Zoomdoggle: More fun than work!

It is with great pride, and after long deliberation, that we present the winner of our first annual Gurn-a-Thon :

Elizabeth H takes the cake for not only twisting out a masterpiece, but also becuase she took time off her vacation to do so. Elizabeth, drop us a line at gurnwinner at zoomdoggle dot com and we’ll get your prize (did someone say free BuckyBalls? Yay), into the mail as soon as is possible.

Honorable mention goes to all of the 60+ others who entered. If you haven been back in a while, CLICK HERE to have a look. There’s some pretty incredible facial gymnatics there. You’re a skilled lot.

Remember some time back when I asked you to stand on my amazing new Ford Fiesta? Well, now it’s gone. At least for the moment. Of course someone would try to steal it – the thing is mega-fun to drive – it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Here are the facts as I know them:

-Wednesday night, I parked the thing on the street. I was of course smiling (really, did I mention how fun it is to drive yet? It is) and frowning (finding legal street parking isn’t always so easy).

-Thursday night I went back to the spot where I’d put it. Again, I was frowning (parking it where I did meant I would have to move it again before sun-up or risk getting towed) but smiling on the inside (the thing has a push-button starter, a bigger engine than you’d believe, and comfortable seating for four, how fun is that?). Only, er, it wasn’t there. I called the city who didn’t have a record of having towed it. Then I called the police. Then I called the car’s handlers. Then I called it a night. Oh, I also twittered it.

NOTE: My favorite part of all of this? At 1AM the cops kept saying “Listen guy, you’ve got to give us something to go on. Help us out.” To which I kept responding, “I’ve given you the plate number, the VIN, told you that it’s hot magenta with pink spots, is one of only 140 ’09 Ford Fiesta’s in this country, and has a giant URL written across the rear bumper. What more do you want?”

-Friday morning I got word that in fact, there was more info to give. Lots. The car was on the move. It seems that, because Ford had brought these cars in from Europe on a special visa, each one had been fitted with a tracking device. Mine was being tracked from Boston to Connecticut, and was now heading down I-95 back to NYC. As word of this hit Twitter, so began what some have affectionately referred to as “Twitter’s first live car chase.” CLICK HERE to read all about it.

-Saturday morning came a report that it had last pinged from DC (even without me behind the wheel the car seems to be having a good time).

At the moment, I am still without car, which is a shame because, well, it really is an awesome car (did I tell you about the voice controls? The tilting headlights? The iPod hook-up? The list is endless). If you see it, here’s what I want you to do:

1. Take a picture on the hood. It’s fun to do, trust me, plus it will let everyone know you’ve actually found the wayward ride.
2. Twitter it’s location. Use #fiestamovement or @jakehimself so everyone sees it.
3. Call the authorities.

I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime, consider this Zoomdoggle’s first scavenger hunt. Game on!

LINK: Fiestamovement.

About a week or so ago, in honor of Zoomdoggle’s one year anniversary, I asked which post you thought was the most viewed in Zoomdoggle’s history. There were loads of good guesses. A lot of people thought maybe it was Love Letters To Strangers (seeing as that got so much national attention), or the Fun Idea Machine (as that got international attention), or the BuckyBalls Contest (having caused such a stir, I could see how you’d think that). In fact, the top three posts, in order are… drumroll please…

HANNA IN A CHOPPA

GUMMI BEAR BATTALION

then the FUN IDEA MACHINE.

Go figure. The internet’s a crazy place, right? So no one got the right answer, then again, I’m not sure how I thought they would. So, in the interest of fun-ness I’m sending out 3 Gummi prints anyway.

DBECH gets one for being the first to guess “Fun Idea Machine.”

MAGGIE gets one for being the next to guess “Fun Idea Machine” even though I’d just posted a comment myself saying it wasn’t the Fun Idea Machine.

LILOAZNANGEL gets one for claiming to have “narrowed it down to 2 months in which it happened in but there is so many posts to go through!” I have no idea how you were working on it, but I like your style.

I’m saving the three sets of BuckyBalls to give away another day, but in the meantime if all three winners would send me their address at iwon at zoomdoggle dot com I can drop your prizes in the mail. Thanks to everyone who played, more to come soon!

It seems the Boner Bill has given birth to a Boner Board (NOTE: Contrary to common belief round here, fun as making Boner Bills is, I had nothing to do with their invention. Kids in my neighborhood were turning ones into weiners way, way back in the day. Matter of fact, this isn’t even the first Boner Board I’ve seen). Thanks to Yianni Garcia for sending this in.

Actually, while we’re on the subject, two more things:

1. Per RB’s comment, sorry I’ve stopped messing with the Boner Bill daily. It wasn’t getting enough love to warrant the effort.
2.Per Guy’s comment, the Boner Bill is not the top Zoomdoggle post. If no one gets the right answer by mid-week I’ll let the cat out of the bag and send out some runner-up prizes just because.

