Del.icio.us + site feed + technorati faves

In my ongoing quest to stay on top of every daily-changing blog-geek trend whatsoever, I just added some big cartoon-like icons over on the right. The top one is for my site feed (subscribe today!) and the one below that is a very fun and easy way to add one red paperclip to your del.icio.us links and to generally help this site beat bird flu in reaching every single corner of the earth. (please note: one red paperclip is not a disease that kills birds.) Below that is a great little way to crank up the awareness technorati-wise by adding ORP to your technorati faves. So if this site is a FAVE of yours, you know what to do... If this site isn't a fave of yours, then why are you hanging around here in the first place? You should've gone to stuff on my cat minutes ago. Please feel free to spread word about one red paperclip in any way you're able and email me with a link to your site so I can do likewise. I really like doing things likewise. Likewise is fun. see ya soon - Kyle

The French word for paperclip is "trombone"

Just thought you'd like to know.

Yahk doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time

Learn something new every day. From Diana: "Hey Kyle, Just thought you would like to know that Yahk, B.C. does NOT change time either. The sign moves from the top of the Salmo Creston summit to about 10 km east of Yahk every time the time changes. So you could add Yahk, B.C. to your list. Cheers Diana" Wherever my house ends up being located, I'm going to make sure this is the case. Change time just by moving a sign. Makes way more sense to me to move ONE sign than dozens of clocks. I'm all about the one-sign method. That, or find myself a DeLorean and enough ashpalt to hit 88MPH. And apparently, Indiana's in on the clock changing now too. From Mike: "Actually, Indiana is now observing daylight savings time. A bill recently passed to make the switch. However, I think there are some counties that will end up in the central time zone while the majority of the state moves to the eastern time zone. It's really messed up." You're telling me. Indiana has no idea what they're getting into. Changing clocks is serious business. Do you think there are more smoke detectors with dead batteries in places that don't observe daylight savings time? I bet the battery companies are behind the daylight savings conspiracy. You just know if we ever voted to scrap changing the clocks that somebody would complain about dead batteries in smoke detectors. I bet sales of 9 volt batteries go up in Indiana. I bet Vegas is taking bets on that. So it looks like everybody changes their clocks forward except for Arizona, Saskatchewan, a few renegade counties in Indiana, and Yahk. Sandford Fleming must be rolling in his grave. Speaking of death, I hereby proclaim that the keytar is officially dead. Behold the surftar! Just imagine what that whammy bar sounds like. I bet that guys stays up all night long every night. Rock Ten - Kyle

Pulling Gs

Put new spark plugs in our car today. NGK G-Power Platinum tips. Real beauties. I guess you could say I did a bit of a tune up on the 1990 Corolla wagon. Probably the first time they've been changed in sixteen years. I can't wait to drive Dom to work tomorrow morning. The acceleration is gonna be nuts. Gonna pull some real Gs. Well, probably not as many as a Fiero, but still, nothing Corey Hart would sneer at either. I'm counting on some pretty crazy stuff here. I put the head rests up real high, just to be on the safe side. I hope Dom doesn't forget to snap the lid on her coffee mug. I did a phone interview live on BBC Scotland last night. It was great. One of the hosts, Richard Cadley, went out into the "high street" and started trading stuff live on-air. Here's how he did. Not bad for one hour if you ask me! The interview was at 4:30 AM Montreal time or something. Late late night interviews on Scotland radio stations are awesome. Can't wait to go there one day. Hey radio peeps and podcasters, if you want to do an interview about one red paperclip, feel free to call me anytime at 514-833-3980. Seriously, anytime. Besides, time really doesn't matter this week, with daylight savings coming up and all. The placement of hours is kinda, like, you know, relative. Hey Arizona, Indiana and Saskatchewan - you guys have no idea what you're missing out on. Daylight Savings is da bomb. So, yeah, my circadian rhythms are shot and I'm up late at night rambling about spark plugs, pulling Gs, Daylight savings, acceleration and no-so-subtly asking for radio interviews to help promote the project. There's a tie-in here though. I really think it's time to drop the clutch on one red paperclip and make this happen. Burn a little rubber for show at first to please the crowd, then work through the gears and hit the finish line at top speed. I think right now, with the recording contract, we're at about 4000 RPMs in second gear and just getting read to shift into third. Yeah, the on-ramp meters are off and I'm about to slam it in third and merge onto the freeway. Remember though, the Corolla's got five gears, so we've still got a ways to go before the house. It's gonna be a lot of fun, hard work over the next little bit, but I have a feeling that third, fourth and fifth gears are gonna rule. You know that part in Top Gun when the F-14 lifts off the deck and the synthesizer bass line for "Highway to the Danger Zone" kicks in? Yeah, that's pretty much right now. Kenny Logins, you are my hero - Kyle.

