A Santamazing video...

They posted this on the website, and on facebook:

"Christmas Rappin'" for Sears...

When I got hired to be Sears' SANTAMAZING, I had no idea that we'd be doing a rap video...

One of my friends said that I look natural, so that's good!
I used to do rap performances in college; my name was "Bone-E-Luv"- must be why I'm such a pro here.

Santa Visits Santamazing...

Ok, so I'm the straight guy in this, but SANTA is hilarious...

I am SANTAMAZING!

So, I shot the stuff for SEARS a few weeks ago, and now the website is up!
It;s all about doing Christmas shopping at SEARS, and my character, "Santamazing" gets great gifts for people by learning about them and going all out. I like the behind the scenes footage they shot in the parking lots and just all around the place. I hope they crank out more stuff!

http://www.Sears.com/Santa

WGirls NYC First Fall Fling - 4th Annual Bachelor/ette Auction - 357054.jpg - Image 301

Last night I hosted a rather swanky charity auction. I MC'd while we auctioned off eligible bachelors and bachelorettes to raise money for Odyssey House. One of the WGirls- Meghan Goddard asked me to do it, and I was THRILLED.

Everyone had a GREAT time, and we raised about $40,000 fro Odessey House!

WGirls NYC First Fall Fling - 4th Annual Bachelor/ette Auction - 357054.jpg - Image 301

I like Seth Godin

Ok, so I have a TON of Seth Godin's Books, and I get excited everytime he releases a new one. I'm also a subscriber of his blog. Today's Blog post goes with my philosophy of "Half-Assed Life":

The myth of preparation


There are three stages of preparation. (For a speech, a product, an interview, a sporting event...)

The first I'll call the beginner stage. This is where you make huge progress as a result of incremental effort.

The second is the novice stage. This is the stage in which incremental effort leads to not so much visible increase in quality.

And the third is the expert stage. Here's where races are won, conversations are started and sales are made. A huge amount of effort, off limits to most people, earns you just a tiny bit of quality. But it's enough to get through the Dip and be seen as the obvious winner.

Here's the myth: The novice stage is useful.

If all you're going to do is go through the novice stage before you ship, don't bother. If you're not prepared to put in the grinding work of the expert stage, just do the beginner stuff and stop screwing around. Make it good enough and ship it and move on.

We diddle around in the novice stage because we're afraid. We polish (but not too much) and go to meetings (plenty of them) and look for deniability, spending hours and hours instead of shipping. And the product, in the end, is not so much better.

I'm all for expertise. Experts, people who push through and make something stunning--we need more of them. But let's be honest, if you're not in the habit of being an expert, it's unlikely your current mode of operation is going to change that any time soon.

Go, give a speech. Go, start a blog. Go, ship that thing that you've been hiding. Begin, begin, begin and then improve. Being a novice is way overrated.

Go sign up for Seth's blog HERE

9 Years Later...

Another one of my absolute favorites. I'm pretty down on our country right now, feeling that we've learned absolutely nothing in the last 9 years, but I'm glad you took the time to make this message today.

My apartment was full that day; people couldn't go home, so they came to my place as we made food and stayed in front of the television. I was asleep, and the phone wouldn't stop ringing. Back then I still had a landline. I answered the phone, and Rick told me to "turn on the TV".

"Dude- I'm sleeping"
"Bones- Some planes just crashed into the twin towers"
"huh...? Was it an accident?
"No....."
"Ok, I'll turn on the- Oh my God- LESLIE! She lives down there..."
"Can I come to your place?"
"Yeah, of course- bring whoever. Where's Dave?"
"I don't know, I called you first."
"My phone's been ring... someone's on the other line; ok- come over."

I was answering the phone non-stop; more and more people were asking if they could walk over, since there was no getting through downtown. Laura and I had been hooking up, but after that, I don't think she ever left. I was suddenly proud of myself for being someone people felt they could call. It felt ridiculous to have that thought while everyone was crying in silence.

Then the people started jumping, and eventually the whole thing came down.

Leslie was apparently caught in one of those ash clouds, but she made it out ok.

Across the world, that's everyday for some people.
Because someone else's God said so.

And Gays cause Earthquakes and shouldn't marry because someone else's God said so.
And Jews are put in camps because someone else's God said so.
And Muslim Taxi Cab Drivers are stabbed because someone else's God said so.

And Our God says we should be free-
unless you want to build a community center if you're God is different.

And Our God says you should earn from your own sweat-
unless we want your oil, and you're God is different.

And it seems like the only time we DO get along is when we make money together,
so maybe we oughtta sponsor all the politicians, and place people from different
faiths in their group, and then we won't need to talk about faith in God when what we
really mean is faith in money.