I'm baaaack!

Oh man, does it feel good to be back or what? Let's jump right in and get caught up...

What the Heck has Mike Been Doing?

Getting Married
I'm sure you've seen the pictures on Facebook (Speaking of, I'm now at www.facebook.com/nagel.mike - the other itinerations of my custom url had been taken by Mike Nagel's with far fewer friends and way more time on their hands. And I'm mad about it.). Please do take the time to soak in the glory that is a tailored tuxedo worn with white Chuck Taylors, while you're at it. We do promise to post pics of our own as soon as we get the digitals back from our photographer.

As I was remarking to a co-worker the other day, the process of getting married is pretty much like having a second, full-time job. One that's a lot of fun, but also takes a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of patience, and you have to pay half the salary of your other job to work there. Oh, and when the job's over, there's no exit interview. There's just half a cake left and a car ride to a court-mandated, two-week vacation where you're left to wonder, "Did that just happen?"

I do want to write more about the wedding in the near future, but for now I feel guilty about mentioning it at all since Sonja and I have yet to post a single thank-you in the seven weeks after the Big Day.

Honeymooning
If you have about six hours to spare (like, you know, when you're at work reading this), you can check out the pictures of our two-week trip to Italy: Rome, Florence, a quick stop in Pisa, a day trip via bike through Tuscany, and Venice. As you'll see, the trip was absolutely amazing... and I'll write all about it coming up. Suffice it to say, we have a whole lot of souvenirs hanging on the walls of our place.

Moving In
Speaking of, did you know when someone moves in with someone else it takes them twice as long to do it as it would if just one of them moved? Yeah, we're still finding places to put all of Sonja's stuff and others places where we can donate mine.

More importantly, when you get married, people give you a lot of stuff. And they give you a lot of money. We're enjoying refurbishing the kitchen and the non-existent linen closet.

Work
Yup, back at it. Moving on!

Reading
Okay, so I'm not reading that much, but I am reading a little. I'll even tell you what I'm reading - Team of Rivals - in the hope that the next time one of you asks what I'm reading I'll have finished and moved on to something else. If not, I'll lie and say I've been buried up to *here* in literary magazines and haven't touched any book-length work in ages, darling.

Music
So, here's what it's my iPod of late that you should totally check out... MuteMath's Spotlight EP - fantastic single from an album that drops on 8/18, Our Lady Peace Burn, Burn if only for nostalgic purposes, The Devil Wears Prada Dear Love: A Beautiful Dischord suggested by a dude from GYG, and Michael Jackson Off the Wall because it's great to remember when the King of Pop was still royalty.

And While I was Writing This Post...
I learned how to pop popcorn on the stove without a JiffyPop exploding foil bag.

A Perfect Space for Writing...

I can't write. I don't have a desk. I have a great new place and there's a ton of space in my room, but a big empty spot that should hold a desk. In the hole where the desk should go, there's a laptop stand that's really not cutting it. It has an edge, designed to hold a computer in place, that slices into my wrists were I ever to sit there. So I don't. I need a desk to be a writer.

At this desk I don't have, there needs to be a chair. Oh, I have one now, but I don't like it. It's a "rescued piece." Not "rescued" like this-is-from-an-18th-century-New-England-barn "rescued," but someone-was-going-to-throw-this-in-the-dumpster-and-I-took-it "rescued." It's not particularly comfy and it smells of moth balls, which is probably why someone left it in front of the dumpster in the first place.

No desk, no chair, I cannot write. I need a muse--and to be unencumbered from wires. You see, I need music to provide background noise when I write. But in order to have music, I have to have my external hard drive plugged into my laptop, and that just causes wires to go in all directions. I have a cable coming in one side of the computer from the hard drive and another on the other side, which runs through the power pack to the wall. Two cords are far too many. I only have a 12-inch laptop. That cords-to-inches ratio is far too high. I cannot write in these conditions.

And as far as that muse goes, I feel it's departed. I've left traveling behind (for the time being), so I can't entertain you about eating in strange places and pooping in stranger. Nope. I eat in a kitchen now. It's sterile, with just enough small bits of rust and minuscule food stains that it's not worth writing about the sterility and it's definitely not dirty enough to note.

