holidays are for games: 3 recommendations

The online video gaming industry is huge and getting huger every year - almost as big as Hollywood and on a growth trajectory that will continue to cut into the TV audience for sports. But for all the realism and sophistication found in the new product launches and annual updates, video games lack something important that can still be found in playing old school board games: face-to-face human interaction and intimacy.

It's almost Christmas. A lot of people will be off work with vacation time and a lot of families and friends will gather to celebrate and catch up. Tis the season when classic board games like Life, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly. Clue, and Scrabble will be lifted down from top closet shelves and dusted off.

Here are three random game ideas that you might want to try with your friends and family members.

1. Settlers of Catan. My soon to be son-in-law brought this to our family Christmas gathering last year and the award-winning game was an instant hit. Think of Risk on steroids without the cannons and destroyed troops. The board comes in about 30 pieces and can be set up different every time. Up to six can play. The goal is to get 10 'victory points', which are gained by building roads, settlements, cities, and armies. Players have to accumulate wood, bricks, ore, sheep, and grain through strategically building settlements in the right spots - and through good old fashioned barter with other players. Sounds complicated but it only takes 15 to 30 minutes to learn. There are game extensions in the Catan family that can take you on the ocean or to outer space or into particular historical epochs, like the Roman Empire.

2. Fast Scrabble. I like regular Scrabble just fine but if you want an interesting variation try 'fast scrabble.' All tiles are placed in the middle of the table face down. The first player turns over a tile. If it's a one-letter word like 'I' or 'A' then the first player to call out the word gets to keep the tile, face up, in front of him or her. If it's not a word, the tile remains with the person who turned it over as a free letter. The second player turns over a tile and again, whoever calls out a word, made from that letter or that letter and any other letters that are face up, gets all the tiles to make a new word. If 'A' came up first and then 'M' came up second, player three can call out 'Am' and keeps that word in front of him. If the third letter pulled up is 'C' then the first player can call 'Cam' and all letters come back to him or her. If the next letter is an 'E' then someone can yell 'Came' and the tiles are now all theirs. Once a word is formed the letters must stay intact and in that order but can switch to different players throughout the game. 'Oven' can become 'Coven' can become 'Covens' and so on. When all tiles have been turned over, each player adds up the points on their tiles that are formed into words and subtracts any letters that are sitting free. Loud. Fast. Fun.

3. Team Hybrid Game Night. One of our favorite activities during the holidays is a family and/or friend game night where we divide into teams and play a combination of popular games, a new one each round. This works best with four or five teams going four to five rounds. We like to use Trivial Pursuit (each team is asked every question on a single card per round and is awarded 10 to 20 points per correct answer), Pictionary (50 points for identifying the picture), Tabu (20 points per correct word), Outburst (10 points per correct word), Scene-It (all teams compete at once in an 'All Play'), but you can come up with a myriad of other options, like Charades or Family Feud, by adapting your favorite games into the process. One of the nice things about the team approach is that you can enjoy competition but no one gets singled out as not being good at something like Trivial Pursuit. I like to do a final round where points are doubled and each team gets to choose which of the previous games played they want to try.

Whether you're gearing up to drive to Grandma's or are hosting a group of friends on Christmas afternoon, don't get stuck in the rut of staring at the TV screen and missing out on the people around you. Games or no games, find ways to interact face-to-face.

welcome to the 'wild side'

My dad worked for General Motors for 37 years, his only full-time employer. My wife's dad worked for Du Pont for 35 years after a brief stint with IBM. Who knows - he might have been with IBM for 37 years if they had permanently assigned him to the Nashville office rather than sending him to Upstate New York.

My career, which began at a local church as a youth pastor, and which includes three significant "employment" eras - plus a 5-year run of having my own company serve as my sole means of support - has been a much different path.

This past week I concluded a three year return to the corporate world. I moved to Nashville in late 2005 to launch a specialty book division with Integrity Publishers. When Integrity was acquired by Thomas Nelson, I served in the same publisher role with a much larger company over a well-established business unit. With the publishing industry in a major funk - and no bailout being trumpeted on CNN - now was and is the time for me to get back to running my own business.

