Have you ever heard of a Grapple?

I hadn’t.  I mean, I’ve heard of a grappling hook.  And I have heard of “grapple” as a verb: it’s something one does with a large monster or comic book villain. 

Apparently, now it is also a fruit.  A hybrid fruit.  Apparently when an apple and a grape love each other very very much…  well, you get the idea.  Somehow they (presumably evil scientists) have genetically engineered a fruit that is a grape-apple hybrid! 

Obviously more research is warranted.  So far my research has consisted of stumbling across them in the supermarket, yelling “OMG GRAPPLES” to my perplexed mom, and consuming two of these futuristic fruits (when I got home, not while I was still standing in the produce section).  Now, beyond the concept, they are not so terribly exciting.  But they are quite tasty.  And they smell super grapey!  I could just sit there with one and inhale for a good 5 minutes.  And I did.  At work.  They’re used to me.

Anyway, they look like apples, smell like grapes, and have an extremely pleasant taste that fuses the two flavors quite elegantly.

I can’t wait for them to do this to other fruits!  I mean, hello, strawberry-banana anyone?  How fantastic would that be?  Orange-raspberries?  The possibilities are endless.

It’s too bad that coconuts are not a fruit, otherwise we could fuse it with a pineapple and have a pina colada in fruit form.  Sadly, bacon is not a fruit either.  If bacon fusions became a reality, I would probably need to go lie down for a little while.

People, we are EATING THE FUTURE!  Today, grapples.  Tomorrow, flying cars!  I mean, you can’t eat flying cars, but you get the idea.

So, I have two questions…

**What hybrids would you want to see created?

**Does anyone have any moral objections to this?

Also, an edit:  much to my dismay, I have learned that they are probably pronounced “grape-ells.”  Oh well.

I grew up in the Northeast. Born in Queens, where I lived until I was 10. Then I moved to out the suburbs in New Jersey. Did a year of school in Pennsylvania. Lived a year in Connecticut. Worked in Manhattan for 6 years.

Then I decided to pack up and moved to Knoxville, TN.

The differences in lifestyle between there and here are sometimes little things. I never had the sensation of being given a sweet tea, instead of unsweet, until I moved here. I never really understood the difference between Texas and Carolina BBQ. I still don’t understand how one area can have so many Teetotalers while half the people I know also have locally distilled moonshine.

That said, there are some times where I occasionally have to step back and say “Really? Did that really just happen?”. This may very well be the first in a series of a posts about those moments.

This past weekend I purchased a lawnmower. It made me feel very domestic. It also made me feel kind of old. Regardless, the 3 foot grass around my house needed to be chopped down. After looking around Home Depot, we decided to purchase this fine model. However, we also needed some new shrubs and soil. This ultimately meant 2 trips to Home Depot. After dropping Lindsay, 5 shrubs, and 2 bags of dirt off at the house, I made my way back to Home Depot.

After finding a flatbed, I walked to the lawn mower section. There was actually an employee there who offered to me get the box down off the shelf. Something to be expected at a store like Home Depot, but a little surprising that someone was actually there to help. With my new mower in hand, I then decided to take a lap around the store, just in case I saw anything that caught my fancy. While I didn’t find anything else worth buying that day, I did encounter 3 other patrons of the store. All 3 made some comment along the lines of “Looks like someone has a lot of work ahead of them, har har har”. Did I mention that all 3 also had nice big wads of tobacco shoved into their cheeks? I kindly just chuckled at all of them and made my way through the checkout to the car, where the thought of “OK, now how do I get this thing in here all by myself” finally occurred. Not 2 seconds go by after I open the trunk when some random stranger walks up and says “Need a hand with that? I always find that 2 sets of hands are better than one.” I kind of looked stunned for a moment, said that I’d really appreciate it, and the two of us easily haul the thing into the trunk.

Now here I am cynical New Yorker thinking “OK, whats the catch? There has to be a catch. The guy at least wants the flatbed.” At which point the guy just turns around and walks away. I thank him again and get into the car. I’ve never had this happen to me before. Someone just offering to help for the sake of being a nice person. Maybe he was paying it forward. I know that I sure will.

So that’s my first “Do things like this really happen here?” story. Maybe next time I’ll recount the story of how I was proselytized on a plane ride or how I amassed a collection of tracts left in the bathroom stalls of my office over a few months time.

What are some of your “Did that really happen?” stories?  Is my cynicism just from the Northeast, or do Californians feel the same way?  Anyone out there from the south but now living near NY?