But perhaps my muse is exhausted--I do have two Twitter accounts, after all, and that's a whole lot of brilliance shoveled out there on a daily basis. I now think in 140-character spans. That definitely doesn't lend to full paragraphs. Or sentences, for that matter.

There are many things I have to do, in writing's stead. The weekends, for example, are full of adult-type chores. I needed to frame artwork, clean the bathroom, work out, organize my recycling, clean the dust off of my television cables, change the batteries in the remote, wash a dish, ponder buying a beta fish, watch the Florida A&M football game while simultaneously watching a MadTV re-run, change socks, remove lint from my toenails, kill a spider, stare a hole into the wall, charge my laptop since I plugged it in to write and then didn't touch it and its battery died while I was staring (unsuccessful) holes into the wall. I'm a busy man.

You see? It's impossible to be a writer. People say that all you have to do is write. Well, they're wrong. You need a desk. You need a chair. You need the perfect amount of noise and the perfect lack of wires. You need a muse, but you don't need social media. And you definitely, definitely can't be cleaning the lint out of your toes.

How do those people who write for three hours a day do it?

They must have linty feet.

Seeing your name in print...

Does it count if you see your name published but it's on the web? I dunno. But with the start of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games looming (t-minus 5 hours to the Opening Ceremony tonight and some footie matches already kicked off yesterday), STAtravlers.com has started promoting my blogs and video/photo galleries on their homepage. If you're REALLY bored, feel free to check it out. And no making fun of the horrible shot of me that they picked for the web banner, okay?

There are far better writers out there... a Chinese LOTD

Another housekeeping note, but as you might have noticed, I've added a new Blogger feature on the right-hand toolbar. It's a self-updating blogroll featuring the latest posts from my China comrades. So, if you're looking for more insight into what it's like to be in Beijing for the Olympics, and not just posts about pooping, you might want to check out my friends. It'll be worth it, trust me.

Also, Emerson has started a collective blog, where all of us are required to post at least once a week. There's some enlightening stuff on there, if you want to sift through it.

Just trying to keep y'all entertained at work!

Also, pictures are up from The Temple of Heaven, 7-9-8 Art District (more on that later) and see the random city shots for additions from Beijing's first Apple Store and Hooters.

Housekeeping...

Just a couple notes...

For all my Facebook compadres: I'm having a tough time getting on to respond to comments and emails. Sorry, but the Great Cyber Wall of China isn't helping me enjoy my Facebook addiction and I haven't been able to post any pictures. Sad day.... so don't feel offended if I don't respond to you right away (or quickly) (or at all). It's not personal, I'm just blocked for some reason.

For people checking out my Flickr site, the best way to view shots is to view my collections. I've organized everything (or am in the process of arranging, anyway) into Japan and China collections with sub-sets in each of those. Fun, fun, fun...

That's all, folks. Now, back to the fun and your regularly scheduled programming...

Happy Birthday, dear blog, Happy Birthday to you!

So, in all of the travel-related excitement, I missed the one-year anniversary of my blog. At some point last week, "Great Story. Compelling and Rich" - the Mike Nagel saga - reached its first annum.

Let me just say that it's been a fun-filled, exciting year in the blogosphere of all things Mike. I've been learning along the way on how to do these things, how to keep you entertained and how to be a "blogger." It's been a riot all 365 days (and 100+ posts).

The best thing, though, has been the feedback I've gotten from you, my readers. Your comments don't go ignored - whether left here, emailed to me, posted on Facebook or fabricated entirely in my imagination - and I appreciate your willingness to keep reading while I stumble around figuring out what works best and strike a balance between what makes me happy as a writer and y'all enjoying yourself as readers.

So, rather than singing Happy Birthday to a website, I'd like you just to take a second, pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself on a successful Year One. I couldn't do it without you and I hope you'll stay tuned for more fun in the year to come...

Thank you.

Note on pictures...

Right now, I don’t have WiFi or Ethernet access, so I don’t have any way of transferring pictures from my laptop to Facebook and Flickr. Once I get it set up, though, I’ll let you all know and post as much as possible. However, I might have to wait until I get to China and spend some QT uploading photos… I know you’re all desperately waiting.

My virgin effort...

