One Red Curlypieceofwire

In 2004, my friend Liam was involved in some training up north where they mixed army-esque training with Bible instruction. One of their tasks in the few months that this training went on, was being divided into small groups, taking a paperclip and being promptly dropped off further south to make their way home within a certain timeframe. The mission: to trade up the paperclip as many times as possible and return with the best item that they could.

Like bartering of old - pre-currency - the paperclip exercise seems to have made its way around the world. And it appears that this exercise is not the first. In coming across one red paperclip, a site devoted to one man's mission to trade from a single paperclip to a house, I found out that some American children played a game during the 1980's where they went from door to door, trading items, to see who could come out with the best. From this idea, he has now devoted himself to bartering - and not just physical items either, as the current trading piece is a contract with a Canadian record company.

Some of the applications from people include a full body tattoo (apparently worth upwards of $20K), a 14-month lease to a Mexican beach bar and one year of free advertising on the bonnet of a Nascar racing car. This site - and the man behind it - has received incredible acclaim. And no wonder, since he has gone from a small piece of curved wire to a record contract in just nine steps. There are tv and radio interviews and his site currently receives a reported 25K+ hits per day.

Many copy-cats have also taken it upon themselves to go along the same path, trading various items to try and achieve a goal - or perhaps just for the fun of it. Kyle MacDonald, the entrepreneur of this one red paperclip scheme, encourages people to follow in his footsteps - and to enjoy doing it. I guess that's why, with such a big following now, a number of individuals have been encouraged by the whole idea of bartering, seeing it work, and have the courage to try it for themselves. Awesome.

BTW, he's the same age as me. And I've been to Canada. And there was an article in the NZ Herald recently about the whole thing. *Cue twilight zone music*

I really need to update the layout of this site. If anyone actually reads my Blog and has any suggestions as to a nifty header, a better layout, colours, etc. Please, drop me a line.

And now it must be time to go watch a movie via my Xbox. I just replaced the ethernet cable as I was cleaning the flat today and found that five metres is just a tad short. And when I say tad, I mean about 10cm or so. Easily fixed - I just moved the Xbox back a little and the switch a little closer. It was interesting to note though, as the cable I'd been using up until now easily reached. Five metres is a standard. I guess the old blue cat 5e just got stretched over time. But that just means this one will too and I'll be able to shift my Xbox forward once more, eventually.

Now. What should I watch...?

-Timotheos