A lot of people have been kind enough to add something over the past year. Click their banners for my personal favorite of each.

Got something you’d like to contribute? Want to write about sex, or fun? Maybe you take fun pictures, have a fun blog we should be excerpting, or simply want to mind the shop from the time to time? We’re always on the hunt for guest bloggers / fun hunters / who knows. Drop us a line at writedoggle at zoomdoggle dot com. Here’s hoping next year is even better than the last.

And with that, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

In the last year, one post has gotten more views than the rest… by a long shot. Most posts never break the 20,000 views mark… this one has over 100,000. Any idea which it might be? This is your chance to win a Gummy Print and a set of BuckyBalls. On the house. Here’s how:

Leave a comment with what you think Zoomdoggle’s most popular post has been. Get it right and you get a prize pack (a print and a set). If more than one person gets it right, we’ll pick up to three at random to send the prize packs, so feel free to copy someone else’s answer if you think they’ve got it right.

Ready? Set? GO!

It’s not all fun and games.

Here’s a brief list of the posts that never should’ve been… some of which actually never were… and the reasons they failed so hard.
I’ll Bet I Can

“I’ll be I can get on the Today Show,” I said. Even better, I’d bet I could get my message on the Today Show (it’s something I’d done for clients once or twice before).

I had it in my head that if I could say I was in a band called Ann Purry, a “tribute band to Ann Curry, the hottest cat in the news business” and that you could “find us online at www.annpurry.com” (a URL I’d bought and redirected to Zoomdoggle) I could drive huge amounts of traffic my way. Getting there in time means waking up at 5AM. Getting on air means standing out:

Day 1 – I had a little arm dog with me in a t-shirt that said “Matt Growler – I hate Ann Purry” but animals aren’t aloud on the plaza.

Day 2 – I wore tiger ears and a t-shirt reading Ann Purry, but I didn’t get any love.

Day 3 – I brought 5 friends, all in Ann Purry shirts and all in tiger ears (presumably, we’d be the band)… this time, they didn’t even do the segment on the plaza.

Day 4 – I stayed in bed. End of story.

Doesn’t Anybody Read Anymore?

Improv Everywhere‘s Charlie Todd and I had gone to lunch to talk fun. One of the good things that came from that conversation, was his encouraging me to follow through on the Fun Idea Machine (in fact, he thought Improv should be involved somehow). But I had this other idea too, “Subway the fun-way” I was calling it, “an adult playground underground.” I wanted to turn a subway platform into a fun space somehow. Charlie thought that was Improv-able as well, but after some lengthy chatting back and forth, we couldn’t quite get our schedules to sync. I called pretty much the same five friends as had gone with me to the Today Show, and had them call five friends too. We armed ourselves with all kinds of fun stuff to set up (including tether balls, to turn the pillars at the stop we’d chosen into tether ball courts). After about a week of planning, we went out at 4AM to set it all up, only to find the stop was closed. The worst bit of all? The signs saying it would be closed had been up for days. Oops. Attention to detail isn’t always my strong suit (see also: spelling).

Making Luck : LUCK-vertizing

Here’s an idea, got a new web site you’re looking to promote, why not take $50 worth of pennys, afix tiny good luck messages to the tails-side (along with the URL) and leave them heads-up all over town for others to find? Um, how about 5000 little pieces of paper, messy spray adhesive (at first, I actually tried tape), countless man hours. There are tons of reasons this is a bad idea. But I’d just started dating a girl who thought it was cute and was willing to help. That seemed like reason enough.

It took about 40 man hours to make the pennies and another 5 to spread them out (I didn’t want to leave piles, just a single penny here and there). Keep in mind that every 5th had a note simply asking the finder to come to Zoomdoggle and post a comment saying where they’d found it. Keep in mind that not one person did. Not one. I’m not entirely sure why the plan fell didn’t work (could it be that homeless people don’t read blogs?), but it did.

Advanced Face Copy

This one isn’t nearly as severe as the others, but it bears mentioning still if only for the shocking realization it brought with it.

You know I love camera tricks. But photocopier tricks come in a close second (it’s like there’s a photo booth in your office, and because of the way it scans side-to-side you can make all sorts of neat stuff happen). I briefly explained the phenomenon – I’m sure I went into more detail in a later post – but then I asked readers to make their own and email it in. It was only one month after launch, but I really thought there’d be dozens by end of day. Not one. Still. To this day. Getting people you don’t know to do your bidding can be tough. We’ll get there though (Floyd’s cracked the code more than once).

The list goes on and on (the world’s longest Slip ‘n Slide ring a bell anyone? I got the city and Wham-O involved in that little debacle) but each one of these I write puts me one step closer to never wanting to post again, so I think that’s it for the fail list. At least for now.

