Lauren Wu dot com

Another variant of this was mailed to me before, but I saw another version of this (the female perspective) at The Working Mom:

You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and say, "I'm fantastic in bed."

That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says, "She's fantastic in bed."

That's Advertising.

You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get his telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed."

That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy. You get up and straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him drink. You say, "May I," and reach up to straighten his tie brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."

That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says, "I hear you're fantastic in bed."

That's Brand Recognition.

You're at a party and see a handsome guy. You talk him into going home with your friend.

That's a Sales Rep.

Your friend can't satisfy him so he calls you.

That's Tech Support.

You're on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome men in all these houses you're passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated toward the center and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm fantastic in bed!"

That's Spam.

Merriam Webster's top 10 favorite words for 2004:

1. defenestration
2. serendipity
3. onomatopoeia
4. discombobulate
5. plethora
6. callipygian
7. juxtapose
8. persnickety
9. kerfuffle
10. flibbertigibbet

Now if I can only find a way to work "callipygian" into every day use... I guess I could start with the article Fetching Bums (The Quest for the Callipygian Ideal)

Wanna have a stunning photo displayed on your computer desktop? Look no further than Sensitive Light's wallpaper section. Graham Jeffery is the talented photographer behind these gorgeous photos. He also keeps a photoblog of recent pictures on his site.

An excerpt from Ken Keyes, Jr.'s The Hundredth Monkey:

"Although the exact number may vary, the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the consciousness property of these people. But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!"

From Crystal comes an online gaming article (online game = games like Everquest, Ultima Online, There.com etc.) It's based on some research conducted by economist Edward Castronova. What fascinated me are some of the results Mr. (Dr.?) Castronova discovered by studying 616 "player auctions" -- eBay (real world) auctions for Everquest (virtual world) items. The article states:

"...the EverQuest platinum piece was worth about one cent U.S. - higher than the Japanese yen or the Italian lira. With that information, he could figure out how fast the EverQuest economy was growing. Since players were killing monsters or skinning bunnies every day, they were, in effect, creating wealth. Crunching more numbers, Castronova found that the average player was generating 319 platinum pieces each hour he or she was in the game - the equivalent of $3.42 (U.S.) per hour. 'That's higher than the minimum wage in most countries,' he marvelled."

"... The Gross National Product of EverQuest, measured by how much wealth all the players together created in a single year inside the game... turned out to be $2,266 U.S. per capita. By World Bank rankings, that made EverQuest richer than India, Bulgaria, or China, and nearly as wealthy as Russia."

"It was the seventy-seventh richest country in the world. And it didn't even exist."

I've deliberately stayed away from online games because they can be such a time sink. Plus I figure it's probably more productive spending time improving my real life than my virtual one!