very different depending on who you are.
Don’t I know it. I used to be able to drink a double espresso at 10 pm at night and sleep like a baby. My personal assistant at work can’t have coffee after 11 am, or she’ll be up for weeks.
2. There’s no standard amount of caffeine in each cup of coffee—even within the same brand.
I guess I should have known this, but never really gave it a lot of thought. I just figured if I was drinking equal amounts of coffee from the french press, the caffeine all worked out in the end.
3. Caffeinated beverage manufacturers are not required by the Food and Drug Administration to label how much caffeine is contained in their product.
Not surprised. I don’t believe in the data on labels. It’s about selling me stuff. Labels will contain only as much as needed to get me to buy the product, coffee included.
4. Your grandparents probably drank twice as much coffee as you do.
So, that explains it. Gramma was wired – all day. No wonder she could work so hard for so many hours in any given day.
5. Pro athletes everywhere depend on caffeine—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
…and a lot of other substances, right Lance Armstrong?
6. Keurig cups—those little disposable, single-serve cups of coffee with a special dispenser—are here to stay.
I’m proof of that. Even at $.75 per cup, I’ve dumped plenty of plastic in a few land fills.
7. Mixing caffeine and alcohol hasn’t been proven to be inherently unhealthy. But the resulting behaviors can be dangerous, potentially even fatal.
Translation: “blow your brain apart”. I’ll pass.
8. Caffeine could be way better for us—and also way worse—than we know.
See above. Coffee doesn’t play well with sufferers of GAD.
9. You’re not as much of a coffee buff as you think.
That’s right. While I love drinking it, and appreciating the taste of different types, I’m not that much of a geek. I don’t care a wit about a fruity or smoky tone.
The real issue about coffee is, I still can’t believe I willingly pay $4 or $5 for a cup of it, when my ancestor’s got along with a 3 pound can of Folgers for $6.99 which would last a couple of months. I refuse to look at my bank statements to see how much I spend on the glorious drink.
Somethings about coffee should just be left unknown.
Do you use the same password on multiple computers? Have you kept using the same password for years? If the answer to both of these questions is “Yes”, then you’re asking to be hacked. But wait, you say, why would anyone want to hack me? I don’t have any secret information that anyone would want.
You’re right. You don’t. People could care less about the first picture taken of your newborn baby, your music folder, or the last episode of Mad Men you just downloaded and watched. You know who does care?
You do. And you would hate it if all of the stuff you love to save, a decade of photos, your entire music catalog, your banking information, your tax records, and your email archive went “poof” into thin air.
Forget about the rule of backing up. Few people really do it well, or do it at all. Apple’s Time Machine has helped, and now the cloud services from Google, Dropbox, Skydrive (and a slew of others) have made it easier to store things so you can get access from multiple machines and locations. Yet for all the advantages of simplicity, the only thing standing between you and someone whose main interest is wiping your devices clean is that password you thought up years ago. You know, the one that starts with the number 1 and ends with the number 6. Or the easiest password to remember — the word “password”. You’d be amazed how many people use “abc123”.
I’d like to say that my devices and online services have been completely secure for years. They haven’t been. I’d like to say that I’ve used distinct passwords. I haven’t. All of this changed today after I read this:
This is the story of one Mat Honan, a recent employee of Gizmodo. Mat’s iPhone was reset, then, one by one, his other devices were wiped. Then his Google account was deleted. Then, his Twitter account was taken over.
All in a matter of minutes.
Read his story. Then, run out and enable 2 Step Authentication for your Google account. Change the passwords in the services you use to something other than “monkey”. Do it now. If you’re an IT geek, read up on Two-Factor Authentication. The wikipedia article should keep you busy for awhile.
It’s easy to view the games in London as an exhibit of what the human body can do when put to the test. Unfortunately, in many cases that same human body is being fed artificial substances that make it do un-natural things. Doping in sports is legend, and it finds its way into every training room. But this isn’t a treaty on the issue of drugs in the veins of athletes. It is something more far reaching than the modern phenomenon of human growth hormones. It’s called…
Badminton officials took the extraordinary step of tossing out four pairs of women — two from South Korea and one each from China and Indonesia — for deliberately trying to lose their preliminary matches Tuesday night, the latest judging controversy to sweep through the Olympics.
The federation determined at a disciplinary hearing that the players in two separate matches tried to serve into the net and hit shots out of bounds. Their play led to hoots and catcalls from the packed house at Wembley Arena, with some fans yelling, “Off, off, off.” In one match, a Danish umpire warned the players that they could be thrown out by flashing a black card, a rare action in the sport.