The audio and editing suck, but it was my first try with the Flip and iMovie. At least it's somewhat coherent... and hopefully I'll figure out how to get a thumbnail image in there, too.

It's a start... enjoy!

Also, here's the link to my YouTube account.

Subsription options (because you love me)...

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Due to absolutely overwhelming demand, I've added FeedBurner email subscription. So, if you want to receive an email the instant I post something eternally life-altering (like, say, this), use the form above or in the sidebar to sign up.

This way, instead of frantically refreshing your Google Reader waiting for the next installment of Nagel, you can go back to watching NSFW videos, surfing eBay or *gasp* even do some actual work.

Enjoy!

Pardon me while I toot my own horn...

Okay, so apologies for bragging, but it's nice to get validation from time to time. Plus, I can share this news with you as an excuse to have you read something that I actually got paid for, as opposed to reading my ramblings that have made me zero bucks over the past year.

Good Catch Publishing, one of my freelance employers, selected a piece I wrote for them as their "Catch of the Month" for June, which means they picked me as the author of their favorite article for that 30-day span. Pretty cool, huh? The piece is a chapter of a book and details the true story of an Oregon man and his struggle to overcome an addiction to pornography. You can read "I Can't Do This Alone" by following the link.

It is a long one, so apologies. But I hope you like it!

Mike and his blogging alter-ego...

Many thanks to my friend and blogging compatriot Justin (of Letters from Suburbia) for posting a link to Emily Gould's NY Times Magazine article about her motivations to blog and how, why and when to share personal details on a completely open and unfiltered platform.

In the lengthy piece (which, if you have some time, is well worth the read), she details her history with blogging, her time at Gawker and, after a series of personal revelations, her experience being stripped and exposed on a very public level.

It got me thinking about how I pick and choose what I write about here. I've been working on this blog for almost a year now and I'm nearing the 100-post mark. While I don't actively promote the site, I do link to it on Twitter and Facebook and include it in the signature of all my emails. My readership isn't anything to brag about, but it holds steady at around 100 visits a week or so - mostly from people I know, but I do get reasonable traffic from complete strangers who stumble across the blog looking for Anchorman quotes or Googling "Puerto Rican bosoms." (Seriously).

Knowing how accessible anything on the web can be, I'm generally very careful about what I write here. You'll notice I've never written anything negative about the jobs I've worked, refrained from sharing political views and haven't even mentioned the name of the town where I live. Where I'm ever more careful, though, is stuff that I consider private. Very little of what's on this site is uber-personal. Sure, everything I write is about me. It's got my name on it and I'm not making any of it up. But you will rarely catch me talking about anything that I wouldn't tell a complete stranger, either.

After reading the article and weighing the amount of sharing that I've done here, I realized that I had, subtlety and unconscious, developed a blogging persona. I'll call him Blogger Mike.

Blogger Mike is not too different from Real Mike in many ways - they both like the same foods, the same sports, the same music and the same coffee. But the Blogger Mike doppleganger (should I call him B.M. for short? ha.) is both way more self-deprecatory and pretentious than his R.M. counterpart. I think B.M. is also funnier, more cynical, thinks he's more tech-savvy, asserts himself with too much self-important mannerisms and has better breath than R.M.

Sonja, who is the fiancee of both B.M. and R.M. whether she likes it or not, hates that B.M. never talks about her. Whereas, as R.M.'s friends know, he never shuts up about her. That online silence was a very intentional choice. It's just that my relationships (family, friends and the many, many, many love interests) have always been a very personal experience for me. One I didn't feel was necessary to share online with God-knows-who's-reading-this.

In the last two posts (and a little in this one), R.M. broke through. I'm not at all sad that he did, it's just funny that it almost took a year for it to happen. And who knows if it'll happen again? If it does, it'll probably take another year.

Emily Gould's piece just got me thinking about why I blog and how much of myself I'm really sharing with the world. In one sense, I'm sharing a lot - people would never know half the stuff about R.M. if it wasn't posted here. But 95% of everything that's here comes from the B.M. version - and he doesn't even know half of what makes up the R.M. At least, I like to think there's a separation. When doing any kind of writing, it's always good to keep a little mystery in there; you have to leave 'em wanting more.

(You get more hits that way.)

