About Tom Stortz

Enjoying my last few responsibility free years left.

Never. Give. Up.

Laura posted this on her Facebook page and it’s a video about her eating disorder which is very brave and courageous at a vulnerable time. It makes me feel (once again always about me) tiny. I’m complaining about blog traffic when obviously people in my life have much more important issues.  You have my support Laura and I’ll try to help you anyway I can.

growing-pains

I’ve been watching Growing Pains and Tracey Gold (Carol on the show) has a situation happen to her that is remarkably similar to our real life family situation. She had gained a fair amount of weight in the show’s latter seasons and the writers wrote fat jokes into the script. With an insecure body image, she ended up with a real life eating disorder and slimmed down to a “skeletal” weight and had to leave the show.

Growing up, I was immature and would routinely insult Laura about her weight. Most likely, I’m the one responsible for Laura’s eating disorder. When you are young, it’s hard to imagine the long lasting damage you can cause with words.

traceygoldAs I’m watching Growing Pains, Mike is constantly insulting Carol and it reminds me of me. He doesn’t think twice about the effects of the insults.  I wonder how many other families are exposed to the nonchalance of name calling in a show and what impression it makes.

I can’t change the past and will always feel bad for Laura about what our upbringing brought about in her life long term.  It’s easy to get caught up in that “the world revolved around you mindset”.  When someone close to you has struggles that supersede everything else in your life, it helps put it into perspective how important blog traffic is.   Thank you for your bravery Laura.

By |2015-01-09T12:15:11-05:00January 9th, 2015|My Life|0 Comments

Yearning For Traffic

Van_Gogh_-_Starry_NightJeff, Julia, and I were talking about art and what makes it desirable. Julia said something to the effect, “some art just speaks to me and I have to have it.” Then I started thinking to myself what is an item that I would want with strong emotion. I couldn’t think of one.

10-of-the-most-expensive-items-made-with-solid-gold5So today rolls around and my brain was wandering and I knew the answer to the question was nothing tangible. Fancy cars, mansions, or exquisite watches weren’t it. These are items I would have if I could but aren’t what I truly want.  Although I’d list making money as high but it’s not the money as much as it’s the accomplishment.

The best answer I could think of was blog traffic. People who don’t have a blog don’t understand what it takes to gain people reading what you write. When people come to read your blog you have a chance to gain their respect and approval. The more people who get behind you, the more power you wield. If I was in charge of a website that directed popular opinion, I would be satisfied. It’s saying what you’ve done means something.

Respect-Other-People-FeelingsI try a lot of various techniques to gain traffic and almost all of them miss the mark. Today I stepped over the line commenting on Sam’s blog giving Gourlay praise by making a comment about them sauntering over one another. My goal was to point out that the title wasn’t very good and instead of being constructive I was assholish. It’s all done to be witty and bring content to the these blogs. It missed.

Blogging-The-TruthI see “blogs” all the time pop up in my newsfeed and I’ll read them to see what inexperienced people are capable of blogging. Most of the time I think they aren’t bad but 9 out of 10 have a few entries and then quit. It may even be 10 out of 10. People think that blogging is fun but I certainly wouldn’t describe it as that. It’s work.

You have to know why you’re doing it. I mentioned why I do above. To have people understand how I think, compare it to their own, and then hopefully (never) comment. I wouldn’t be doing this for 5 years if I didn’t like it but I also have reasons for doing it.

ApplauseThe main reason is to conquer Google. It’s to have Google send people to the website because it’s respected. My goal is to have it give rnningfool.com a higher page rank and then have people flood in to read what I’ve written. Obviously what I’m doing hasn’t quite gotten there but I try to improve every single post I do. The last 4 posts I’ve done aren’t throwing shit against a wall. They are written specifically to interest people and try to gain traffic.

I’ve spent long enough on this post but I had to make amends with Sam and give reason for why I do what I do.

By |2015-01-08T18:08:12-05:00January 8th, 2015|My Brain|2 Comments

A Post About An Elbow Cyst

sexedSam’s blog sent 29 people to this site which has to be an all-time record. As always when people start to actually come to your site, you need to deliver with fresh content. An elbow cyst is about as fresh as it gets.