¡Hola!

¡Hola amigos y amigas! Bienvenidos a un clip rojo. A GREAT Spanish link here. Man, Spanish is so awesome. I've always wanted to use upside down punctuation marks. So much cooler than not using upside-down punctuation marks ¿Why don't we have upside-down punctuation marks in English? ¡Seems like a good idea to me! Somebody needs to really get on this - start a petition to Webster or one of those dictionary types. Maybe I'll just start using them and see what happens. ¿What do you think? ¿Good idea? So, today's website stats say that one in five visitors here are from Spain. Probably because a dude from Spain named Raúl Herranz is attempting to trade from a shoe to a house. More specifically, a right shoe to a house. He got himself a pretty stompin' article in El Mundo, a massive newspaper in Spain. Way to go Raúl! I wish you the best of luck. Remember, I'm all about other people starting one red paperclip-ish trading games. There's more than enough stuff in the world for lots of people to have a crack at this! So whatcha waiting for? Get out there and start trading! Been a crazy last few days around here. I spent Friday and Saturday with the Aussie crew from Beyond Tomorrow. Really neat to watch people make a segment for a TV show. Amazing how much work goes into shooting a six minute segment. Thanks again guys, tons of fun. Look for the segment to air sometime this year on the Discovery Channel. I'll keep you posted on the air date when I find out! I had some very, very interesting phone calls last Friday. Some phone calls with people I never imagined I'd speak with. Some very cool people that have the ability to take this project to a complete new level. I'm gonna be vague here, because details are still sketchy, but I will say that the publicity/notoriety aspect that comes with the recording contract may become GREATLY enhanced by some recent developments on the one red paperclip front. More details soon, I promise. If you want the recording contract, now's the time to step up to the plate and make an offer. I'm going to decide soon. So, I'll score you the details when I get 'em, but it looks like the one red paperclip project may become something much bigger than I ever imagined. Stay tuned, and have fun - Kyle PS- I'm now officially a Hollywood film producer.

Black Sheep

I just re-wrote one trip to Yahk to better explain how everything went down leading up to the trip to Yahk. Check it out. One cube van is up next for a rewrite - and it'll actually have details about the trip to Yahk. Just thought I'd give you a little teaser. In other news, I was on the news tonight. On TV. Here in Quebec. Le Grand Journal with Jean-Luc Mongrain. Jean Luc-Mongrain is arguably the most Ron Burgundy-ish of all Quebecois brodcasters. He's the guy on the left - the one who crosses his arms - a classic move of his. He totally does poses while other people speak, sometimes even bringing his hand to his chin in a 'deep thought' pose. Rumor has it that he even used to have a crazy huge mustache. He's an absolute legend. I'm Pretty proud to be anywhat associated with him. 'Anywhat' is a word right? It was on TQS - the "black sheep" of Quebec TV networks. The guy who interviewed me was Jean Lajoie. Another classic Quebec TV dude. He even spelled my last name wrong. Perfect. Oh, yeah, the video's all in French.

Word-of-web + press release

I owe the success of one red paperclip entirely to word-of-mouth, and it's younger, less chatty but much further reaching cousin, word-of-web. Big thanks to everyone who's told a friend or posted a link to this site on yours or blogged about it or or emailed everyone you know or written the URL in a bathroom stall or wrote one red paperclip on the back of a matchbook. It all helps. Big time. You can see who's posted a link or blogged about one red paperclip over at Technorati. Thanks again for spreading the word. I need all the help I can get at this stage - the items up for grabs aren't exactly the kind of things people usually have lying around the house. Definitely not as easy to trade up from a cube van or a recording contract like it was with the red paperclip or the fish pen! With that in mind, I'm testing out a 'top referrer' script to the right side of this page. (down below the ads and archives) Not really sure if this is a very good 'top referrers' thingy - I just used the first one I could find. It seems to just show all the in-links coming from oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com. Not really what I had in mind....I'd like to show other people's sites here! If you know of a better 'top referrer' script than this, please let me know. I'd like to have it up above the ads on the right as a way of saying thanks to everyone who's making this possible. PR Web also issued a press release today about one red paperclip. I know most of the media has really just come to the site and figured out what's going on around here by snooping around, but it provides a simple clean-cut rundown of what's exactly happening with one red paperclip. There's pictures and everything and you can download a PDF. Feel free to spread the press release around or contact me if you have any questions. Thanks, and have a rad day. - Kyle