Recently (okay not so recently - it’s called procrastination, ever heard of it?) I wrote at length about an article called Treat Me Right, which was featured in GQ magazine, and has had me rankled ever since.  You did read my previous post, didn’t you?  You did?  Great, what was your favorite part?

Ah-ha, I KNEW you didn’t read it!  Well, go back and read it.  I’ll wait.

Okay?  Okay.  So, I certainly gave all those possibly female panelists a piece of my mind, since I am 100% positive that they read this blog.  I paid very little attention to the men (assuming, of course, that the men were not writing the females parts and setting up their own jokes, as suggested by commenter Michael).

So, in a list of sixty-one “bits of wisdom,” the editors made a whopping thirteen annotations.  Way to burn the midnight oil, boys.  I would say that a good four out of the thirteen are solidly decent contributions.  And when I say “solidly decent,” I mean “kinda mediocre but harmless.”  Another four out of the thirteen are complete garbage: unhelpful, unnecessary, annoying.  And a whopping five out of thirteen are the comments that are argumentative, childish, misogynstic.  Now, I’m not saying that they all had to be gems, and I’m not saying that I had to agree with them all.  But I can say unequivocally that I believe that the number of editor comments falling into that last category should have been zero. 

So, with no further ado, I bring you The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Read the rest of this entry »

I know where you think this is going, but its not.

Is anyone else scared of bees or birds?

We’ve been having some really nice weather down here in Knoxville for the past few weeks. Recently I went out to my car and realized that the bushes nearby were covered in bees. I hate bees. And when I say hate I mean I’m terrified of them. Always have been and I’m not sure why. I never had a traumatic moment growing up at summer camp where I wandered into a hive. Never had a queen hide in my lunchbox out on the playground. But since I can remember, I’ve always been scared of bees. After seeing them near my car that day, the whole ride home I was on edge. Every time the wind hit me weird, I thought I had a bee in my hair. Every time I had an itch, it was a bee crawling up my leg. I know one day I’m going to reenact this scene from Tommy Boy.

My one big bee experience, the one and only time I’ve been stung, occurred at a Cluck-U chicken. I was eating lunch, a dozen very saucy, very spicy wings, when a bee flew in and got me right in the neck. Immediately my sauce covered hand went straight for me neck. Now I imagine that a bee sting in itself it somewhat painful, but covering it in hot sauce did not help the situation. So along with a pain in my neck, I had to suffer the rest of the workday (did I mention I was on a lunch break from my first real office job?) smelling like wing sauce with an orange collar.

Sometimes I think my fear has more to do with the fact that bees fly. I also hate birds. Less in the fear-inducing hysteria sense and more in the creeped out sense. I still don’t understand how they make good pets. I like my pets cuddly, no feathery. Even when I got to zoos or indoor places with birds flying around, I always keep an eye open to make sure they don’t get too close. Oh and there was the one time I came home to my apartment after a night of birthday drinking to find a bat in the kitchen. It was like a scene out of a sitcom.

Anyone else have a fear like this? Have you ever had to leave a room or place or walk across the street because of something you were afraid of? Or better yet, have you ever had to run away screaming like a 6 year old?

You may remember the book “Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!“. Well, it was my favorite as a kid and now I read it to my son Conner as much as possible; in fact I almost know it by heart. To make a long story short, the sneeze of a little bug causes a chain reaction for the community which involves worms, turtles, cows, farmers and a circus parade. Don’t worry, this DOES relate to us as innovators and early adopters. As a member of one of these two categories we are most likely in another group which Seth Godin frequently refers to as Sneezers, an individual that is likely to spread an idea. So, as a Sneezer, what do we have affects on?

About a week ago we had a birthday party for myself and my son (we actually have the same birthday). About an hour before the party I went to pick up my son’s first birthday cake, a giant head of Elmo. We were all excited, it really is for the adults because the kids have no clue. We chose to go with a local bakery in Knoxville called SugarBakers. They don’t actually have any bakers on staff so we communicated with one of their contractors. All we needed to do was pick the cake up by 4pm and pay SugarBakers. Well, I did my job (I was there at 2pm) and the contract baker did her job (she baked the cake and brought it to the store), but when I arrived the cake was missing. Turns out that somebody else showed up that morning expecting an Elmo cake from a different contract baker. I think you know what happened, yes my cake was given to them with Conner’s name on the cake. The only employee in the store that day was unable to help me saying, “That’s between you and the baker.” That kinda pissed me off because she was the one that gave my cake away. I left the store thinking I needed to make a cake shaped like Elmo (HA, not a chance). Before I left I wanted the employee to know that I would do my best to spread their business tactics throughout Knoxville doing what I know how to do, talk to people and give my honest opinion. I was ready to get home to start blogging and commenting wherever possible. I was ready to go. But things changed. The owner called my wife apologizing for everything saying he would do everything possible to get us a cake ASAP. He came through and the cake was free. So now I need to change my tone. SugarBakers came through. While the employee at the store did not handle the issues correctly the owner really cared and wanted us back. I will go back to SugarBakers for our next Birthday and you should too.

