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Posts Tagged ‘The MAC’
Just A Quick Update With Much, Much More To Come… Really Soon!
February 14th, 2012 | Added to Random Entries | No Comments »
Since I haven’t posted an originally-written update in about 20 days, I thought it would be a good idea to post up some quick thoughts about what’s been going on with the blog and some other random updates. First, if you’re craving more of my random thoughts throughout the day, then you’re a sick individual you should follow me on Twitter @JerseySmarts. If you want a brief glimpse at what I’m putting on Twitter these days, then you only need to glance to the right of this entry and read the tweet feed that I added to the site about two weeks ago.
As you’ll see, the feed contains just random thoughts, complaints, and observations. I’m not solving world hunger here, folks – I’m just living my life!
On the topic of what is going on with this blog there’s nothing major to update everyone on, but here is the general rundown:
First, for some reason we’ve been receiving a large number of spammy comments. Now, I write “spammy” comments because these comments aren’t your typical “click here for drugs” robotic spam comments, but rather vitriolic hate speech that is actually written by a human being. It’s really some pretty vicious stuff that has no place on a personal blog. And I don’t know how many times I have to write this in the comments section, but this always has been and always will be a personal blog. In other words, what I say goes so if you write a comment that attacks another commenter or blatantly distorts the issues presented in the various updates, you can stick your comment up your ass. Now granted, in the last year we’ve only gotten about 6 or 7 really vitriolic, arrogant, hateful comments and all of those were moderated before they made it on to the site. However, if you plan on writing bullshit and hate in the comments section you might as well save yourself the time because it’s not getting posted, period. My personal blog, my dictatorial rules – very simple to understand.
Second, I have a lot of content written and ready to be posted to the blog, but I’m waiting for the right time. For example, I have my next student loan update written and ready to go for whenever my total amount outstanding drops again (which should be in about a month – more on that in a minute). Also, I’ve been working on some other projects that are taking up some time so I’ve only been writing for the blog in my spare time.
Third, I’ve been working really hard to cull and delete a ton of the tags on this blog. If you don’t know what a “tag” is, it’s the keywords that bloggers use to help their individual pages categorize themselves and rise up in the search engines. A few years ago I utilized a system that provided a whole host of tags for specific keywords and that has bogged down and crapped up the database for the blog. As an example, if I wrote something about my old Chevy Blazer, I would get the following tags added to the database: Chevy, Chevy Blazer, Blazer, Chevrolet, Chevrolet Blazer, Blazer SUV, SUV, Chevy SUV, etc. That’s totally unnecessary. My culling process is reducing all of that gunk to two tags: Chevrolet and Blazer. That’s it – nothing more is needed. Obviously, this is a long process since there are some 6 or 7 thousand of tags in the database that need to be reviewed and deleted. I’m going through them about 250 at a time and I hope to have the project completed by the end of the year.
And the final part of this part of the update is that I’m looking for ways to freshen up the design of the blog. If you’ve been eagle-eyed, then over the last few weeks you might have noticed random updates here and there in certain design features (the addition of the Twitter feed, the lengthening of the Facebook feed, the layout change for news from the other sites that I own, change in some of the external button links, etc). However, I’ve been thinking that it might be time for wholesale change – I just don’t know how far I want to take it. If you have any ideas on how to change the design, please feel free to add them to the comments section of this post (but don’t post hate or it won’t get to see the light of day!).
That’s it for the JerseySmarts.com Update. And before I end the web-based updates I thought I might add that one of the sites that I own through Usable Web Solutions, LLC has really exploded in the last month and a half. Hits to that website have tripled and it is growing into a very respected site. I’m proud of the team that works there and plan to continue providing them with as much support as possible to let the growth continue. As for the rest of my life…
Things have been very busy. Towards the end of January my company moved its offices from Trenton to New Brunswick. That’s about ten miles less of a drive each morning for me, but the same amount of time thanks to the Route 18 traffic (which sucks). However, I tried to bypass most of the heavy traffic by changing my work schedule from 9am-ish to 5pm-ish to 7:45am-ish to 4:00pm-ish. I’m getting up earlier and leaving my house about an hour and a half earlier, but I’m also getting home right at or slightly before 5:00pm, so that’s an hour and a half earlier than the Trenton commute. The change hasn’t been too bad, but when you shift your schedule to work (and live life) an hour and a half earlier, you experience a personal seismic shift.
