Hi there! My name’s Paul Baranay, but everyone calls me Bearz.

I’m a Level 3 judge, currently living in New York City. This is an exciting change for me, as until last September I was in New Haven, Connecticut, for graduate school. Now I’m training to be a data scientist, which basically means helping people solve big problems with numbers. I’m also officially a master of science, so that’s pretty neat.

But enough about my background, let’s get to the Magic!

I started this blog because I want to share ideas that bear repeating.

One big source of these ideas is, of course, my Magical life: the events I judge and play, discussions online and in-person, working on judge projects, and more! Judges and players are a diverse and exciting group, and I’m constantly learning new things, which I will be sharing with all of you here.

But we can learn a lot from the world outside of Magic, too. This means anything from reading experts’ thoughts on how to communicate effectively, to seeking out leadership philosophies from the business world. If you enjoy exploring other fields and thinking about how we can use those concepts to become better judges, this is the right place for you.

Because I draw inspiration from so many places, you can expect this blog’s scope of topics to be correspondingly wide. I love exploring different viewpoints and philosophies, and I’m excited to have you along for the ride!

The last thing you should know is that I’m committed to update this blog every Wednesday. After all, setting good goals is very important…but we’ll talk more about that next week. See you then!