Now you didn’t get this far to just hear about our cake issues. The idea for this post came at our first Knoxville Tweetup lunch. We had a great turnout, 13 actually. With a table like that we expected gratuity to be added, however a 18% service charge AND a 18% gratuity was added. None of us really challenged it, but it brought up the comment of “Don’t piss of a Sneezer.” I believe this is really true, in fact one member of the lunch agreed saying, “They don’t really know who we are when we walk in.” Not that we should be treated like Food Critics, but businesses need to treat everyone like they can affect tomorrows customers. Only a small group of businesses think this way.

So, how have you affected a business good or bad because of service that was rendered to you? Do you know of others that spread their thoughts about a business so much that it was accepted by other communities and what affects did these actions have on events days, months or even years down the road?

Okay, so I don’t generally read GQ, but despite not being a regular reader, I somehow found myself alone with the April issue (I was at the boyfriend’s house and needed some, ahem, bathroom reading).  Well, suffice to say, I was… displeased.

I flipped through page after page of male fashion, cologne, espresso machines…  until I got to an article called Treat Me Right, in which a panel of “women” discuss how they want men to, well, treat them.   Why the quotes?  I mean, I can’t prove that they aren’t real women…  But they sound suspiciously like snarky men doing their best impression of what they think women are like.  Or maybe it’s not the panel’s fault, because Lord only knows who was doing the paraphrasing.

And then along the side, there are little asterisks, which then lead you on a little dotted-line adventure down the page to where the “editors” have “editoralized” with what I assume are supposed to be clever and witty comments.  Really, they are mainly a male nudge-wink behind the female panelists’ collective back.  Which then takes the tone of the article, which was supposed to be Let’s-find-out-what-women-really-want-from-men and makes it into a Dude-check-it-out-they-think-we-really-care-what-they’re-saying-oh-man-that’s-rich!  Basically, the nature of most of the editorial comments lead me to believe that the in-office draft of the article was covered in ketchup fingerprints and smelled of beer.

And to rub salt in the wound even further, I can’t even link to it because they did not bother to put it up on their website.  Almost every other one of their feature stories are listed, so I do not understand why they left this one out - unless it is because they are well aware that it’s a sub-par piece.  Which it is.  Which is fine.  But I strongly suspect that the topic just did not rank high enough on their priority list.  Obviously it is much more important for them to post an article about the the twenty-five most emasculated, disempowered, henpecked husbands on the planet  (one of the more prevalent crimes?  daring to donate your hard-earned cash to a charity your wife supports!  gasp-NO!), pictures of a naked Adriana Lima covering her cooter with a palm frond (note to guys: I know you like it.  It’s cool.  You keep doin’ what you do.  I’m just sayin’.), an interview with Keith Richards, a piece on Russian mail-order brides (I am not making this up), an article about the founder of Girls Gone Wild, who is now in jail…  need I go on?

Anyway, since I can’t link to it, I will be forced to quote some choice tidbits. 

Okay, so, my first complaint: the women.  Yeah, you!  Well, not you.  The panel.  I mean, really.  Okay, so they came up with plenty of decent advice (some of it obvious, but many guys still don’t follow it, so I suppose it bears repeating), such as If you take our contact info, use it and Don’t talk to us about how hot your ex-girlfriend was and Place your hand gently on the small of our back.  There was even an excellent little section giving guys some good advice on: how to deal when there is a hot babe clearly in your line of sight while you are out with your girlfriend/wife.  It was a four-part section and probably too complicated for many people to be able to use in real time, but I agreed with most of it.

But then there were some other bits of advice that just made my eyebrows vibrate.  In a bad way.  For example, one piece of advice is: When debating whether or not to buy us flowers, the answer is always yes.  Great.  The next piece of advice: Except when it’s not.  Gah!  Oh, and by the way, send those flowers to our office, willya?  Um.  Oh, and never use FTD.  What??  Dude, I almost started hating women halfway through this article!  What gives?  Who are these women?  And why are they reinforcing this crappy stereotype??