On my end, I’m finding that I have less time to spend on the computer in the evening (not playing around on the computer, but working on computer-based, paid projects). Also, I find that I’m totally exhausted by about 3:00pm. I think this is happening because my body isn’t used to going to bed at 10:00pm so I wind up tossing and turning for about a half an hour (though I’m totally beat right now and expect to sleep like a log tonight). It’s a change and I’ll get used to it.
Also, we’re getting towards the end of the college basketball season and I’ve been busy attending the Monmouth University men’s basketball team home games. The Hawks have struggled a little bit this season, but they’re starting to show signs of strength heading into their last four games of the season. Oh, and unlike the last few years I don’t really have a ton of pictures to post from these home games. I’ve actually been sitting back and enjoying the games instead of waiting for the perfect camera shot. However, I have taken a small handful of pictures at the games (mostly of the scoreboard after the games are over) and I plan to post them in the next few weeks.
I’ve also been hit with a variety of big expenses in the last few weeks. First, I spent a good deal of money traveling to Washington, DC for a business trip last week (granted, these expenses will be reimbursed, but I have to wait for the reimbursement to arrive). Then, I had my car crap out on me and it cost over eleven hundred bucks to get the thing fixed. And on the same day that I paid to get the car fixed, I co-hosted a fundraiser/donor recognition event at one of the Monmouth home games (which wasn’t a huge expense, but still an irregular expense in my routine budget). While all of these expenses are manageable, they are all irregular costs in my planned budget and they all hit within the same three day period. So… I’m glad that tomorrow is pay day!
Between the big shift in my personal schedule and the time I’ve been spending at the Monmouth games, my health is more or less in a stalemate. I haven’t been to the gym in about three weeks because I can’t figure out this new schedule yet, but my weight hasn’t moved too much and my blood sugar is very stable. I’m glad about the blood sugar being stable because a shift in routine combined with a reduction in the amount of medication that I’m taking could have formed the perfect storm to throw my blood sugar out of whack. On the topic of health, I purchased the Rebel Fitness Guide from Nerd Fitness a few weeks ago and I just finished reading it. Any guy who writes fitness articles and quotes the Lord of the Rings, uses Legos as a graphic tool, and frequently references the video games that I grew up playing and other nerdy topics is alright with me! I expect to begin the Level 1 Rookie workout around the beginning of March so be on the lookout for updates on how I’m progressing with that workout program.
Other than what’s posted above I don’t have many more big updates to provide right now. One of the last originally-written posts that I wrote for the blog was about finding a new church to attend that is close to where I live. Well, I’m still going to church there on a weekly basis and I find it amazing that I used to think that I didn’t have the time to go to church. Absolutely amazing. The services last about 45 – 50 minutes and when you factor in driving there and driving home, I’m only out of the house for about an hour and five minutes each Sunday morning. Who can’t give an hour and five minutes to go to church each week?! In fact, I continue to find that I enjoy going to church to listen to the homilies and the readings and so on. It’s nice – makes you feel good after you leave and gives you guidance for the week.
I’ve also been reading a lot on the NOOK, in The Word Among Us daily meditations, and random articles – so I have a lot to update on the site when I get a moment to do so! Stay tuned and in the mean time, follow me on Twitter @JerseySmarts!
The Monmouth Hawks Fall to the Rider Broncs, 74 – 62
December 26th, 2011 | Added to Sports | No Comments »
A group of friends and I have season tickets to the Monmouth Hawks basketball games. Sometimes going to the games is a lot of fun and sometimes going to the games is a bit of a chore. Last week, Monmouth played against Rider University’s Broncs in only their second home game of the season and it was one of those games that was a chore to watch. There were a few reasons that the game just wasn’t that good (for the players or the fans), but I think the quote below sums up what the problem was the other night – the kids went home for break early. In fact, at one point I turned to my buddy and said, “It looks like the team already went home for Christmas break.” Here is what head coach King Rice and leading scorer Ed Waite had to say after the game:
According to Rice the Hawks (2-10) had departed for the holidays prior to tip off.
