The Victory Garden (?), April 25

Well, we're a week past the first round of planting, and, despite my best efforts, it looks like things are growing, other than rocks and weeds! We get a good amount of wind between the houses, so I planted the seeds a bit lower than usual in an effort to keep the seeds in the ground. I was afraid that I had planted them too deeply, because nothing germinated in the first 6 days (I'm impatient). We got a lot of continuous rain for several days, starting the evening I planted everything, so I was also worried a bit about the seeds rotting.

Things are looking good. The radishes have germinated and are showing me just how un-straight my row is. The lettuce and spinach are a bit spotty, but this is expected, as the planting depth is a little more varied, but they are pushing through. I fully expected the onions to pop up within 3-4 days, but I'm using a different variety this year for the first time, and it might take a bit longer. I examined the soil and found the vast majority are growing...they're right at the top of the soil and starting to push through. The only thing that hasn't popped through yet is the cabbage.

No picture this week and no planting...I had hoped to get another row of spinach/lettuce out, but it can wait a couple more days.

Who DOESN’T Want to Be a Millionaire, Part 3 (How to Shave 10 Years Off of your Life)

 
 

We knew that if the cell phone rang, it was going to be someone from the show (that or a wrong number), because nobody else had the number.  About an hour and a half after I finished the round, the cell phone rang!!!!  After a momentary breathing stoppage and a vault from my chair through the ceiling, I answered it...NOBODY WAS THERE!!!!!  In fact, the weirdest thing happened...my in-laws' answering machine started playing on the other end.  I nearly panicked, thinking that I had somehow programmed the cell-phone to forward all calls to my in-laws' number (of course, I didn't bring the manual for the phone to change it).  I immediately started kicking myself, thinking that I had blown it.

Sheri, who was asleep when the phone rang, sat up, questioning the stunned look on my face as I frantically decided what to do.  I was especially stunned because they said that they would call one time.  I hung up, told Sheri what had happened, and said a silent prayer for them to call back.

 
 

 

 

 

RING.

 
 

 

 

 

I think I broke the record for answering a phone when it rang again.  I managed to mutter a "hello?" into the phone, fully expecting "Hi, you have reached the Miller residence.  We can't come to the phone right now..."  Alas!  There was a human voice on the other end asking for me.  He identified himself as a producer from 'Millionaire' and immediately asked if I was close to a land line.  I gave him the hotel and room number, hung up, looked at Sheri, and, as though nothing had happened, said, "It's Millionaire."

I cannot tell you what Sheri said after that.

After approximately 14,000 questions on qualifications, the joyful words "Congratulations!  You are now a finalist for 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' were finally heard. The same 14,000 questions were asked to Sheri, as she was to be my companion for the trip.

 

After about 45 minutes of talking with the producer, I called my parents.  My mother was not home.  I called my father's house and broke the news.  My step-mother let out a little scream and told my sisters, who had just gotten home from school.  The next thing I heard in the background was Casey, my youngest sister (in 8th grade), saying "NO WAY!"  This was shortly followed by my middle sister (Jamie...a sophomore in high school) asking if I could take her to New York.  She promised to wear her cheerleading outfit and root for me on the side during the fastest finger questions.

We then called Sheri's folks, who also were not home.  Sheri left a message to have them give us a call (emphasizing that it was NOT an emergency and that everything was okay).

Since the tape date was in the middle of the following week, I needed to start planning on getting my classes covered.  The tape date was going to be squeezed in to an already packed schedule.  We were to get back from Orlando on the 18th., leave for New York on the 20th., return on the 22nd., and close on our new house and move on the 23rd.

I called Illinois State University and talked to them for a good half hour.  I started with the Department of Economics, who let me know what all needed to be done for my job.  I then had them transfer me to the Graduate School, where I left a message with Pat Schnitker, advisor for the Graduate Student Association and friend.  I was then forwarded to the President's office to let Vic Boschini, ISU President, know that he was going to get a little free publicity on national television.  He was out of town, but I talked with his secretary and asked her to forward me to the Provost's phone so I could ask him to be a phone-a-friend.  He was not there, so I asked his secretary to forward me to media relations to give them a heads-up in case anyone contacted them about it.  Jay Groves, media relations director was not in, so I left a message and then FINALLY ended one hell of an intense phone call.

About fifteen minutes later, Pat calls back from the graduate school, screaming with delight.  She let the entire office know, and everyone else was screaming in the background.  I got off the phone with her, and the phone immediately rang again...it was Jay Groves this time.  Jay congratulated me and asked if I wanted him to do anything.  I simply asked him what should and what should not be said about ISU.  His reply was to simply enjoy it and mention whatever I wanted about the University.  We both agreed that something with the ISU logo would be good, but the ABC rules forbade anything copyrighted to be worn.

I think Jay smelled publicity for the school as soon as he heard my message.  He called back about twenty minutes later and mentioned that WJBC, the AM radio station for central Illinois, was going to call soon, followed by The Pantagraph, the local paper.  Within 20 minutes, I found myself on the air with WJBC. What seemed like seconds after I hung up with them, the phone rings again, and I answered questions for the reporter from The Pantagraph. Afterwards, we talked to Sheri's parents, who immediately called back, despite our efforts to reassure them that nothing was wrong. We also got a call from my father, who had just gotten home from work and had heard the news.

