The six strangest and most bizarre television game shows from around the world — This is a list of the weirdest gameshow concepts. Where the elevator pitch summary of the game show is cause for pause. For example, the show Fear Factor sounds pretty benign. Contestants complete stunts to win. …

The Twelve Steps need a revision for the 21st century to stay relevant — The most memorable twelve step meeting I attended was the second NA meeting I ever went to. The chairperson of the meeting was getting his 10 year cake. Which is a big deal. They light the candles on a beautiful quarter sheet cake. As they’re bringing it to him I…

California energy regulations and my terrible credit are only the beginning — I built my current desktop in 2014. An eternity as far as computers go. I think I spent around $2,500 on all the components. It was a decent chunk of change but I was making good money back then. The purchase wasn’t a problem. What’s given me solid performance for…

I made six figures being self employed before I left high school — There was never a moment where I thought, “I’m going to be a drug dealer.” It started with helping my friends out with weed. A few years later I was working under the protection the Asian mafia. I met people in parking lots for thousand count boats of ecstasy in…

It sounded like fun 2 months ago at 7 am — “We have to go this weekend! The Groupon is going to expire if we don’t use it by Sunday.” My girlfriend said. “I don’t care. I spent my entire Saturday at a paint and sip. I’m not wasting my Sunday driving to Solvang to make fucking cupcakes at 8 am.” …

Nobody reads books anymore so don’t torture yourself trying to write one — Don’t ever try to write a novel. It’s stupid in this day and age. The novel is dead. No one would read it even if you give it away for free. Today people only buy books written by celebrities. They don’t even buy books, they buy someone reading the book…

It was like a Choose Your Own Adventure where every solution leads to something worse — It just after the turn of the century. Myspace had reconnected us with our childhood friends. One of those friends was a girl from Hebrew School I had a huge crush on before I knew what to do about it. We exchanged a few flirty messages back and forth. Next…

The dangers of using narcotics as a plot device from a recovered addict — This will be my twentieth movie list published in Fanfare. I’ve summarized around 120 movies for my stories and I’ve only had to watch a handful for the first time. How did I have time to watch all of these? Easy. I smoked meth on and off for 10 years…

How to never feel imposter syndrome again — My name is Hogan Torah, and I’m a professional writer. I’ve been writing online for over 20 years but became a professional writer less than 2 years ago. The day I became a pro writer is when the first $5.23 Stripe payment from Medium hit my pre-paid debit card. If…