“Our players already left, they weren’t here tonight,” Rice said. “They were already gone on break.”
“We didn’t come to play today,” Monmouth junior forward Ed Waite said.
Special thanks to The Hawks Nest blog on the Asbury Park Press website for the quotes. Coach Rice and Waite hit the nail on the head – those kids just weren’t into the game the other night. If you haven’t already, I suggest reading through the article that is linked to The Hawks Nest because in the comments section there is some discussion about how the pre-conference schedule might have impacted the players.
In short, these guys must be worn out.
Not only have they already played some 12 games, but they played against a high level of competition for the Monmouth program. In their pre-conference schedule alone, Monmouth played (and was beaten by) the following teams: Villanova, Virginia Tech, George Mason, Albany, Brown, Vanderbilt, Navy, and Rutgers. That’s some pretty stiff competition for a program that is coming out of a stifling stagnation from the last few years.
Most former athletes and sports types will tell you that you only get better by playing against better competition, but there’s only a little bit of truth in that statement. A team gets “better” by playing against better competition when one of two things happens. First, it raises the consistency and performance of the players to a higher level. Second, it elevates the program in the national perspective and allows them to bring in higher level recruits. There’s no way for us to know whether the latter has happened yet, but given the poor performance against Rider one might be able to argue that the former isn’t happening (yet).
 Rider came into the MAC and beat Monmouth, 74 - 62 In fact, one might say that there is something about being consistently beaten by higher level competition that actually has a detracting effect on lower level teams. I guess we’ll have to see how the Hawks perform in the Northeast Conference before making that final determination.
And yet still, I think there is a lot of potential in this young team, their new coach, and their new system. There is at least hope in this system, which is something that was totally lacking over the last few years. Part of the problem that Coach Rice has to be running into is the fact that he hasn’t yet felt the impact of any of his recruiting efforts. At times the other night I got the impression that Rice was frustrated with his players checking out for Christmas before the game was over. Towards the end of the game it appeared like he was rotating his players in an effort to get at least one of them to up their game – and it wasn’t happening to any remarkable level at all.
Finally, aside from the poor end result I thought that Austin Tillotson played very well (he’s an aggressive player – as a fan I’m glad he’s on the team). Also, I thought that Jesse Steele had an okay game. Sure, it wasn’t as good as his performance against Fordham University last week, but the entire team played well against Fordham so it was easier for Steele to elevate his own play.
Here’s looking forward to a “W” on January 5th when the Hawks take on Mount St. Mary’s at their next home game. And here’s looking forward to much better scheduling next year – only two home games before the new year? Really?!
The Monmouth Hawks Win Home Opener Against Fordham, 80 – 65
December 13th, 2011 | Added to Sports | 1 Comment »
This past weekend, the Monmouth University Hawks finally played a game at the MAC with their 2011 – 2012 home opener. After going 1 and 8 on the road, the Hawks landed in West Long Branch to take on the Fordham University Rams in a non-conference game. As the title of this entry suggests – the Hawks won the game by a final score of 80 to 65. And while I don’t really have any pictures from the game other than the one below, I thought I might offer some comments on the general atmosphere at the MAC on Saturday night.
 The Monmouth Hawks won their home opener over the weekend The first thing that I noticed was that the people who actually attended the game were excited and into the action. According to various reports there were slightly over 1,800 people in attendance (which means the arena was slightly less than half full) and I’m sure that the young men who were playing for Monmouth enjoyed actually hearing the fans cheer for them when they scored. Remember, by some brilliant stroke of scheduling genius (sarcasm) the Hawks played NINE away games to start their season. Imagine playing 9 away games where there are just a handful of your fans in the stands if any at all. Not smart… And on that topic, Monmouth will only play 2 home games before January 1st this season. Last season, they played 6 home games plus an exhibition game before the new year. The year before they played 5 home games before the new year. Something about scheduling just 2 home games before the new year doesn’t sit right with me as a season ticket holder; not to mention that there are only 12 scheduled home games last year as compared with 15 last year (16 with the exhibition) and 14 the year before. But aside from the head-scratching scheduling, as a season ticket holder and team supporter I’m more concerned with the kids on the team. Up until Saturday night, these kids player this season with nearly no fan support. I’m sure that they enjoyed the standing ovations, chants, and cheers that the fans gave them throughout the game on Saturday night.