One of the first responses I got to my announcement was from a good friend, also independent and entrepreneurial in mindset, who sent me a text that said 'welcome back to the wild side.' As someone who has thought he might be bankrupt and then wealthy and then bankrupt all in the same year, I can only smile - I can't argue with his choice of words.

I've been asked if I'm worried about not being with a big company in what may be the worst economic times since the Great Depression. Well, last I heard on TV, General Motors needs money from the government this week or it may be forced into Chapter 7, which means the doors would close.

I've been told I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I've been told I'm crazy. Both statements are undoubtedly wrong - and right - for different reasons! Bottom line, I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all plan for navigating the white water rapids of today's workplace. My inclination is that I won't return to corporate (never say never), but I wouldn't recommend that as the plan for everyone. Know thyself.

I would offer three simple observations that might serve as counsel and advise for someone reading this.

1. Everyone needs more than one "customer." Your employer may be your boss and your means of financial support, but your employer is also a customer for your services. Is it smart to have one customer? Maybe it was in a bygone era but in times of economic turbulence, when many companies are struggling to stay alive, that's probably not the case. But isn't that kind of thinking disloyal and dishonest? I'm obviously not condoning or advocating the stealing of time and resources from the one paying you, but there's nothing dishonorable in using gifts and skills, some of which may not have an outlet in your primary job, in ways that meet the needs of other customers.

2. Hard work is the order of the day. Duh. That may seem too obvious to mention but let's face it, we do live in an incredibly comfortable epoch of world history - with lots of our free time devoted to entertainment. A friend - and yes, he too is independent and entrepreneurial in his mindset - sent me this word of wisdom recently: "He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgement" (Proverbs 12:11).

3. Ultimately, there is no security in your own labors. So what's the point in trying? There is great reward in working hard and working savvy, but the only true security is found in faith in God. The words of Job, who was the wealthiest man of his day, who lost his wealth, his health, and his family in a series of calamities, still ring true today: "Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return" (15:31).

So whether your company is definitively in the black or the red, whether your career is booming or languishing, all I can say is 'welcome to the wild side!'

murketing and the fine art of sincerity in marketing

"Fast Times" just released their top 10 business books for the year and Rob Walker's Buying In was second on the list.

Amazon's starred review says:

Brands are dead. Advertising no longer works. Weaned on TiVo, the Internet, and other emerging technologies, the short-attention-span generation has become immune to marketing. Consumers are “in control.” Or so we’re told.

In Buying In, New York Times Magazine “Consumed” columnist Rob Walker argues that this accepted wisdom misses a much more important and lasting cultural shift. As technology has created avenues for advertising anywhere and everywhere, people are embracing brands more than ever before–creating brands of their own and participating in marketing campaigns for their favorite brands in unprecedented ways. Increasingly, motivated consumers are pitching in to spread the gospel virally, whether by creating Internet video ads for Converse All Stars or becoming word-of-mouth “agents” touting products to friends and family on behalf of huge corporations. In the process, they–we–have begun to funnel cultural, political, and community activities through connections with brands.

Walker explores this changing cultural landscape–including a practice he calls “murketing,” blending the terms murky and marketing–by introducing us to the creative marketers, entrepreneurs, artists, and community organizers who have found a way to thrive within it. Using profiles of brands old and new, including Timberland, American Apparel, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Red Bull, iPod, and Livestrong, Walker demonstrates the ways in which buyers adopt products, not just as consumer choices, but as conscious expressions of their identities.

Part marketing primer, part work of cultural anthropology, Buying In reveals why now, more than ever, we are what we buy–and vice versa.

Halfway through and enjoying the book tremendously, I would simply argue that murketing is not a new concept but is as old as commerce itself. Anyone else ever been asked by someone if they can bring over a pizza only to discover that the real agenda was not breaking bread but a sales presentation? My personal experience with that exact scenario, probably atypical, was as bad an example of murketing as you'll ever witness.