After over two hours of insane phone conversations, we both decided to skip the fireworks at EPCOT and head down to the hotel bar for a couple of MUCH-needed drinks.  We came back and tried to fall asleep, but the phone rang one more time that night:

Me: Hello?

Mom: Hi Honey. I got your message that you called.

Me: Yeah...I've got some good news that you probably aren't going to believe.

Mom: Is Sheri Pregnant?!!!!!

 

(Me: dumbfounded pause…didn't even think about that, with all the messages)

Me: No...not that good news.

Mom: Oh. Then what is it?

Me: All I will say is 'is that your final answer?'

Mom: Huh?  What the Hell is that supposed to mean?

Me: Do you watch tv much?

Mom: Yeah.

Me: Is that your final answer?!!!

Mom: I don't get it.

Me: Have you ever heard that before?

Mom: Yes.

Me: Where?

Mom: On that one show...<pauses> "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'.

Me: Yyyeeeeesssssssssss?

Mom:  <dead silence for a good ten seconds, then>  YOU'RE GOING TO BE ON WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE??!!!!!!

Me: Yyyeeeeesssssssssss!

Mom: OHMYGODICAN'TBELIEVEITI'M-SOPROUDOFYOUIKNEWYOUCOULDDOIT...

 

She always wanted me to try out for Jeopardy, but I never did. We talk for a bit longer and then hang up, as she had about 400 calls to make to tell everyone she knew. I think she randomly called a few strangers too and told them.

 

The next several days in the Disney parks were a complete blur. I was so stressed with everything going on that I missed nearly everything in the parks. I remember being in MGM a couple of days later, and we ate at the ABC Commissary. They were heavily promoting the new Millionaire attraction that was to be opening soon. The cast member working the register asked if I watched the show, and I just busted up laughing. When I explained it to her what was so funny, I don't think she believed us. These 2 teenage girls behind us, however, were floored and spent the entire meal sitting 3 tables away and staring at us, smiling the entire time. I had my own set of groupies for all of 15 minutes. As they got up to leave, they stopped and asked us about getting on the show, when it was going to be on, etc. After a final "good luck!", they headed out, leaving us with about 4 other tables nearby now staring at us.

 

We took an earlier flight home and flew standby for an earlier connecting flight…it was a good thing as Detroit was getting quite a bit of snow and was scheduled to get more around the time our actual connection was to leave. When we got back home, we had fourteen phone messages in three days (we don't get that many in 2 months) as well as nearly 250 e-mails.  Several friends and family dropped off copies of the article from the paper.  We didn't have time to do much, though, because we had to pack both the house for the move as well as ourselves for the trip to New York.  Luckily we had one business day to prepare, because I had to get my phone-a-friends ready!!

 
 

Who DOESN’T Want to Be a Millionaire? (Part 2: Did He Make It?)

The semi-final round is similar in format to the first round - but there would be five questions instead of three.  I was given a specific fifteen-minute window to call in on March 14th in order to take the semi-final round of questions.  I immediately discovered that this round was going to be interesting because it was to occur while we were going to be on vacation down in Orlando...probably while we would be screaming on an attraction at Disney World (more likely, while we were looking at a map and wondering what to do next…it was our very first trip down there).  We decided to take our cell-phone, which had never been used for incoming calls (we actually had to look at old phone bills to figure out what the phone number was) in case we were at a park or in traffic when the call-in window arrived.

I had to look like a fool at Disney World, because my pockets were absolutely bulging with things.  A quick inventory of my pockets included:

• Wallet.
  
• Cell Phone
  
• Palm Pilot -had phone number and PIN information
  
• keys
  
• maps
  
• bottled water
  
• camera
  

We even bought a fanny pack to hold some of this, but I would have looked like even more of a fool wearing that!

As luck would have it, we were both exhausted from the flight down there, the previous day at the Magic Kingdom, and the morning at EPCOT.  We decided to head back to the hotel where Sheri could rest and I could take the test without worrying about losing the signal on the cell phone.  The time came, and I started the test.  There is another slight difference in this round from the first round - in the first round, if you missed a question, you were told so, and the round stopped; in the semi-final round, it let you answer all five questions without telling you whether you got it right or not.

I answered the questions as best as I could...I was very confident I nailed four of the five, and I made an educated guess on the last question (I knew the order of three of the selections, and did my best on where to put the fourth one in the order).  They wanted a phone number that I could be contacted at over the next four hours in case I made the final "on-air" round.  Not knowing if we would head back to EPCOT or not, I gave them the cell-phone number.

And the waiting began...

Who DOESN’T Want to Be a Millionaire?!! (Part 1: Initial Qualifying)

We're going to take a short break from the Disney discussion. For those who want more WDW, don't worry, I promise there's tons more coming!



