I was recently pointed in the direction of the drastic changes as to how USA Swimming was hoping to control the elite athletes that compete under their organizational umbrella. While many of the changes are welcome, many are not. None of these actions, though, are surprising to me in the slightest.

I am happily outside the swimming universe (at least 95% of the time) now, but it will be interesting to watch how this unfolds. It will be interesting to watch how the American Needle V. NFL lawsuit plays out, and how it will impact Olympic sports, especially swimming. There is a huge rift coming, and I just cannot see how one major organization could possibly be standing on the right side of the fence at this point.

My biggest question is this – Why not make these changes 10 years ago? Why not three years ago? Why now? These questions will likely go unanswered, but opinions will abound, and are welcomed.

What strikes me as amazing is that for so long, the stipend paid to athletes has remained constant. Yes, you heard me correctly, since the early 1980′s when the stipend was introduced, swimmers have historically been paid the same amount year after year after year. Don’t bother asking why. I don’t have the answers.

Let’s look at that fact for a second.

The stipend system had not changed in nearly 30 years!

Think about this – the average rate of inflation in the United States since the early 80′s is around 3%, with spikes in some years as high as 5, 7, and even 10%!

If you consider that the stipend awarded in the early 1980′s when it was originally introduced was around $15,000 (this is an estimate – I have spoken to people in the past with knowledge of these amounts and this is what I remember being told, but I could be wrong), that means that today (according to the consumer price index), with no changes and assuming that the stipend in 1984 was $15,000, swimmers should be either:

a) getting compensated at a rate of $43,400 per year to allow them the same spending power of our 1984 athletes, or

b) be so damn pissed that their $21,000 is the equivalent of $10,200 in 1984 dollars.

Disregarding all the issues related to marketing and athlete naming rights, etc. (it is a topic for another time), armed with these numbers, that $29,000 raise to $50,000 seems pretty paltry.

Getting back in shape is always an iterative process, just like software design.  It is never bug free and all issues can be tracked back to the developer –- you.  Like I said earlier, getting in shape has been a goal of mine for quite some time.  In the past it has hit roadblock after roadblock… unfortunately those roadblocks turned out to be pizza, brownies and ice cream.  Now I am serious.

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:

Where do you start when it has been so long?  Seriously.

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.

I am Riding to Save Lives, how can you help?

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!

Amazon.com is teaming with manufacturers to entice them to ship their products with less waste and to be able to allow people to have less frustration when opening product packaging. In a world that is moving towards greener times, this is a welcomed project Amazon is leading.

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!

Shortly after I finished my dissection of the terms and conditions for three of my most used sites, I came across a post written by Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net that talks about “Home Bases and Outposts.” It is interesting that these posts went up on the same day because while Darren’s and my posts fundamentally differed with the premise and purpose of the articles, we both hit on a topic that many bloggers, videographers and podcasters should be quite interested in.  It is the concept of a “home base” – a term both Darren and I used in our posts. (more…)

A lot of bloggers talk about a single topic more often than any other – the ownership of data/content.  This is all well and good that the tech elite are so informed about this topic, but it scares me that “normal” social media users (your mom and dad possibly) haven’t a clue in regards to what this even means for them now and in the future. (more…)

Colleen often speaks about Avery’s public restroom tour of America – a tour that, at times, can drive Colleen crazy. At least two times a meal, while we are out to eat, Avery has the urge to go to the ” potty”. No big deal, but as most parents can atest, getting up mid-meal can wear on your nerves. Especially when most trips are simply not “fruitful”.

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. (more…)

Like many Twitter users, I have more than one Twitter account. But for me, the fragmentation was no longer worth it, and I am attempting to bring together all of my personas under the single brand of my name. With that, I was attempting to execute what has proven to be a difficult (if not impossible) task – deleting a Twitter account. Let me be clear by stating that I was not trying to delete my main Twitter account, but simply attempting to delete a secondary (or tertiary for all I can remember) account because of the aforementioned reasons. That is where the puzzlement began. (more…)

Like most people, regardless of the level of love for their work and employer, I typically leave my resume exposed in various locations across the vast interwebs.  Subsequently, I will update the data within the resume at various intervals throughout the year to keep it up-to-date with my latest activities and accomplishments. Some of these sites I use for networking, some I use for business information, others I simply just let my resume sit out as bait, and one particular site will likely never again get my endorsement. (more…)