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Now I am starting to learn that isn’t always the best strategy. There is a lot of research showing why rewards can backfire, but frankly, its not all that exciting.

This story is much more fun…

The Wise Old Man and the Hooligans

There once was a wise old man who lived in a rough neighborhood. One day a group of teenagers came to his house, looking to stir up a little trouble. They decided that every day they would walk past the old man’s house and throw eggs at his front door.

Instead of yelling at the teens or reporting their behavior to the police, the wise old man came up with a plan.

He sat outside his house and waiting for the teenagers to walk by. When they arrived, the old man gave each teen a 5 dollar bill and explained that if he was able to watch, he was happy to pay them to throw eggs at his door. The teens were quite confused but they weren’t stupid. Of course they would take the money and still throw the eggs.

The old man kept this up each day for a week.

The following week, the old man explained to the teens that the stock market had given him a tough week financially and he would only be able to pay them 1 dollar each. The teens did not like this, but still took the money and threw their eggs.

When the third week rolled around, the old man explained that he had gone through another rough week financially, and he could only afford to give out 50 cents each.

This made the teenagers furious and they refused to throw eggs until they would be paid more. The only man apologized and said he didn’t have any more to give. Insulted, the teens stormed off and vowed never to throw eggs at his door again.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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One year ago today, I was very nervous as I clicked the submit button to launch my Kickstarter campaign. I can’t believe that was 12 months ago. Seems like just the other day I was trying to think of silly top 10 reasons that would entice people to contribute.

While I was uneasy at the start, my nerves quickly turned into joy as people started to get behind my project! Thanks to 89 extremely generous people I didn’t have to be nervous for long.

Today feels like a great time to once again say thank you to all of you who made my book dream possible. I am so grateful for all your support and everything you have done for me during this last year.

I can’t thank you enough.

As we inch closer to holiday season, here are a couple of quick notes…

1. Thanks to some awesome people, a number of copies of my book have been purchased with the purpose of being donated. Do you know any schools/organizations/youth groups who might want a couple copies? If so, send me an email (adam@maurycmoose.com) or reply to this post and I would be happy to donate copies so that kids can learn about Maury and his gang!

2. I am trying to reach the goal of getting 25 reviews on Amazon. By getting to 25 reviews, the exposure of the book will greatly increase and it will be added to the recommended titles section on many children’s books. If you have time to give a review (good or bad), I would greatly appreciate it. You can review the book by clicking here. If you scroll down on the page, you will see a section called “Customer Reviews.” From there you can click on “write a customer review” and you will then log into your Amazon account and be able to review the book.

3. Thanks Again!!

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With that in mind, I’d like to share a Throwback Thursday story that I originally wrote last year…check out this story from my old blog.

Photo credit:Wikipedia

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I felt a little like Hedberg on Saturday.

Maury C. Moose and The Forest Noel is available for pre-order through Barnes & Noble!

Just to make sure the shoppers at my local B&N were aware, I spent Saturday changing all of the “Search & Find” kiosks to show my book’s info.

Nothing like a little grassroots marketing.

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With the 4th of July comes patriotism, fireworks and watching men and women eat 60 hotdogs in less time than it takes to sing the National Anthem.

That’s right, every Independence Day marks the Nathan’s Famous 4th of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.

Watching the hot dog eating contest brings memories of my time as a competitive eater. My career didn’t last long and I never made it to the big time. In fact, I only entered one contest and hot dogs weren’t even on the menu.

For a recap of that fateful day I would like to take you back to a story I wrote in 2005.

August 1, 2005

I have always thought of myself as a competitive person. I enjoy a good contest just as much as the next guy. I have participated in many competitions throughout my life, but none as intense as the one I endured yesterday. Let’s just say it was a mouthful (haha, you will get it in a minute).

The competition I was a part of yesterday was a competitive eating contest. The day before, I had watched the US Open of competitive eating and became intrigued. Before I get to my contest I will first give a quick summary of the Open. There were a couple of different races (I guess that’s what you call it) with a skinny Asian guy and a skinny Asian lady competing for the title (I guess that’s what you call it) in every category.

The Open was great, not only could I watch people eat unhealthy amounts of food, I could also hear a wonderful breakdown of what was going on. They had grade A commentators. They not only pointed out what the people were eating, they helped explained the true strategy behind it all. One memorable quote used to describe the eating was something like “look at the power.” Power indeed. Not just anyone can shovel salad into their mouth, it takes a very powerful individual.