Okay...first, let me put this disclaimer in that I am living proof that ANYTHING can happen!!! Every 5-6 months, I'll get a bunch of e-mails/phone calls or, more recently, messages via Facebook from people saying that they just saw me on TV. I immediately groan and think to myself, "Here we go again!" Every semester, the cat is somehow let out of the bag by someone in the class, and they beg me to bring in a copy of what happened long ago, one calm April night in 2001. You've never experienced embarrassment until you project yourself into a lecture hall, where the image is over 20 feet tall…your nose hairs look like part favors at that size!

Many people have yet to see my experience on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and have asked me to share what it was like. Here's the first installment of WWTBAM…

I have always been a trivia buff, and my mother has always tried to get me to try out for a game show to see what I can do. I always figured I'd try when I was middle-aged and probably end up on something like 'Win Ben Stein's Money.'

When 'Millionaire' first hit the airwaves, I fell in love with it and tried calling in a few times to qualify. For those who do not know the procedure back then, it involved answering a series of three questions similar to the "fastest finger" format. The questions became increasingly difficult as you progressed through them. I could never get that last question right. After about 5 days of trying, I gave up, content to watch the show and scream at the television when the contestants were having trouble (admit it, you do the same thing!).

School, work, and other commitments took over, and I was unable to watch the show much until the spring semester of 2001, when I had a couple nights off from class each week. The jackpot then was growing to nearly $2 million dollars, so I figured that I'd try to call in again just for fun. On my second day of calling, the magic hit...I finally got past the third question (a literary question, and I got it right!). I picked my choice of tape dates and a phone number to contact me in case I was randomly picked to make it to the next round. Apparently, around 2 million people call in every night to qualify, and approximately 50,000 people get all three questions right and pick a particular tape date per day...each day, the computer randomly picks 40 people to advance to the next round. Each tape date is available for 5 days, do, doing the math we get this: I had basically won the lottery in having the computer select me. Out of millions of people, I was now 1 of only 200 people vying for a shot to be on the show.

I jokingly told my wife I'd stay home from a home interior party "just in case Millionaire calls", not thinking I'd hear from the show. The phone rang, and someone claiming to be from 'Millionaire' hit me with a barrage of qualifying questions. I at first thought it was Sheri (my wife) and her friends joking around with me...until they started asking the questions. When Sheri got home from her party, she (as you could imagine) thought I was full of it when I showed her the information. I had made the semi-final round!!!!!

The next installment will chronicle the longest hour or so of my life…

Disney Podcasts 101 for Idiots

My students have always looked at me oddly, as I'm too old to be considered their peers but younger than their average professor. When they see me with the earbuds in and sauntering into the classroom before boring them to tears with economics lectures that they will soon forget, they jokingly like to play "what's on Mush's iPod", where they try to guess what I'm listening to.

Despite the fact that I've got a wide selection of music on the 16G Nano (5th generation, for those geeks who were about to ask), they've never correctly guessed what it is I'm currently listening to. Why? Because 80% of the time, I'm not listening to music; rather, it's a good ole podcast blasting in my ears and causing irreparable harm to my long-term hearing ability. My students' next question is always "which ones do you listen to?" Their reaction is always the same mix of "really?" and "I'm sorry I asked" when I tell them that most of them are Disney-related.

One of my alter egos had me as a moderator for a now-extinct Disney World BBS (Lodgeboards...LOVED that site), and I provided updates about Disney World to the masses (okay, it wasn't a large board, but large boards don't necessarily equate to better boards). The best way that I find information is to check out websites, listen to podcasts, and (just recently) receive tweets from Twitter (I'm cemushr over there if you want to follow me!). Occasionally, I'll be asked what podcasts I listen to. Because of this (for the 10 or so readers of this blog), I figured I'd give you some of the ones I frequent in case you might be interested in subscribing to them (yes, all are available via iTunes). I'm also (slowly) working on adding other podcasts and providing a short synopsis of each one so that you can be better-informed. While I may say a certain podcast is the "Best…", there are not any actual awards to be handed out (I'm not tenured, and I've got kids), nor am I slighting any who may not be listed (it's mostly because I probably haven't found 75% of the Disney-related podcasts out there).

Note that this list will be edited as more podcasts are discovered! The level of detail should not be used as an indication of how "good" a podcast is…it's more an indication of how well I know the podcast more than anything. If a podcaster would like to have their cast added (and I haven't found you yet), just let me know via a comment, and I'll add you in!

Soooooooooooo…without further ado, here we go!

TRIP PLANNING & REPORT PODCASTS
This section is where many people get introduced to podcasting...they're planning a trip for the first time and want to get as much information as possible.

• Be Our Guest is a podcast that has trip-planning episodes twice a week. Mondays include trip reports from listeners in audio format, and Fridays usually revolve around a panel discussion on the Walt Disney World experience. Episodes are hosted by Mike, Rikki, Pam, and Debbie and average around 30-40 minutes.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• If you're looking for the Keys to the Kingdom, then head on over to the Keys to the Kingdom podcast. Kingdom Trips travel agents Mary and Jason True, along with co-host Karin Worth, release a couple of shows every month with trip planning advice for all things Disney-related (including DVC, DCL, WDW, Disneyland, and more). As Jason is outnumbered, he is often humorously on the defensive in most shows!