WTF

2013, here we go!

I had to start the New Year Day with a new post. Why, because I’m a type A and I am sure that by starting today I will be forced to try to post more often. And, this way, I won’t lay in bed going “why didn’t I post?”, yes, this is a run on sentence, and I’m having a ball with it! Breath.

So on this first day of 2013 I ran a 5k, which you can read about here. Yes, another blog! God, that should make my life easier!

This year I hope to post at least two to three times a week. I also hope to produce some videos, which I failed at this year, and produce some “basics” pages that help people new to the world of scotch whisky.

Oddly enough, this little blog I started almost two years ago is read around the world on a daily basis. Astounding! Let’s just say Google is the bomb! It makes me realize how much people are interested in whisky worldwide and, even though I live in the United States, the good people of Scotland themselves have very nice things to say about me, this I feel honored about.

So that’s it! I did drink some Macallan Cask Strength today with my steak salad, it was delicious!

Cheers!

January 1, 2013 0

2012 in review for theScotchlife blog, Thanks!

WordPress.com kindly wraps up the year for you with stats. I thought I’d share it, the power of a simple blog is amazing. I took months off this year because of many things but started back up recently. I’m really enjoying it and have started a running blog to keep me motivated and to write more (its called Running to finish). I will hopefully spend a lot more time posting in 2013! I do tentatively have a trip planned to Scotland courtesy of Bowmore Distillery, you can be sure I will be blogging a LOT about that trip! Anyhow, if you read this blog, thank you!

Cheers!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 16,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 4 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

December 30, 2012 0

2012, what I’m thinking of in the last year of Mayan doom

So according to the whimsical wisdom of many, the world will end December 21 of this year. Honestly? I couldn’t give two turds about the predictions but I know many of you have in the back of your heads that it may be true. There are many reasons why its ridiculous to think this way but “to each their own”.

I have been to the Mayan ruins in Mexico and while it was extremely interesting exploring the ruins a couple of thoughts come to mind. First, their society didn’t survive. This is kind of like watching a fortune-teller go out of business (didn’t they see it coming!). Secondly, a society whose sport revolves around the winning team captain being decapitated by rules is not what I’d call, intellectual or wise.

So I’ve been blogging since March of 2011 and while not great at it, do find it enjoyable. Occasionally I get the thrill of site traffic spiking up on a post that someone likes and tweets about and the traffic rockets! Fun! And then there are those days when only a few lost souls with questions about a whisky that has been out of production for decades happen upon my blog.

So for 2012 I’m thinking of stepping up my writing and be more scheduled on when I post things. It’s hard to hold yourself to a deadline when you don’t get paid in the first place! Also, I’m probably going to move the site to WordPress.org and host it somewhere where I can have greater flexibility, but that also means more work! So who knows. I do want to make things more interactive and useful though.

So, if you’re reading this, thanks! And I hope you have a great 2012! (remember, you only have til December 21st!)

January 1, 2012 3

Survey Says! I’m curious about what is more important to you.

No worries! I’m just doing this to see what people in general think when putting down hard-earned cash for scotch and/or cigars. I’m more of a variety and quality person myself, I’m curious to see what you guys think. Thanks!

OK…. i KNOW how much I hate surveys/polls so I’m thankful for the handful that actually responded. I’m hoping to use polls to help me figure out what people are more interested in reading about, which helps me narrow my focus, which is a feat in itself. It seems so far that most people are interested in Variety and Quality. What a coincidence, me too!

I have a hard time dealing with people who only drink/smoke the same old products over and over, never trying something new. I can’t imagine if I’d never gone past drinking Johnny Walker or smoking only a Macanudo. I thought about trying to hone my tastes down to a handful of products and stick with them. The problem with that line of thinking is I would never be happy! I love trying new scotch and cigar products and will probably always will. Which leads me the anxiety of someone asking me, “what’s your favorite scotch?” or “what cigar do you smoke?”. Really! I just don’t know what to say other than my tendency is to drink primarily single malts and smoke mainly medium to full cigars from Nicaragua and Honduras.

So I will continue to roam through the whisky stores and humidors in 2012 in search of new products that I will hopefully share with you at thescotchlife.com

Cheers!

December 28, 2011 3

Merry Christmas to all, thanks for reading!

December 24, 2011 0

New Look to the blog…. Many posts to come, I’m wayyyyy behind!

I’ve been dragging my heels, well, more like my ass on getting new posts out. Call it laziness, or just life. Anyhow, I’ve smoked a LOT of cigars in the past month and have some news about that and have had a few drams of scotch and bourbon to talk about. On a much different note, I’ve some thoughts on what bars and restaurants are doing ALL wrong at their bars to attract lovers of fine spirits. Also, I’ve a few words about the liquor stores and cigar shops in Virginia and Washington DC.

I’m also curious to know what you are spending your hard-earned money on these days. I’m constantly looking for value in lower priced scotch and cigars and hope to open a dialogue maybe on my Facebook page The Scotch Life. Until then, which should be a matter of writing this weekend, enjoy life my friend!

John

July 22, 2011 0

Nica Libre Potencia cigar accompanied by the Famous Grouse

Tonight I smoked one of the two Potencia’s that I got in from cigarinternational.com.
It was shipped with my monthly “double-decker” order along with some other top shelf cigars. Although I have smoked quite a few cigars, and have probably smoked one of these, I cannot recall them and had no expectation of it. Per usual, if I read the marketing write up, which I did not, I tend to discount the marketing because it was offered with someone else’s palate that is probably far more advanced than mine. Having smoked the Cohiba Puro Dominicana last night, which was very smooth, I have to say that this one comes up short. The Potencia is a nice smoke, but it did not leave any lasting impression on me at all. It was like having a good wine yet you can’t really recall why or anything about it. I can’t really say anything bad about it but I probably will not buy it even if it comes out in a “deal” from CI. The presentation however was very nice, it does have a unique reddish coloring to it that is not normal and this one showed little veins.

I can say that it does go well with scotch. At least it went well with Famous Grouse which is a splendid everyday blended whisky that I wrote about previously. I do have one more and will gladly smoke it and would place it in a good conversation cigar category. That being, you can smoke this in company of others and not really have to get wrapped up into it much but just enjoy the moment.

May 16, 2011 0

Message in a Bottle: 100-year-old Whisky Reveals Its Secrets – With Photo

Message in a Bottle: 100-year-old Whisky Reveals Its Secrets – With Photo.

April 6, 2011 0

Up all night!

The problem with being an “A” type personality is, well, being that….. I decided, for the second time to move my blog and I hope that WordPress is its final resting place.