The average adult attention span is 8 seconds. I read that first paragraph in 9. Shit. That means that I’ve already lost more than half of you. Hopefully the swinging image kept you here. If you have read this far, you’ll be delighted to see my elbow cyst.

elbowcyst1

What a cyst on an elbow looks like. It doesn’t hurt.

 

Cyst Questions To Ask?

  • First and foremost, why is this douchebag taking a selfie with his shirt off? It’s to get attention and more pageviews.
  • That’s pretty disgusting.  What’s wrong?  I had it x-rayed months ago when it didn’t look this bad and was told it was a cyst. I’m headed to the doctor soon to get it drained.
  • “Who zooms in on it like that?” I’ve been practicing Photoshop and always look for ways to do something different with a picture.  Just wait to see what I can do with liquify.

Now I just have to hope it’s not some malignant disease and this post wouldn’t be so funny.  Either way, at this point I’m fairly certain it’s nothing to worry about.  For the not feint of heart, this is what is going to happen to me.  Probably worse.

By |2015-01-07T22:07:39-05:00January 7th, 2015|My Life|0 Comments

Life Laughs

There are some concepts in life that are just flat out funny. The most common characteristic is that they can be understood by everyone. Without further ado:

Kids Getting Hurt
Little kids getting clobbered is hilarious because their bodies are tiny. It’s like they barely even get hurt because they are so small. Plus they aren’t very bright so they get themselves in situations you could never think of.

Safety Check? Fail.

That vehicle looks safe.

backflip

A little more spring.

 

Farting
It was hard to decide if pooping was as funny as farting but people can get grossed out by turds.  Farting makes a hilarious sound followed by a brief moment of stench. Sharting is also hilarious.

fart

Blast Off

 

An actual fart

An actual fart

George Carlin on fart jokes.

Unpredictable Pets
It’s not funny if you know it’s coming. When something completely happens out of the blue that you could never anticipate, especially with animals because you have no idea what they are thinking, it’s funny.

Mush!

One is not enough.

One is not enough.

 

By |2016-11-03T15:07:47-04:00January 6th, 2015|Videos|0 Comments

My Teacher Ms. Hughes and My Small Penis

This was not Ms. Hughes.

This was not Ms. Hughes.

When I was a Sophomore in High School my English teacher was Ms. Hughes.  I was 15.  She was probably 25.  When I think back through my 15 year old eyes she seems WAY older than 25.  This is in no way mean spirited but she was a full grown adult and I was a skinny twerp.  Anyway, Ms. Hughes was a babe.

This post isn’t going to go where you’d think it’s going to go.   I’m way to much of a pussy to pull anything like that off.  So then your probably asking why are you writing about your small penis in the title?  Good question and the answer is because you’ve read until this second paragraph.

jokeIf the point of this post was to bring the reader up and then disappoint them then I guess I would have accomplished the task.  However, I do have a few tidbits from my Ms. Hughes days and a current day joke that I thought was clever.

It’s possible Ms. Hughes was the only teacher to treat me like I was smarter than I was.  She called me “smug boy” and let me read the part of John Proctor in the Salem Witch Trials.  This is all after I wrote a summer reading paper on Huck Finn and why it’s wrong to use the N word so many times clearly showing I hadn’t read any of the book.

I was always an above average student in track 2 classes and a joke in honors courses.  I’ve pretty much continued this throughout my entire life.  You don’t always have to be the smartest person though to be successful and I’m hoping the future will show this.

sososmallNow to finish this post with further insight to the title.  I was reading how if everyone used Comic Sans font it would cost about $1.6 billion dollars of extra ink.  I brought this up to Adam and Evan and somehow we got onto turning in papers with certain font and Ms. Hughes name sprung up.  Then the obligatory “how hot Ms. Hughes was” appeared and the joke popped of ramming her with my size 3 font penis.  We laughed.  My penis wouldn’t be a 3 though.  It would be 12.  Font.  Not inches.

*This post sort of took a life form of its own.  I started it with the final joke in mind knowing full well it wasn’t enough for a post.  However, I feel people prefer nonsensical posts over something with any point.

