OK, so it wouldn't have exactly been my TV show. I would have been the host of an established show called "Talk of the Town" in which I'd get to interview cool people around Madison. I was offered the job by a producer at a local TV station who heard me speak recently. If I did well, there was an opportunity to branch out into other shows, and maybe even create my own. Kim and I spent some time imagining the seeds of a pretty cool program we could do highlighting fun Adultitis-fighting things in our area. While grocery shopping last week, I imagined what it would be like to be famous, …
An Important Life Lesson from Gordon Ramsay
Kim and I have been watching MasterChef on Fox, starring one of our favorite TV personalities, fiery chef Gordon Ramsay. MasterChef conducted a nationwide search for the best home cooks in America, and through a series of exciting elimination rounds, will turn one of them into a culinary master. In the initial audition episodes, the contestants had to prepare their signature dish for the panel of judges in an effort to win one of 30 aprons in order to advance to the next round. As she prepared her dish, a young Hispanic woman named Adeliz spoke passionately about her family's food history. …
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Take Your Job and Shove It
Do you love going to work every day? Chances are, your answer to that question is either an enthusiastic “yes” or a hearty laugh and a “yeah, right.” I wish there weren’t so many people in the latter camp. Believe it or not, having a job you love is not a pipe dream. If it is, then please don’t wake me up. No, dream jobs are not reserved for the lucky, the well-financed, or the ones with Ivy League diplomas. Not by a long shot. Believe it or not, your dream job is within your reach. I’ve outlined some of the most important tips to help you find your way. But be warned: The advice is …
Are You Investing in Amazing?
I like driving by our old apartment every now and again. It’s a good reminder to me of the long, winding road Kim and I have traveled and the ridiculous faithfulness of God. It’s funny how once you achieve a certain level of success, in retrospect, the road you took to get there never seems as bumpy. Nowhere is this more evident than in having kids, by the way. The first month with a newborn is rough stuff. No one in their right mind would subject themselves to that again after having just gone through it. But given enough time, the tortuous sleep depravity and foul, sloppy diapers don’t …
Free Will and The Pizza Parlor
Once upon a time, there was a little girl. With her birthday just days away, her parents announced that as part of her gift, she could pick any restaurant she wanted to go to for dinner. She debated and deliberated. She hemmed and hawed. She asked her mom where shethought she should go. She asked her dad, too, but neither offered an answer. It was up to her, they said. The little girl really wanted to go to Luigi’s, the pizza parlor downtown. She quite fancied the old brick walls and the smell of the wood burning stove. And watching the thick-forearmed men shape the dough and toss it into …
The Amazingly Stupendous Do-Over
Remember the "do-over" in childhood? Often applied to a "too close to call" play in a childhood game, do-overs were often used liberally by kids who hated to lose. Lucy called for a do-over this morning. She woke up early and crabby (or as I like to call her, "sensitive.") She was touch-and-go about everything. The day ahead was looking like it was going to be an inevitably rough series of battles. I decided to take her out with me to run a few quick errands, just to get her out and change the scenery. On the way home from our short adventures, I looked in my rearview mirror to find a …
Busyness Is Killing Us (Or Why We Should All Take Up Fishing)
I was talking to a friend the other day who works as a youth minister for a church. I asked him what the biggest issues the teens in his community are dealing with. His answer came quickly. “Drugs,” he said. He detailed the overwhelming prevalence of prescription drugs, and went on to tell me stories about “Skittles parties," in which everyone comes with an assortment of pills pilfered from medicine cabinets. They are thrown into a bowl, and each partygoer swallows a handful and “sees what happens.” Of course this creates a conundrum for EMTs, because if a kid overdoses or has a …
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Is It Time To Burn The TV?
Sometimes I envy the people who don't have televisions. I definitely respect them. Somedays I wish I could be just like them, especially when I listen to the song "Throw It All Away" by one of the best bands ever, Toad the Wet Sprocket: burn your tv in your yard and gather 'round it with your friends and warm your hands upon the fire and start again But alas, I do have a TV. A nice one. With cable. Maybe I really don't believe that TV is evil. Or maybe I'm just too weak to be television independent. Perhaps a little of both. I do know this: TV is easy. Not only as a way to unwind, but …
Who Are You Trying to Prove Wrong?
He suffered from ADHD. His parents got divorced when he was nine. He didn’t do so hot in school. And his middle school teacher told him that he’d never be successful. Nice. Everybody seems to have their own definition of success, but I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone to dispute that winning 14 Olympic gold medals is a pretty good indicator of success. Admirably, Michael Phelps didn’t use his teacher’s inaccurate opinion as an excuse to shrink back and settle for a life of mediocrity. Instead, he used the words as fuel to drive him, posting them in his locker so he’d see them …
More Is Always Better. Or Is It?
More is better. Is that true? When I think of the concept of "more," I sometimes imagine a slick, second-rate Elvis trying to sell me an extended warranty on electronic equipment. Or a pimply teenager offering to upgrade my fries to super-size for just a quarter. Their message: "More is definitely better." The other side of my noggin houses a sage old man who looks a lot like the guy who sold Gizmo to Peter's dad in Gremlins. He hears the offers of the first two clowns and defiantly bellows, "More is not better." Followed up by the Yoda-sounding, "Less is more." …