Planning Ahead

In my traditional fashion I will be making a family calendar for Grandma's Christmas present.  After last year's calendar I know there were a few people who would have liked to have one as well.  So I've decided to get a jump on it this year to make sure it's extra good and as personalized as possible.  

Typically I pull photos from Facebook and blogs but am worried that these images may be either: a. copyright protected, or b. incomplete records of the past year.  Any photos you wish to be included in the calendar please email them to me.  

I would like to customize dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) this year and would ask that you email me dates to include.  Even if you think I should know or remember a particular date send a reminder anyway just so I'm sure not to forget any.

Lastly, I would like to let everyone who would like a copy get one.  I will be making it available after it is compiled electronically but if you would like a printed version give me a heads up so I know how many to order.

Thank you all in advance for your help with this project.

April Fools

This morning at 8:00 am I had a friend deliver this document to the assistant manager at my store just as it was opening.  It is a very fake, yet believable looking, notice that charges had been filed against him.  15 minutes later I had another friend call pretending to be the plaintiff's representative to set up a meeting with him.  

So he's freaking out and starts looking up the charges that he "committed."  The first is theft of intellectual property, such as copying a computer file without permission.  The second is for misrepresentation by a retailer.  Since we do computer repair at the retail store we work at both of these could be somewhat plausible... at least for a little while.

I was scheduled to work at 9:00 am and was planning on telling him it was a joke shortly after arriving.  To his credit he already had figured out it wasn't real by the time I got there because he had called the courthouse and learned that the case number didn't make any sense (it is after all just the date with his initials) and that the courthouse was actually closed the day of his "hearing."  However, he did not see it coming that I was the mastermind behind it all, so after a few choice words he begrudgingly admitted that it was a pretty good prank.

My thanks to Sally Woodward, Jenn Kinch, Ryan Ketcheson, Sharon Plemmons and Tia Stagg who all helped make this joke so much fun.

The Tipping Point

For those who do not already know, last year my New Year's Resolution was to read a book every month.  I made an effort but fell short so I have renewed the resolution for this year.  So far I'm off to a good start and already have two books under my belt.  Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point.

I enjoyed Gladwell's book so much that I had to share it with you all.  Perhaps you may even find it as intriguing as I did.  In The Tipping Point, the author details the inner workings of what he refers to as 'social epidemics.'  His idea is that trends and fads are socially contagious in much the same way that a virus or bacteria is physically contagious.  He then expounds that there are three rules that relate to how far and fast the epidemic will spread.

He makes some fascinating points with compelling examples from the real world.  But perhaps the coolest thing about the book is that his goal is to help people understand what makes epidemics 'tip' so that we can use these principles to create our own positive social epidemics.  I found it mesmerizing and would highly recommend it.

QuiBids

This thing is genius, at least from a marketing standpoint.  The website quibids.com hosts live auctions for all sorts of name brand products.  All of the auctions are very short; not more than five minutes.  All the auctions also start a $0.01.  So there is the possibility that you could win an auction and pay a penny for, lets say, an LG 55" 1080p 3D LED HDTV.  Pretty cool right!

So now you may be wondering how can they possibly afford to sell these items so cheaply?  This is the part that makes it genius.  Through your account, every bid you place costs you $0.60.  You basically purchase 10, 25, 50, 100 or maybe even 1000 bids and then can use them to buy these ridiculously low priced products.  So if you win an auction for $30.00 but you placed five bids to win it then you actually have paid $33.00 for the item.  However every other person who bid on this also paid for each bid... this is where it starts to get really good.

Since all the auctions are "short" this increases people's willingness to bid because, 'hey it might not still be there in a few minutes.'  But the bidding mechanism has some rules to it as well.  Each bid refreshes the time of the auction to 10 seconds, so you can't just place one bid at the last second and win.  Each bid also increases the price by one penny so it is continually going up.  So taking the example of a $30.00 auction win means there were a total of 3000 bids to get the price that high.  3000*$0.60=$1800 in bids then the $30.00 price for the winner means that $1830 was paid for this item.

Crazy right!  As I said it is genius.  I am a bit tempted to play around with it, but before you make this your place to shop please know your chance of winning is very low.  I would say to use it for entertainment value only if your use it at all.

What!?

I was picking up some groceries today and there were some new gum packages on display in the checkout line.  When I came across this one I just had to try it.  That's right... Mint Chocolate Chip flavored gum!  I was surprised by how much it actually tasted like ice cream although it doesn't replace the real thing.  Sure it's ridiculous but I have to say Bravo to Extra... you got me to spend $1.29 on your product.