New Thing 268, New Thing Every Day: Watch a Brand New Will & Grace Episode with Leigh

When Leigh and I first started dating, we were both single (of course) and mostly living alone and she was watching a lot of Will & Grace reruns. It really was a great show and we both enjoyed it. Now -- in the era of "everything old is new" -- Will & Grace is back on TV with new episodes, and we are getting to experience the show together. Honestly, it is pretty good. There were many opportunities to laugh pout loud and the writing was pretty good. The directing was a little choppy, but I am hopeful for the season.

New Thing 267, New Thing Every Day: Eat at Midway Truck Stop

My good friend Larry Schuster and I grabbed a quick lunch at Midway Truck Stop, on his recommendation. Since Lucy's closed -- where we used to go quite a bit -- Midway seems to be becoming his greasy food go-t, and today was the first day I went along with him. Larry had what looked like a totally delicious, giant omelette with extra meat, covered in gravy. U had a salad with some kind of commercially pressed chicken. Mmmmm.... salad.

New Thing 266, New Thing Every Day: Participate in a Speed Dating Event

No, not THAT kind of speed dating event!

Columbia College asked me to take part in a "speed dating event" for student job hunters. I sat at a table and every seven minutes two or three students would sit down and barrage me with questions about resumes, job interviews and the world of work. The point was to give them information and get them used to talking to professionals in a job-interview-type context. Over the course of two hours, I talked to maybe 30 students, in increments of seven minutes. It was very cool and I feel like I was a little bit helpful.

New Thing 265, New Thing Every Day: Order a New Computer from Amazon

My personal laptop is on its last legs, so I finally broke down and bought a new one today. Honestly, it is not my way to buy something that expensive on the Internet, but Leigh found one she thought I should get, sent me the link, and I bought it. Hopefully I can contain myself until it arrives tomorrow.

New Thing 264, New Thing Every Day: Get my Very First Grades from My First MBA Class

Today, I got my first grades for my International Business class. They were just assignments, not exams, but I got A's on both and it was pretty exciting for me. I can't imagine I will be able to do it -- especially as we get into classes with hard core math -- but I really am going to try to get straight A's for my MBA. Today was the next small step toward that.

New Thing 263, New Thing Every Day: TRY to Attend a Competitive Eating Contest

This afternoon, I headed out to Warrensburg to watch their annual chicken wing eating contest, part of their community festival, Burgfest. The contest was scheduled for 5:00 and, as it turned out, I rolled up to the platform where it was happening at 5:03. You know what? I missed the competition by about 60 seconds (the competition was to see how quickly people could eat 15 wings). Literally, the contestants were sitting there with sauce all over their faces and the MC was announcing the winners. The kid who won last year's kids tournament won this year's adults tournament.

While I was bummed about missing the competition, it was still the first time I had ever even tried to see one; also, it was my first time at Burgfest; and. finally, I had dinner for the first time at The lack Adder, considered by many to be Warrensburg's finest restaurant.

All in all, it was a memorable experience, which is all I am really going for.

New Thing 262, New Thing Every Day: Visit Columbia's Masonic Museum

Did you even know there is a Masonic Museum in Columbia? It is totally cool and you should go. Especially, I think you might be interested to see the Harry S. Truman exhibits, of which there are several.

New Thing 261, New Thing Every Day: Launch this New Thing I'm Doing

So, I am doing this new thing that I really think may end up being one of my better ideas, but I am not ready to talk about it in any public way, yet. I did a couple of very specific things today, though, that absolutely qualify as launch activities. We will see where it goes, and you can be sure you will hear about it (someday).

New Thing 260, New Thing Every Day: Cook and Eat Chicken Livers

I just have to say that cooking chicken livers is absolutely one of the most disgusting culinary activities in which I have ever participated. If you buy them at the grocery store, you get them in a container where they are basically soaking in their own blood (I hope it is their own, anyway).

Part of my new eating plan includes eating organ meat 2-3 times each week. I have mostly been eating pate' I get at Schnuck's, and this was the first time I have ventured from that comfort zone. To prepare them, I coated them in paleo flour (mostly almond "flour"), seasoned them with some Cajun spices, and baked them for about 45 minutes. You know what? They were actually pretty good. My mom has eaten chicken livers for years, and I have often made fun of her; now, I guess I am on that bandwagon.

New Thing 259, New Thing Every Day: Take a Ride in Kurt's Green Rolls Royce

My friend Kurt's car is very cool. Especially for my generation, riding in it is a great experience. I need to do it more often.

New Thing 258, New Thing Every Day: Buy the Book My MBA Teacher Wrote

This is kind of fun. I am really enjoying my first MBA class, International Business. My instructor is from Ghana, and has worked for big companies such as IBM. I have a lot to learn from him, and the other day he mentioned that he has written a book that can be found on Amazon. Today I bought it and am looking forward to reading it (although, it is VERY academic).

