Blog aims at positivity and timelessness

I am unsure if I have a pair of aces, a pair of eights or a 7 and 4 (eleven). Whatever the case, I am doubling down!

On Aug. 2, this blog will be celebrating its 10th year of existence. That has got to be some sort of feat because I hardly know any blogs that have been around that long. Do you?

To commemorate the 10 years of blogging and "double down," I am going to write 100 daily posts starting in mid-July. Cliffhanger: On July 1, we will release the theme of those posts.

Just like me, this blog has evolved and progressed and is getting better every day. First of all, if you don't understand the premise of the Snooze Button Generation, click here.

But it actually makes no difference if you understand what the Snooze Button Generation means to enjoy this. This blog is a free, humanistic endeavor, and that's all there is to it. It refuses to accept advertising money for views, and it is all about connecting readers and like-minded folk, all while displaying the evolution of my life and writing.

Within the life of the blog, it has gotten 1.1 million views. Statistically, it's more than 3,600 per post. While I enjoy having an audience, it's more about having a healthy, positive, timeless blog in a world with so much being chewed up, mean and forgotten within 24 hours. By the way, here is the analytics of the blog from yesterday:

I recently read a book about social media and how we owe it to our online world to promote helpful, positive efforts and ignore negativity and trolls and anything out solely to make money. The book used Humans of New York as something that fits the bill. And I do agree that HONY is wonderful, but after that, no other examples were given.

Do you know any websites that are positive, humanistic and timeless? Please leave links as comments below to sites that are enriching and don't just drain time. 

For me, I consider Brain Pickings and TEDx Talks as humanistic online endeavors that aren't just out for commerce and to be forgotten. Beyond those sites, I would love to be exposed to more sites through word of mouth as opposed to what Google tells me I'd like.

I am hoping that this blog fits the list of "enriching" category, and I vow to make it that way this summer. With it moving into its 10th year of existence, it's time for that.

If you're new to the blog, the premise of the Snooze Button Generation was to look back nostalgically at the pop culture of Gen Xers. Within the first two years that it focused hard on this idea, I found it peculiar that key figures in this pop-culture pantheon passed away. That included John Hughes, Ken Ober from "Remote Control," Corey Haim and more.

During that span, I also hit up funny stuff, like when I lived off the grid,  had a cassette tape stuck in my Buick Century or when Bono finally found what he was looking for. Two years into the blog, my father unexpectedly passed away, and that caused an enormous shift in the blog to more personal entries. Then I mixed and matched my life with pop culture.

This summer will be a return to a more cohesive theme and 100 posts in 100 days. I'm excited! Stay tuned.

What are your roles?

We are all chameleons.

We switch our colors depending on the situation and are so used to it that we don't even notice. On a typical morning, I transform from groomer to breakfast chef to diner to husband to father then driver and teacher.

Our roles constantly shift throughout the day. At times, I'm a teacher. Other times, I'm a friend or son or shopper or consumer or writer.

When I introspect, I realize that it took me a loooong time to even understand this concept. Then, once I did, it helped me prioritize and ponder what roles are most important to me.

It turns out that the most important commodities are time and money. In order to maximize those, and maximize our lives, prioritizing our roles is critical. How can we properly spend our time or money, if we don't know who we are and what is truly important to us?

Now, this sounds pretty darn simple. But then why do so many people waste time and money on things that aren't priorities?

For me, the roles I prioritize are: 1) husband, 2) father and 3) teacher (or writer, in the summer).

I am wondering what three roles are most important to you. I'm curious Please put your three roles as a comment below.

If you happen to be a student, I wonder if student is No. 1 on your list, or if son or daughter or brother or sister or athlete or Christian or anything else is actually ranked higher than student. If this is difficult, do a chart like this one:

The problem I see around me is that many adults view their roles as 1) work, 2) work and 3) work. I base that on where they spent their time and their conversations.

This work mentality develops in school when many students are either bombarded with work or are so focused on "being successful" or "getting into a good college" that they put their childhoods, family and friends far on the back burner. Is this what we really want from our children?

Well, I am not promoting neglecting schoolwork or our professions. Quite the contrary. I'm just questioning if our time is being spent where we want it.

I won't go on my typical rant on how the kids today are too much on their phones and often not aware of their screen time. I already did that here.

I could also go on a rant on how adults spend too much time with work, and I'm sure they would undoubtedly say work is important because they have to make ends meet. Agreed. But what is the point about making ends meet if that's all we have in our lives?