Beyond Tomorrow

Hey everybody. I'm Getting really excited about the next little bit around here. A film crew from the Australian TV show Beyond Tomorrow is coming to our apartment on Friday - which is, fittingly, just beyond tomorrow. I'm pretty blown away that an Aussie TV show is coming all the way to Montreal to cover the project. I guess that means I have to clean up the apartment and everything. Go say hello to Mr. Clean and his good buddy Pine Sol and stuff. one recording contract is still up for grabs. I just realized that my description of what it includes was kinda like looking at the current state of my apartment. Messy. So I just re-wrote it. You should really go take a look at my revised description of one recording contract. It's really nice. Mr Clean will be happy. And proud. Heck, maybe even Mr. Clean will make an offer. If you know anyone in a band, or if you're a singer who maybe didn't make the top 11 on American Idol, one recording contract is up for grabs. I'm really open to creative offers on this one, as I know that lots of up-and-coming artists don't have much in the way of material goods to offer. However, my offer still stands that I will make the trade on the spot for a General Lee - but don't wait - I'm going to make my decision very soon. How soon? Well, let's just say I'll decide beyond tomorrow. Have fun - Kyle

Bio

eags

Originally from Belcarra, British Columbia, Canada, Kyle MacDonald has planted more than one hundred thousand trees, delivered more than one thousand pizzas, but eaten only one scorpion. He has also traded one red paperclip for a house only once.

He coordially invites you to edit his wikipedia bio as creatively as you desire.

When he's not stealing a flag from the Prime Minister's office or promoting Alberta Beef by hitch-hiking in a parade, you might find him leaving his wallet in El Segundo or hanging out in Bangkok modeling Italian Soccer jerseys to fund 4am Red-Bull and Rum-fueled urban hitchhikes. He also enjoys writing third-person bio pages for his website and loves to stand on street corners in Montreal hawking shoddily-bound English literature to Francophones in sub-zero temperatures.

His mom still cuts his hair.

Funtential

This is really cool. Funtential is now in the open dictionary. Awesome. Inventing words is the best. It truly embiggens our lives. Thanks for the add, Eva! I guess now is the perfect time to come up with a new word for the O Coinada project. The funtential to invent a new word, or even coin a phrase in the pun-totally-intended sense will be incalcuable. It'll be totally unpossible to measure the awesomeness of that. Now I just gotta come up with a word. Anyone got any ideas? Hey, here's an idea with lots of funtential: Comment on this post with words that you invented. My girlfriend Dom calls underwear "snipettes" and Tom Green's mom calls a cordless phone a "roamy phone". Two fine examples of perfectly cromulent words. What you got?

A polite request to the Queen of England

This has nothing to do with the one red paperclip project, but it is something that every person I know agrees on. We have a simple request to the Queen of England: Allow Canadians to put actual Canadians on Canadian coins. The petition is here: www.ocoinada.blogspot.com If one million people sign the petition, I will print if out and go to London to personally hand-deliver it to the Queen. Kyle PS This is officially the best blog post ever.

one famous skidoo re-do

I just re-wrote one famous skidoo. Hope you enjoy it. Revamps of everything else will follow. I also reworked the write up for one recording contract - Available NOW Oh, and if you aren't the queen of England, you might want to check this out. Rock on - Kyle PS Signature #9 is an absolute gem. Yes, that's the Ricky. I went on a bit more of a tear over at Kyle MacD. Feel free to check it out if you're into this kind of stuff. PPS Only four people have joined the fan club so far. (hint hint)

O Coinada

I just wrote a petition to the Queen of England: ocoinada.blogspot.com

I guess you can think of this as kind of like an internet petition version of the American Revolution - albeit with less spilled tea and without all those midnight horse rides. Hey, if anybody has a few spare horses and wants to organize some late night equestrian activites, be sure to let me know.

