Thoughtful Thursday - One Red Paperclip (Bartering Of Note)

Hello and welcome to Thoughtful Thursday; the day of the week where I talk about an interesting story a friend told me about, and wonder at the kind of people that take part in such a scheme.

Apparently Blogger is having a blue day... I have no idea why it's tinging this image blue, or how to fix it... Image is of http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

If you're wondering why the header image is blue... I must point out... That I have no idea. Ignoring that, today I'm going to talk about the tale of One Red Paperclip in which Kyle MacDonald bartered an actual Paperclip for various items until he got a house. How crazy is that?

In 2005, Kyle MacDonald had the idea to do something strange. He figured that he was going set up a blog online, which can be found here, with which he would trade a single, red paperclip with various people until he got "a house, an island, or a house on an island." (And I thought I had ridiculous idea's. Of course, if it sounds stupid, but works; It's not stupid.) Impossibly, people actually decided to go along with his mad scheme, and in the series of fourteen trade's, he eventually became the owner of a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan. (That's a place in Canada that I've never heard of. Good to know though.)

Listed below, in order, from the red paperclip to the house, are the items which he traded until he reached the house. I have even taken the time to link each one individually to his blog posts about each trade, simply because they are somewhat rather humorous. (Kyle MacDonald has quite the sense of humor, going as far to start a very false, very absurd petition against a TV Show presenter to force him to go with him to Yahk.)

1. The Red Paperclip
2. Fish-shaped pen.
3. A Hand-sculpted doorknob, which he nicknamed "Knob-T".
4. Coleman camp stove (with fuel).
5. A Honda generator.
6. (After having the generator temporarily confiscated by the New York City Fire Department),
   one "instant party": an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the holder's choice, and a neon Budweiser sign.
7. Ski-doo snowmobile.
8. A two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia
9. Traded the second spot on the Yahk trip for a cube van.
10. A recording contract with Metalworks.
11. A year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona.
12. One afternoon with Alice Cooper.
13. A KISS motorized snow globe.
14. A role in the film Donna on Demand.
15. A two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. (And a honorary day long mayorship.)

What I quite like about this story, apart from Mr. MacDonald's keen sense of humor and mischief, is the idea that people are so willing to go along with such a seemingly crazy scheme that they found on the internet. Quite simply, the most paying that he did in this entire endeavor was for food and travelling to the various places for this trade. Otherwise his investment was nothing more than One Red Paperclip. People are weird, as I've noted many times on this blog.(Especially with cats though.) More humorous is his open admittance to the fact that he had no idea what he was doing most of the time, nor did he have any idea how he managed to create such a massive following for these trade's online, with over 10 million visitors to his blog. Still, trading things online is a strange enough concept on it's own.

On the other hand, considering a recent Kickstarter project by a gentleman by the name of Zack Danger Brown managed to make $55000 dollars in crowdfunding... to make POTATO SALAD. Maybe trading random things online isn't as weird as one would think... (I want some of that potato salad though.)

In any case, I hope that you find the story of One Red Paperclip as interesting to read as I did, or at least just have a laugh at this man's strange antics.If you do or don't, or even have a similar story you want to tell me about, be sure to let me know in the comments below. Better yet, if you've got some friends looking for a strange story to read, perhaps consider sharing this with them so they too can be amazed at what people will give away. And of course, if you would like to see me talk about more strange things like this, make sure to like my Facebook page and/or follow me on Twitter so that you can get these articles, as I post them. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for taking the time to read this article; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.

Safe Travels Friends.

Website Wednesday - Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+)

Hello and welcome Website Wednesday; that day where I talk you about this irritating thing called Social Networking that will never catch on. (Teehee)

(Now that... is a lot of me's. Haha.) Image's were taken from Google+, Facebook and Twitter

If you're on the internet, odds are you have a Google account, or a Facebook account, or a Twitter account, or an etc, etc, etc. Social Networking is a rather large part of the internet, and almost a requirement in order to make the most of it these days. Too bad I mostly find them irritating.

You know them... those vile, stinking dens where people go to boost their confidence and self-esteem by posting the best parts of their life alone, effectively using it as a bragging platform. Or they do the invert, and depress everyone with pictures of abused dogs and statuses about how worthless they feel... (There was a time where I would respond to that and try to help those that did it... But it never actually works. They always go back.)

There's also the joy of sharing, where everyone decides that I need to play Mafia Wars, or these days, the more addictive Candy Crush... And then there's pictures of abused animals...

I especially love friend requests from random people around the world who would like to tell me that I've won the 1 million dollar Facebook user lottery, and all they need is my name, address and details to transfer it to me. There's also pictures of abused animals... (Listen... stop it. Please. I do my bit for helping animals and what not, but I do not log onto the internet to see that every day... Seriously.)

I think the YouTube rapper extraordinaire Dan Bull (Douglby) makes a pretty good case about Google+, Twitter, and Facebook with the rap video's linked to those names. Absolutely worth a laugh, or at least just so that the tune can irritate you enough to need to go to Unhearit.com.

Rage aside, some of the funniest conversations I've ever had have actually been on Facebook and Twitter, and there's no better way for getting into contact with people to be honest. Phone numbers get lost, addresses are forgotten, people move away, but something that 90% of people will always do, is keep their online profiles up to date. (Yes, that is a an absolutely made-up statistic, but it's gets the point across.)

And, the best part yet, I'm on them! Nevermind anything else on the internet,drop everything and go follow OddballGreg on all the various Social Networks. Obviously he's the best thing on the internet yet. (Please don't believe any of that, I'm just being facetious.)

Seriously though, for all the complaint we have all the time, these Social Networks do have a large variety of uses that make our lives easier, from finding people we know, to meeting amazing new people, and perhaps even better, talking to you very awesome people that come each day to read about the various strange, funny or just plain bull things I talk about each day. If you have yet to follow me Twitter, like my Facebook page or... I dunno, circle me on Google+ (I'll be honest, I still don't entirely get Google+), well... you probably have a good reason for doing so. Still, they're a great way of getting in contact with me and perhaps even influencing the things I say, talk about, or do. You may have noticed the change of yesterday's segment from Technology Tuesday to Tomfoolery Tuesday; or perhaps the fact that I toned down the vibrancy of the background yellow so that it didn't feel like you were staring at the sun. 

Both of those were done only with your feedback, so make sure to let me know me know what you think of my posts each day or basically just let me know what you think of the blog in general so that I can continue to improve it for you guys.

In any case, in all honesty, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for something interesting to talk about today, so do excuse the slightly less interesting blog post today. I promise I've got a far more interesting discussion lined up tomorrow. Of course, if you have any interesting suggestions for topics, or just want to say something in general, make sure to let me know in the comments below. As always, regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.

Au revoir mes amis.