By |2015-01-06T21:03:20-05:00January 6th, 2015|My Brain|2 Comments

Letting People Down

We live in a world where it is impossible not to interact with other people.  I was raised with good manners and I know right from wrong but being a human being that consistently delivers among their peers is quite challenging.  Over the past few days I’ll share some interactions that stay on my mind.

Neighbor Jeff and Leaves 

leaf3Since leaves started to fall, a pile had amassed in front of my house on the sidewalk.  It was probably 4 feet x 6 feet wide.  It was the only area on the entire street that had any leaves and this was because there isn’t a single tree aside from across my house.  A few weeks ago I collected 2 trash bags full and pretty much forgot about it with there being about 60% remaining.  This Saturday, my neighbor cleaned the leaves and left the trash bag in front of my house in a passive aggressive manner.  The leaves bothered me 0.  They obviously bothered him.  Now it’s just weird and I’m hoping it blows over and he leafs me alone.

Dunkin Bum

anthonyThere is a bum at Dunkin who I routinely see.  I’d have to guess I’m in the top 95% of people who give him money.   Today he asked for a doughnut.  I didn’t buy him one.   To his credit he doesn’t ask me every single time I see him but I probably give him 50 bucks the entire year.

NYE Bail Out

I feel genuinely disappointed leaving the New Years party early.  I have a friend who comes down to Philly to hang out with me and I’ve probably bailed with no explanation the last 3 times.  There’s nothing I can say to excuse it and I’ll develop the reputation of you can’t depend on this guy.  Which is true as long as everyone is aware this is the case.  Problem is they aren’t.

Jeff’s Bday

167654_10150390750150249_2773927_nIt was Jeff’s birthday this weekend and we didn’t meet up to celebrate.  I see him at work (and home) more than any other person I interact with but it just feels like we should have got together and shot the shit on his birthday.  I feel like this scenario happens often where I’ll have some people doing one thing and others doing another and it’s impossible to make everyone happy.  Most likely he doesn’t give a shit about it but it’s still something I think about.  Same thing happened with Sam when he came down on New Year’s day.  I should have hung out as he doesn’t make his way to the city that often and we don’t hang out as often as I feel we probably could.

 

By |2015-01-05T23:42:32-05:00January 5th, 2015|My Life|3 Comments

NYE Caspering

Casper_the_Friendly_Ghost

He’s a friendly ghost.

I’ve developed a defense mechanism that after I catch a buzz where I’m “too drunk”, I casper.  Caspering is leaving a party or bar without telling anyone.  It’s a weird move to people who don’t ever get “too drunk”.  Common comments would be, What the fuck?  Where did he go?  That’s rude!.

With my checkered past I basically leave places when I want to leave.  I can’t tell you why I want to leave them but there’s a feeling that says it’s time to go and I split.  The reason I do this is to stay out of trouble which is counter intuitive because being by yourself when you are too drunk doesn’t make a lot of sense.  Nothing bad happened so don’t worry.

TC at Crystal Tea RoomI spent a boatload to go to this fancy party at the Crystal Tea Room.  I went to a bar crawl the night before where I drank mostly beer and felt fine on Thursday.  I ate some Boston Market at 2pm and knew my eating schedule was off.  The fancy party served food but I made the mistake of leaning more towards the drinks.  By 11 pm I was on the dance floor looking around and it was filled with couples making out.  I can’t remember exactly but at that point I said enough and left.   Complete waste of money.

The Jack and cokes did a number on me too because my head was ringing the next day.  Steve invited me to brunch and then downtown both of which I declined in order to recover.  I could have went another day but it would have set me back in feeling good again.  I’d like to think I made a smart decision but instead I did virtually nothing yesterday and wasted an entire day.

My favorite JC pic

My favorite JC pic

When I woke up this morning I was feeling better and went to work.  This is weird but I actually like work.  It gives me structure.  It makes me productive.  Being 31 I’ve done the partying.  I know what it’s like to go to bars and stay out late getting hammered.  I’m sure I’ll do the same tonight and complain tomorrow but for today, it’s the entry.

 

By |2015-01-02T14:19:54-05:00January 2nd, 2015|My Life|0 Comments

Lessons Learned From Tweeting

twitter-jokesLearning how to engage an audience on Twitter wields power. Having people pay attention to what you do is more valuable than a great idea. For example, if your great idea would help millions of people but you’re the only person who knows about it, it’s practically useless.