And those guys deserved every little bit of the support, too.
The team was led by Jesse Steele’s outstanding performance (which earned him NEC Player of the Week honors) where he scored “18 points while contributing six assists, five boards and a steal.” That quote was from the linked article, which I suggest you read when you get a chance.
Two more comments about Saturday night’s game and then we’ll call it a day for this entry. First, I was very encouraged by the new Head Coach King Rice and his style of motivating his players. Whereas the previous head coach opted to hoot, holler, and yell at nearly every player during what seemed like every second of the game, Coach Rice was cooler, calmer, and more collected than his predecessor. And this may sound like an odd comment to make after only watching one game under the new coach, but it appeared like the players were more confident in their game plan. In other words, it seemed like the dramatic decrease in the constant yelling and screaming coming from the bench made the players more confident in doing what they do best – play basketball.
After the last two seasons of Hawks basketball it was nice to see confident Hawks players for a change.
Second and finally, I have two comments about The Varsity Club. I missed Coach Rice’s post-game speech in The Varsity Club because the two dopes that I went to the game with didn’t want to hang around too late after the game was over. We had a small housewarming party to get to after the game and these two guys acted as though their entire lives depended on running out the MAC and getting to that party. Granted, we did wait around for a little while upstairs to hear Coach Rice talk, but the coach must have been held up doing something downstairs. So, about 30 minutes after the game ended we left The Varsity Club because the dopes that I went to the game with ramped their bitching complaining up to an absurd level. That said, what I heard about Coach Rice’s speech was all positive. The word is that he was very sincere and very thankful for the fans who came out and supported the team.
The second comment about The Varsity Club was that the pregame food preparation was not that good – at all. For starters, for the second time in the last few weeks The Varsity Club was serving chicken on the bone as the main entree and a very weak side dish (pierogies). I’m a firm believer that if you’re serving a large group of diverse people, then you can’t have one (or two) main entrees that feature a meat stuck to a piece of bone. You can have baked chicken on the bone, but then you have to also serve a pasta in red sauce or a tray of sandwiches or something. You can’t just have meat on the bone (cue jokes from my roommates on that comment). But what was more disturbing was that they ran out of food about 45 minutes into the pregame meal! Sure, they brought some more food out about 15 minutes before the game started (including meat that wasn’t stuck to a bone), but I was a little surprised that they didn’t anticipate the demand for space in The Varsity Club for the first home game. All anyone had to do was talk to any of the season ticket holders and they would have realized that there was a huge demand for one of these damn home games already. Of course there were going to be a lot of people in The Varsity Club! I submitted my comments to the gentleman who runs that show up there and he was very cool about it and admitted that they just underestimated the demand for the pregame meal before the game.
Understood. It happens.
Here’s looking forward to the next home game on Thursday, December 22nd!
A Hopeful Report on Some Attitude Changes at Monmouth
October 22nd, 2011 | Added to Sports | No Comments »
Yesterday, I was reading The Hawks Nest blog on the Asbury Park Press website and I came across their report on a recent event held at the MAC. The event was called MAC Madness and it was a chance for the men’s and women’s basketball teams to interact with the students and other fans. According to the report on the blog, new head men’s basketball coach King Rice said that he wants the students to be at the home games “all the time so I’m going out to meet the students. I feel if they know who I am they’ll want to come and support us.”
