A few years ago, I drove to Forbidden Drive in Fairmount Park – one of the jewels of the city of Philadelphia – to go for a run. I was in a bit of a hurry since my wife and I had plans later in the day, so rather than find a secure place for my car key fob, I stuck it in the unzipped hip pocket of my shorts, like an idiot. (note from Scott: Nah, this would be too easy. I’ll let it go.)

Reader, you will not be surprised to hear that that was a bad idea.

At some point during my 5-mile run, the fob bounced out of my pocket, never to be seen again, despite my best efforts to hunt for it. Not only was I tired from my run, not only was I even more tired from retracing my steps during my search, not only was I way behind schedule, but now I also had to call my wife and ask her to pick me up. And then I had to explain to her why she had to come pick me up.

Reader, you will not be surprised to hear that she was not impressed.

Here at CMEpalooza, we care about your educational needs. We care about your health. And we care about your keys bouncing out of your pockets. That’s why the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge is the perfect event. There’s no need to run and risk losing your keys, annoying your spouse/partner and missing your dinner reservation. Walking is totally fine*. You can walk fast (be careful!), or you can walk slow. It doesn’t matter, and we don’t care!

*Running is also fine but the owners of CMEpalooza cannot be held responsible for any keys, wallets, or phones that may be lost while participating in the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge.

Today is the start of the fifth CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge. Here are all the details you need to know.

• The challenge begins today (October 7) and will go until the end of the day on Sunday, October 13
• The challenge is to record at least 10,000 steps in one day. For each day during the challenge period that you record 10,000 steps, please send in a screenshot of your step-counting device with the number of recorded steps, either by email (thecmeguy@gmail.com) or text (267-666-0CME [0263]). Please include the following information:
  • Screenshot of number of steps
  • Date of steps
  • Name
  • Email
  • Physical mailing address (we need this to send you merch)
• For each day you achieve 10,000 steps and send in a screenshot, you will be entered into a random drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card (there are five gift cards; you cannot win more than one.) Winners will be drawn during the week of CMEpalooza Fall. You can send in each day individually or you can send them all in at once at the end. It doesn’t matter to me.
• The person who records and submits the most steps in one day wins a $250 Amazon gift card
• Everyone who enters even one day will receive some free CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge merch from Talem Health. We’re still finalizing what it will be, but it’s usually good stuff (but sadly, not likely a keychain for your car keys or key fob).

Thanks everyone and good luck!

CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge sponsored by:

Take a moment to check your work calendar. You see that 30-minute gap between 2 and 230 pm tomorrow? Go ahead and schedule a new appointment. Call it, I dunno, maybe something like “CMEpalooza Sponsor Research: $$$$$” and make sure that your co-workers all know not to bother you. If you haven’t found the time to fill out your entry for our special CMEpalooza Electoral College sponsor event, now you have something on your calendar. And, as we know, you are a slave to your calendar. Plus, you like winning money.

That’s right — only a few more hours until the polls close and the CMEpalooza Electoral College is finished. You have until 11:59 pm on Friday evening to submit your entry. All of the information you need to play can be found here.

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Contrary to a lot of Americans, the Electoral College is one of my favorite things about the U.S. political system. It’s mostly illogical, usually confusing, and always controversial. Just like CMEpalooza!

To fully embrace the Electoral College, and, well, because everything these days is about politics, our special CMEpalooza sponsor event puts our own little spin on state delegates. Being the creative bunch that we are, we even gave our event a catchy title — “CMEpalooza Electoral College.” Our marketing team is clearly underpaid.

But unlike the political Electoral College, the CMEpalooza Electoral College isn’t illogical, shouldn’t be very confusing, and is controversy free. Best of all, there is a pot of gold at the end that will actually go to a handful of “voters” instead of being stuffed into the gilded pockets of the political candidates.

Here is how the CMEpalooza Electoral College works:

1. Click here to download our game packet (you can get a Word version by clicking here). This will give you all of the clues and an entry form to download.
2. We have a lot of sponsors this Fall (37!!), which means there are a lot of politically-themed clues — don’t worry, there is nothing that will get you into an emotional lather. Our sponsors have been sorted geographically by their headquarters (we did the best we could with what we could find online). Some companies have been grouped by state, some by region, and some by the “no one else is close to them or they are international so it’s just a miscellaneous category.” You’ll need to answer 1-2 clues in each category to create a successful entry.
3. You can find all of the information to answer each question by going to our Sponsor tab, where there are links and descriptions about all of our sponsors. You can find the answer to every question on each sponsor’s website. Generally, the answers are no more than one click off each sponsor’s homepage (and often on the homepage itself).
4. You can use the answer sheet located in the downloaded forms to complete your responses. You may submit up to three entries, but for each entry you must answer clues about different sponsors (so if you answer questions about the first two “Mid-Atlantic” companies in entry 1, you’ll need to choose different companies for entry 2, etc.).
5. Within each entry, you must get every answer correct to qualify for our prize drawing. If I’m in a less curmudgeonly mood than usual, maybe I’ll let you get one wrong. We’ll see.
6. In the spirit of trying something new, for anyone who is really bored at work this week or simply loves CMEpalooza’s sponsors, you can go for the whole electoral map and submit a form with answers to all 37 sponsor questions (this is on top of the usual three entries). Get them all right, and you earn five additional entries into our prize drawing. Get one or more wrong, and, well, probably not. I doubt anyone will actually try for this, but I thought I’d throw it out there.
7. Completed answer forms can be sent to me at scott@excaliburmeded.com. Make sure to include your name and political affiliation in your email so that when we announce that you’ve won, everyone knows where you stand on the issues. I’m only kidding, it’s your name and professional affiliation (ie, where you work) that we want. Please don’t tell me your political leanings – that would only get us both in trouble.

We’ll have five prize winners who will each receive a $100 Amazon gift card. As a special CMEpalooza 10th anniversary bonus, we’ll also have a $250 prize for the organization that has the most successful entries. This is a fairly low bar (I think the winning organization in the Spring had 4 people who entered) so it won’t take a lot of rallying your co-workers to earn yourself funds to throw a staff pizza party on the day of CMEpalooza Fall (Wednesday, October 16).

Entries will be accepted until the polls close at midnight ET on Friday, October 4, so get cracking!