You know, a curious thing happens when you are serious about something – you see results.  Think about it, you dieters, and let’s be honest now.  You complain (just like I have for the past three years) that the diet is not working, but in reality it is you that is not working.  Yeah, I said it.  But I can now say it with confidence because I have realized that it is not a single action, but a cumulative action, and I’ve learned this the hard way.

For someone who came from the level that I was at and falling to such depths of weight gain, it was difficult.  I had to make a conscious decision to make an impact on myself.  I knew that I had tried this before with no luck… I’d go a week or two at the gym only to figuratively give up, thinking it was enough.  But it never was, and weeks later I’d look back regretting that I didn’t stick with the workouts.

And the eating… don’t get me started on that.  When it comes to food, I am compulsive, but we’ll save the details for another day, just suffice it to say that I had no control.  I mean, seriously, who doesn’t love great tasting food!

But now I decided to make myself accountable, and for the past 5 weeks I have been up at 5am or earlier and on my way to the gym.  Heck yeah it was tough.  Between the lack of sleep and the utter pain my body was enduring, it was enough to make me cry (and I am not going to admit whether I did or not).  But looking back, it really wasn’t a difficult decision. It was simply becoming “in control” of my own destiny.

And the results speak for itself:

It has been well over a year since I regularly posted to this blog, but I’ve wanted to — really.  It just has not happened.  There are many reasons for this, but ultimately the responsibility falls upon me and I failed.  I simply dropped the ball.  For so long, so many people relied on this site for news… well, really specific news about my life, the life of Colleen and of our daughter, but yes, it was news.

But then I disappeared.  Not literally, but figuratively. For the sake of this blog, it didn’t exist.  My focus was elsewhere.  It wasn’t as if I was not writing daily - I was - over 1,000 posts worth.  I also did podcasts - nearly one hundred over a year’s span (this is actually what I miss most of all).  I also produced and edited videos - a lot of them… more than I care to count.  Most importantly it enabled me to build a number of wonderful friendships that I will surely keep for years to come.  I loved my work.  But it was unrelated to my personal life.  Sure, it contained a lot of my personal opinions, but it wasn’t about me - it was bigger than me.  It was about something that I poured more than half my hours on this earth into in one way or another.

But like life, sentiments change.  My health, which for so many years was my focus, suffered.  My wife wasn’t always supportive of my passion, but I appreciate that she hung in there.  I slept less and ate more.  In a way I became disenchanted.  Then I read a post on the prominent tech blog, Techcrunch, and while the details differed I couldn’t help but feel some similarities.  The details are irrelevant, the words and actions now a memory.  No grudges are held.  No regrets about opportunities missed.  No disappointment in any inability to act or react.  I did what I could, and I had a ton of fun in the process.  I spent many midnights producing podcasts and editing videos — too many 60 hours weekend for my own good.  I covered covered an Olympic Trials and was present to witness history in person as Michael Phelps won each of his historic eight gold medals in Beijing.  I watched as an industry changed — I hope in some part to things that I did along with the many others who helped along the way — it certainly wasn’t all my doing and I cannot take all of the credit.  But, like I said, it was a blast.

I still pay attention in some ways.  I watch Melvin with interest… his passion, insight and humor are infectious.  We’ve certainly come a long way since the green jacket and quite possibly the greatest video of Michael Phelps in the history of the internet, haven’t we?

[My apologies.  I had to remove this video due to the fact that it played pre-roll advertisements without my approval]

I see the impact that others have had on the sport.  Their ability to almost single handedly increase interest one hundred fold, and their ability to bring the sport into our homes over these tubes we called the interwebs in a way not done before.  I praise them for their accomplishments and wish them continued success.  I also see a heightened awareness, a new life to a sport many may have viewed as forgotten a few short years ago.  Times are a changing and I hope that others do not remove oblivious to that changing landscape because the possibilities are endless.

But, like the title of this post, I will be starting over.  The economy sucks, people are losing their jobs left and right, financial news isn’t necessary a cheery part of the day, and the collective psyche is like I was a few months ago — disenchanted.  But there is hope.  There are new opportunities — waking up and getting on a bike every morning at 5:15am provides one with a lot of time to think.  That time has not gone to waste.  Do I wish things could have progressed differently?  Certainly.  But the fact remains that I do not feel regret about the way they occurred.  Life moves on, I have made friends for life, and oh yeah…

There is a new Goldblatt on the way.

Each of us has a connection to someone whose life has been affected by Leukemia — be it direct or through an acquaintance. My story, while not personal, is one of young Zach Davidson and his father Jeff. I do not personally know Zach or Jeff, but after hearing their story a chord was struck.