Kyle

Kiwi Ink

Wow. Great article about one red paperclip in the New Zealand Herald today. Wait a sec, the article says Mar 17 but it's only the 16th here. Yes, I guess there's only one explanation for that: the article is from the future. It's almost like a premonition or something. I like how the International Date line makes it easy to look into the future. The Future is fun. The International Date line is fun. Thanks Owen! If you're in New Zealand and you're reading this, in the future, I'll trade you something really awesome for an original copy of that article! That's right newspaper-toting Kiwis, score me a copy of the Mar 17 New Zealand Herald and I'll hook you up with a picture of me holding the article next to somethng really Montreal-ish - like snow or cigarettes or people speaking French! If you're down, or up, for that kind of thing, my address is: PO Box 55067 CSP Fairmount Montreal, Quebec H2T 3E2 Canada I know it says in the details of one recording contract that it includes transportation to/from Toronto from anywhere in North America, but for the right offer, it really includes transportation from anywhere. So if you're a Kiwi jonesing to get into the studio, make me an offer! Anything is possible for the right offer! Remember, unless it's a house or a holiday home, I'll need to re-trade whatever I accept for the recording contract. Yes, the Kerrigan's holiday home in Bonnie Doon from the movie 'The Castle' is my dream house. Yes, it's for sale. Yes, I love serenity, powerlines, and above all else, greyhounds. Have fun - Kyle PS - Sign this if you love The Future. PPS - Hey Canucks, Aussies and Kiwis, go here if you love freedom: ocoinada.blogspot.com (Americans too, but you're already one step ahead of us.)

choices choices choices

Man, is it ever hard to decide what to take for the recording contract. Have you checked out the offers yet? If you want to trade for any of the things I've been offered - please don't hesitate to let me know about it. It will make my choice a lot easier. Hey, why not email me at oneredpaperclip@gmail.com and tell me what you think I should take. I really need some help with this one. Tweaked the website a bit list night. Do you like the new feel? I just came to the realization today that if I plan to trade up to a house by July 12th of this year, I have less than four months to go. Seing how I've made nine or so trades in the last eight months, it looks like I've got my work cut out for me. Gonna be a lot of hard work to make this happen - something I'm totally up for - but lots of work nonetheless. I'm actually quite surprised by the lack of response for the recording contract. This is a seriously good contact folks! It comes with 30 hours of studio time, 5o hours post production as well as transportation to/from Toronto from prety much anywhere on the planet! You also get accomodations in Toronto and Brendan's got some great online distribution lined up with folks like Napster et al. You pretty much show up in Toronto with your instruments and songs, and leave with a professional quality album ready for the record store. It'd be really hard to put a dollar value on the recording contract because it comes attached with the notoriety/publicity in being involved with this project. (not something I like to throw around or boast about - but come on!) I am going to write a book about my trading adventure, so think of all the press you'll get over the years when people read the book! There's also the opportunity to sell the album through this website and if/when I appear on more TV shows and the like, I'll be more than happy to hold up your album! Feel free to call me on my cell at 514-833-3980 if you have any questions about the recording contract or just really want to chat about the project or whatever. I just got a call from a guy in Byron Bay Australia who plans to start with a red paperclip and trade his way up to a truck, then drive the truck to Ayers Rock. So that's always fun. Random calls from Australia. I've also had a few calls over the last month or so, from "anonymous" callers, (I think they one of those number masking thingys, like *72 or something) Anyhow, these "anonymous" callers ring up and then when I say hello, they quickly hang up without saying anything. Yes, that's my real number. If you're gonna prank call, you might as well say something funny. If this is you, you definitely need to see this. I've been struggling to concentrate on one red paperclip lately. I have, as my cousin Ty calls it, 'shiny object syndrome'. Yep, I'm like a crow. Whenever I see something interesting I quickly shift focus and get totally over-involved in a completely tangental project that has little or no scope as to what I should be doing. It seems strange to say it, but trying to trade from a red paperclip to a house has really grounded me. In a good way. I kind of like the fact that if I don't make it to the house I'll be a total chump. It sure is a great way to keep from procrastinating. I guess I need to be contstantly reminded that I'm doing this project. A red paperclip doesn't exactly turn itself into a house. There's a lot of stuff to distract me from making trades. Luckily, I've had people like Lionel Ritchie when I needed him most. So, big plans are afoot to crank this up a few notches and make the trades happen. I want to have a big Barbeque at the house on July 12th. It so has to happen. If you have any means whatsoever of helping spread the word about the recording contract, please do so. I really want to make a decision on this soon. have a good one - Kyle

ebay auctions every day this week

Hey, I'm doing an ebay auction every day this week. You can see them here: www.orpauctions.blogspot.com Each of these auctions will: -start at ONE cent -last ONE day -include FREE SHIPPING anywhere in the world -have NO RESERVE Have fun, and happy bidding, Kyle PS Don't forget about the glow-in-the-dark soap/t-shirt auction! PPS I just uploaded a PDF of the recording contact. You can see it here.