"Management Consultants' Acceptance of Internet Technology: An Empirical Study of the Determinants of Web Analytics Technology Acceptance" by Kennedy Amofa, PhD

New Thing 257, New Thing Every Day: Turn in My First Graduate School Paper

I obviously turned in plenty of assignments for my five prerequisite classes, but this is the first for a full-fledged MBA class, and I am pretty excited about it (it is for International Business). I put real thought into it, and am proud of what I am submitting -- a paper about launching a business globally. Wish me luck!

New Thing 256, New Thing Every Day: Attend an MU Tailgate

[From yesterday; just did not get around to writing it.]

It's true. I have absolutely no memory of ever attending an MU tailgate of any kind, and I am pretty sure it has never happened. Football is not my thing, and spending hours in the cold or hot, sitting in a lawn chair, is not my thing. Yes, I realize I am at risk of losing my Tiger card.

Leigh and I went because UM System President Mun Choi (an incredibly good guy) invited high school counselors from the area to attend his big, fancy "tailgate party". I put that in quotes because it was under a big tent, with caterers and a bar and fancy tables and chairs. We got to hang out a bit with President Choi, the new Chancellor's wife (Melinda Cartwright), several friends, and some other fun new people. I also had some very tasty baked chicken that made me very happy.

It was a great time.

New Thing 255, New Thing Every Day: Partake in a Wine Club

When Leigh and I were in Napa Valley, just several weeks ago, we visited a bunch of wineries. One of those was Rutherford Ranch, where we joined a club; now, we get a box of three botthles every four months. It is like drunken Christmas, three times a year.

New Thing 254, New Thing Every Day: Visit all-that-is-interesting.com

I have visited a few different sites with lots and lots of weird stories, or pop-culture stories, but this one is kind of weird and academic. For example, the first story is "The Boer War Genocide: Inside History’s First Concentration Camps".

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/


You should definitely check it out.

New Thing 253, New Thing Every Day: Speak to a High School Class for English Language Learners

For Better Business Bureau, I talk to an awful lot of groups about an awful lot of things, all related to building a more trustworthy marketplace for businesses and consumers. One of my frequent topics lately is ethics, which I discuss with high school students. Today, I talked about ethics to a group of English Language Learners -- yes, this means a room full of kids who spoke very little English.

You know what? I had a blast!

I had converted my regular program into one that combined my usual ethics discussion with a vocabulary lesson, discussing all of the words and concepts. My thought was that if we focused largely on defining words together, the kids would have to learn the underlying concepts; and it totally worked. No, I can't guarantee that every kid learned some fairly complicated words and concepts, but we had a lot of participation, a lot of discussion, and it really felt like many of those kids learned a bunch of important things. It was very fun and cool, and I think they got some value out of it.

Yes, I kind of want to be a high school teacher now.

New Thing 252, New Thing Every Day: Do New Things And Not Share Them

Yesterday, I actually did a few fairly important new things and I am just not in the mood to share them, so I am not going to. I do, however, want to get the credit for them, so this is my New Thing. Isn't that great?!? By NOT sharing, I am actually doing my New Thing.

I really do love doing my New Thing project.  : )

New Thing 251, New Thing Every Day: Support My Sister After a Major Hurricane

My sister Marisa and her family are in Florida and were right in Irma's Path. Today, thy are safe, but without power and facing all kinds of post-Irma issues. I can't do nearly as much as I would like to do for her, but I can help in a few ways, and I can be her supportive brother. I will do my best to keep doing that.

New Thing 250, New Thing Every Day: Buy 192 Website Domains

Yes, I am a little bit nuts.

When I was doing my three laps around the track at Cosmo Park yesterday, I had kind of a fun business idea that I really think is going to be a relatively easy money maker. So I cashed in my eTrade account (you may remember that I opened it to teach myself how to invest in individual stocks -- I have made about 15% in the last six months or so), found the cheapest place to buy lots of website domains, and got as many as I could. The bottom line is that I am going to try to sell the URLs; maybe I will talk more about the details at a later time.

By the way, here is the thing about my approach to new business -- only invest what you are prepared to lose; start selling as quickly as you can so you can start gathering real data; and keep your startup costs low.

I'll let you know how it goes.

New Thing 249, New Thing Every Day: Do Three Wheelchair Laps Around the Fitness Track at Cosmo Park

My original plan was to work my way up to three laps over the next few weeks, but this morning I decided today should be the day. To make sure I actually did it, I posted on Facebook that I would, leveraging the power of peer pressure and embarrassment.

Here are some observations and thoughts .

1. It took just 100 minutes to do the three laps, so my average was about 33 minutes per lap. This was an improvement over the 40 minutes per lap it was taking me to do two.
2. My goal is to get it to three laps at 20 minutes each; I figure that will take me three to six months to achieve.
3. Tom Trabue was walking the track and is looking great!
4. A young woman was jogging in the opposite direction and she kept giving me high fives to encourage me. That was nice of her.
5. Over the course of the trip, I had three very cool new business ideas. I bet I try at least two of them at some point.
6. Along with the business ideas, I also thought of several new #HappierEveryDay entries.
7. Now I can focus on other fitness goals and just keep doing my three laps every Saturday and Sunday. I should be in the best shape of my entire life within three to six months.