Oh, and another of my personal favorites: Bathroom humor is never funny.  We women laugh so that you’ll think we’re cool and can hang with the guys, but we would like it to stop.  Okay, FIRST OF ALL, yes.  Yes it is.  Especially farting.  Farting is always funny.  Except dutch ovens.  Those are not funny.  But I digress.  Second of all, ladies of this article - WHY?  Why why why?  Why are you doing this?  This is why guys don’t trust women, why they think that the second they commit to a relationship, that the girl will morph from a stiletto-wearing hottie to a sweatpants-and-baseball-cap couch potato, why they think we will stop letting them hang out with their friends once we have our claws in them, why they think the sex will stop once there is a diamond ring involved.  That is a very negative (and, hello, inaccurate) portrayal of my gender by other members of my gender, and I have to say that I resent it.

There’s more, like about how we won’t appreciate anything men do on Valentine’s Day because they’re supposed to do it.  But of course, if they do nothing, we will never forgive them.  This is self-explanatory and I need not go into why this chafes me, right?  Right.  And then of course there is the ending disclaimer, “Every single one of the preceding sixty-one bits of wisdom is useless if she’s not into you.  And redundant if she is.”  You know what?  Fine.  Whatever.  I will just chalk that one up to them wanting a snappy ending.  Fine.

Ladies, some of these suggestions were good!  A couple of them were very, very good.  Why are you mixing them in with such dreck?  Some of these were just the opposite of helpful.  And something that is especially not helpful is reinforcing negative gender stereotypes!  No man is just going to accept that on Monday, you want XYZ, but if he gives you XYZ on Tuesday, then he is done for.  Nor should he accept it.  Writing this article is not going to turn men into mind-readers, it is not going to make them agree to be punching bags for your ever-changing whims, and it is certainly not going to make them like or respect women more!  All it is going to do is make the male readers of GQ even less tolerant of the diversity of female wants, needs, and opinions.  When the panel said We like when you take care of our cars… but don’t do it if you are going to muck it up, or or if you will say you’ll do it and then never get around to it, I think that is perfectly reasonable.  Female (and dare I say, human) desires can change based on circumstantial factors. But do not make it seem like we want what we want when we want it and the men are just going to have to follow along or get left behind.  Do you know what advice like that gets us?  It gets us resentful, cranky men and frustrated, dissatisfied women.  And writing advice like that and expecting any other other outcome is an action that can only come from living in a fantasy world of self-absorption and misandry.

(Next time, I take on the men of GQ.  I decided to cut things “short” here because, well, I have a day job.)

Are you a coffee drinker? Is it just a morning thing or an all day gotta have it thing? More importantly, where do you buy your coffee?

I was spoiled when I worked in Manhattan. The best coffee around was from the coffee cart outside my building on the 36th and Broadway. He was only there in the mornings, and was replaced with a roasted nuts guy around lunchtime. Sure, occasionally I bought a donut or cruller, but the real appeal was the coffee. I almost always had to wait in line in the morning to get my coffee, but the speed of which it was poured and placed in a brown paper bag was so quick that you didn’t mind if you had a half dozen people in front of you. Starbucks was a place I went in the afternoons to get out of the office if I needed to have a clandestine meeting or to do a phone interview. Dunkin Donuts was for weekends or if I needed to sober up a bit on the train ride home out of Penn Station.

Then I moved to Tennessee. I was astonished to find out that there was only one Dunkin Donuts in Knoxville. I wasn’t expecting to find street coffee, but I thought America Runs on Dunkin Donuts. Apparently, not in the land of the Hot Now Krispy Kreme. It seems like Pilot gas stations fill the need for blue collar workers morning caffeine while Starbucks rules the roosts for the cubicle crowd. Coincidentally, my morning commute takes me on a road that has both the one-and-only Dunkin Donuts along with a Starbucks. Some mornings Dunkin Donuts does it for me, other mornings I feel the need for a triple grand non-fat caramel machiatto. (I don’t like it “skinny” because the sugar-free caramel flavoring has too much of an aftertaste for me. ) I was fine with the 2 on the go options, along with starting to brew more coffee at home in the morning while I actually eat a real breakfast on my couch instead of something quick in the car or at my desk.

