Shawn Pfunder

This password idea comes from a friend of mine. I hope she doesn’t mind that I’m sharing this with everyone. You know, partially taking credit for someone else’s genius. Of course she could have stolen it from someone else as well. You never know. Anyway, it’s not my idea, but I think it’s fantastic.

When starting a new habit or trying to accomplish a goal, you should change all of your passwords to something that helps you stay focused on your new decision. read more…

This was literal in his case. In his case, it was his heart. It didn’t work. It continually sabotaged the rest of his body. It killed him more than once.

At the hospital during his first heart attack, the doctor used defibrillators for the first time. The paddles had arrived in the mail that day. The doctor took them out, read the instructions, turned them on, marveled at the electric whir in his hands and let ‘em rip.

The paddles left burn marks on Mr. Lewis’s chest. read more…

Medicine cabinets, apparently, are the best way to figure out who somebody is. The trick goes something like this: get an invite to a party, drink a little too much, ask to use the loo, lock the door, snoop.

I’m a little sorry to say that the first time I heard about this, I tried it. Sorry because I’m really easy to influence. I probably read about it in a magazine and tried it that night. Doesn’t take much. Unfortunately, I was still in high school (and so was she) so I didn’t discover anything juicy. I found out that she thought she had acne, chewed her vitamins, used men’s razors, a pink deodorant, and obviously had a nervous habit of collecting hair scrunchies. See? Nothing juicy (except for maybe the bit about the men’s razors–that might have something fun to it).

So, I’m not sure it really works, but I love the idea. This idea that you can look at a slice of someone’s life and figure out who they are: the books they read, the music they listen to, the crap they keep in their car. read more…

If that title isn’t enough of a warning for those looking forward to a live-action cartoon that will remind them of their childhood, let me warn you that it’s not a Michael Bay rendition. If you go expecting that–if you go expecting something like Transformers or Fraggle Rock, you’re not going to be happy. If you go expecting Dave Eggers–if you go expecting Spike Jonze, you’ll see a powerful and settling movie.

I talk a lot about there being two types of art (music/books/performances/paintings): those things that make you excited in the moment (think Batman), and those that you chew on and have to digest (think The Darjeeling Limited)–those that stay with you for days, weeks, years. I think a lot of people I know went to Where the Wild Things Are thinking they’d be getting the first kind of experience. When they were confronted with the second, they felt a little bit like they were watching Adam Sandler going punch drunk during a song about Hanukah. read more…