About Me

Critical MAS is the blog for Michael Allen Smith of Seattle, Washington. My interests include traditional food, fitness, economics, web development, and learning Spanish.

I’ve had a web presence since late 1995. CriticalMAS was launched in March 2000 and for a few years, I wrote crappy snarky posts. I shut down the blog in 2004 and deleted all those posts. In December 2005, I restarted this blog with what you see today.

You study other men and you find out what makes them weak and then you don’t do that. — Jay Leno

I’ve learned more by not following bad examples than by following good examples. – Paulo Coelho

Your success depends far less on your own skills than on the mistakes of others. – Nassim Taleb

Yes, no, maybe. I don’t know. Can you repeat the question? – They Might be Giants

The way to win is to first not lose. – Me

Subscribe to the CriticalMAS Blog

You can be alerted to new posts a few ways.

  • RSS Feed (use a program like Feedly to manage)
  • Email (one per post sent by Google’s Feedburner)
  • Twitter (they hide a lot, so best of luck)

lil-mas-bicep

My other websites include:

No Guest Posts, Sponsored Posts, Link Shares or Infographics

Do not ask me to post your infographic, I won’t. Any requests for link exchanges will be marked as SPAM and deleted. Emails from SEO or social media experts offering their services will be marked as SPAM and deleted.

If you send me an email requesting that I send you an email in order to see something I never requested, your email will be deleted. If you then send me another follow-up email, that email address will be added to a blacklist filter.

I do not allow guest posts. Those requests will also be marked as SPAM and deleted. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but between this site and INeedCoffee, I get hammered with these requests.

Contact MAS

I have accounts on all the major social media networks, but call me old fashioned I prefer email. I only accept LinkedIn contacts from people who I have worked with either in employment or a project.

[email protected]

If you do not get a response from me, it is because I flagged your email as SPAM and have blocked your email. I keep my INBOX as close to ZERO at all times. 

Advertising Policy

If you would like to advertise and your product clearly matches the topics covered on this blog, send me a message with as much detail as you can, so I can make a decision quickly. If your product doesn’t match this blog or your offer is unclear, I will delete your email.

E-Book and Kindle Links

If you are selling an e-book or Kindle book that you believe matches the topics covered on this site, feel free to reach out to me. I require reviewing the book before setting up an affiliate relationship. Please see my reviews for Eat Stop Eat and Hillfit for examples. I already have an account setup with Amazon, Google Affiliate Network, ClickBank, ShareASale, and E-Junkie.

Review Policy

Occasionally, I get asked to review books or products. Feel free to email me if you think a product you have might be of interest to my readers. I will disclose in the review that I was given the item for review. If the item is coffee related, the review will receive a much higher audience on my coffee site INeedCoffee. That item would have to be available for readers to purchase through Amazon.com.

Disclosures

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

I am also in affiliate relationships with other businesses, including SiteGround and ShareASale.