WTF? Friday

For as long as I remember I have been afraid of sharks…I remember having a panic attack at the thought of going through the glass shark tunnel at Disney World for fear that a shark would break the glass and eat me. I even could freak myself out into thinking that there was a shark in my backyard pool and would hop out so I could check that there wasn’t. That is why I think this site – www.frenziedwaters.com is brilliant in its creepyness – the sounds and camera movements made my stomach churn.  It also integrates with facebook for added personalised creepyness (click on the last jar labelled ‘My Story’ if you have a facebook account).

From what I have read, it is a teaser campaign for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week which I used to love watching in complete terror. Beyond the website, certain journalists were sent unlabeled jars which contained half eaten swim trunks, a warning sign and a key with the URL on it….oh yeah and an obituary specific to the person whom received it….love it…unfortunately, my blogging hasn’t yet garnered me journalist status so I didn’t get one of these myself, maybe next year.

Right now..

I have always been fascinated with random facts (like that kid on Jerry Maguire ‘the human head weighs 8lbs’). I especially like random facts that have to do with technology so is no surprise that I am intrigued with the Sprint Now campaign dealing with exactly that both in a TV advert and online.

To be fair I am also a very skeptical person so not sure how many of these statistics are true but it does amaze me that so many people can be doing the same thing all over the world (like leaving their cell phone in a taxi – I forgot my credit card at a bar this weekend and I am now sure loads of other people did it as well – just maybe not at the same bar).

The campaign website (which you can literally kill hours on playing with each little widgit) is awash with random facts and statistics for your viewing pleasure. For the most part, the statistics seem reliable however the thing falls down a bit for me when the google widget says that ‘Frankie Avalon’ is the top term searched for today…hunh? I do however, believe the one about the babies being born as I think I know half of them, I am convinced there is a baby boom on in 2009….that’s right folks, you heard it here first.

Alright, back to watching the sticky note production numbers increase….I love sticky notes, I have one stuck to my wallet right now reminding me of the things I have to do today (Mom will be so proud to read that).

WTF? Friday – Baby Maker

I couldn’t help but share this website as I love kitchy sites like this one ( it doesn’t take much to amuse me). This site is for the Routan Baby Maker 3000 by Volkswagen to advertise one of their min vans (or people carrier as they call them here).  The site allows you to create your own baby by merging two people’s images together to see what their baby would look like – presumably because when you have babies you need a mini van type vehicle (or so I hear). 

So… I have spent the morning trying to make the little thing look half decent as it’s taken about 6 tries to merge pictures of the hubby and I.  Below I present to you our son Beresford (who is still pretty odd looking, he must get that from his father).

I have mentioned it before, and this morning just proved that I am much better place to be a PANK than a Mom (or Mum) as first of all, I got all squirmy when it said ’select a photo of Mom’ then saw my face and second of all it took 6 TRIES to make the kid look half decent…if I recall correctly there isn’t a ‘make new baby’ or edit undo function in real life and until there is I might stay on the Auntie side of the fence…plus I would want a girl and it kept giving me boys!

Proud to be a P.A.N.K.

I read this today and absolutely loved it…we are all familiar with the D.I.N.K acronym (double income no kids) but this one is even better (and I am one) P.A.N.K standing for Professional Aunts with No Kids.  How great is that!! Presumably my hubbie is then a P.U.N.K (ha! if you ever met him you would be laughing as he is probably the farthest thing from a traditional ‘punk’)

Anyway there was a new website launched called Savvy Auntie aimed at this large demographic (who knew)  of P.A.N.K.’s and includes information on crafts and activities to do with the kids as well as gift ideas blogs and forums.  There is also going to be a virtual fridge where your nieces/nephews can share their artwork digitally with you (saving you from rushing around just before they come visit and sticking up their artwork all over the place as if you ALWAYS have it on display wink, wink)

The site is great but personally I am waiting for the following articles:

• Candy that gives the best sugar high and how fast the high kicks in so you know when to hand them back to their parents
• The Whisky trick – How to get your niece/nephew to bed on time
• 10 Most Annoying Birthday Gifts (followed by the special Chrismas edition – 10 Messiest Christmas presents)
• How to get them to stop repeating the swear words you might have accidentally said
• Dora the Explorer – How to turn everythign she says into a sexual innuendo by adding ‘in bed’ to the end of each sentence…’Swiper don’t swipe that…in bed‘

Do you think they will ask me to blog for them when they get it up and running??