Zach’s story is, unfortunately, not unique. He was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was 3, and is currently in treatment for roughly two more years. As a father, we all want to protect and make an impact upon our children’s lives. The stories we hear of parental heroes, be it on television, on the radio, or on the internet, makes us all think twice and to be thankful for the lives we enjoy.

Jeff’s story is one of legends, but likely not one of a kind. His willingness to push himself physically and mentally to raise money to find a cure for his son’s disease is truly inspirational. Jeff and Zach are in the midst of an ongoing battle, and when approached by a friend of Jeff’s to participate in this battle my only answer was “when do we start?”

This was nearly 10 weeks ago, and since that day I have been training for a grueling, but picturesque, 100 mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe. While Zach and Jeff are my inspiration and my cause, my own family and health was also a consideration. Since I ended my swimming career, my health suffered and this goal has given me new life and a new outlook. It gives me an opportunity to impact Zach, Jeff and the rest of their family, as well as many more families like theirs.

But my impact needs YOUR help, YOUR help to raise my personal goal of $7,500 for blood cancer research. Team in Training’s goal is to raise funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of Zach specifically, but truly in honor of all the individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team in Training and help advance LLS’s mission.

I hope you will visit often to keep tabs on my progress, and I thank you in advance for your support!

For parents who have dealt with this ridiculous packaging when opening toys for their children and realizing that it would take nearly 20 minutes to do so… rejoice!

In my post on owning your own content, I cautioned any user of social media products/services to be aware of the terms governing their content on third party sites and recommended that they simply build their own brands separately and use these sites as complementary to their own “home base.”

Darren references a presentation by Chris Brogan where he talks during a brief few minutes about building a personal brand and using outposts in your media strategy.  I included some points that Chris makes and I agree with are below:

• Home base is your blog/website. Not everyone needs a blog. But most people who want to develop a personal brand do.
• Your “About” page should be about you AND your business, should the blog be professional in nature. At least, it should be about you.
• Make sure it’s easy to comment on your site.
• Make sure it’s easy for people to subscribe to your site’s content.
• Use easy to read fonts and colors.
• A site laden with ads is a site that doesn’t cherish its audience. Be thoughtful.

The key is that, simply put, social networking sites for someone interested in building their personal brand should be secondary locations (or outposts)… This is actually something that I lost focus on over the past year-plus.  I do spend a lot of time on Twitter, but I have moved a lot of my efforts back to this site over the past few weeks.  It hasn’t been an easy transition, but in terms of personal brand recognition, to me it means everything.

In retrospect, I spent a lot of time building a brand that is now simply a memory - only accessible via cached Google searches and Archive.org.  I learned a lot during those times and while I would do much of it the same, there is much that I would change - case in point being neglecting my “home base.”

Thanks Chris for going further into detail about this theory of “home bases” better than I ever could.

Sure, 90% of users don’t necessarily care about this topic - with that I will certainly agree. But what if we took the time, just a few short minutes and explained it to them?  Would they care at that point?  I’d venture a guess to say yes - yes, they would care.  Maybe not in the way that you or I would care, but nonetheless, they’d care.

This problem struck home even further today when I was reviewing (yes, by reviewing I mean read - I read them all) the terms of service for four websites that I visit each and every day, and what I learned from the reading is that only one actually truly respects you and your content (to a certain extent).  These websites have varying levels of interaction and social features, with one of these sites being used simply as the “control” for the purposes of this “experiment” (although I do use the service daily).

I choose to not disclose the sites I visited simply because I want to point out the differences in their terms, not because I want to single anyone out.  I simply wanted to see the licenses that we “give” to sites when using their services and upload/create content on them, and in return, how those licenses are returned, expired, etc. if we, as users, choose to simply delete our content or accounts from the website.

The site that I used as the control is by far “an industry leader” in terms of its user base and traffic, so it made sense that I looked at its terms first to create a benchmark.  All sites include similar wording relating to “giving” an “irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.”  Note: While the wording is similar, this website was, by far, the most inclusive of your rights as a user.

The key point here though is the fact that this site, while “getting” a perpetual license, is the only one that makes it simple to revoke that license.  You simply have to delete your account and poof, license reversed… “You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.”

The second site is close to the first, but there are still question marks. For me, when there are questions, I tend to shy away.  This site tells me that the “licenses granted by you in User Videos terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your User Videos from the XYZ Service.” My question is, what is a “commercially reasonable time”?  A week, month, year? But the real issue I have is that they tell me that the “licenses granted by you in User Comments are perpetual and irrevocable.” Excuse me?  You can use my comments forever - first you tell me they are still my copyright, but then you tell me that I do not have the rights related to the license of that copyright?

