Nathan Key

Dear Readers,

Two major life events have happened to me that are making it rather difficult for me to keep blogging as deeply and definatively about philosophy, policits, and religion:

The first is that I recently took a role as a Senior Trainer with Liberty Mutual's Personal Market Team. It's meant A LOT of research into the insurance industry and a lot of studying so that I'm ready to teach these materials.

The second is that I'm about to buy a home. We were supposed to close on June 22nd, but the date got pushed up to June 11th, next Thursday. That's put a lot more stress on me, personally, so I haven't been able to put as much thought into this blog as I might otherwise.

In any case, thanks for bearing with me as I work through these major events and continuing to visit this site, daily, and comment on my thought experiements. It's really wonderful to interact with everyone who comes here to learn or debate!

Interestingly enough, June 11th also marks the First Year of this website's existence, and I have a mini celebration in the works to feature some of my favorite blogs, articles, and friends who have made this site fun for me to write and produce.

Stay tuned for more details!

Addiction is when the gambler puts his last quarter into the slot machine, hoping for the jackpot that continues to elude him. It's when the junkie takes one more hit, wishing for a high like the first time. It's when the kid who called the elusive girl every day this week picks up the phone again.

And it's when I lose a few games of Halo and end up losing rank because I can't just put down the controller and come back another day...

What's your addiction?

Don't try to tell me that you don't have one.

Some addictions are a little worse than others, granted, but no one- I mean NO ONE- is without them. Addictions are those things you do to escape. The secret obsessions that you're a little embarrassed about. Sometimes, we're embarrassed or ashamed to even admit that we're even involved. Other times, the activity itself is innocent enough- but if anyone knew how MUCH we indulged in it, we'd blush.

Maybe it's video games or coffee?
Maybe it's sex?
Maybe it's conversation?
Or books?

We're all addicted to something and it's only going to get worse if we keep it hidden. So, I'm going to encourage you to tell someone about your addiction, today. You don't have to write it here in the comments if that makes you uncomfortable (although you're more than welcome to do so if that's the kind of confession that you think you need to make). But please think through your addictions for a moment and talk with someone about them.

Even if it's video games...

From time to time, I think it’s important to acknowledge some people who have added to my own online experience. Today, I want to feature two individuals who have helped me understand my online experience through our offline interactions! When I was in Seattle, I worked very closely with both of them at Media Partners and continue to interact with online now that we’re 3000 miles away.

Maureen @ http://iheartiheart.com/ was the marketing specialist at Media Partners when I worked there. Beyond that, she’s a really wonderful SEO who just happens to have a pretty great blog about marketing and internet fun. She got me hooked on Talk Like a Pirate Day and also managed to get us an office Wii when we were working at Media Partners. She also helped me figure out how to increase traffic to my own site (although we never talked about it directly, our conversations about internet campaigns and search engine optimization (SEO) really made a difference).

Rob @ http://www.robthedesigner.com/ was the graphic designer at Media Partners when I worked there. After leaving our respective positions, he’s become a pretty incredible freelance designer. We were both “jobless” around the same time and so it was really helpful to watch his networking moves. I copied a number of them to try to nail down some freelance work of my own- even though we’re in different trades (I write stories all day and he draws pictures).

OK, one other person I want to mention is Jeff. If you read my comments then you’ll probably noticed that he’s made quite a few lately, and they’ve all been really interesting, insightful, and have helped me focus my thoughts quite a bit. He’s got a blog called jeffsdeepthoughts. You should check it out because the fun continues over there, too!

"I know, marriage is about legal rights, recognitions, etc. too. But it makes me sick to think that people are actually waiting for the government’s permission to even name their relationships with each other. When you give the government that much power over yourself . . . . It’s staggering.  I can’t even finish the sentence."