Archive for the 'Cool Stuff' Category

by Brion Lau

Have you ever heard of Kyle MacDonald? How about the One Red Paperclip? If not, where have you been?

Last year, on July 12, 2005, Kyle started out with a single red paperclip. His plan was to trade that single paperclip for a house. Sound impossible? Not really.

Warning: Stop reading if you don’t like spoilers. Follow Kyle’s story on his One Red Paperclip Blog.

He already achieved his goal! Kyle is now a happy resident of a single family home on 503 Main Street in Kipling, Saskatchewan Canada. Now that I’ve skipped to the ending, I strongly encourage you to read his entire story to see what fascinating products he traded for and the interesting people he met along the way.

Kyle’s story is truly inspirational and shows us that we can do anything if we set our minds to it!

Follow Kyle’s quest to trade his paperclip for a home on his One Red Paperclip blog.

by Mike Fennelly

It’s not really a giant secret that I’m a complete gaming nerd. I’m pretty much constantly on the lookout for something to amuse me while I have downtime, and I’m a big fan of games that are simple to catch on to, yet reward you for paying attention with tons of secrets and in-jokes.

So, obviously the best game in the known universe is The Kingdom Of Loathing.

What makes this phenomenally cool, and therefore PopDigerati-worthy though, is the fact that a 90,000+ member community, including a 24/7 internet radio station, a site for player-made music, and an inordinate number of spoiler and general fansites was spawned purely through internet word of mouth. Started by Zack “Jick” Johnson, and Josh “Mr. Skullhead” Nite back in the mists of 2003, the game has grown from featuring crudely drawn stick figures, and more than a touch of the surreal, to featuring… well… less crudely drawn stick figures. The fact that KoL has built a successful business, and merchandising mini-empire out of a free game makes me give them the nod for “Cool Stuff” here at Popdigerati.

So what’s your favorite distraction at work? What online games keep you up until 5am saying “Just one more minute!” 200 times? More importantly, what makes them cool enough for us to write about? Leave us comments and let us know!