Why would anyone who has trained for years to get to the Olympic Games in the hopes of winning a medal do something as stupid as this? Throwing a game? Really? The explanation is rather simple.
Even before the disqualifications, the matches Tuesday triggered hand-wringing throughout the sport. This is the first Olympics to include preliminary rounds in which four teams play one another once to determine who will advance to the knockout stage. The extra preliminary round was designed to give all teams — including those from weaker countries that might have been knocked out after one match under the old rules — a chance to play at least three times.
All four pairs who played Tuesday had secured spots in the quarterfinals, so jockeying for an opponent — not winning or losing — was the imperative.
Because the Chinese so dominate the sport and are so numerous in the tournament, they have an incentive not to play one another when possible. And because they are so good, teams from other countries do their best to avoid the Chinese until they have no choice.
Throwing matches has been a persistent problem, and some players and officials have accused the Chinese of being the worst offenders.
Bottom line? Officials inserted the extra preliminary round to give weaker teams another shot at winning, even after they proved themselves unworthy of championship play.
Kind of like giving everyone a trophy.
Better yet, call it, T-Ball.
I don’t get it. If your country doesn’t have a Badminton team it can field that can survive with the toughest (in this case, the Chinese), then why enter the championship at all? Are Olympic officials hoping for a rare moment where the Chinese completely choke and the team from the Cook Islands wins gold? What’s the likelihood of that? A million to one?
Or is it merely that the fix is in? Are the Olympics so tainted by money and political prowess that they’ve become the modern day Twenty-One?
Where is the crack unbiased investigative reporter when you need one? Oh wait, I already know that answer. There are none.
In the 24/7 wired world we live in, hi-jinks like this will be easier to expose. I think it is more widespread than most people realize, and I’m worried now that the games have been tainted for decades. We’re due an Olympic sized overhaul of athletic competition. Does the will exist to bring the games back to their original intention?
It really is BS. At least as far as the sampling goes, and isn’t that what makes a poll stand or fall? Folks are getting panicky, so be prepared to see more suspect polls as the weeks roll by.
The only poll that matters, by the way, is the one taken on November 6, 2012.
Politically speaking, this is nothing but a win for Romney. The public hates the press, and voters love it when they’re put in their place.
The traveling press secretary for Mitt Romney lost his cool and cursed at reporters who attempted to ask questions of the Republican presidential candidate in a public plaza near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw Tuesday.
Here’s a transcript of the questions and Gorka’s response:
CNN: “Governor Romney are you concerned about some of the mishaps of your trip?
NYT: “Governor Romney do you have a statement for the Palestinians?
Washington Post: “What about your gaffes?
NYT: “Governor Romney do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip?”
CNN: “Governor Romney just a few questions sir, you haven’t taken but three questions on this trip from the press!
Gorka: “Show some respect”
NYT: “We haven’t had another chance to ask a question…”
Gorka: “Kiss my ass. This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.”
Moments later, Gorka told Jonathan Martin, a reporter for Politico, to “shove it.”
Unfortunately, Gorka fell victim to the “lame-stream” media tractor beam and apologized for his behavior. It’s the media that needs to do the apologizing.
The media manufactured the narrative that Romney committed multiple “gaffe’s” during his tour of Europe for one purpose only. They have to take the focus off of Obama; his falling poll numbers, the collapse of the economy, the job numbers, etc. If they were to report the truth about where he’s taken our nation since being elected messiah in 2008, the informed public would be picketing the White House.
Instead, they paint a sour picture of Romney as a potential leader of the free world. It’s all they know how to do right now, and it smacks of desperation.
Good thing it’s summertime. Go back to your sand castles.
U.S. viewers are forced to wait until 8 PM to view Olympic games that ended 9 hours earlier. Meanwhile, the web knows no time delay, and results are available instantly. NBC television is stuck in the 1980’s, as if no one gets any current information but from them. People are getting kicked off of Twitter for criticizing the network. And now…
London had years to prepare for this. Why have they fumbled?
NBC Television must have plenty of twenty and thirty something’s employed by the company. Didn’t anyone ask them about the wisdom of sequestering live game action? Sure, NBC has an iPad app for folks who want to watch in real time, but have you seen the app ratings? It barely garners one star in the app store. Users hate it. Not because you have to have a cable subscription to MSNBC or CNBC through your local provider. They hate it because it just plain sucks.
