Category: Beauty and the Geek

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Another anniversary?

Five years ago. A side room at Benchwarmer Bob’s, a local restaurant/sports bar. TVs in the upper corners of the room that were tuned into Channel 23, the WB. 7:00pm CST. The first time I’d ever heard the song Opportunities by the Pet Shop Boys and then my face appeared on national TV.

Unfortunately, there’ll never be a reunion show unless the producers take compromising photos of the participants and make us all show up or they’ll release the pictures to some national tabloids. (For the record, any story about my being Larry King’s most recent wife is totally bogus.)

But people have gone their separate ways since then. I talk to Bill on the phone once in a while, went to Mindi’s wedding this summer and that’s about it. Still, I’d like to think that everyone has succeeded in whatever we’ve been doing over the last five years. Especially if Richard is still working at that carpeting store.

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What is “batcave blogging”?

I was logging into the blog a couple minutes ago to write a quick entry about a Facebook group called “America is not U.S.A. America is a Continent.” It’s true, America doesn’t consist solely of The United States of America; it’s all of North and South America. North America + South America = TWO continents. But that’s beside the point at the moment.

The first thing I did was check out the spam filter because, well, there are usually some interesting (and sometimes amusing) messages posted by websites that think I need to work out more, need cheap mp3 files and need a bigger penis. They may be right, but that’s beside the point at the moment as well. This time, I found a comment written by an actual person with a valid opinion that should probably be addressed. (When you read it, you’ll understand why it got blocked by the spam filter.) Continue reading “What is “batcave blogging”?”

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Never say die!

If I remember correctly, February 2nd commemorates the 5th anniversary of me flying home to revel in my failure of being one of the four remaining Beauty and the Geek participants in the mansion. Okay, technically, there wasn’t much revelry—even if Scarlet and I had won the $250K, we wouldn’t be allowed to revel in our victory lest the producers take the money away and slap us with a big, nasty lawsuit. I wouldn’t think that going from victorious to penniless would inspire any festivities, but that’s just me.

The thing I’ll remember most about that day isn’t waking up in a hotel bed instead of my room in the mansion. It isn’t eating normal food instead of brand-name food with duct tape covering up the brand names. It isn’t even passing out on the airplane before the stewardess could tell me how to buckle my seat belt for the flight home. Nope, the thing I’ll remember most is getting off the plane. Continue reading “Never say die!”

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The Five-Year Plan

That’s how my grandmother suggests that we live our lives: decide where we want to be in five years, then work towards that point starting now.

On January 17th, 2005—five years ago—I left a hotel with six other guys, got into in a van, stopped at Denny’s for breakfast, drove around for what seemed like hours, then eventually strolled through the front door of a mansion and into the midst of the reality TV phenomenon known as “Beauty and the Geek”. (The show being a “phenomenon” may be debatable, but please don’t spoil my delusions for the moment.) It was awesome, frustrating, amazing, sometimes nauseating… it only lasted two weeks, but it changed my life in so many ways that if I’d had a five-year plan at that point, it would have been shot straight to hell.

I sent a “Happy Anniversary” message to some of my fellow… you know, I’ve never put much thought into it before, but what were we? Participants? Contestants? Cast members? Probably all of the above, but regardless, I sent a message to a handful of them and hope that they’ve got a couple happy memories to reflect on after so many years. The likelihood of us getting together for a little reunion is minuscule at best—people seem to have gone their separate ways—but if some TV channel shows a mini-marathon of Season 1 in June (the month when the show first aired), I’ll be happy. I’ll also probably feel awesome, frustrated, amazed and sometimes nauseated all over again, but at least this time I can write that stuff in the margins of my five-year plan.

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It’s been how long?!

I spent the last few days in Ohio at my 10th year college reunion, but before I could write anything about it, something occurred to me: on this date four years ago, Beauty and the Geek first hit the airwaves and turned me into an international superstar. Or at least put my face on TV—the “superstar” status is questionable at best.

Four years… wow. I feel like I should write more, but that pretty much sums up my feelings at the moment. Wow.

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What are the three things you look for?

I’m not sure why this popped back into my head earlier today, but I was thinking back to Beauty and the Geek when everyone was sitting around the hot tub talking about three things we look for in a boy/girlfriend. (Preferably one or the other and not a transsexual.) On TV, the girls were saying “trustworthy” and “spontaneous” over and over again, but didn’t show the guys’ answers. When it was my turn, here’s what I had to say: Continue reading “What are the three things you look for?”