 There was a lot of student excitement during the first ever home game in the MAC, November 2009 Well, Coach Rice is right and it’s nice to see a head men’s basketball coach at Monmouth who is willing to get out there and mingle with the student body and the local fans. The rest of the article on The Hawks Nest is pretty good so I encourage you to read it by clicking on the link above. The other quote in the article that stood out to me was one from men’s basketball player Jesse Steele. In the article, Steele is quoted as saying: “We’re trying to change our attitude. I guess from last year we had the attitude like we were better than everyone. This year we’re just trying to show everyone we’re just like everyone else.” The article goes into how this change in attitude is a mandate by Coach Rice.
As a fan of Monmouth basketball and an alumnus of the university this is a mandate that I wholeheartedly agree with and support in every possible way.
In fact, reading Steele’s comment reminded me of my undergraduate years at Monmouth and two particularly interesting occurrences during my time on campus. The first was during my Freshman year of college. As a preface to this story, I should note that I was heavily recruited by Monmouth to play football there. In fact, their scout (a coach that is no longer employed by the university) came up to visit my high school on two separate occasions to see me and one of my teammates play. And, if I can toot my own horn for split second, I was a pretty damn good, Group IV high school football player.
Yet, when it came down to whether or not I wanted to play football at the college level, I initially decided against it. To sum up my mindset from that period of my life, I knew that I didn’t have the right build to make it to the NFL, so I didn’t think it was worth the excessive amount of time that I would likely put into the practices and being a part of the team at the college level. In hindsight, I think that this was one of the best decisions that I ever made in my academic/athletic life, but that’s another story for another time.
Anyway, reading Steele’s comment reminded me of a bizarre experience that I had in the weight room when I was a Freshman in college. The old weight room on campus was shared among the athletes and the students, so since I wasn’t a member of any of the sports teams I would sometimes workout when the athletes were just beginning or just ending their time in the gym. I’ll never forget the first time that I went into that weight room because I was lifting heavier weights in a more powerful, explosive manner than many of the football players who were in there. I wasn’t looking to be a big guy or a tough guy – I was just doing what I was taught in high school when I was an all-star, championship level football player who happened to play for a New Jersey Football Hall of Fame head coach that taught my teammates and I a phenomenal, collegiate level workout.
The looks I got from those football players were deadly. They hated everything about me and the fact that I was using certain machines that regular students typically didn’t use and lifting heavier weights than regular students typically lifted. Looking back, it really was a comical scene. This was my first experience with the unearned elitism that some Monmouth athletes had on campus.
 Nothing like being arrogant when you play (and lose) on a field that has ONE bleacher... Which brings me to the second story that came rumbling up from the depths of my memory after reading The Hawks Nest blog article. This story takes place in my senior year at Monmouth when those same football players who didn’t like me a few years earlier had romped and stomped their way to a phenomenal 2 win and 8 loss season. That’s right – those elitist guys who didn’t like the non-player lifting heavier weights than them turned out to be a pretty crappy football team. Big surprise.
I understand that football teams sometimes have their off years or their rebuilding years and that’s totally fine. In fact, it’s a good coaching strategy if executed correctly. However, what totally shocked me about this particular 2 – 8 team was the arrogance that the players had both on and off campus. These guys would walk around campus like they were Gods among men. They would go to the local bar and be rowdy and commanding at night on the same days that they would get toppled by lesser opponents. It was like they were living in their own dream world where they were contending for the Rose Bowl (which isn’t even possible since, at the time, Monmouth was part of the old Division 1AA group)!
What makes the second story so much funnier (to me) than the first story is a little fact that I learned between my freshman and senior years at Monmouth. The little fact that I learned was that many – if not most – of the football players on the Monmouth squad were kids who I played against in high school! And when I say that I played against them, I mean that my high school football team and I beat those guys up and down the field. Sure, when I was a senior in college those days of my football superiority were 4, 5, and 6 years behind me. There’s no question about that at all! Yet, I found it funny that these kids who had been second string players in high school (i.e. some of them couldn’t even earn a starting position on their high school teams) could walk around with such arrogance while they were losing games left and right.
I guess it made sense, though, right? You take a bunch of second string players who never really had a chance to shine in the spotlight when they were in high school and you put them out there – together – in college and they’re bound to reinforce one another’s insecurities about being accepted and recognized as the cool, big men on campus. In reality, though, much more than 70% of the campus didn’t even know who these student athletes were. And those students who did know the football players had little to no respect for them due to their ridiculous attitude problem.
