Jamie Wakefield

“Run!!!” – Jillian. Do you watch “The Biggest Loser?” Because you should. Everyone reading this should watch this show. It’s not just about fat people, it’s about health and eating well and mostly willpower. I’m a big fan of willpower. I like to believe I have a lot of it. It depresses me when I don’t have a lot of willpower and feel like I’m a normal human. In fact, I hate that. Like everyone else, I am a special and unique flower. I like to go running in extremes. I have run at minus forty degrees below zero. (I’m not kidding.) I have run in the middle of a thunderstorm which caused my mom to come out on her porch and shout at me “ARE YOU CRAZY!?!” Yes. Yes I am. Which is why I run. I haven’t been getting enough exercise lately. So, yesterday, I decided to go for a run. The loop Wendy and I make is a little over a 5K. Which, honestly, is not a lot, but it’s enough. But I haven’t run it in weeks. I started out walking and thought “I’ll run, then walk, then run, then walk. It’s been we...

It is a beautiful cool Sunday that keeps threatening rain then showers us with more sunshine. I cannot tell you how much this day has meant to me. (And it is only 1:00.) In the six weeks that we have been home,I feel like we have been two hamsters on a wheel. Today, we walked over to the store and bought the NYT Sunday edition. We sat on our nice porch, in our new patio furniture with our feet up and read. Unlike reading on the computer, I had no desire to click away to another site or story. I just sat and read entire articles. My feet are up on our new table, which, I might add, is the perfect height. I read the NYT's book review section and it gave me some great ideas. Inspiration. Someday, I will be in there. Then I read a 28 page long fiction story that I wrote almost a decade ago and wondered - why am I not working on this? This is great! I wrote the damn thing and still, I'm thinking "I want to read more of this! What an interesting cast! What happens next?" I ...

Craig forwarded me your letter. You made my week. Thank You. Jamie P.S. I know people will ask so here it is a portion of what I am talking about. While the SCG forums are aflame with negativity about my articles, decks and playstayle,my editor forwarded me a very complimentary email. This is a small section that really made my day. "I sincerely hope that you continue to encourage Mr. Chapin and Mr. Wakefield to write articles for your site that actively address issues beyond The Red Zone. They make your site stand out from the competitors in a very, very positive way. And I can say without any reservation that even if you got rid of every other writer besides Chapin and Wakefield and published a mere two articles a week, theirs alone would be worth renewing my Premium membership." Again, Thank you Raja. Jamie

Wendy and I are sitting on the porch, sipping wine and people watching at the end of another long and busy day. Five Harley’s go by, each mounted by ginormous, tattooed, unshaven people. Some of them women. Wendy watches them round the bend and roar off. “Man, someone decided to put ugly on parade, attach some wheels to it and add a flag on the back.” So funny that girl. This weekend there was a Maine PTQ that I wanted to attend and our plan for these PTQ’s is to make them into a business and pleasure trip. The business side would be my articles on Star City Games about trying to qualify again, and the pleasure side would be whole belly clams, a nice B&B, some beach time and maybe some lobster. We are reserving late so everything in Kennebunkport is massively expensive, everything in Old Orchard Beach is sold out, and everything in Portland that isn’t sold out isn’t on the water. I start researching towns that are between the PTQ and various spots we want to visit on the Maine coa...