Deal or No Deal?

Okay, I confess: I occasionally watch parts of Deal or No Deal? And after having watched parts of several shows the past couple years, I'm ready to announce that the show is an absolute fraud. Why do I say that? Because there is no way that a real person would turn down some of the offers that those actors turn down. If you think that I am off my rocker, then try watching an episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? On Millioniare, it is common for contestants to say such things as, "You know, Meredith, $16,000 is a lot of money; I just can't risk it (for $25,000) when I am not certain about the answer to that question." Put simply, it is obvious that the contestants on Millionaire are real, whereas the contestants on Deal or No Deal? are actors. Now try watching an episode of Deal or No Deal? from that perspective. By way of example, tonight I saw a guy turn down over $600,000 for a 2/3rds chance of winning a million. What did the guy ultimately win? Well, it came down to a 50-50 chance of him winning $1 (imagine that?) or $1 million (boy, that sure makes for great drama!). And what do you think would make for better water cooler banter: the foolish guy who turned down a $600,000 offer or the guy who won $1 million? The actor won $?????? I told you it was a farse. And while we are on the subject of real or fake, what about your life? Is it "real," or does it just look "real"? That's the true million dollar question.

Dumpster Diving

As we were walking to our car after doing some early morning surfing, we saw a homeless guy digging in the dumpster for cans or whatever. The first thought that ran through my mind was, "That's why you go to school. What a waste of a life." We got to our car, and Tyler said to me, "Dad, did you see that homeless guy; he didn't even have a shirt." Since we just so happened to have a car full of stuff to take to donate, Tyler said, "Do we have a shirt in here that we could give to him?" We looked around and found a polo shirt that had been given to us in a scavenger hunt called "bigger or better." At any rate, the shirt happened to be "bigger" than the item that we traded it for. In fact, the shirt was a lot bigger. It was a 3X to be exact. And the homeless guy was more like a medium. At any rate, we caught up with the homeless guy, John, and asked him if he needed a shirt. "Yeah, I've needed a shirt for quit a while," he responded. "It's a 3X" I told him,"but it's brand new with the tags on it." He didn't care; he was just happy to have a shirt. As we left, I realized that Tyler's heart had been sensitive to the heart of God, but mine had not. "It's too bad we don't have a belt, Daddy," Tyler said, "because he had an electrical cord tied around his pants for a belt." We did have a belt in the car--it was wrapped around my waist--so we drove back and gave John a belt too. "God bless you," John told us as we left. May your heart be as sensitive as Tyler's as you go about your day.

T-30

Unbelievably, we leave in 30 days! Have you ever packed for vacation? You know how it is. For some strange reason, you always wait until the last minute. Well, guess what? 30 days to get ready for leaving the planet (that's how far away Australia is!) is not really long enough to get ready. But come November 6th, we'll be buckling our seatbelts and putting our seats in their upright positions. We'll turn off our Ipods (apparently so that our batteries will last for 14 hours) and start down the run way. Hey, we might even look to see where the emergency exits are located. Okay, let's get back to reality. For we only have 30 days to pack!!!!! Oh, and by the way, our Ipods only need to last for eight hours, for our first stop is Tahiti.