The third website has the same terms as the first two regarding the license, although this third site looks like it was more of a copy-paste from a free terms of service text provider. It is not as in-depth as the first two and does not mention anything about my rights for removing my account or my content.  Nor does it mention how the content is handled if I do (or am even able to) remove my content and account.  This site does provide an email address stating that “You may revoke this license at any time by contacting our copyright agent at XYZ email address,” but this term does not directly address what actually happens to the content itself after contacting their “copyright agent.”

The final website simply gave me a headache.  I will, in the future, refer to this site as the Sarah Palin of terms of service because when it came to my rights, the licenses I “give” and the revoking of those rights, the terms simply never provided any coherent answers to the questions I was looking for. Sure, this site was the most comprehensive in their legal wording, but that just singled to me that they would be the most difficult to work with if I ever wanted my content removed.  This feeling was somewhat summed up in the terms stating that they could “incorporate such User Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed,” telling me that what I provide is perpetually theirs with the caveat that I’d never be able to revoke that right I provide them.

With these terms fresh in my mind, I simply caution any user, heavy or light, of social media product/services to be aware of the terms governing your use of the website and associated services.  Also, always know and understand what rights you are handing over to the website or subsequently a third party prior to initiating the use of a website or service.  Finally, I will always recommend controlling those rights from the outset and building your own content home base, be it a website, service or newletter, and be creative about how you gain readership, users and fans.

Then there are the times where the trip becomes immediately worth it because of something that the little mind thinks up and the mouth spouts out.

This time it was for all to hear at our local Red Robin restaurant, and although I am surprised that I am repeating it here, I won’t leave you hanging.

Colleen and Avery returned to the table after one such trip last night with a smile on their faces. Asking “what’s up” I was informed that Avery became the life of the restroom when she shared her thoughts that her poo looked like a hot dog.

Shame on me for asking whether Avery’s comment was true or not. Which Colleen then informed me that it was not - it was more like the shape of a cocktail weenie.

The account in question is one that I don’t use and, have not used and simply found no reason to continue to “hold” on to, but apparently parting with a Twitter account is more easily said than done.  Twitter makes it easy to find the account deletion options with a simple link entitled “Delete my account” on its Settings > Account tab.  That is where the fun began as when I clicked the link, I was presented with the following:

As seen by the error message above, “Twitter is stressing out a bit right now, so this feature is temporarily disabled.”  Or, taken another way… “We’d prefer that you’d stick with Twitter a bit longer, so we won’t allow you to delete your account right now, and hopefully you’ll forget in a few days time that you wanted to leave our service in the first place.”

What is interesting is that this is not even a hot topic, whether due to users simply not wanting to leave Twitter or because the users who do leave are simply orphaning their accounts.  Twitter’s Get Satisfaction page offers some insight into a deletion issue, but the last complaint was three months ago and that issue is not quite the same as I ran into at this point.

A quick search of Twitter itself find a handful of people running into the same issue of deletion as I did, and some of them are not as toned down as I am.  But the real question remains whether this is an issue that Twitter is aware of, is working on, and how high of a priority it is for a company/service that relies on a critical mass of users to fix an issue where those users wish remove their accounts from the service.

Websites like LinkedIn are great… I am actively involved in numerous communities and I use the site a couple of times a day in order to keep tabs on my network, see what my peers are involved in and how they are enriching their business networks and professional opportunities.

Other sites like TheLadders assist in keeping an eye of the job market and to understand what companies may be looking for in their candidates.

Then there are Careerbuilder and Monster.com, both of which I am not a fan of, but feel that they are a necessary evil.  I recently updated my information on Careerbuilder and it actually was painless. Updated the resume, it was searched more often and that is that - pretty indifferent.  Now Monster is a different animal… Actually “monster” might be an appropos name for the company.  Within hours of updating my information, my inbox became innundated with spam and career “opportunities.”  One would think that Monster would have resolved those problems in all these years, but alas, it has not gotten any better.

Now, while I can easily manage the spam (there are solutions), the issue is the originating delivery and Monster’s complacency in trying to curb these MLM schemes - yes, 98% of the emails I receive are exactly that.  The key to the issue is that it is not just me - I have heard firsthand from others that have been a party to this and a simple search brings up fraud, scams, theft and misuse of email lists and more piggybacking on a job search service that has become any but that.

So, until Monster can solve this problem, I will be removing my information from the site.

Have you had a better experience with Monster.com?