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Question of the day: Do you, too, have an online persona in order to maintain a semblance of privacy? If so, how do you balance the two?

Higher Education Blows

Let’s add up the tab of my pursuit of “higher education,” shall we?

Tuition:
Paid for by loans, has got me well over halfway to six figures in debt. In return, I get a degree that qualifies me to, well, do this – blog. Or I could work at a coffee shop and snobbily reference incestuous academic journals while I pour foam onto lattes for people in suits. Awesomeness.

Lost wages:
I didn’t have the greatest job in the world when I moved out of New York City and re-entered academia. But it wasn’t the worst, either. I got to do a lot of really cool things (in return, of course, for selling my mortal soul). The thing was, my soul then was apparently worth more than it is now – perhaps because it was less used? Looking at my friends who were on the roughly the same level I was and where they are now (rolling on piles of money, surrounded by many naked admirers while sipping champagne in high-rise apartments), I wonder at times, if that could have been me. Not the nude guy in the corner. The one with all the cash.

Direction:
I had started a career path that people have killed for. Literally. I saw someone get stabbed at a NBC Page interview. It wasn’t pretty. Then again, the girl that did it was, so she got the job. Now, I’m coming out of 2 1/2 years of sales experience in what might be a dying industry. But I could tell you the corresponding cities for over 300 airport codes, so I’m a wicked good trivia partner.

Hip status:
If you tell people you live in NYC, you’re cool. If you tell people you’re squatting in an office building that’s 15 feet from train tracks, you’re not. Rent savings mean nothing.

Nerd potential:
Back when I had a “real job,” I didn’t have any time for web 2.0. I was on Facebook, but never checked it. MySpace was a thing of the future. There was no blogging, there was no Twittering, there was no Google Reader and there was no (gasp) iPhone. Now, well, I have all of those (minus the MySpace as you no doubt recall from my Super Tuesday post.). Wow. I should just start playing Dungeons and Dragons and get it over with. Who’s up for a game in Second Life? I’ll bring my virtual, 28-sided die.

Ugh. I don’t know why I’m whining. Sorry to vent this all on you. I think the reassessment of my life began today when I dropped by my grad school’s bookstore and found out that it’s going to cost me $60 to buy a friggin’ black robe for graduation. I already HAVE a black robe from my first time getting a diploma.

But NO – this is different. A Master’s robe has funny sleeves that look like something Gandalf would wear. That’s why you have to give up your May grocery money, Mike. Wizard sleeves! We in higher education feel you haven’t paid quite enough yet for another piece of paper with your name on it. Go visit another ATM and shell out some more, okay?

Oh, and we’re not framing your diploma, either. That costs extra.

(I’m wearing my old robe anyway.)

Googlegängers (your umlauted word of the day)

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but this article in last Thursday's Times spurred me to do it.

We've all Google-stalked someone. Don't deny it. You've plugged the name of a friend (or enemy) into a search engine, hit enter and clicked through the first few pages of search returns. It's kind of fun, kind of creepy and a common occurrence in today's wired world.

Have you ever plugged your own name in to see what turns up? If so, you've undoubtedly stumbled upon one or more of your Googlegängers - people with the same name that pop up in a search engine query.

The Times article was about the psychological reasons behind why we feel drawn to folks of our same name. There are Facebook groups out there for people with like names and more than one author has written a book or article about setting out to find others with identical monikers. It's more than a passing fascination with some.

For me, however, it provides more annoyance than camaraderie. Why? Because of my massive ego, of course.

Ha, no I'm kidding. Well sort of... Let's talk about my Googlegängers.

I am proud to at least be featured twice on the front page of Google when you search for "Mike Nagel." One is for my Facebook page and the other is for this blog, which is exciting, since I've only been running this page for nine months or so. I don't think it's too bad, overall: I'm at positions 7 and 8, respectively.

Here's the thing... it doesn't really seem like anyone relevant is above me. The top overall hit is a press release announcing Michael P. Nagel as VP of Sales and Marketing for some company called Incisive Surgery, Inc. Then, in 2nd place, there's another presser for a different Mike Nagel.

Finally, on the third hit, we get a Mike Nagel of some importance. Here's his Flickr site. He's a amateur photographer from Munich, Germany and seems like a nice guy. His shots are pretty cool, too. I guess I'm not too upset about falling behind him. Especially since he's had his page up since '05.

