The Doctor Is In (Again)

So. Hi.

Life got in the way for quite some time. I could fill a book explaining all the big life-changing events that have transpired in the past however-many months I've stepped away (I'll share them soon enough). Life may still get in the way. But the point is I want to start blogging again. I missed this blog.

This blog was amazing for a few reasons. First, it got me writing. I never really did care what the final product would be, just that I was writing on a regular basis. The only rule I set for myself was that I was enjoying myself as I did it. This continuous practice of putting out complete, compelling (at least to me) thoughts made me a better communicator. And not just written communication, I became a more clear and coherent speaker during the time I was writing.

Additionally, writing sparked my creativity. When I first started this blog way back in 2008, eons ago in internet time, I was daunted by the fact that I had to write about something every day. I thought I'd run out of ideas in a week. But I didn't. I kept writing. Sure, I linked a number of videos and stories in some of my posts, but it got me writing. It got me putting pen to paper in an attempt to be interesting and attach my own views and outlooks to things.

Remember images with captions? I freaking love images with captions.
Amazingly enough, the more posts I did, the more ideas for posts I would get. I want to rekindle that kind of creative momentum.

I'm back. Now I have to make an honest man of me.

P.S. It took a friend's blog to make me realize how much I missed doing this. There was nothing inspirational or remarkable about the post per se, it just got my attention at the right time, and she seems to genuinely enjoy it. Thanks, Julie.

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Holy crap you guys, I'm going to school

Shortly after the posting of this... uh, post, I'll be moving to Boston to pursue my MBA. This is a dream 3+ years in the making, having been rejected from all applied schools years earlier. I'm super excited to get into the swing of things, even though I'm woefully unprepared. I hear this experience is akin to drinking from a fire hose - so I say let 'er rip!

However, this post is also bittersweet. If you've ever drank from a fire hose, first off what the hell is wrong with you? But more importantly, you know that in the battle between your balance and the deluge of water, the water's gonna win. I honestly don't know what amount of free time I'll have, which means I don't know what ability I have to write here on The Unwind.

This blog has been a tremendous help to me as a writer, allowing me to hone my writing craft, and as a creative outlet. I do hope to continue here, but as of right now I have to put it on tentative hiatus.

In case I can't come back to it, thank you for stopping by. I hope you've had as much fun reading this blog as I did writing it.

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The Unwind on vacation (maybe)

Attention reader:

I am going on vacation like I mentioned previously. Because I'm a man of my word. I'm a man of many words, mostly because I need them to convey my thoughts. On this blog. Do you understand what I'm getting at? I'm getting some time to get away, get it?

I'll have internet access and, presumably, more coherence while away on this trip next week. Expect updates, but not regularly.

And remember, alliteration is always your friend.

Signed,
The Management

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The Unwind, on vacation

If you can read this, then you already know. I'm on vacation, and likely will be wrapping up my trip to Cape Cod by the time this gets posted.

I don't have anything to say, and really haven't the time to peruse the internets with distractions and wonders of the entertaining variety. So you'll have to make due with the following haiku:

Google Image Search:
"Vacation". Turned up creepy
muscle man. Honk! Honk!

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I'm baaaaaack

After a long, productive hiatus, in which I have sent in a majority of my MBA applications, I finally feel like I have the time to tend to this blog again. HIGH FIVE!

DISCLAIMER: The Unwind is not responsible for broken and/or damaged monitors or screens as a result of this celebration.

Some of what I've been up to lately:

• Finishing my MBA applications. I still have one more to go (University of Connecticut) followed by seeing what I can do about scheduling interviews and filling out the FAFSA. Not out of the woods but HOLY CRAP do I feel better not having 6 other applications over my head.
  
  
• Weightwatchers. Yes, I joined Weightwatchers. I wanted to get serious about losing weight, so I started the program with the Girlfriend. This is our first week, and already I'm having a hard time eating all the food I'm supposed to. Not the quality of the food, mind you, the quantity of it. I'm actually eating more food now that I'm on this plan. Granted, it's somewhat healthier stuff, but I feel like something's wrong when it's 10 PM and I realize I need to eat a 4th meal to finish my daily "points" (you need to eat all of your daily points on this plan).
  
  
• Fair Use Law podcast. I know I missed like 20 updates here on this site, but it's been fun. Episode 8 gets recorded later this week!
  
  
• Twitter. Stupid thing has trained me to write in only 140 characters increments, but it's a lot of fun using it to communicate with friends. Also, it's a pretty handy tool to e-stalk several of my favorite web comickers, some of the cast of Heroes (GO PARKMAN!), and many other moderately-to-incredibly famous people I find interesting. If you're on, give me a follow!
  