New Thing 248, New Thing Every Day: Prepare and Try a Shaved Fennel Salad

I really thought I had eaten fennel before, but maybe not. Definitely, I had not tried such a fennel-forward dish. All I did was cut it in the thinnest slices I could and then toss it in a little olive oil and garlic salt. For the first time, I could really taste the licorice undertones of it. It was really good and I am definitely adding it to my regular menu.

New Thing 247, New Thing Every Day: Try Wagyu Bresaola

From Wikipedia...

Bresaola is air-dried, salted beef that has been aged two or three months until it becomes hard and turns a dark red, almost purple colour. It is made from top round, and is lean and tender, with a sweet, musty smell. Wikipedia

I got it at Barred Owl Butcher Shop. You should definitely go there.

New Thing 246, New Thing Every Day: Write a Fan-Tweet

It is absolutely true that I have never written a fan letter and I probably never will. Never sent an e-mail. Never tweeted. Nothing. Until tonight. Preparing for tonight's New Thing, I gave it an inordinate amount of thought because it will likely be literally the only fan message I will ever send. Finally, I chose Denzel Washington. Yest, it actually surprised me, but I decided he is a person who has given me a great deal over the course of my life, and he is absolutely somewhere near the top of the list of people I would want to respond to me.

Here is what I tweeted:

@DenzelWN Never fan-tweeted. Loved you since Carbon Copy, when I was 11. Thank you for 35 years of touching heart and mind. God bless.

New Thing 245, New Thing Every Day: Start Creating a 501c3

For years, I have thought about creating my own non-profit organization that I can use to house the various events and projects I create to support the community. Most of what I do involves an event, so I wanted to do something related to that, but with a name that did not totally tie me down to that format for service. I came up with Bash Fund, and secured the URL, BashFund.com. I am also initiating the paperwork with Missouri and the IRS and I hope to have it in place by the end of the year. I'll let keep you posted..

New Thing 244, New Thing Every Day: Start New Podcast How I Built This with Guy Raz

For those who may not know what a podcast is, it is most often an audio broadcast over the Internet, generally listened to over one's phone or iPod, often featuring a long-form interview or some other story format. Yes, there are also video blogs, and there are also other formats, but this is a decent description for the majority.

I listen to a lot of podcasts -- it is most often what I listen to in the car, instead of the radio, and when I am getting ready in the morning. My friend Anne Churchill also istens to a lot of podcasts and we were comparing notes the other day; she suggested "How I Built This with Guy Raz" and I am so glad she did. So far, I have listened to the first one, about the creation of Instagram, and it was fun and informative. There are another 50 episodes about cool companies and their founders, and I am pretty excited about listening to them.

Thanks, Anne!

Here are the other podcasts currently on my iPhone.

• You Must Remember This -- the golden age of Hollywood
• The Pitch -- startups pitch investors
• Startup -- the stories of new companies
• Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman -- tech and startups, by the founder of LinkedIn
• Boss Files with Poppy Harlow -- interviews with business leaders, with a particular focus on women
• The West Wing Weekly -- breakdown of every episode the The West Wing
• Politico's Nerdcast -- political journalist discussion
• Slate's Political Gabfest -- political journalist discussion
• Katie Couric -- general interviews
• The Axe Files with David Axelrod -- political interviews
• Here's the Thing with Alec Baldwin -- general interviews
• NPR Politics -- political journalist discussion
• Fresh Ar -- the NPR radio show in podcast form
• This Week in Startups -- Jason Calacanis's podcast about the startup world
• Industry Standard w/Barry Katz -- interviews with media executives and occasional artists, with probably the most prominent manager of comedians
• The /Filmcast -- movie reviews
• WTF with Marc Maron -- interviews with mostly comedians, and occasionally with others; the very first podcast I ever heard

New Thing 243, New Thing Every Day: Experience a Burst Water Main

[Note: This is yesterday's New Thing, and I am not posting it until today because Leigh and I went our of town for the evening and I did not have my computer.]

Leigh and I woke yesterday to no water at all and a bunch of guys doing work directly in front of our house. At one point, there was a massive hole in the blacktop next to our driveway -- dug with back hoe -- and no water. So I went and picked up some gallons of fresh water from Schnuck's (for flushing and brushing) and it really was not so big a deal because we were getting ready to head out of town. We decided to just hit the road, check into our hotel a little early, and do our showering there. Thankfully, the hole was filled when we got back, so the only real issue is that the guys tore up our front yard a little. We have water, so we can live with that.

New Thing 242, New Thing Every Day: Start Learnng to Code

I have wanted to learn to code for a long time. Several years ago, I tried to find a good place online where I could start learning for free, but I did not have any luck. Today, there are so many options. Today, I took my first coding lesson at CodeAcademy,com, in JavaScript. I have such a long way to go -- like learning any other language, and this does not come easily to me -- but I am going to start pushing forward. I think we are in a world where absolutely everyone should learn how to code.

New Thing 241, New Thing Every Day: Order Dinner from La Terraza Mexicana Grill

I am on a very serious hunt for the best home-delivery tamales in town. I have tried a few different places and tonight I ordered from La Terraza Mexicana Grill. They were very good, but tamales seem to be basically the same pretty much anywhere. The search continues.