I built two of the biggest entertainment sites on the web. Then I had to rebuild myself.

The short version

I grew up in northeastern New Jersey, across the river from New York. I dropped out of college twice, joined the Navy at 24 because I had no idea what else to do, and served four years with no GI Bill waiting at the end. I worked as a fry cook, a Pizza Hut waiter, a mechanical draftsman, and a system administrator. Then I taught myself PHP at a folding table with cold coffee, found affiliate marketing, and in 2003 started Screen Rant. I built it into one of the biggest entertainment sites on the web, added Game Rant, and sold them both.

At 59, my 24-year marriage ended. I tried Puerto Rico, then Nashville, before I admitted there's no geographic answer to a spiritual problem. So I stopped moving and rebuilt where I stood. I met Mai in March 2023 and remarried. Thirteen surgeries are on my record, clubfoot and scoliosis among them, and this April I walked into a photo studio at 158 pounds and 10.8 percent body fat.

These days I write The Redeemed Second Half, a Sunday essay for men in their 40s through 60s rebuilding after divorce, career collapse, a health crisis, or losing the thread on who they are. I wrote The Last 10 Pounds, a fitness book built on 15 years of my own food logs. And I'm building the Second Half Assessment, an AI-guided interview that shows a man where he stands. Everything I publish runs on receipts: 34,000 food-log entries, dated photos, numbers I can show you. I don't publish theory.