Of course, this was a decade ago. These days, I’ve had the great opportunity to actually teach some of the current and recent graduates from the Monmouth football program and I am constantly impressed by the caliber of young man in that program today versus ten years ago. From what I’ve seen as the guy standing in the front of the room versus the guy sitting in the back of the room – today’s team is comprised of respectful young men who are focused and aware. I had one incident where a football player fell asleep during one of my early morning classes. I had a grownup conversation with the kid after class where I told him that I had no problem failing him (or anyone else in the class) and that if he wanted to go to sleep during class time, he might as well stay at home because I wasn’t giving him credit for showing up. I also told him that I had no problem reaching out to his coaches to discuss why he was asleep in my class. Well, not only did that kid turn it around and become engaged in the class conversations, but he was one of the higher scorers on the final exam, too.
Here’s hoping that the attitude adjustment that Coach Rice demands and Jesse Steele alludes to above is actually taking place. It’ll make for a healthier student body and a healthier student body will lead to greater support during home basketball games.
Can’t ask for much more than that, right?
Monmouth Men’s Basketball Releases 2011 – 2012 Schedule
August 9th, 2011 | Added to Sports | 2 Comments »
Today, the Asbury Park Press released the Monmouth University men’s basketball team’s schedule for the upcoming season. However, since they clearly copied and pasted from some website or e-mail and didn’t take the time to go through the copy and reformat it so it didn’t look like a complete mess, I’ve reformatted the schedule here for your viewing pleasure.
2011 – 2012 Monmouth University Men’s Basketball Schedule
Friday, November 11th at Villanova, 7:00 PM
Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament at Virginia Tech
Monday, November 14th at Virginia Tech, TBA
Tuesday, November 15th vs. George Mason or FIU, TBA
Monday, November 21st – Wednesday, November 23rd vs. TBD, TBA
Regular Season
Friday, November 25th at Vanderbilt, 9:00 PM
Thursday, December 1st at St. Francis, PA, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, December 3rd at Robert Morris, 7:00 PM *
Tuesday, December 6th at Navy, 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 10th vs. FORDHAM, 7:00 PM
Monday, December 12th at Rutgers, 7:30 PM
Thursday, December 22nd vs. RIDER, 7:00 PM
Wednesday, December 28th at Lafayette, 7:00 PM
Sunday, January 1st at UNC-Chapel Hill, TBA
Thursday, January 5th vs. MOUNT ST. MARY’S, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, January 7th vs. WAGNER, 7:00 PM *
Tuesday, January 10th vs. HARVARD, 7:00 PM
Thursday, January 12th at St. Francis, NY, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, January 14th at LIU, 7:00 PM *
Thursday, January 19th vs. ST. FRANCIS, PA, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, January 21st vs. ROBERT MORRIS, 7:00 PM *
Thursday, January 26th at CCSU, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, January 28th at Bryant, 7:00 PM *
Thursday, February 2nd vs. SACRED HEART, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, February 4th vs. QUINNIPIAC, 7:00 PM *
Wednesday, February 8th at FDU, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, February 11th vs. FDU, 7:00 PM *
Thursday, February 16th at Mount St. Mary’s, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, February 18th at Wagner, 7:00 PM *
Thursday, February 23rd vs. ST. FRANCIS, NY, 7:00 PM *
Saturday, February 25th vs. LIU, 7:00 PM *
NEC Tournament (if Qualified)
Thursday, March 1st; Sunday, March 4th; and Wednesday, March 7th
* = Northeast Conference Game
Opposing Team’s Name in CAPITAL LETTERS = Home Game
There are a few things that stick out in this schedule to me. First, there are only 12 home games according to this schedule while there were 15 last year. I don’t know whether or not this schedule is truly finalized (I assume that it is not), but I would hope that the powers that be find a way to put a few more home games on the schedule.