Google Health

I am a big fan of everything Google. I use Google reader as my main way to track blogs, use Google mail, Google documents, Google maps, I-Google and the word Google as a verb many times during the day. Google has innovated yet again launching Google health. This is essentially a portal for you to enter all of your health information including your basic stats (height, weight, blood type – based on this, it calculates your BMI) to more detailed information i.e. illnesses, medications, vaccinations, test results, allergies and even upload entire medical records if you go to a doctor whose record system can synch with Google (I am presuming this number will grow in a short time).

Once you enter illnesses it provides you a hyperlink containing information about symptoms, treatments prognosis as well as list of related news, related scholar results, related groups and search trends which includes health terms other people who have searched for that disease have searched for.

The medications set up is similar as when you add one to your list it also has a hyperlink to the package insert which is pretty amazing as I tested it out with a few random drugs and they had the package info for all of them. It is the Beta version and very US focuses as I tried a few UK based products and there were no listings but it still seems pretty extensive and even has an auto fill in fields which suggest medications as you type as most medication is fairly impossible to spell.

I was torn about this idea at first as the idea of all of personal medical information being online scared me a bit but the marketing nerd in me couldn’t help but to love the amazing customer data that Google will have. Can you imagine if the local blood bank could target banner ads to those with O blood type in a particular city if they were low on O blood? Or if an allergy medication company could advertise their product when specific pollen counts were high? This benefits the marketers as the more targeted you can get the message the better response rate you will get…and I guess it benefits the user as if there is truly something out there that will alleviate some medical symptoms than I am sure they would rather see ads about that rather than weight loss messages if they are not on a diet or smoking cessation products if they are already non smokers.

As much of a beneficial resource this is for marketers it also poses the risk of personal information in cyberspace being hacked/leaked or just found by accident by someone who didn’t properly log out of their health account. I am usually pretty trusting of the internet and regularly assure my parents that they are safe to buy things online etc but for health stuff I am not sure…I did enter some information about myself about 2 weeks ago and so far haven’t received any strange emails from drug companies offering me deals, been fired or had my insurance revoked which I guess is good?

Don’t get me wrong there are loads of other benefits to the service…these are just my thoughts on a few points…as you can imagine I could go on and on and on…but it’s time for lunch and since its Friday we are off to Gourmet Burger Kitchen…whoops there goes my cholesterol levels and I might have to bump up my weight now too…don’t tell the insurance company!

Happy Valentines Day 2009 (and update on today’s WTF)

Okay so the story with the reptile package (see post below) is this…the guy in the office upstairs bought his tortoise, called Jack, a fancy new house with heat lamps etc (which was in the box – NOT the tortoise itself) but sadly, Jack died yesterday before his new flat got delivered…RIP Jack. 

Anyway back to my normal ramblings. I have been wanting to blog about this site but keep forgetting – the site is called http://www.futreme.org/ and is essentially a new spin on the time capsule activity that we did in grade school.  You remember that exercise, you write a letter to yourself 10 years in the future (at the ripe old age of 19 when you are all growned up).  Then you bury all the letters on the playground of the school along with a thermos full of (Tim Hortons) coffee to see if it stays warm for a decade (it won’t – sorry kids).  This is the same concept however you write yourself (or someone else) an email then specify a delivery date in the future. 

So come on, in the spirit of Valentines Day why don’t you write yourself a Valentine to be delivered this time next year and see how 2008 treated you – it guarantees you will receive a Valentine next year and is much easier than burying a card in your garden .