A few weeks ago the Dunkin Donuts closer for renovations. The building really needed it. It looked like a building that had been converted to a Dunkin Donutsinstead of actually being built to house one. It wasn’t until this morning, when they reopened, that I discovered the real difference between Dunkin Donuts and everywhere else. Instead of going through the drive through, I decided to park, get out of my car, and check out the inside of the newly refurbished store. It was clean, it was bright, and more importantly, everyone working behind the counter had 1 thing on their mind - speed. My coffee and muffin were in front of me, delivered by 2 different people, before the cashier, a 3rd person, even handed me back my change. While Starbucks closes down its stores for an afternoon to talk about refocusing on the customer, this Dunkin Donuts was actually doing something about it.

They’ve got great coffee that’s cheaper than Starbucks, but they don’t have their own social network yet. They’ve got a bigger selection than Krispy Kreme, with the breakfast sandwiches and bagels. At least the one here is really focused on their customer service. They’ve certainly come along from here. In spite of their choice of celebrity spokerperson, is Dunkin Donuts poised to take over your morning ritual?

So. Meat. I spend a fair amount of time thinking about meat. I mean, okay, I spend a lot of time thinking about food in general. But with meat, there really is a lot to think about. First of all, I have a lot of vegetarian friends (well, several vegetarian friends, but it seems like a lot). So I think about the ethics of meat. Especially because I consider myself an animal lover. I mean, can one be both a lover of animals AND a lover of consuming their delicious carcasses with a side of mashed potatoes??

(side note: although I am tempted to do an entire other entry on potatoes, they are generally less controversial than meat, and therefore the entiretly of my writing on that topic may be “Mmmm. Want.”)

Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes: meat. So, I do often think about whether it is hypocritical of me to love animals, want good things for them, want to protect them from harm… and also, eat them.
I am not here to answer that question, nor am I here to defend my choices. Honestly, I just don’t think that would be a particularly interesting read. I mean, if there is a huge demand for it, I can always write a defense of my carnivorous habits another time, but I am warning you in advance: the word “delicious” is going to feature prominently.

Another controversy: I have been informed time and time again about how wasteful, or at least inefficient, eating meat is. I can’t argue that. I can say that I recycle, I don’t litter (in fact I often pick up others’ litter), and I try generally to NOT be a wasteful person. However, when it comes to eating meat, I fail at efficiency. And I do love efficiency. I just love meat more.

Another thing that must be said for meat… it is very exciting, or at least I think so. In fact, I get my kicks attempting to sample as many different kinds of meat as possible. Well, I like to try different foods from each sector of the Nutritional Pyramid, but this topic is broad enough as it is. I really do sometimes think that I would like to taste every animal in the world. It’s probably not a good idea though.
Some people are grossed out by this desire. Some are even offended. I get a lot of, “Well, would you eat this animal?? Well what about this one???” in increasingly accusatory tones. Inevitably, somebody brings up dolphins, and we all know how it turns out. At best, I wind up on the receiving end of a look that suggests that my morals are… let us say, questionable.
“Would you eat cat? Would you eat dog???” That’s a common question. Also a difficult one, especially because I have owned cats and am around a lot of dogs. But I can’t say that I definitely would NOT try it once if I was in some other country where eating dogs/cats was a common occurance.
I mean, maybe I wouldn’t be so driven to eat the entire cast of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” if I got into extreme sports. Hear me out. We all want to experience all that life has to offer, and to try new and exciting things. For some people, this translates into surfing (I don’t have the balance), spelunking (I don’t have the endurance), snowboarding (I don’t have the coordination), and skydiving (OHMYLORDNO!). So, what is left for someone like me? Extreme-meat eating! Not that I will eschew the ever-faithful beef, pork, chicken, turkey, duck, lamb (as well as the usual seafood suspects). But when I want to break out of life’s tedium? When I want to have an adventure? Well, maybe I want to eat a cobra.
(side note: I was going to write “maybe I want to eat a snake,” but I realized that there are probably way too many immature asses reading this, and one immature ass writing it, so in the interest of finishing this think piece, I changed it)

I have not yet tried cobra, or any type of snake for that matter. I have tried alligator, but unfortunately due to the way it is generally prepared, have never been able to taste anything other than “fried.” Dammit, I want my alligator to taste alligator-y! Quail, venison, and elk have all registered as mediocre to my tastebuds, but again, it may have been the preparation. Rabbit tastes bland or delectable, depending on the exact dish. Ostrich has probably been my biggest disappoinment, but that’s my own fault for trying it for the first time at a damn diner! Next time I will consume ostrich at a more reputable dining establishment. Fuddrucker’s, here I come!!! Eating shark was, both times, a surprisingly delightful experience. I guess cold-blooded evil really IS scrumptious!!!
There may be others that I am forgetting, but you get the basic idea. Should I be experiencing life in some other way, one that is better for my aerobic and cardiovascular fitness, and perhaps a bit more environmentally conscious? Well, I am yet to be convinced. I plan to continue my culinary journey, sampling nature’s delicacies - the more exotic, the better!! Onward.