  
• I also purchased a Wacom Bamboo tablet after the holidays, as I have moderate aspirations to use it in some kind of fashion. Maybe I'll make a webcomic of my own, but at very least it should be helpful with photoshopping in general - I've already come to appreciate the higher level of control using a pen affords.

I can't wait to get back into the swing of things again. Stay tuned!

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The Unwind on (quasi) Hiatus

My reasons for it below, but I've come to the decision that I need to put this blog on quasi-hiatus to focus on my MBA applications, which are due mid-January.

What this means is that I won't be holding myself to my usual weekday posting schedule. What this doesn't mean is that I'm going to be ignoring the blog. Also, once I'm done with my applications, I'll resume my usual schedule.

I love blogging here on The Unwind. The whole process of it - from finding topics to writing and refining - is almost addictive. And it sucks that, as I'm starting to hit a stride, I'm going to scale back.

But in the end, it comes down to a matter of priorities. Getting an MBA is one of my life's goals, and I'm going to divert a lot of the time I used to write here to help me accomplish this.

So until this hiatus is over I'll be posting here very infrequently. You can follow me on Twitter, or listen to the Fair Use Law podcast I'll be a part of. I'll be back, I swear.

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The Unwind on quasi-vacation

Next week I'll be touring the east coast looking at business schools I hope to apply to this winter. While I'm out, I will have inconsistent access to the internet, and inconsistent desire to post while I'm driving all over the place. So to the disappointment of, well, me, I may or may not be updating The Unwind next week.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

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The Unwind, Serious Business.

After doing a little research, a sad-but-true new motto for the site can now be "The Unwind: Less Popular Than Watching Paint Dry!"

Ok, let me start from the beginning...

On a lark, I decided to see how this little blog o' mine is faring. See where its place is in the grand scheme of things. So I turned to Alexa, one of the leading companies in web insight, to see how I stack up to other sites.

As of 10/8/08, According to Alexa, The Unwind's traffic rank is 7,156,414 (details). That didn't initially register with me until I tried to put it into perspective. According to Netcraft, another research and analysis company, there are 181,277,835 webpages in the internet. Being in the top 4% is not bad at all, right?

That was, until, I found out that Watching paint dry (source) is more exciting than The Unwind. Watching paint dry is a site that was just a webcam of a painted room drying. I say "was", because now the site isn't really doing anything. And it still commands a traffic rank of 690,094.

Hey, at least my buddies over at Traveling Munchies (details) and Musicfan Gallery (details) are right there with The Unwind in also being less exciting than watching paint dry!

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100th post!

Acheivement Unlocked!

Not really going to post much today, and just take a step back to reflect on the milestone. Part of me can't believe I've made it this far. Now part of me wonders if I'll ever stop.

FUN FACT: From the time I started tracking statistics on this site (May 9th) to now, 1,301 people have visited this site from 43 different countries. But it's the awesome set of friends and coworkers that continue to give feedback, ideas and support that I value most. You've all been laughing along with me this whole time.

Thanks.

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Unwind to go on vacation - again

Going on vacation again, from Friday to Monday, to go camping out on Cape Cod with a bunch of college buddies of mine. Good food, good beer, good times... but no blog updates. It's not my fault, it's just the simple math of it all: No contributors = no contributions.

I'll be back next Tuesday, again with pictures and stories and whatnot.

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A shotgun blast of content

Fitness update:
Since posting my intentions about a month ago, things haven't gone as well as planned. I've been keeping up with the WiiFit, but getting to the gym has not been as regular as I would have liked. Also, I scrapped the WeightWatchers thing because I didn't have anyone to go with (originally planning on going with Girlfriend). In all, I'm weighing in at 299.4 pounds, roughly .5 pounds higher than I was about a month ago, according to WiiFit, which could be much worse.

The problem isn't that I'm not staying active, it's just I'm eating too much. As it turns out, I'm addicted to food. I need it as many as 3 times a day, and when I don't get my fix I experience withdrawals and eventually relapse. Every day is a struggle.

Odd Squad update:
One of my old buddies recently revived a project of theirs, The Ice Anvil, to review pretty much whatever tickles their (it's a team of 2) fancy. It's a biting and bizarre take on the best and worst that culture - and sub-culture - have to offer. I've found it to be a great read so far and hope that these guys can keep up their level of output, both in volume and quality.