Since Twitter now lets you see the analytics of your tweets, it’s helpful in knowing what works and what doesn’t. Some examples from tweets I’ve had and what to take out of them.

  • My best tweet with regards to impressions and engagement.  Notice the @ the person and her big boobs.  It was shown 190 times and clicked 40.  The description also makes people question it.

    • A tweet seen by 6 people.  I tried to send it Wawa’s way using the @ but obviously it gets lost in hundreds or thousands of people tweeting @wawa.  The tone of the tweet obviously was a mistake but it hardly matters because no one read it anyway.
  • This Tweet was impressed 1,000 times with an 8% engagement. Notice the double @ sign and the eye catching nature of Hayden. It even got a reply saying she looks like a normal pregnant woman. This used the # instead of the @ which is still up in the air which is favorable.

 

How to Tweet

The other aspect to realize is that I have 54 followers. People who are able to get thousands of followers due to publicity or self promotion have a huge advantage. If Justin Bieber tweeted that about Wawa it would get a 1,000 re-tweets. My opinion has zero influence.

  • Tweets should use the @ or # multiple times in a tweet.  It gets viewed by more people when the tweet gets categorized.
  • Using the @ sign should not be done to lead the tweet.  It should be used as a substitute to the category or person.  For example, that guy @tomstortz is the man.
  • The # should be used at the end of the tweet and 2-3 categories per tweet.
  • Boobs or odd ball pictures get clicks.
  • Unless you reply to a tweet within the first few minutes, its potential to get re-tweeted goes down exponentially as time continues.
By |2014-12-30T09:52:07-05:00December 30th, 2014|My Brain|0 Comments

A Weekend With Ruby

Hey Little Guy

Hey Little Guy

Laura and Brookes are away for a couple days and gave me the responsibility of watching their cat Ruby. I know everyone loves cats so I might as well write a post about the cat terror that occupies Bonsall St.

The last line could not be further from the truth because Ruby is really a sweetheart. Always curious but lovable and would never harm a fly.  I’m not a huge pet guy but I enjoy this little girl’s company.

I apologize in advance for the horrible Dr. Evil but this is the funniest line of the movie.

One thing I learned though is that I have no desire to own a pet. I visit Ruby twice a day for about a half hour each visit and am left to wonder what the cat does for the other 23 hours. With no ability to take care of herself, I seriously feel bad when I leave her alone for hours on end.

I imagine the cat exploring every inch of the apartment but how many inches are there after months of exploring?  I suppose she may sleep a lot but this cat is more of a doer than a sleeper.  I’m sure she enjoys her physical exercise as shown below.

Her dexterity is high but endurance is low. This is probably the highlight of her day. Brookes is concerned her claws scratch the floor but her enjoyment level is so intense that I like to keep her energy level high. Only one more day left and she’s still ticking!

By |2014-12-29T09:25:33-05:00December 29th, 2014|My Life|0 Comments

A Dream Technology

Last night I went to CK4 and Nikkii’s house to attend a get together with my parents and a friend who we don’t see that often. We had a good time sharing stories and hanging out but the inspiration for this post came from that night.

negotiations-620x350While I was sleeping I had a dream that CK4 and I were negotiating a massive deal for a new technology that we invented. For the life of me I can’t remember what the idea was but we were seated on one side of table and on the other side was an investor like Chang from Million Dollar Arm. In the room with us with us was a college cheerleading team eating pizza. Anyway, at one point Chang said he had one final question that involved the distribution of retro fitted technologies (quite the curve ball). We said we didn’t understand the question and he said he couldn’t make it any clearer. We took recess to discuss and after that he disappeared.

PhinneycrashUSPRO_MRR514-022-660x440In another bizarre dream that night one of our business competitors in real life opened up a store down the street from our location. As I was perusing their retail store a biker who tripped and broke his leg was brought into the store. I was laughing because these types of events were bound to happen often.

I’ve been short of ideas and this was the most interesting story that came to my mind. Sorry.

By |2016-10-29T12:52:59-04:00December 28th, 2014|My Brain|0 Comments

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