Second, the first home game isn’t until nearly the middle of December?! Come on! That ain’t right – not just for the fans, but for the players. These kids should be given an opportunity to play in front of their fellow students and home town crowd during a time that isn’t right smack dab in the middle of preparation for final exams. If there isn’t another home game added to this schedule before the December 10th game, then this is just poor scheduling on someone’s part.
Third, talk about playing against some stiff competition! This is great! I’m so glad that the Hawks are no longer going to go to that silly Basketball Travelers Classic in Idaho. Who gives a damn about that tournament? Getting into the Preseason NIT? Now that’s a step up for the program – nice work! And a game against UNC-Chapel Hill right in the middle of the season? I love it! Very, very good work putting this type of real, tough, competitive schedule together.
Here’s looking forward to the coming season! Read more about this season’s schedule at GoMUHawks.com.
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February 14th, 2012 | Added to Random Entries | No Comments »
Since I haven’t posted an originally-written update in about 20 days, I thought it would be a good idea to post up some quick thoughts about what’s been going on with the blog and some other random updates. First, if you’re craving more of my random thoughts throughout the day, then
you’re a sick individualyou should follow me on Twitter @JerseySmarts. If you want a brief glimpse at what I’m putting on Twitter these days, then you only need to glance to the right of this entry and read the tweet feed that I added to the site about two weeks ago.As you’ll see, the feed contains just random thoughts, complaints, and observations. I’m not solving world hunger here, folks – I’m just living my life!
On the topic of what is going on with this blog there’s nothing major to update everyone on, but here is the general rundown:
First, for some reason we’ve been receiving a large number of spammy comments. Now, I write “spammy” comments because these comments aren’t your typical “click here for drugs” robotic spam comments, but rather vitriolic hate speech that is actually written by a human being. It’s really some pretty vicious stuff that has no place on a personal blog. And I don’t know how many times I have to write this in the comments section, but this always has been and always will be a personal blog. In other words, what I say goes so if you write a comment that attacks another commenter or blatantly distorts the issues presented in the various updates, you can stick your comment up your ass. Now granted, in the last year we’ve only gotten about 6 or 7 really vitriolic, arrogant, hateful comments and all of those were moderated before they made it on to the site. However, if you plan on writing bullshit and hate in the comments section you might as well save yourself the time because it’s not getting posted, period. My personal blog, my dictatorial rules – very simple to understand.
Second, I have a lot of content written and ready to be posted to the blog, but I’m waiting for the right time. For example, I have my next student loan update written and ready to go for whenever my total amount outstanding drops again (which should be in about a month – more on that in a minute). Also, I’ve been working on some other projects that are taking up some time so I’ve only been writing for the blog in my spare time.
Third, I’ve been working really hard to cull and delete a ton of the tags on this blog. If you don’t know what a “tag” is, it’s the keywords that bloggers use to help their individual pages categorize themselves and rise up in the search engines. A few years ago I utilized a system that provided a whole host of tags for specific keywords and that has bogged down and crapped up the database for the blog. As an example, if I wrote something about my old Chevy Blazer, I would get the following tags added to the database: Chevy, Chevy Blazer, Blazer, Chevrolet, Chevrolet Blazer, Blazer SUV, SUV, Chevy SUV, etc. That’s totally unnecessary. My culling process is reducing all of that gunk to two tags: Chevrolet and Blazer. That’s it – nothing more is needed. Obviously, this is a long process since there are some 6 or 7 thousand of tags in the database that need to be reviewed and deleted. I’m going through them about 250 at a time and I hope to have the project completed by the end of the year.
And the final part of this part of the update is that I’m looking for ways to freshen up the design of the blog. If you’ve been eagle-eyed, then over the last few weeks you might have noticed random updates here and there in certain design features (the addition of the Twitter feed, the lengthening of the Facebook feed, the layout change for news from the other sites that I own, change in some of the external button links, etc). However, I’ve been thinking that it might be time for wholesale change – I just don’t know how far I want to take it. If you have any ideas on how to change the design, please feel free to add them to the comments section of this post (but don’t post hate or it won’t get to see the light of day!).