After watching the Open, I knew that I had been raised playing the wrong sports. If I had only known about competitive eating at an earlier age, I could have focused on that instead of wasting my time on other sports that would get me nowhere in life.

Although I had yet to eat anything competitively, I had been eating for over 19 years and I figured that was better than nothing. Was it too late to start training to become the best?? There was only one was to find out.

So I decided to have a contest against another promising amateur to see if I had a future in the sport. My opponent…none other than my younger brother. He’s quite the little eater, but I had the experience edge. He has only been eating for a little over 15 years. I thought it would be tough, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

So the table was set (haha). The plates consisted of 2 hamburgers, 10 chicken nuggets, and 2 soft pretzels. The first to finish wins. So we were off…my strategy was to go from pretzels to nuggets to hamburgers. I don’t know what Christopher’s plan was because I was too focused on winning.

About halfway through the plate, I began to feel it. Was it the feeling of victory??? No, not at all. It was the feeling of stomach ache. I wanted to stop. The pain was just too much, but I fought it. I had always been taught to “Go Hard or Go Home” and since I was already at home I knew that I only had one other option.

After about 10 minutes, the dust had settled and I had won. By a whole hamburger. Was I that good, or was Chris just way smarter than me and had given up? We may never know. But what I do know, is that my competitive eating days are over. I will retire on top. Undefeated. I want to retire 1 and 0. Mostly because I am afraid I might die if I try it again. From now on, I will stick to eating for survival only. But the contest taught me many things that I would forget. Most importantly…I’m an idiot.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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With the help of his colleagues, he launched LaughLab, a website where people could submit jokes and anyone could rate other people’s submissions. LaughLab used a rating scale called the “Giggleometer.”

For the next year, the website received over 40,000 joke submissions and nearly 2 million ratings from members of 40 different countries.

The study earned a Guiness World Record for largest-ever scientific humor study.

On October 3, 2002, Wiseman announced they had come up with the world’s funniest joke.

Here’s the winning joke:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator says, “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a gunshot. Back on the phone, the guys says, “Okay, now what?”

What do you think of that joke? Is it the funniest you’ve ever heard?

Here’s the joke that came in second in Wiseman’s study.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were going camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said: “Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you see.” Watson replied: “I see millions and millions of stars.” Holmes said: “and what do you deduce from that?” Watson replied: “Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like earth out there. And if there are a few planets like earth out there, there might also be life.” And Holmes said: “Watson, you idiot, it means that somebody stole our tent.”

Want to know more about humor? Here are some fun fact found by the LaughLab.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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Here’s a great PSA from Scrubs.

Here’s a longer clip with some more background on where the PSA came from.

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A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber.

The average human will shed 40 pounds of skin during their life.

A Rubik’s Cube can make 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different combinations.

Flamingos turn pink from eating shrimp.

Coca-Cola started out as a headache medicine.

Fish cough.

Neil Armstrong went through U.S. customs in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the way back from the moon.

The largest cheesecake ever made weighed 6,900 pounds.

The first typewriter was called the “literary piano.”

Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

You can’t talk & inhale through your nose at the same time.

The longest hopscotch game ever, measured 5,506 m (18,064 ft 3 in).

When the inventor of the Frisbee died, he had his ashes molded into frisbees.

A full moon is 9 times greater than a half moon.

Pope John Paul II was named an honorary Harlem Globetrotter.

The first penny had the motto “Mind your business.”

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In the movie Jurassic Park, there is a scene where a cup of water starts to tremble. By noticing the wobbly water cup, the characters are able to figure out that something big is coming their way. They know they better get out of there.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a disaster predicting water cup that could tell us when something big and bad is coming?

In today’s tech world, I am surprised something like this hasn’t been turned into an app. It would be your own little technological Spidey-sense that is always right there with you on your phone (right next to Candy Crush).

I picture it working like this…Say you are about to make a very bad decision, like buying your wife a vacuum cleaner for the 2^nd straight year for her birthday. This app would kick in, start vibrating and signal for you to stop what you are doing and run away from the floor care appliance aisle in Sears.

Same thing could work for other things like a bad financial investment or going back for a second helping of an all you can eat buffet. This little gem would start in motion and let you know that another plate full of five day old apple pie might not be your best move.

I don’t think that is too much to ask for. I am not looking for a fortune teller or anything crazy like that. Just a little something that nudges us in the right direction when we are about to make a wrong choice.

I am not sure how the technology would work, but if someone can create the magic or whatever goes into an app like Shazam, this one should be a breeze.

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