Unwind update:
You can now subscribe to The Unwind via an RSS feed that is now up and running. Maybe. I think. You see, I've used RSS feeds in the past, but I've never created one before. Blogger appears to have made it happen with only a few clicks of the mouse.

If you are having difficulty subscribing, blame it on the "Jonathan only spent 5 minutes on it so he can get to sleep at a reasonable hour" excuse. Oh, and let me know so I can fix it.

Video update:
It may contain stronger language, it may require a basic understanding of Pokemon, but it made me laugh time and again today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9o5_W6hn9k

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Happy 4th from The Unwind

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Just wanted to take the opportunity to alert you that I'll be going on vacation again (to Philadelphia) from Saturday to Tuesday. Therefore, I won't be able to update The Unwind again until next Wednesday.

I hope to once again have a bunch of stories and pictures and videos from the event to share. That is, if the cheesesteaks don't clog up my heart first.

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Unwind updates and other housekeeping

Figured I'd take care of a few housekeeping items.

In order to not clutter up the homepage too much, I've implemented a "continue to read X" link at the bottom of the posts. Unfortunately I haven't gotten it working perfectly, as every post currently has one, whether or not I've hidden any of the post.

Currently, just today's Horatio Comics post has anything worth going to the "continue to read X" link. In the future, I hope to only have that link show up when there's content behind it, but I largely don't know what I'm doing and am learning as I'm implementing. Bear with me.

Also, as a heads-up, I'll be on vacation Thursday and Friday. And since I'm the sole content contributor on this blog, that means The Unwind is going on vacation too. Sorry to disappoint all 5 of you (myself included in that number). I'll be back next Monday, hopefully with amusing anecdotes and pictures to share.

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Holy crap, it's been a month

I can't believe it's been a month already since I started The Unwind.

Blogging for The Unwind has been a terrifyingly exciting experience for me, and is unlike anything else I've done before. You know that nervousness you get when you speak publicly? It's sort of like that feeling hitting you retroactively, especially with people I interact with in real life. I know in my rational brain I have no reason to feel this - it's just kind of a knee-jerk reaction. I look forward to overcoming that feeling in the future, as it'll no doubt help me in other facets of my life.

But there are upsides. For one, I'm having an absolute blast and am finding the more I write, the better writer I become. The same is true with being creative: I feel as though I am more creative having a month now under my belt. I'm also learning a few skills and dabbling in some new technologies in the process, which never hurts. And lastly (but not least-ly) I've gotten a loyal core following that has been really supportive and given me some great, honest feedback. I can't thank you you all enough.

Also, I've kind of settled on a few details about the blog that I'll lay out here:

• I'll try and update every weekday. That seems like the right frequency to me from both a schedule-management and a content generating perspective.
• I'm under no obligation to censor anything here, but I do need to be able to be proud of what I've put out on The Unwind. Therefore, this blog is going to stay relatively clean and respectful.
• While I do have personal, social and professional lives, I'll be intentionally vague about them here to keep them separate. I'll relate stories and experiences, but no names or specifics - I respect mine and others' privacy and I really don't feel like putting my job in jeopardy over a blog.
• No, seriously, I can't thank you all enough for the support.

It's been a great month. Here's to many more months (years?) of electronic shenanigans and tomfoolery!

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A few points of business...

Wanted to give a big thanks to everyone today who had given me some feedback and encouragement on the blog. I'm always on the look out for honest criticism and ideas on how to make The Unwind better. Plus, it's good to know that I'm not the only one reading this thing.

Now get back to work.

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Photoshop Flailing

One of the things I've always wanted to do, besides two chicks at the same time, was to learn how to use Photoshop. It's always been a skill that I've envied in others and it's time I start to do this myself. To this end, I've created a Photobucket account and installed Photoshop on my computer.

Seeing as I have a high threshold for public humiliation, I'm going to be periodically posting my progress. What you see below is not a photoshop - at least, not by me - as it was something I had found somewhere else on the internet (I honestly forget where, but I can't take credit for it). What it does serve as, is a link to the Photobucket account I've set up for this blog.

See? Picture!

Photoshop for fun and profit? I'm game.

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Unwind update - Twitter!

Twitter! This is my first foray into the service, but already I'm looking forward to being kind of a prick giving brief status updates from virtually anywhere! If you're already down the Twitter rabbit hole - as I see myself quickly descending into - feel free to follow me.

If you've never Tweeted before, Twitter is basically a very polished, well-executed microblog that you interface via the twitter website, sms text, instant messenger, carrier pigeon and telepathy (they're beta testing that feature, I think). Check it out for yourself at http://www.twitter.com/ and create an account. If you don't, you don't love America.

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