But whether done online or as a door-to-door visit; whether done well (which probably means sincerely or with the appearance of sincerity) or poorly (you tricked me into thinking you cared about me but it sure appears that you only want to sell me something); whether the starting point is as a provider or purchaser of the goods or service; the blending of who we are with what we offer - murketing - is perhaps the most proven form of selling and marketing ever known.

A man known as the "greatest salesman in the world" (think of the Og Mandino classic by that same name) was also a great example of a murketer. St. Paul was nearly obsessed with defending his sincerity in sharing the gospel - to the point that he maintained his trade as a tent maker so that no one would accuse him of being a money grubber. A typical self-defining statement from Paul can be found in 2 Corinthians 4:2 (The Message):

We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don't twist God's Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.

The prevailing definitions of murketing in Buying In is "marketing that parades as non-marketing" - which sounds a lot more like something from Machiavelli's The Prince than Paul's letter to the Corinthians!

But no matter what direction you tackle the concept of murketing - a technique to be learned, a ploy to be wise to, an interesting study of the Internet and emerging sales behavior or a 'same old, same old' yawn - it's hard to refute the notion that the best selling in life comes from those who have most bought into that which is being sold.

That's why we like our personal trainers to be fit, our dessert chefs to be plump, and our preachers to be holy.

Now, about that pizza I was bringing over!

when less is more

The 2004 documentary, Super Size Me, followed producer and director Morgan Spurlock as he ate at the same fast food restaurant three times a day for 30 days. Every time he was asked if he would like to "supersize" a meal, he said yes. During that time he put on 24.5 pounds and reported mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and liver damage. I took him more than a year to lose the weight he put on.


Folks, Spurlock was a professional film producer, so do not try that stunt at home!

His exaggerated foray into the world of too much of the wrong kind of food is a great reminder that less really can qualitatively be more.

Just as less fat, sugar, and processed wheats often adds up to better health, there are countless other "lesses" that would help you experience significant "mores" in life.

Imagine a departure from partaking of too much escapist entertainment ... holding grudges and harboring resentments ... filling in too many blanks in the calendar ... overspending ... overeating ... gossiping too much.

Just think of how much more health and peace is available when you pursue a path that Robert Frost described as "less travelled"!

broke for the holidays

You might be broke for the holidays if ...

1. you think Ebeneazor Scrooge is a great role model

2. the cashier at Wal-Mart begins to laugh hysterically after you swipe a credit card that you thought might have a little credit left on it to pay for your purchase

3. you decide that friends and family members really would prefer a homemade present from you even though you've never made anything homemade in your life

4. you ignore the Salvation Army bell ringer and use your pocket change to play the lottery

5. you raid your closet to find unused gifts from last year that you can wrap as presents this year

6. you undercut prices of the kid down the street to grab market share in the snow shoveling business in your neighborhood

7. you show up at your rich cousin's house for Thanksgiving and stay through New Year's Day

8. you volunteer to help at a soup kitchen so you can take your spouse out for dinner

9. you go Christmas caroling in your neighborhood and carry a very large tip jar

10. you head downtown to look for beggars you can borrow money from

11. you decide on a fresh cut Christmas tree this year ... and it's the tree that used to be in your next door neighbor's backyard

12. you announce that hors d' oeuvres for the party at your house will be served in the food section at Sam's Club

Okay, being broke for the holidays really isn't funny and is certainly no laughing matter if you are the one impacted by it. On the other hand, everyone knows that Americans are too materialistic in general and put way too much emphasis on spending money to make the holidays jolly. We also suspect this is going to be a much leaner holiday season for millions.

So this might be the year a number of individuals and families change their priorities and spending habits for the Christmas season out of necessity - and find themselves richer for the experience. That same individual or family will hopefully be reminded of the importance of generosity and giving in future years when they have plenty because they'll remember what it feels like to be without and be much more aware of the needy around them.

