Chris Fehnel only laughs at his own jokes

Everyone’s favorite video blogger, Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV was interviewed by TIME. Read the entire article here.

Although he took at a jab at me and my Eagles, I’m still super excited for him to be featured by such a prestigious name, although he should be used to now since he’s been featured by the Wall Street Journal and ABC.com.

It’s truly a very exciting time for the wine world, and a big part of that is because of the hard work of Mr. Vay-ner-chuk. Congrats.

I was recently privileged enough to be a “special guest” on ViddlerTV. Colin had me on to discuss how the company I work for, Next Step Systems, used it for one a housing symposium.

He also had some fun at my expense. Not cool, not cool at all.

Thanks to James Mathias, I can sorta say that I am an artist. Well, not really at all, but hey, I can dream. To be fair, I merely and mildly “inspired” one of his fine daily drawings.

It was quite an honor to be an “inspiration” for Mr. Mathias. However, I am hardly an inspiration. If you would like to read of for realz inspiration read Mr. Mathias’ tale of losing a third of himself. Now that’s what I call inspiring, and I wish him continued progress and success.

This morning I was listening to the Top Gun soundtrack in my head because I was in the freaking Danger Zone. The snooze danger zone that has seemed to be creeping up on me the last couple of days. Even though I’m waking up before my alarm even goes off, I’m still hitting the snooze button. And the last few days, it has become progressively worse until today was too close a call.

I made it to work with plenty of time, however, I didn’t have time to do all the things I would like to do. Read a little bit, and oh yeah, eat.

So to put a little fire to my feet I’m updating my rules for the Wake Up Late Challenge. There was a two part thought process of why I originally gave myself 3 lates. 1.) Because I thought I would at least be once the first week, if not more, and 2.) I wanted to give myself some leeway if I was late because of matters beyond my control.

Now if I’m late once (yes, you read correctly: once) I have to do a really annoying video of myself. However, I do reserve right and will ask your permission if I was late because of something that was blatantly out of my control. Being stuck behind a school bus when I only gave myself five extra minutes does not count as out of my control.

So there you have it. The cards are on the table. The stakes are set, and they are high.

After an entire week of being scared to death of doing an embarrassing video, I have not been late once. As a matter of fact, I haven’t been close to being late. And even more, I have been early by at least ten minutes, sometimes nearly 30, all days except one.

This is a huge deal for me, as anyone who knows me can probably attest. I’ve tried many things in my past and none have worked, especially consistently. Sleeping with one eye open to avoid doing something foolish that will be documented forever has done the trick so far.

Even better, I think I’m actually getting used to getting up early and on the first alarm. Rarely snooze for this guy lately. This morning, I actually woke up before my alarm. This Saturday, I woke up at 6 a.m. no problemo. Yes, on a Saturday.

This may have been more of a blessing than I thought at the outset. However, any one who knows me could also tell you it still may not last long, so keep the embarrassing suggestions going. If I go another week without waking up late, I might have to up the ante a bit.