“F@#k Kelsey Timmerman! I’ve got better things to do than go to his event!”
This was a tweet I read before a speaking event at a university this year.
“Sorry to hear that,” I responded. “Do you have some shows you’ll be missing tonight?” Basically I was saying, “I see you.”
Right before I was about to start speaking, a student stepped back stage.
“Mr. Timmerman,” the student said, looking remarkably like a puppy with his tail between his legs, “I’m sorry for that tweet. I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just that I never knew about this event and had other plans that I was disappointed to cancel.”
I accepted his apology. I told him that our in person actions are…
Forget decision 2012 (For a moment. You better vote in a few weeks!). Forget Obama vs. Romney. Check out the Kid President. This dude is hilarious and inspiring. His messages:
Be awesome now.
Choose fun.
Don’t be in a party. Be a party!
If people keep throwing balloons in your face, DANCE!
He recorded this video for Krochet Kids International. I saw CEO Kohl Crecilius, CEO of KKi, speak at Ball State last night. I believe that we aren’t going to shop our way to a better world, but what we buy does make an impact. And KKi’s hats are making a big impact by employing 150 women in Northern Uganda. Each of them signs the hats they produce. I’ll write more about KKi later, when I add…
After a great week, beginning with appearances in Rome, Georgia (One Book, One Voice, Georgia Highland College, Armuchee High School, Darlington School), and ending with a visit to Cedar Creek College, I’m in Hershey, PA. After meeting farmers in Ivory Coast that grow cocoa, I thought I should go to the American town that cocoa built.
I heard the Hershey hotel had a whipped cocoa bath so I called up their spa.
“I want to sit in a big ol’ bath of chocolate.”
Silence.
“I heard that you have something called a whipped cocoa bath?” I restated my slightly disturbing statement into a question.
“Yes we do,” the man on the phone said, “but they are only for women. You could…
At Lindenwood University (St. Charles, MO, campus)
Tomorrow (September 11th) I’m speaking at Lindenwood University at 7PM in the Spellman Center’s Anheuser Busch Leadership Room. Given the name of the room, I think there might be (should be) free beer. There’s only one way you’ll find out…be there!
Of course, this begs the question: Does a drunk audience mean an audience that laughs at my jokes more or heckles me more. Either way, you should be there. All the dirty details are here.
At Lindenwood University (Belleville, IL, campus)
On September 12th my lecture is from 10-11AM, followed by a Q&A from 11 to 11:30AM. I have…
I thought I would start sharing a little bit about how I work. I’ve been collecting and sharing stories now for a decade from all over the world and have learned a few things along the way. I’m not saying that my methods are perfect, but they work for me.
The most important thing I do is not interview anyone.
Here’s the tools I use to do that – Moleskine, Bic pen, iPhone, Asus netbook, dropbox
My stories are usually people focused so I typically conduct multiple interviews with the characters lasting 15-90 minutes long. Quotes are really important to me. I’ve been misquoted many times and I hate it. Turns out that there’s these amazing things that actually capture word-for-word what people say called recorders. I use…
Winthrop Students receives copy of WHERE AM I WEARING?
I am blown away by the amount of schools using WEARING in their common reader programs this year.
In case you are wondering what a common reading program is: They are typically directed at freshmen. Every freshmen gets a copy of the book and participates in discussion sessions about the book in the Fall. Normally they invite the author to speak as well.
From 2008-2011 eights schools have used WEARING as a common reader. This year the following schools are using it (I’ve noted when I’m visiting the campus):
Ball State University – 9/18/12
Texas State – 9/26, 9/27
Winthrop…
The young couple jokes and laughs over their entrees. She forks him some steak. He spoons her some soup. I imagine delicately slamming their faces into their mashed potatoes. But when our 1-year-old chucks his milk, splattering it everywhere, and our three year-old-starts to cry about us not letting her sit upside down on the table with an elephant (or something), I look at them and apologize.
Maybe they looked at us while we juggled toy cell phones, sippy cups, and outrageous demands, and they thought, “We are SO glad we don’t have any kids,” or maybe they thought our kids were charming…
Breaking news (if there is such a thing): The individual mandate in Obamacare stands.
Maybe you’re seething; maybe you’re jumping up and down.
I have no idea what this means for the future of healthcare and I don’t think experts for or against know either.
But here’s what I do know…
We pay $350/month for our health insurance and have an $11,000 deductible. We don’t have health insurance; we have bankruptcy insurance.
Our premium jumped $30 since last year, despite another year of not even coming close to reaching our deductible.
Last year we paid cash for the birth or our son since we didn’t have maternity coverage. We shopped hospitals first. “Hey, we’re having a kid. What kind of deal can…
Since I’m working on a book about the global food economy, my mind is so full of food books it has indigestion.
I’m on a tight deadline so I really needed an excuse to read something else. The release of John Scalzi’s new book Redshirts was that excuse for two reasons: 1) John is a friend (and my favorite blogger) who lives near my childhood home in Ohio. 2) His books are always action packed and hilarious.
Redshirts was like Gas-Ex to my farting brain. (That’s a compliment.)
If you’ve ever watched Star Trek you know that a dude wearing a red shirt is going to die on every away team. But as John points out, if…
His name was Didier. He spoke a little English and I spoke a little Spanish. We met briefly at EARTH university in Costa Rica where I was working as a banana worker. He asked what I was doing in Costa Rica and I told him about my Where Am I Eating project, including my upcoming trip to Colombia to research coffee.
“My family lives in Nariño a region famous for coffee.” He said.
We talked for 15 minutes, maybe.
Two months later I was strolling down the streets of his hometown, El Tablon de Gomez, beside his father Ladardo and his…
