Today was another great day in the office, as we finally launched something I've been working on for a while now. Virtual Thirst is an open competition being held by Coca-Cola to design an imaginary machine that delivers a Coca-Cola experience in Second Life.

By using Second Life as a tool for collaborative building, there's no limit on what can be achieved - fireworks displays, anti-gravity machines, a party in a box. The competition is open to everyone, not just SL residents, and a crack team of builders will take the winning idea - whether it's a detailed blueprint, or a sketch on a napkin, and turn it into virtual reality. If it's yours, Coca-Cola will fly you to the west coast to work with the build team in person.

Check out all the details at Virtualthirst.com. There are videos to watch of prototypes we made, and video diaries of some of the behind-the-scenes team (mine will be going up later today).

If you are new to the net, or even if you aren’t, this will get you up to speed on some of the most popular viral videos of the past few years. Pasted together, it just goes to show that human nature is the same as ever: we love it when things go wrong for other people.

(via Cool Stuff)

I remember seeing Bruce Lee’s movie Game of Death at the drive-in theater when it was first released. I was aware that he had died, but I was young and oblivious to the bizarre circumstances surrounding the making of that film. Neatorama has the story in the article The Creepiest Movie Ever Made.

Through a series of accounting mistakes and critical oversights, I've been made the newest contributor to the YBNBY team. In an effort to get everyone comfortable with my addition, I thought I'd give you some snippets about my life.

I distinctly remember my brother and me picking lead-based paint chips off the wall of our childhood home and eating them. I thought my "net handle" Echowood was awesome back in 1994. Of course, I also owned Vanilla Ice's "To The Extreme" and claimed to my friends that he was the next Beatles back then too. While I don't define myself as a cat person, I screamed out my cat's name mid-coitus with an ex-girlfriend. I once used the term "drop some knowledge" and, due to the scornful glances, I haven't used it since. I have a strong aversion to eggs and anyone who calls someone else "chief," unless they're referring to a person of high-position in a Native-American community.

For more, my personal blog can be found here.