The reason that I haven’t posted in the last couple of days is because an industries reader managed to figure out my identity. I’m not sure how he did it, but now that the information is out there, there’s no point in me keeping it a secret from the rest of you.

The truth is that I am not an academic, but rather a highly intelligent 5 year old. My parents are both genetic engineers and discovered a way to speed up learning by several orders of magnitude. I was their first experiment.

I still hope that all of you enjoy this blog and continue reading, but I realize that my deceit may cost me my readership. Please forgive me and understand that I was only trying to find a home for myself in this maze of a world.

I didn’t grow up with Mysterious World playing the background. Nor did I grow up reading his stories, but now, as an adult who has a love technology, exploration, and imagination I find myself genuinely sad at the lose of a great man, Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

At the age of 90, Clarke passed away in is Sri Lankan home. He will be missed by many and honored by more.

Not long before his death Clarke recorded this video where he made some jokes, told some stories, and made three wishes. He wished for evidence of extraterrestrial life, a move to clean energy, and peace in Sri Lanka. With all three of those, I agree wholeheartedly. If you have 10 minutes to spare, I suggest you watch this moving final message to the world from a great man.

Due to a myriad of reasons, I recently ended a relatively long (1+ years) relationship with my now x-girlfriend. I have no intentions of regaling you with stories of a broken heart, but instead wish to offer some advice on how to get over a failed relationship as quickly as possible.

Although I am not a “relationship expert,” I do have a way of bouncing back faster than most people I know. After some reflection, I realized that I am able to do that for the following 7 reasons:

1. Remove all keepsakes as fast as humanly possible:

The problem with mourning a lost relationship is that we tend to focus on all the good experiences and forget all the bad ones. Who ever says to themselves: “I really miss all the those times he/she pissed me off.” No, instead we employee an unfortunate selective memory and remember all the great shared moments from the relationship.

That’s why it’s critical to put away (throw out?) every single keepsake, photograph, and letter you have ever received from your x. This is important because those keepsakes are all likely to remind you of the positive aspects of the relationship, and not the negatives (no one keeps a photograph of the time when your x yelled at you). If you can, throw them away. They’re not going to be useful at any point in the future…they’ll just make you sad. Avoid the memory, and avoid the sadness.

2. De-friend him\her.

If you use any kind of social networking website (Facebook, MySpace, whatever) immediately de-friend your x. The worst thing that could happen is that you sign on to Facebook and see a new picture of your x having a good time with his/her friends (or, worse yet, a new love interest). The key here is to get him/her out of sight and thus out of mind. Remember, any memory cue is likely to result in memories of how great it was, and not what led to the eventual break up.

3. Delete him\her from your buddy list.

If you use instant messaging software regularly (e.g. AIM, MSM, Yahoo, ICQ, etc…) make sure to delete your x from your buddy list. Again, the goal here is to minimize all memory cues. If you see your x signed on you may be strong enough to avoid IMing him/her, but you are absolutely incapable of avoiding that memory from popping back into your head and causing you grief.

4. Get a hair cut.

Remember how he/she used to play with your hair? Every time you look in the mirror and see your hair, you have a chance of being reminded of that experience. Get a hair cut, and cut that memory away (sorry for the awful pun). This is related to the next point…

5. Do something new.

If your relationship was of any decent length, do something that you’ve never done before…especially something that you’ve never done with your x. Going to the same movie theater, bar, restaurant, or club will again spark memories of the past. Take a chance on something you’ve never done before and there will be no chance of remembering your x.

6. Exercise.

There are countless reasons to exercise after any kind of hardship, but the top two are that you will feel better about yourself and you might meet some new people (see the next suggestion). While we’re not entirely sure why it does so, exercise leads to decreased levels of depression and overall increases in positive mood. Do it and your body (and heart) will thank you. As for the new people…anything that isn’t related to your old relationship will help prevent those pesky selective memories from creeping up on you (see the next suggestion).

7. Make some new friends.

I don’t suggest giving up your old friends, but at least in the immediate aftermath of a break up, those old friends will trigger thoughts of your x, again, leading to grief. Also, you’re far less likely to talk about your x with new people (who wants to hear about all that anyway) than with your closest friends. Although you need the support of a best-friend, they are likely to sustain the grief, rather than relieve it.

Instead, try and make some new friends who never even knew your x. Hell, go crazy and combine this piece of advice with the last two. For example, join a running club and hang out with your fellow runners afterwards. You’ll feel better from exercising while doing something new and meeting new people!

As you probably gathered, the central point here is to avoid any and all memory cues of your x. The better you can pull that off, the sooner you will get out of the post break up rut.

Good luck!

In my past life I was a finance dork. I was the President of the investment club at my university and even worked in private equity for a while. Thankfully, I came to my senses and left that world behind in favor of more personally rewarding (academic) pursuits (read: money <> happiness). However, I never really let go of my interest in investing and, let’s face it, making money.

A few things have made me realize that it’s time for me to dive back into investing…at least on an individual basis, though I’m definitely not considering a return to finance in any professional sense. Anyway, the markets have tanked these last few weeks. The DJIA is down about 7-8% in the last month and a half (below),

and the NASDAQ is down about 10% over the same period (below).

If I remember anything, this can be an indicator of more decline to come, or a fantastic time to buy some stocks on the cheap. I like to think that it’s the latter. And so I’m jumping back on the investment bandwagon. I opened up an account at Scottrade and transfered some of my (meager) savings. With the limited amount I have to invest I don’t expect to make a torture, but I’d like to think that I can do better than the 3.8% I’m getting on my Citibank Online Savings account.

Here goes.