Back in the days before cellphones were less ubiquitous in our everyday lives and a smartwatch meant one of those sweet Casio calculator watches (side note: in elementary school, my friend Jerry got a Pac-Man watch for his birthday, one that you could actually play Pac-Man on, and I thought it was the greatest thing ever invented. How could you ever be bored again with a Pac-Man game right on your wrist??), I dropped an old school pedometer in my active 8-year-old’s pants pocket to see how many steps he would record in a normal school day. When he came home, I took it out to see how he did.

30,000. He took 30,000 steps between leaving for school in the morning and returning home around 3:30 pm. He might have broken the pedometer if I had left it in his pocket for the rest of the day.

Fortunately, child labor laws demand that 8-year-olds attend school rather than seek employment with any CME/CE companies, thus rendering them ineligible for the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge and giving the rest of us a chance to win.

What is the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge you ask? Allow me to elaborate.

• The challenge begins today (April 3) and will go until the end of the day on Sunday (April 9)
• The challenge is to record at least 10,000 steps a 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
  • Name
  • Email
  • Physical mailing address
  • T-shirt size (please remember to include this!)
• Each screenshot submitted is an entry 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 Spring.
• The person who records and submits the most steps in one day wins a $250 Amazon gift card
• Everyone who enters will receive a CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge performance T-shirt from Talem Health. They’re pretty great, see?
  
• In lieu of an entrance fee, we are asking everyone to please consider joining CMEpalooza and Talem Health in making a donation to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The recommended amount is $25, or whatever you are comfortable giving. Please follow this link to make a donation.

Thanks everyone and good luck!

CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge sponsored by:

Psst. Hey you. Yeah, you, the one with the crumbs from your Cherry Pop-Tart on your chin (don’t worry, no one else has noticed).

I talked to your boss this morning and she told me you could take 30 minutes out of your busy day this morning to participate in our special sponsor event, ‘Liar Liar CMEpalooza Pants on Fire.’

You do know that entries close tomorrow (Friday, March 31) at 5 pm ET, right? And that if you play, you will have a very good chance to win one of five $100 Amazon gift cards we are giving away? I know you’ve been eying up a new pair of Air Pods.

So here’s what you do – go into your calendar and put down a meeting from 11-1130 am. Call it, “Million Dollar Idea” so it looks special and legit. No one is going to bother you, I promise.

And then at 11 am, just check out our post from Monday with all of the details you’ll need to play. You figure out the truths, you figure out the lies, and then you send me your winning entry forms. Easy peasy.

You’re welcome.

For most of the history of CMEpalooza, our special sponsor events have been a riff off of a popular board game, game show, or church fundraiser for people over the age of 75. Consequently, we’ve adapted things like Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Clue, and Bingo, not just because they are easy for you to understand, but because they are proven formats that should work (and usually do, as long as I don’t screw up the instructions).

But this Spring, we’re trying something a little bit different with the launch of our one-of-a-kind design called “Liar Liar Pants on Fire” (I couldn’t think of a good way to fit “CME” or “Palooza” into the title – my branding needs work) (note from Derek: It’s not that hard. “Liar Liar Pants on CMEpalooza Fire.” See? Brilliant.). This special event combines two of my favorite things — our CMEpalooza sponsors and making stuff up.

Here is how it works:

1. Click here to download the forms you will need. Liar Liar Pants on Fire is pretty simple – no gameboard to figure out. You’ll just get the full list of “truths/lies” and an answer sheet.
2. Our “truth/lie” statements have been divided into three sections, grouped alphabetically. What you need to do is read each statement and determine if it’s a true statement about the sponsor or a lie. So how do you do that? Well, you can guess, but you probably wouldn’t do so well, and that’d just be wasting your time and mine. Your best bet is to go to our Sponsor page and visit each company in question. You should be able to figure out pretty quickly through some basic sleuthing whether the statements are true or an altered version of the truth (ie, a lie). These shouldn’t be that hard with just a teensy little effort on your part.
3. You can use the answer sheet in the forms to complete your guesses/responses. You get up to three entries – one for each group of sponsors. There is one group of sponsors with only 7 clues while the others have 8 clues (we have an odd number of sponsors for the Spring). You must get every answer correct to qualify for our prize drawing. If I’m in a nice mood, maybe I’ll let you get one wrong. We’ll see.
4. Completed answer forms can be sent to me at scott@excaliburmeded.com. Make sure to include your name and professional affiliation in your email so that when we announce that you’ve won, everyone can be sufficiently jealous.

We’ll have five prize winners who will each receive a $100 Amazon gift card. Derek recommends fancy bath salts like these.

This event will be open until Friday, March 31, at 5 pm ET, so get cracking!