This latest digital issue is FREE to download! In this issue... When we were kids, delighting in the little things was second nature. This issue is jam-packed with stories, tips, and ideas on how you can use strategies from childhood to better appreciate the magic and importance of the little things in life. Features... Excited Over Little Things by Jason Kotecki | How to recapture the magic of simple pleasures. An Interview with... Seth Godin | The ever curious marketing guru and best-selling author of "Purple Cow” and the recently released "Meatball Sundae" shares his thoughts on …
Archives for January 2008
Fill up Your Bucket List
Tomorrow is the first day of February, which tends to be a hard month for folks here in the northern midwest . The Christmas lights are down, spring is still out of reach, and it's still dark and cold by 5PM everyday. Enough said. Ready for a jump start? Thanks to our dear friend Lindsey over at the Enjoy the Journey blog, Jason and I were inspired to take her recommendation and go see The Bucket List last Sunday. With the two lead roles being Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, we knew we were in for a treat. HOLY COW. I'm with Lindsey, this was one of the very best movies I've …
EA #27: Creating Candy for Willy Wonka
"Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple." --Willy Wonka In this episode, brought to you from studio 315 in Madison, Wisconsin, we interview Willy Wonka employee and candy creator Eric Wesner, about his fun and unique job in the candy industry. We also talk about jelly bean jewelry, cooking with exotic flavors, the largest snowflake on record, and the first-ever Kim & Jason Escape Event. Just click "Play" to listen to the show... …
Happy Belated Birthday, LEGO!
Monday was the 50th birthday of everybody's favorite building material. LEGO artist Sean Kenney -- is that a great job or what? -- whipped up this birthday cake as an homage. (Yep, it's entirely made of LEGO bricks!) Sean has an impressive portfolio of work -- gotta love this Homer Simpson sculpture -- and has nearly one million LEGO pieces in his workshop! Great job, Sean! And happy birthday, LEGO! …
The Etch-A-Sketch Inner Child
Sometimes the assumption is that all of this childlike stuff is reserved for those artsy, creative "free spirits." Not true. We all could stand to be a little bit more childlike; it's just that it looks different depending on the type of person you are. Take the Etch-A-Sketch for example. It is regarded as one of the classic American toys. My brothers and I had one growing up, but I never really got into it. Now that may come as a surprise to you, considering my artistic nature. But here's the deal: my brain is not an Etch-A-Sketch brain. It doesn't think in horizontal and vertical …
Tip of the Week: Listen Up
Our Insider subscribers know that this week's Escape Plan challenge (aka our Tip of the Week), is #31: Listen Up. Find a place to sit quietly for ten minutes. Listen for at least one sound that you would not have normally noticed. When's the last time you sat quietly for ten whole minutes? If you're like me, you are feeling a bit surprised that the first month of '08 is coming to a close. Where did the time go? As Ferris Bueller reminded us, "Life moves pretty fast. If we don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." …
Do You Suffer From Sunday Night Dread?
When I was a kid, there was nothing worse than a Sunday night during the school year. The foreboding end of weekend freedom was perilously near. As the sun set and the clock ticked older, the pit in my stomach grew and grew. I did well in school, but thinking ahead to a week of early mornings, boring lectures, bad lunches, stupid bullies, and unexciting homework was hardly a thing to look forward to. I was suffering from Sunday Night Dread. …
Exercising in the Cold, Plan B
As many of you know from the watching the big Packers vs. Giants game last Sunday, it's freakin' cold here in WI. I've resorted to Plan B for my daily exercise. If you remember Plan A consisted of piling on layers like everyone's favorite kid brother, Randy, and sucking it up for my daily walk. I've made the executive decision that losing sections of my face to frostbite is not my idea of a good time. I am thrilled to share my new exercise routine. Necessity is truly the mother of all invention. (Thanks to Libby and Shirley for the inspiration!) It's called... The Charlie Brown Dance …
Simple Acts of Love
Over Christmas my in-laws had a house full, everyone was home. It was so nice being together. My father-in-law shared afterward that one of his favorite moments was on one of the mornings after his shower. He got dressed, came out of the bathroom and found his five-year-old granddaughter, our niece and god daughter, standing proudly next to his bed. She had decided to surprise him by making his bed. And what a surprise it was! We later found out from her mom that she likes to do this sort of thing for her in the mornings, too. It's not uncommon for my sister-in-law to come out of the …
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
Kim and I were recently interviewed by Gena over at Tidings of Comfort and Joy. She asked some pretty insightful questions that were fun to answer. She's got a pretty cool blog with some other pretty neat interviews. Yeesh, how many times can I say "pretty" in a three-sentence blog post? Pretty many. …