The other miscellaneous entries are for some randoms with ZoomInfo and LinkedIn entries that aren't updated. Bollocks! I should be further up, Google!

I know the main way to increase your Google page rank is to be linked to from a bunch of other sites, so thanks to everyone who's linking to me, I appreciate it. Eventually, I'll be the world's greatest Mike Nagel, at least in the eyes of the almighty Google.

However, here's the most annoying thing about having Googlegängers - registering domain names. I'm looking to start my own website, either tying this blog to it or just setting it up as a professional-looking site that I can use to help further my career. However, both mikenagel.com and michaelnagel.com are taken.

mikenagel.com is occupied by someone who bought the domain name, linked it to a blog and then just left it. How obnoxious! I'd actually use it... If you read this, other Mike Nagel, I want that site.

michaelnagel.com is just disturbing. It's the homepage for a German actor who looks like he's trying to break into Hollywood. Judging by his physique and D-list level of international appearances, he appears destined to occupy a recurring role on a low-level network soap, at best. If that's my alternate online personality, I'm a little frightened.

Oh well, guess I'll have to either change my name or think up a more creative domain name once I start setting up my site. Any suggestions?

How about you guys? Anything fun come up when you google yourself?

LOTD...

If you check out my sidebar, I've added a bunch of new stuff.

First off, you can post blogs you like on your Facebook, Digg or del.ico.us accounts. So, that's pretty fun. I'm new at that game, so if you have any questions... ask someone else.

I've also added a few new blogs. Definitely check out LB's page here. She's a deep thinker, great writer, terrific artist and one heckuva dancer and she'll give you a daily dose of cultural commentary and feminist philosophy. Oh, and she's one of the smartest and funnest people I know. Enjoy!

Mike is like a steak...

...in that, he's well done.

That's right. I just turned in my thesis yesterday. 122 pages of earth-shattering, paradigm-shifting, bowel-quaking brilliance. And, once I reformat it to meet the department's requirements, my brilliance will probably stretch to 140 pages or so (Yes, it's spread thin).

WHEW.

Talk about a sigh of relief. I feel like I'm tasting freedom. I feel liberated. I feel like the world is my oyster, if only I would reach out and shuck it-shuck it long and shuck it hard. So, what am I doing in my first thesis-free day in four months?

Sitting in my chair, drinking a beer, watching TV out of the corner of my eye and writing to you guys. Yes, I know how to live life to the fullest. Rock 'n roll, bay-bee!

It's all good. Truth be told, I once again missed writing here, especially since my page views and comments are up (Thank you, friends, family and Internet stalkers). My new discover, courtship and long-term commitment to Twitter hasn't dissuaded me from posting posts of 140+ characters. However, when you're swilling coffee, banging at a keyboard until your fingertips bleed and questioning everything you've done for the past three years, you don't have much time for weblogging, you know?

But I'm back and it's for good. Or for now, at least.

There's a lot going on in my life right now and, of course, I feel like I need to share it online, so I'll get back to doing that. Upcoming posts can/may/will be on the following topics:

- a book deal
- new music for me to illegally share
- Banana slings
- Beijing, baby
- Mike's next blossoming career as a viral video star
- faking death to avoid school loan payments
- the Red Sox
- the worrisome feeling that I may be allergic to my apartment. Or my body hair.
- softball season starting up
- flip-flops
- Brazilian waxes

Who's excited? I'm excited. How 'bout yourself?

In the words of the immortal Jay-Z:
"When I come back like Jordan / wearing the four-five / It's not to play games with you / It's to aim at you"

Play ball!

I had all kinds of great plans to do my first-ever running diary (a la Bill Simmons) for the Red Sox' season opener in Japan this past Tuesday. I was going to get up for the 6 a.m. start, make myself some scrambled eggs with feta cheese and hot sauce on a sesame bagel (recent favorite), crack open some Sapporo and start typing.

Alas, it was not to be. I caught that nasty flu that's been circulating the Northeast. Except that mine came accompanied by the flu's friend, Mr. Vomit. Let's just say that the beer wasn't happening and I spent more time with my toilet than in front of my TV. Blast. Not exactly how I'd planned Opening Day.

