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Friday, February 22, 2008

What's In P.B.'s Name?

Hello Bowling Fans and welcome to this special once in two weeks edition of my blog!  No it's not P.B. Atkinson, it's me, the ugly bald bowler guy.

 

Where have I been, you ask?  Working of course!  And again the reason for my work has way more to do with your entertainment than with my financial security (I'm sure my wife will love to hear that!)  

 

There are two main things I've been working on from a bowling website entertainment standpoint:  1) The Austin McFreehook Show, which is another animated show about an ex-pro tour lane man and his hapless assistant and his stories from his Tour experiences.  And 2) Maybe the funnest (and funniest), easiest project I've done yet.  It's a piece for Youbowl.com starring P.B. Atkinson as the studio host for a bowling competition between the Playboy Girls of Golf and Missy Bellinder.

 

While The Austin McFreehook Show falls in the "coming soon" category, the Playboy piece is available for viewing right now, at www.thebowlchannel.com. If you like watching Missy throw strikes, Playboy Girls frolicking around in skimpy clothes and P.B. Atkinson's cynical wit, then this video is for you.  And it got me to thinking about what exactly the initials for everyone's favorite bowling show host (OK, at least my mom's favorite) stand for.

 

I've heard lots of suggestions, the worst of which was Peanut Butter (my wife), and the best Pierce Brosnan (also my wife - did I mention I don't get out much?)  All of you bowling fans out there are clearly aware of the acronym that P.B.'s name represents, but what if it could also stand for PlayBoy?  How cool would that be for the bowling world to have a regular feature where Playboy Girls bowled with a pro every couple of weeks?  It might just get the attention of a few folks outside of the typical "bowling market" and draw them to our sport, eh?  

 

For now, P.B. is very happy to be doing The Bowling Show and to focus on keeping up the level of quality (hey, C's get degrees baby!) for all of the fans that enjoy that show now.  But the ultimate goal of us "sport of bowling" types is to bridge the gap between the sport side and the recreational/pop-culture side, right?  Maybe, PlayBoy Atkinson can help.  So check out the video over on Youbowl.com (link above) and also send me your suggestions for what the P.B. in P.B. Atkinson really stands for.  I'll post the best suggestions once I have a few and your reward will be my undying love.

 

Till next time!

Jason   

 

  

11:51 am est 


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LIVIN' THE DREAM:

How to get what you want, find true meaning and save the world by bowling!

 

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

Q: What is the book about?

A: The book is about how the valuable lessons I learned through my lifelong involvement in bowling saved my life and transformed me from an unhappy cynic into a blissfully happy optimist. 

Q: What made you decide to write it?

A: I had been out of the bowling industry for about two years and I had hit a very low point in my attitude about life. Through the help of a family member, I was able to rediscover the important lessons about success, spirituality and connecting with others. I was so excited about this transformation that I decided to write a book that attempts to detail the metamorphosis while outlining the important lessons I remembered.

Q: How is this book different from other self-help books?

A: The book is different in a number of ways. First, I am a very unlikely person to have written a self-help book. If you had known me before I'd written the book, you'd know precisely what I mean. But that fact alone reveals how strongly I felt about writing it, because I knew that if I could change for the better, then I felt anyone could do it and that there was a good chance that I could help a lot of people by describing the process and arranging the pieces in a way that could be easily understood.

The other key point of difference is the way the book is arranged. The story is structured into three parts, The Method, Some Cool Tricks and For the Hard-Core Cynics, each of which contain the important lessons I wanted to share. Every chapter is also broken up with a narrative of my personal story, told for the purpose of detailing my amazing attitude transformation. It begins with the extremely low point when others felt the need to reach out to help me to remember the important things in life and goes on to detail the many people that helped me to learn the most important life lessons, including: my childhood friend Robert Smith, my father (a former President of Disneyland International), PBA Chairman Chris Peters and former PBA CEO Steve Miller.  

Q: Is the book as funny as your blogs?

A: Yes! But there is also a serious side too.

Q: How is your book different from something like The Secret?

A: My book is similar to The Secret in that it proposes a method for success, but it is different in a number of ways. First, it is a bit more practical when it comes to outlining the method for achieving success. The Secret comes very close to describing a similar method for success in its "Ask, Believe, Receive" mantra. In my book, the first two of these elements ("Ask" and "Believe") are integral (although I call them "Dream" and "Self-Belief"), but I believe there has to be some proactive work done to achieve the goal. I call it hard work (which turns a lot of people off, of course) but to use the model of The Secret, you would simply replace the word "Receive" with "Retrieve." The best part of all this (and the good news for the folks who don't want to have to work hard) is that once you decide on what you want and then you begin to believe you can get it, the work is no longer hard, but becomes a fun activity that fills your days with joy and purpose.

Second, my book spends a significant amount of time discussing how to deal with your success once you've attained it (and that conducting yourself in this manner before you reach your goals will actually help you get there even faster). Probably the best way to describe my book is that it's a cross between The Secret and the late Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture. But I also quote a number of more research-driven books like Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, Sam Harris' The End of Faith and Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate to help me make my point.

Q: Do you have to be a bowler to like this book?

A: Absolutely not! Bowling obviously plays a major role (although it really serves more as the setting rather than as the primary focal point) because of my involvement with the sport my whole life. But the lessons bowling taught me are lessons I could have learned if I had chosen to be a golfer or a doctor or a writer (oops, I guess that one's a bad example now). My hope is that the book will find its way into the hands of people who don't bowl and that these people will come away with a new appreciation for bowlers and the sport of bowling.

Q: What is your goal with the book?

A: That is a simple one. To help as many people as possible to experience the gift of embracing an optimistic way of life and to help them reap its many rewards. Edit Text