How The Secret Brought Me $100,000

“The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” - Job 1: 21

The following is a true story.

Rhonda Byrne’s book, The Secret/em>, has hovered at or near the top of the New York Times Best Seller list for 65 weeks. I must admit I was a little late joining the party. But a cultural phenomenon like The Secret can’t be ignored by someone who claims to be up on pop culture. I bought the book at Target (keeper of all of life’s great mysteries) and enjoyed the read. I even watched The Secret Movie.

The premise of The Secret lies within the “Law of Attraction.”

• Ask: Know what you want and ask the universe for it.
• Believe: Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way.
• Receive: Be open to receiving it.

I wholeheartedly believe in the Law of Attraction. But it’s not exactly groundbreaking stuff. In Matthew 7:7, the Bible reads “Ask, and it shall be given you; Seek, and ye shall find; Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Sounds familiar, right?

One particular passage of The Secret caught my eye. In the chapter "The Secret to Money", David Schirmer told the story of visualizing checks coming in the mail instead of bills: "I just visualized checks coming in the mail... today I just get checks in the mail." Byrnes goes on to add, "we have received hundreds and hundreds of letters from people who have said that since watching the film they have received unexpected checks in the mail."

Huh?

I decided to give it a try. As Q1 drew to a close, I needed quite a bit of money to meet my financial goal for the quarter. I knew it was possible, but I wasn’t sure where the money would come from. I went to The Secret website, printed out their "Bank of the Universe" blank check (to help me visualize the money coming in), and filled it out. I posted it on my refrigerator so I would be reminded every day that it was coming. Then I waited...

Let me be clear about this. I fully believed that I would receive this money. As the month passed by, I never doubted.
Sure enough, the money came. I opened my mail to find an unexpected check in the amount of... $108,559.00!

The Secret delivered... Big-time.

But why did I get this check? And what was it for? Certainly my bank wasn’t about to cash a check in this amount without some investigation.

I called up the organization who sent the check and left a voicemail inquiring about the purpose of the payment. I never mentioned the amount, just the invoice number. I posted the new check on my refrigerator in front of The Secret check. I wondered what I would do with the money.
After a few weeks, the phone call finally came. It turns out the check should have been for $25.00, and it was a monumental clerical error. The lady was gracious that I hadn’t cashed the check, and asked me to return it so she would not get in further trouble. I gladly obliged.

The end of quarter came. I did not meet my goal.

Is that the end of the story? I don’t think so. I still believe the money is coming. Maybe someone will read this story and be inspired to prove The Secret correct.

Just in case, my mailing address is...

"Don't stop believing" - Journey

Saturday Night Live Backstage News from Writer Bryan Tucker

Saturday Night Live returned to the airwaves this week after three long months. Third-year writer Bryan Tucker gives us his thoughts on the show and what to expect this season...
It was great to see Saturday Night Live back on the air. What was the mood like during the first week back?
The atmosphere on Saturday was fun - lots of media were there. I think there was a lot of buzz because it was the first show after the strike and people were eager to see who was going to play Barack Obama.
The press made it sound like there was almost an open casting call for a Barack Obama impersonator. Was that the case? At what point was the call made to go with Fred Armisen?
They made the decision that Fred would do it after holding auditions for new cast members and nothing working out. They told Fred on Tuesday night, and he had only a couple days to try and make something work. I think if you take the race part out of it, it's pretty amazing how much he looks like Barack with the right makeup on.
You’re a big fan of Steve Martin’s book “Born Standing Up”. Did you get a chance to talk about the book with him?
I got to say "hi" to Steve, but that was about it. I didn't get to really have a conversation with him.
For those familiar with your writing, “What’s that Bitch Talking About” was clearly written by you. Congratulations on getting a sketch on in the first 30 minutes. What can you tell us about the sketch, and was the competition for airtime particularly strong this week?
"What's That Bitch Talking About?" went fine, but I wouldn't put it at the top of my resume. It did well at the big table read on Wednesday, and Tina told me that she really liked it, so I knew it had a good shot of being in the show. There were lots of sketches written by Tina, Seth Meyers and 30 year veteran Jim Downey, so a writer with ordinary status didn't have a great shot of getting stuff on this week. But that sketch had a different vibe, and managed to break through, which was gratifying.
The show got its highest rating in 2 years, which was nice to see. And I hope it continues because NBC has agreed to do a full eight shows through May if we have good ratings and meet our budget, and they're only going to do six if we don't. I get paid per show, so two more shows means a lot more money for me.
At last week’s UNC Comedy Festival, The Daily Show producer Rory Albanese mentioned they were recruiting you to help write jokes for Jon Stewart’s Oscar performance. Did you have time this week to help out, and what can you tell us about your contributions?
Yes, I got hired to write jokes for the Oscars. They only had a week to prepare, so Jon Stewart got all of his Daily Show writers to work on the show, and he also enlisted the help of three or four outside writers who would just send jokes in. I was one of those guys. I sent them a few pages of jokes on Tuesday. I worked hard on them and thought I did a good job, but none of them made it on. I wasn't disappointed, and any joke getting on would've been a nice surprise. It's very tough to get through when you're not there and part the inner circle, and you need to write a joke that's either incredibly original and funny or tackles a subject matter that haven't covered by want to. It's okay. At least I can put "Oscar writer" on my resume.
What can we look forward to in future SNL episodes?
SNL has four episodes in a row, and the next one is with Ellen Page from Juno, who couldn't come in today because she needed a day to recover after the Oscars. Then Amy Adams from "Enchanted", then Jonah Hill from "Superbad." After that it's open, then the last three weeks are Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, and Steve Carrell.
We'll try to get more news from Bryan in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to this blog feed and add Bryan's MySpace page for "Selected Hilarity" to your friends!