Maybe its because I’m turning a year older or maybe because I’m at a point in my career wondering if its time for a change, regardless, while looking at Jim Henson’s Wiki page this morning I wondered if I too would have a Wiki page when I die. I’m sure we would all like to have our names etched in stone or a reputable online imprint when we’re gone. For me, I can only hope it’s not about a ton of pictures on Flickr of me playing the guitar with somebody’s leg or giving the camera a "Rock On" symbol with one hand and holding a red cup with the other. I definitely don’t want it to be stories about me on Facebook and how I was one guy who never missed a party. So what does it take?

My New Year’s resolution was to "Make a Difference." I didn’t care what it was for, as long as it was something I was proud to accomplish. This is inline with the last few books I’ve read including "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko ", "Purple Cow " and "Free Prize Inside ". "Leave an imprint when you leave here" and "Be Remarkable" are two quotes from these books. "Leaving here" could mean leaving your current project, job, city, or even death. I’m not saying that my ultimate goal in life is to have a Wiki page, I guess I’m just wondering if anyone will remember or talk about anything I’ve done. Will I have succeeded in making a difference. I know many of you may be thinking as long as I make a difference in one person, whether that’s my child, friend or a random person, isn’t that enough? You know, it probably is. But think back to a person that worked with you in the past, or a friend that moved away, in under 1 sec does something come to mind that you remember about that person and do you still tell others about what they did that was so amazing?

I recently attended a web analytics conference where Lance Armstrong was one of the guest speakers. His speech about Cancer awareness had such an impact on me that I was very excited to get home to see how I could help. I now think I know what I should do which is to organize a Livestrong event for my area and maybe something larger. If ten years down the road some person somewhere in the world says to a friend, "I remember back around 2008 there was a Cancer awareness event that gave me the knowledge to spread the word," then I would feel accomplished that I did make a difference.

Now back to one of my original questions, "What does it take?" I guess I need to quit talking about it. Start making decisions to get the ball rolling. Whether it’s a Livestrong event, the products I build, the people I meet, or the presentations I give. I need to start the engine on some of my ideas and go to the edge so they have a chance of being noteworthy. It may not get me a Wiki page, but hopefully I will have made a difference.

Now, when you die, do you think you’ll have a Wiki page? Do you care? What will you leave behind so your story can be told?

Is April Fool’s Day still really relevant? In a world filled with Punk’d and Improv Everywhere do we still need this one day dedicated to mediocre jokes? On a web where I already have to worry about being Rick Rolled, do I need to be concerned about bad redesigns and fake news stories?

Anil Dash doesn’t think so, but Michael Arrington disagrees. I imagine that in 1957 Spaghetti Trees on the BBC was actually funny and confused a lot of people. I still laugh that the people of Boston were gullible enough to believe the Mayor was Dead as reported by a bunch of Shock Jocks . Think Geek still does a good job at coming up with some funny products, but now its become expected of them to do so. I have serious doubts that anyone really believes they can buy a Betamax to HD-DVD converter. Google seems to have sci-fi on the brain this year, with not 1 but 2 time travel related New Products along with a new partnership with Virgin to debut in 2014.

Now we’ve got legitimate news sources confirming rumors and starting rumors along with CNN covering Careerbuilders Top 10 April Fools’ Work Pranks . This is a ridiculous list that includes everything from:

• boring items - Rigged the boss’ chair to drop suddenly during a staff meeting
• to impossible stunts - Shrink-wrapped everything in a co-worker’s cubicle
• to the just plain mean and hurtful - Called the electric company, used a co-worker’s name and told them he was moving so the electricity got turned off at the co-worker’s house

Those are just examples that I’ve found in the past hour of being awake. Most of them feel just uninspired. It has the same feeling as the guys who show up to a Halloween party wearing a feather boa and their girlfriends clothes and think they’re dressing in drag.

I’m sure more will be revealed throughout the day. Is it worth it though? Is anyone finding humor in these things? Is anyone planning on pulling a joke today?