Real Web Geeks: BIG opportunity

I'm developing a new daily video ebay blog idea. There's a fully functional beta version set up at www.orpauctions.blogspot.com (The project is totally LIVE - feel free to bid on today's item!) My goal is to create daily fun videos that will be attached to ONE DAY ebay auctions. Think woot slash rocketboom slash ebay. I obviously want to get it off blogger and streamline the video uploads/ebay auction listings. I'm looking for somebody to pretty much set it up and help maintain the ebay listings/blog. I want to work with a hardcore geek who REALLY knows their stuff and can visualize the potential with this new idea. We can work something out regarding payment etc... All orp auctions will: 1. Start at one cent. 2. Last for one day. (Noon PST to Noon PST) 3. Have no reserve. 4. Include FREE shipping anywhere in the world. 5. Eventually be composed of things people mail to my P.O. Box. 6. Be fun. (waaaay funner than the ones on the beta site) I'm really excited about this. I think it has HUGE potential. And hey, I've never had a beta version of anything before. If you want to help make this happen, email me at oneredpaperclip@gmail.com or give me a call at 514-833-3980. This is going to be tons of fun. Kyle

Join the FAN club! Win a free patch!

Yep, that's right. The first 5 people to join the FAN club win a free one red paperclip patch. It's that easy: send a picture of you and your FAN to oneredpaperclip@gmail.com along with your address and I will mail you an official one red paperclip patch FREE! These patches are EXTREMELY limited and are an amazing collectors item. So whatcha waiting for? Join the FAN Club! Have fun, Kyle

eBay pays the rent

I get asked quite often what I do for a job. I always say that I'm a freelance internet trader or writer or something obscure. This is one of the fun ways I piece together my rent money: EBAY AUCTION NUMBER 5676142771 Bidding starts at ONE CENT and includes FREE SHIPPING anywhere in the world. Happy bidding, Kyle

Tread Marks

My dad and I made it to Toronto yesterday. Spun over to Brendan at MetalWorks and traded the cube van for the recording contract. You can see a PDF of the contract here. CIMG5669 CIMG5665 In order to make it official, I had to sign the contract. With the left-rear tire of the cube van of course: I'm so glad I didn't run over your fingers Brendan. That would've been so not cool. But then again, the footage would've been great. So, Brendan's got the cube van. I've got the recording contract. I'm back in Montreal now. Time to have a nice long sleep. have fun, Kyle PS you can see a PDF of the contract here.

Thunder Bay and stuff

This is a few days back, but my Dad flew from Vancouver to Thunder Bay to help with the drive back to Toronto. We spent a couple of days there with and Andy and J.P., two rad guys Dom and I met a few years ago in Lagos Portugal. (We went on to travel together in Morocco with dbuc after that. It was super fun. Go to Morocco if you get the chance - avoid getting ripped off by sneaky spice salesmen. Or don't avoid it, either way is fun.) So we chilled out at J.P.'s cabin on a lake and then went back to Andy's parents place for some super amazing Italian food. Good times. I can't wait to go back. Thanks guys! Me and J.P. CIMG5646 A great picture of Andy that'll stay up here until he emails me a better one: CIMG5649 Then we headed out of town and somewhere in Northern Ontario we came across this real cool patch of ice: CIMG5660 Never caught any fish, but met some great people. From left to right: Mike, Laura, Kyle, Janet and Jon. Mike and Laura are MacDonalds too - they even have a son named Scott. Scott MacDonald, the same name as my brother. The ice started to make all sorts of crazy noises and everyone scattered to shore real fast because we thought we were going to fall through and drown and lose all the fishing gear. So that was fun. CIMG5662 Thanks again guys. Kyle

Running with the Night

Saskatchewan is the butt of a lot of jokes. Naturally. CIMG5599 Two thumbs up to the tourist commission on the dumpster placement. Making it way easier for the rest of us. No, I like Saskatchewan. Just never really spent much time there. Highway 1 East three times. Yes, the typical drive-by. Lame, I know. I'll stop longer next time. I need to go back. I've never even filled up at Dick Assman's gas station. This next one is pretty much the only video I shot on the entire drive from Vancouver to Toronto. Saskatchewan. At night. Speakers Up. Lionel Ritchie, you are my guiding light. have fun, kyle

L'original trombone rouge

In case you were worried, the original red paperclip is safe and sound in the care of Rhawnie and Corinna in Whistler BC Canada. I rolled into Whistler to chill with the girls. Good times. We hung out with the red paperclip, drank Kokanne, saw Perry Farrell DJ, and Corinna gave me a suitcase filled with a wooden fish to deliver to her brother Kyle in Barrie Ontario. Pretty standard stuff. CIMG5555 CIMG5579 CIMG5546