That’s it for the JerseySmarts.com Update. And before I end the web-based updates I thought I might add that one of the sites that I own through Usable Web Solutions, LLC has really exploded in the last month and a half. Hits to that website have tripled and it is growing into a very respected site. I’m proud of the team that works there and plan to continue providing them with as much support as possible to let the growth continue. As for the rest of my life…
Things have been very busy. Towards the end of January my company moved its offices from Trenton to New Brunswick. That’s about ten miles less of a drive each morning for me, but the same amount of time thanks to the Route 18 traffic (which sucks). However, I tried to bypass most of the heavy traffic by changing my work schedule from 9am-ish to 5pm-ish to 7:45am-ish to 4:00pm-ish. I’m getting up earlier and leaving my house about an hour and a half earlier, but I’m also getting home right at or slightly before 5:00pm, so that’s an hour and a half earlier than the Trenton commute. The change hasn’t been too bad, but when you shift your schedule to work (and live life) an hour and a half earlier, you experience a personal seismic shift.
On my end, I’m finding that I have less time to spend on the computer in the evening (not playing around on the computer, but working on computer-based, paid projects). Also, I find that I’m totally exhausted by about 3:00pm. I think this is happening because my body isn’t used to going to bed at 10:00pm so I wind up tossing and turning for about a half an hour (though I’m totally beat right now and expect to sleep like a log tonight). It’s a change and I’ll get used to it.
Also, we’re getting towards the end of the college basketball season and I’ve been busy attending the Monmouth University men’s basketball team home games. The Hawks have struggled a little bit this season, but they’re starting to show signs of strength heading into their last four games of the season. Oh, and unlike the last few years I don’t really have a ton of pictures to post from these home games. I’ve actually been sitting back and enjoying the games instead of waiting for the perfect camera shot. However, I have taken a small handful of pictures at the games (mostly of the scoreboard after the games are over) and I plan to post them in the next few weeks.
I’ve also been hit with a variety of big expenses in the last few weeks. First, I spent a good deal of money traveling to Washington, DC for a business trip last week (granted, these expenses will be reimbursed, but I have to wait for the reimbursement to arrive). Then, I had my car crap out on me and it cost over eleven hundred bucks to get the thing fixed. And on the same day that I paid to get the car fixed, I co-hosted a fundraiser/donor recognition event at one of the Monmouth home games (which wasn’t a huge expense, but still an irregular expense in my routine budget). While all of these expenses are manageable, they are all irregular costs in my planned budget and they all hit within the same three day period. So… I’m glad that tomorrow is pay day!
Between the big shift in my personal schedule and the time I’ve been spending at the Monmouth games, my health is more or less in a stalemate. I haven’t been to the gym in about three weeks because I can’t figure out this new schedule yet, but my weight hasn’t moved too much and my blood sugar is very stable. I’m glad about the blood sugar being stable because a shift in routine combined with a reduction in the amount of medication that I’m taking could have formed the perfect storm to throw my blood sugar out of whack. On the topic of health, I purchased the Rebel Fitness Guide from Nerd Fitness a few weeks ago and I just finished reading it. Any guy who writes fitness articles and quotes the Lord of the Rings, uses Legos as a graphic tool, and frequently references the video games that I grew up playing and other nerdy topics is alright with me! I expect to begin the Level 1 Rookie workout around the beginning of March so be on the lookout for updates on how I’m progressing with that workout program.
Other than what’s posted above I don’t have many more big updates to provide right now. One of the last originally-written posts that I wrote for the blog was about finding a new church to attend that is close to where I live. Well, I’m still going to church there on a weekly basis and I find it amazing that I used to think that I didn’t have the time to go to church. Absolutely amazing. The services last about 45 – 50 minutes and when you factor in driving there and driving home, I’m only out of the house for about an hour and five minutes each Sunday morning. Who can’t give an hour and five minutes to go to church each week?! In fact, I continue to find that I enjoy going to church to listen to the homilies and the readings and so on. It’s nice – makes you feel good after you leave and gives you guidance for the week.
I’ve also been reading a lot on the NOOK, in The Word Among Us daily meditations, and random articles – so I have a lot to update on the site when I get a moment to do so! Stay tuned and in the mean time, follow me on Twitter @JerseySmarts!