man-o-pause

Man-o-pause Call for Submissions

For the first time ever, I'm opening this site to guest authors. Regular readers will know that I'm busy with my Web consulting and the launch of my latest site, Search for Meaning. I'm simply running slow on posting meaningful content and don't want new readers to miss out on almost four years worth of great posts.

If you have something to say that is insightful and informative about any of the following:

Male Midlife Crisis
Healthy Relationships
Quarterlife Crisis
Male Humor
Mid-life Career Change

please send me an email. Just click the "email me" link below my photo.

Submission Guidelines:

1. 100-300 words max.
2. No blatant self-promotion (although I am generous with keywords in anchor text.)
3. A reciprocal link to Search for Meaning.

Underground Presidential Candidate Emerges

There's an effort to elect an unknown person as President. Watch this online video about the surprising new nominee. If you're as excited and energized as I was after viewing it, send this post (or link) to others.

Unkonwn Candidate Poses Tangible Threat

Be patient. The video takes about two minutes to load.

Midlife Crisis Cure

SEX! Now that I have your attention...

As a former advertising maven, this was usually the starting place from which creative ideas would flow. When Detroit automakers tried to become politically correct, they lost a lot of buyers who just wanted to buy a car that made them feel cool and sexy, myself included. (See midlife crisis cars.)

I think most people object to the hypocrisy more than anything. Men like cars. Men like women. Men love sex. Cars = Sex. It's easy to draw a simple, logical conclusion. Why pretend?

Over at I Would Do That Sorta Thing, this sassy blogger has the guts to challenge the latest "sex addict" celebrety confession. In his words, "Men. Enjoy. Sex." Sex may not be a total cure for a midlife crisis, but I don't think it'll hurt. A sense of humor helps too.

Since I've eliminated a number of "blog orphans" lately, I'm happy to feature entertaining, well-written and insightful blogs that speak to the male psyche with a distinctive voice. IWouldDoThatSortaThing fills a void that Manly Geek and others left.

And spread the word. Sex = Good

Midlife Crisis Cars

Growing up in the Detroit area, the car culture was part of my DNA. I remember every car purchase, from my first cigar-infused, Ford 4-door with three on the panel, for which I paid $250, to my current BMW 3Z (bought used), which won't be paid off until March 2010. Good thing those German makes run for 300,000+ miles because it's the last car I'm buying.

When business required that I buy/lease a respectable car, I leased the same make and model that my sister's boyfriend, Chuck, owned in high school because he was so darn cute -- an Olds Cutlass, in case you're curious.

For years, calling on the domestic automotive industry prevented me from buying an import. Loyalty was a big deal back in the 80s. When I "retired" from advertising, my first car purchase was my dream car: a red Mercedes 560SL. I identified with both the Six-Million Dollar Man and Malibu Barbie!

Suffice it to say, cars reflect one's personality and self-image, so I'm delighted to learn of a new book geared to the midlife car fanatic called, Top Gear's Midlife Crisis Cars by Matt Master (BBC Books) and available at Amazon.com.

As you can see, midlife crisis cars are not limited strictly to the midlife man.

For sheer Baby Boomer nostalgia, you might like Crap Cars or My Dad Had One of Those, also brought you by the editors of Top Gear.

Midlife Crisis Wife

Menopause Humor

Since this is an equal opportunity midlife blog, I think it's only fair to follow How to Survive Male Menopause with a bit about your midlife crisis wife. I find it's best to use humor when trying to understand women, especially during that time of month. Women, if your significant other doesn't appreciate raging hormones, he will after viewing this video.

Hey guys, you could have it worse.

Iconic Masculine Guy, Burt Reynolds, Wants You to Pimp His Ride

Forget your motorcycles baby boomers. You can win a restored Trans Am by submitting a video to Heavy.com telling Burt and his co-judges why you deserve the car.

Depending on your sense of humor, Smokey and the Bandit, was either classic 70s shtick or a poor substitute for The 3 Stooges. You'll remember that Burt Reynolds co-starred with the 1977/78 Pontiac Trans Am. Starting Friday, October 19, on the DIY Network, 5 episodes air where you can watch Burt and a team of experts restore the classic Motor City ve-hi-cle in Burt Builds a Bandit. (10 pm EST/9 pm CST)

Here's a video clip detailing the submission guidelines from the po-lice. Even if you don't enter, this is one Officer of the Law, that will make you laugh out loud.

Deadline for submission is November 30th and the winner will be announced on the series finale December 14th.

I can't think of a better Baby Boomer gift than that!

Sweating the Small Stuff

If you're feeling cRANKy* because it's 93 degrees with 90% humidity and you're air conditioning is out, and you need to clean the garage because you're moving soon, and your son won't get a job, and your clients won't return your phone calls, and your homeowners association is raising it's fees (Heck, for $90K a year, I'll mow the lawn.), and your wife is planning a road trip to your in-laws with 3 kids and a dog, then I found a place for you.

Jeremy devotes his blog to Sweating the Small Stuff: Ranting about the little peeves in life.

Solid, humorous writing and invites contributors. Worth a look.

For women, there's a recent post from Ali writing about her husband's mid-life male “mental” pause crisis. Maybe he'll enjoy reading Man-o-pause.

*I'm really cranky now because I just realized I copied over my "Move Over Boomers. Make Way for BoomJ" post and didn't save a copy. If you linked to that post, it's now broken.

To Blog or Twoo Blave?*

Anyone who's seen the movie, The Princess Bride, will understand this title? Internet surfing is a lateral, stream of consciousness activity for me. In fact, I despised the early Internet because I could never find my way back from where I'd started. Even now, it takes some time to figure out how many links I followed to end up where I am two hours later.

I use RSS feeds to alert me to blog posts of a handful of writers, mostly marketing related. Seth Godin writes a post advocating blogging, even if you have only one post in you. When I started blogging, I was scared. I didn't want to reveal too much personal stuff. But after a few timid entries, I found my voice. I like to believe my blog serves a higher purpose as a public service. But at the end of the day, it's a fun, creative outlet with no pressure to make money at it.

Seth says, ..."what if there's just one thing you need to say, but you can say it clearly and well and in a way that hasn't been said before?"

I scroll through the trackbacks and there's Mr. Besilly's blog post entitled, "10 Life Lessons From Princess Bride."

Here's #10: "Fairy tales are a great reminder that happy endings are possible if you believe in them. We sacrifice for those things we believe in."

I don't want to spoil the fun. You have to visit his blog for #1-9.

I'm glad he had this post in him. And I'm glad I scrolled and clicked and found something of value. Sometimes that's all it takes.

*translation: True Love