Life can be pretty entertaining, and sometimes it doesn’t take me ten pages to talk about it. Here are a few of the things that have piqued my interest in recent days. They’re all worthy of a longer article, but sometimes it is better to be brief.

Me, I Want a Hoola Hoop

This is a very funny video that I saw a long time ago but which keeps coming to mind. I think it is the universe’s way of telling me that I need to share it with my people. Please don’t go another day without watching this video:

Ryan Carson’s 32-Hour Workweek

During my search for a modern-day Henry Ford, a hero of industry who had the courage to take a risk and change society’s opinion on how long a person ought to work each week, I stumbled across Ryan Carson, the CEO of Treehouse Island, Inc. As I mentioned in my previous article, The Atlantic did a short documentary on Carson titled The Case for the 32-Hour Workweek. I thought I’d embed it here for you to watch it:

You might notice that Carson approaches the problem from the humanitarian angle — people need time with their families — rather than Ford’s cold hard facts of industry angle. If Ford is truly the prophet some people have made him out to be, this might be why Carson had to go back on his promise of a 32-hour workweek in August of 2015. I’m not here to judge. I just thought this video was a quality source of food for thought.

Heads Up, Thumbs Up

My friend Nick recently introduced me to an app for both Android and Apple phones called Heads Up, which I have been known to describe as “like going in the bathroom and doing coke with your friends” despite having never experienced the latter. I watch a lot of TV, OK? When I first introduced this app to my wife, she was unimpressed, but at a friend’s party after a couple of refreshments my lady begged me to pull it out. The game works a lot like the communication boosting game where everyone puts a card on your head and without mentioning the actual word on the card the people who can see its text must get you to guess it. With Heads Up, you pick a category and place your phone on your forehead. You have a limited time to get as many correct answers as possible. If you guess correctly you tip your phone down and if you pass or someone accidentally says the word you tip your phone up. This game gets really loud at a party with adult beverages. I remember a particular round where we were supposed to describe the film Father of the Bride to my wife. Normally, I am fairly good at communicating to my wife, but as soon as I saw the title of the movie I started saying things like, “Have fun storming the castle,” and “Cary Elwes,” which are clearly fantastic clues… if you’re describing The Princess Bride. The funny, somewhat existential, part for me was that everyone was screaming so loud that nobody noticed my error (though when I recounted the story to my wife, she did admit she thought she remembered hearing me say, “Anybody want a peanut?”). The app was created by Ellen Degeneres, costs 99 cents, and comes with a feature that makes everything more fun, especially if you don’t tell anyone about it prior to playing. I have only paid for three apps during my entire time owning a smart phone, $4.99 for Comic Zeal, which allows me to read digital comics on my iPhone, $2.99 for Civilization Revolution, a fantastic game worth playing over and over again, and now $0.99 for Heads Up. If it’s good enough to be in this anti-consumer Dutch boy’s pantheon of purchases, it’s almost certainly good enough for you too.