Whether broke or rolling dough this year. just remember that the ho ho ho that springs from a generous always sounds better than bah humbug heard from a miserly heart!

So how do you plan to spend the holidays?

no more mr. weis guy?

No one wants to see someone lose their job. Though in the case of Charlie Weis, head football coach for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, I am almost willing to make an exception.

Now, before you think I'm an uncaring ogre, let me point out that if Charlie Weis were to be fired as Notre Dame's head football coach at the end of this season, he would get a buyout in the neighborhood of $15 to $20 million dollars. Another way of looking at that would be to say he just won the lottery. So he and his family would not go hungry.

I'm not alone in keeping an eye on this situation. There are several reasons this is a huge point of scrutiny and discussion right now - even by college football coaching standards, where serial hiring and firing comes with the territory. I'll hit the political reason last and start with how the Golden Domers are playing. On the field, over the last two seasons, after a successful 9-3 record in Weis's first season, Charlie's Notre Dame football team has -

*lost 13 of their last 21 games
*been shut out 3 times, including this past Saturday to Catholic rival, Boston College
*lost to Navy after 43 straight wins over the Naval Academy (think this Saturday's game in Baltimore is a big deal to Charlie?)
*had the first ever 9-loss season, which was the worst season in the 120-year history of the program
*scored 13 points in the first three games of last year
*accumulated a 1-15 record in their last 16 games against teams with a winning record

Even the leprechaun mascot looks shell shocked - and a little smaller. He traditionally does a push up for each point on the scoreboard every time Notre Dame scores. Not a real grueling workout for him these days and it shows. Can you blame alumni, fans, and even the priests for getting a little hot under the collar? (Yuk yuk.) After all, Notre Dame is the second winningest team in the history of college football with 829 wins and 42 ties in 1,139 games played.

The scoring woes of the Irish are amazing in light that they are coached by an "offensive genius" who boldly declared upon being hired to his first head coaching position that Notre Dame would have a strategic advantage over every team they played based on his tenure as offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. The Patriots have fared much better on offense than have the Irish since Charlie's move to South Bend.

The reason so many rival fans are rubbing their hands together in undisguised glee over Weis being on the hot seat is his record of perceived arrogance, which many feel has rivaled the arrogance of the fan base. (Yuk yuk yuk!)

Now to the politics. Off field, the reason this has become such a big deal is that an African American was elected president of the United States of America.

Huh? Obama is in charge of college football, too?

Nope but there's a connection. The man he replaced, Ty Willingham, is African American and many thought Notre Dame gave him the shaft when they suddenly dumped him with two years left on his contract, something the school had never done, not even in the tumultuous Gerry Faust era. Now the coach at University of Washington, Willingham is just one of just six African American head coaches in college football - a number that could very well be cut in half at season's end when he, Ron Prince at Kansas State, and Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State possibly get the axe and lose their jobs as expected.

What's brought on the renewed scrutiny is that Willingham was fired by the Golden Domers after three seasons with a 21-15 record. With three games to play in his third season, including an almost certain loss coming up against USC, Charlie Weis is 22-15. Since there is such little difference in their records, groups like the Black Coaches Association and fans and commentators of all colors are watching closely to see if the two men will be treated the same by Notre Dame's administration.

Even if their records are nearly identical it doesn't mean their situations are the same and I am loathe to interpret Notre Dame's action against Ty Willingham and possible inaction against Charlie Weis in racial terms, though on face value, the facts look more than a bit damning. One need not be self-consciously racist to behave in a racist manner.

But there are factors besides race, most notably simple economics, by which Weis could survive another season as head coach. Sure, Notre Dame with its own television network contract can afford to buy Weis out of his contract. But will they be willing to write that kind of check in the midst of a national financial crisis? That would generate a whole other set of questions. Stewardship by a Christian institution comes to mind.

Under coaches like Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy it became popular to talk about the Luck of the Irish. What we're about to discover in the next month in regard to the running of the Notre Dame football machine has much more to do with the Pluck of the Irish!

That leaves just one conclusion.

Go Navy!