The Wire - HBO Season 5 Review

For years I’ve read how HBO’s The Wire is the best show on television. Last year I began watching with Season 4, and I have to concur. Season 4 of The Wire is easily one of the greatest achievements in television or film ever.

Using Baltimore as a backdrop, The Wire reveals an ugly side of America that few of us ever see - or care to see. Although not filmed in documentary style, the show is so well written, produced, and edited that it seems as if you are peering in on the lives of very real people.

Here’s the catch – it’s not easy to watch. After nearly every episode I have to consult the HBO website, discussion boards, and Google just to figure out all of the characters and their relationships. Never has a show been so challenging... or rewarding. I encourage you to seek it out Season 4 on DVD and make the commitment to see it through.

• The Wire - The Complete Fourth Season


• The Wire - Seasons 1-4

Season 5 begins with the disbanding of the major crimes unit investigating West-Side Baltimore drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield. After a year, the unit still has no evidence and no witnesses to the murders perpetrated by Stanfield. That is, until Episode 2.

Episode 2 of season 5 ended so dramatically – with the alcohol-induced breakdown of Detective McNulty, that no one seemed to notice there may be a new witness in police custody. When Snoop and Chris gunned down Junebug at home for disrespecting Marlo, Michael had strict orders to drop anyone who came out the back door. But Michael, showing that perhaps he is not cut out for this game, let a young kid flee the scene.

Did the child see Snoop and Chris? Could he identify them in a police lineup? Will Marlo be brought to justice before the series finale?

Like any great work of art, you can read a lot into the details. Many saw episode 2 as a grave foreshadowing of things to come. Me? I saw a glimmer of hope. Perhaps there will be a new day in Baltimore after all.

Steven Morris Dating Video: The Truth Behind the Casanova Video Dating Service Blooper

Steven Morris Dating Video. Where Is He Now?

The dating video of Steven Morris from "Casanova Dating Service" is now viral again via Gym Fail Nation on Facebook captioned "Friends: Getting married, having babies. Me:" Watch the video and read all about its origins below.



Original post:
The viral video sensation known as "Frustrated Video Dater Loses His Cool," "Crazed Video Dater," or "Dating Video Losers" has swept across the Net.

There is surprisingly a lot of debate on the Net about whether this video is "real" or "fake." That ambiguity and ensuing debate has certainly fueled the video's popularity.

The video originated from a homemade TV "pilot" shot in 1995 by Selected Hilarity Comedy Group, which consisted of four friends and me from the University of North Carolina. We were at the height of our popularity, touring cross-country literally as much as we wanted to. We had a lot of interest in production companies in NY and LA, and our agent thought it would be a good if we self-produced a sketch comedy show pilot to shop around (the soundness of that idea is certainly debatable).

Our idea was a show that would follow us around the country on tour. Each week would be from a different town on the road, and the show would combine "reality" style segments on the street, clips from the live performances, and pre-taped sketches. Keep in mind that in 1995 this concept was pretty far ahead of its time. I'm not sure our pilot approached that concept, but that was the idea.

Scott came up with the idea for the "frustrated video dater" sketch and stars in the sketch. I'm not sure where he got the inspiration, but hopefully he will share that in the comments section. We recorded the faux blooper from the "Casanova Dating Service" at the Student Television studio on the campus of UNC. The grainy film effect was added using the state-of-the art Commodore Amiga 2000 Video Toaster.

I have no idea what our agent did with the pilot. We premiered two 30-minute episodes of "The Selected Hilarity Show" to a very enthusiastic crowd of about 200 at UNC. Other than that, I'm not sure if anyone ever saw any of these sketches. We went our separate ways less than two years later and the pilot has remained in my attic ever since. It was always my intention to eventually do something with the video. It just took me 10 years to get around to it.

This Spring I finally started converting all of my VHS tapes to DVD. I couldn't find an original copy of the pilot, so what you see on the Net is a 12-year-old bad copy of a VHS tape from my attic transferred to DVD to AVI to MPG to FLV. That also explains how we made the footage look so "old."

Besides the "frustrated video dater" sketch, two other sketches from the show "Momo the Sign Language Gorilla" and "The Floor" experience popularity after both were featured on the homepage of MySpace.

We're glad everyone enjoys the videos. It's satisfying to have help create comedy that stands the test of time. Be sure to check out sketches from The Selected Hilarity Show on YouTube.

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