But at least Opening Day happened. The Sox are back. This makes me happy. Now I have a reason to be paying for cable again. I watched as much as I could of both Japan games live, watched replays of the games that afternoon and highlights later on SportsCenter while I attempted (unsuccessfully) to stay coherent and write productively. You could say that I missed me some baseball.

You'd be correct.

I'm excited about this season. Sure, it's extremely hard to repeat, but I like our chance. It looks like Manny remembered that the season doesn't start in July this year, Papi is healthy, Lester and Bucholz are a year older, Dice-K's celebratory handshakes are set, Jacoby is making ladies swoon left and right and Paps is still bringing heat from the 'pen. We're good to go.

Only a couple things have me worried. Schilling being out hurt for most of the year doesn't help us. But, I do think it could be a blessing in disguise. Don't forget that he's missed time each of the past three seasons anyway. This way, we could potentially get him back and have him fresh for a stretch run. We just can afford to lose another starter or Bartolo "The Blimp" Colon could be seeing major innings on our mound and that kind of scares me.

Our catching situation gives reason for concern, as well. Tek is still Tek - he's the captain and he'll be great with the pitching staff. It's just that he's 35 and is wearing down. And to back him up, we have... Oh, that's right, we don't have anyone. We cut Wakefield's batterymate, Mirabelli and don't have an adequate replacement. Anyone want to place bets on the date we re-sign him? I'll take April 25th...

As long as we stay healthy, I like this year's team. I'm glad we didn't tinker too much, since there weren't many dramatic holes to fill. Our outfield is stacked right now (Crisp and Moss are more than adequate backups), too, which is good since J.D. Drew still could get hurt sneezing or trimming his goatee.

Predictions? Well, can any true Sox fan not predict finishing first in the A.L. East and not winning the World Series?

Of course not... so, there you go.

Yankees Suck.

Random notes....

Couple random notes here... I thought I'd throw a LOTD at you and then tell you my tournament picks so you can laugh at how awful they are.

First, the LOTD: check out Twitter. It's all the micro-blog rage (Actually, it has been for a year now, but I, of course, just found out about it.). Basically, it's a site where you can blog, post links or update your life in quick burst of 160 characters or less called "tweets." It's kind of like changing the status on your Facebook page, but with the notable difference that your friends can follow you. You can also reply to each other's posts easily, creating instant discussion in the blogosphere, which is sort of what it's all about. That, and self-deprecating photographs.

My Twitter site is in the links at the side or you could just visit www.twitter.com/seemikewrite anytime.

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Tourney Picks

Every year, my dad, brother and I fill out our brackets for the Men's March Madness tournament. We play for bragging rights and a trophy. The trophy is really just an old bowling pin. Win the tourney and you get to keep the pin for a year.

It's kind of funny, since it's mostly just a pissing contest between three guys who really don't watch much college basketball. But hey, if there's any way you can humiliate your closest relations, you have to take it, right?

That said, I'm losing. But here are my picks anyway, in case you care:

East
Round 2
UNC over Arkansas
Notre Dame over WSU
St. Joseph's over Louisville
Tennessee over Butler

Sweet 16
UNC over Notre Dame
Tennessee over St. Joseph's

Elite 8
UNC over Tennessee

West
Round 2
Kansas over UNLV
Clemson over Vanderbilt
Wisconsin over Kansas State
Georgetown over Gonzaga

Sweet 16
Kansas over Clemson
Georgetown over Wisconsin

Elite 8
Georgetown over Kansas

Midwest
Round 2
Memphis over Oregon
Pittsburgh over Michigan State
Stanford over Kentucky
Texas over St. Mary's

Sweet 16
Pittsburgh over Memphis
Stanford over Texas

Elite 8
Pittsburgh over Texas

South
Round 2
UCLA over BYU
UConn over Drake
Xavier over Baylor
Duke over West Virginia

Sweet 16
UCLA over UConn
Xavier over Duke

Elite 8
UCLA over Xavier

Final Four
UNC over Georgetown
UCLA over Pittsburgh

National Champion
UNC over UCLA

I don't have any of my major teams out, but I probably should've been able to call at least ONE of yesterdays four upsets. Blast!