365 days, whittled down to just a handful of awesome posts in honor of ZD’s first birthday.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I didn’t actually look through the whole site, these were just the ones that jumped out at me while pushing the random post button. As with the posts below, clicking the clickable bits will take you back to the original stories.
Mr T Post-Its Wall

Zoomdoggle’s very first post. Day one. Gotta love it. In addition to all of the hands who helped put the Post-its on the wall, a special thanks goes to Yianni Garcia for having the foresight (and skill set) to make the video.

Hipster Bingo

I’m not sure how awesome this one really is, but it was the first post it seemed like my office-mates had actually read before I got to the office. Step one to entertaining other people is entertaining your own; it felt like the start of something good.

Thumbtack Obama

Same trick as the Post-its, this time done with thumbtacks… and in honor of Obama’s getting the democratic nod. Three days of work went into this, but Gawker media was unwittingly lifted their 0% Jake ban when they gave it the nod Gawker-style on Wonkette.

The Jump Shot

The first of many fun camera-tricks I love. Anyone recognize the girl? She’s in the Mr T video too.

Outsourcing The Doggle

Hiring an virtual assistant in India to do my blogging for me for was actually Bud Caddell‘s idea. So good. Search for Yogesh in the search bar at the top to the last few of Yogesh’s Daily Doggles. Clicking his picture in each takes you to the one before. I’ve tried to contact him again since the gig ran up… no luck.

Text Zoomdoggle for Fun Ideas

I still can’t believe a company was willing to put up the dough for all of the texts this thing runs… or that people still use it. In fact, with only 125 entries in the cue, it still gets between 50 and 100 users per day.

Thanking Customer Care

I still don’t know why I find it so enjoyable to call customer care and say thanks. But I do. Side note: This actually started as my way of saying U-Haul is the worst run company on Earth as many times as possible. By the third video though, I’d lost that venom.

Hire A Bodygaurde

Yup, for that first month we actually tried to make readers dreams come true. I’d like to get back to this kind of stuff, but you have no idea the legwork involved. Oh, and then the model I set up on a date had a bad experience. That’s no good.

BuckyBalls
Zoomdoggle’s first product. There’s more in the works… just as soon as we iron out the kinks. Strangely enough, while the rest of the site quickly dialed back to just me typing in the morning, BuckyBalls had to hire employees. Go figure.

Of course, some of the fun was made by you the readers. You’re a fun bunch.

QUICK: Make a Face

Floyd Hayes taught us what a gurn is… more than 60 of you followed suit. I love the first few comments where it’s just Floyd and I chatting back and forth about how no one is interested (sometimes these things take time). Ooh, and as soon as Floyd tells me how the winner is chosen, I think I owe a prize.

QUICK: What’s Your Favorite Thing About Today (T.HANKS)

Sometimes when I’m down I read the comments on this post. T.Hanks for that!

QUICK: What’s the Oldest Joke You Remember?

Another Floyd banger. Another good list made by you.

QUICK: What Do You Need? (Find out the fun way)

Seriously, Google knows all. The list changes though.. Sometimes it’s fun going back and trying again.

QUICK: Lets Play the Google Snake Game

This one got messy fast – mainly because I’m not always that quick to approve comments – but what can I say, any idea that lets you physically play with the net is a fun one in my book.

Alright, these lists are letting long fast. I think that’s enough for today. Tomorrow the birthday festivities return with the Greatest Misses, Best of Contributors, a contest, and who knows what else. In the meantime though, if you’ve got a favorite that didn’t make the list, post it in the comments below so others can find it. How fun is that?

Yesterday was so busy, and crazy (I’d left my laptop several states away), and tequila soaked (Cinco de Mayo will do that), that somehow I failed to notice it had been exactly 365 days since Zoomdoggle’s first post. I hate to get all nostalgic, but I thought today it might fun to walk down memory lane. In the last year there have been 1642 posts, and just south of six thousand comments, but it all started with a single, simple idea… meet Boondoggle:

Boondoggle was meant to be a magazine about fun but, as the magazine world started crumbling, somehow it was decided that perhaps an online magazine about fun was more in order. Being simple-folk, I simply took the magazine I’d envisioned (that’s a picture I’d taken of my neighbor in the red sweatshirt), dropped it into a bit of a web format (cover and all), and started pitching it to any publishing company that would listen.

Every day was going to have just one article, built around a single theme.

Monday Funday (a stunt of some sort – that’s my friend Kristian Schmidt in the penguin suit). Tuesday Travel. Wednesday Sex (hump day, get it?). Living the Dream Thursday (where we’d make readers dreams come true). Celebrity Friday (an interview with someone famous about fun).

For better or worse, though many companies would listen, and one even offered me a pretty good job heading up their digital department, none would put their name on the dotted line. None I wanted to do buisness with anyway.

Finally some friends – friends who know a thing or two about digital – talked me into just doing it anyway. The wheels were set in motion. Unfortunately, in all the time I’d been talking about Boondoggle, it never occurred to me to buy the URL. Those wheels were firmly planted in someone else’s driveway.

And so Zoondoggle, er Zoomdoggle first posted (with cover model and best-est friend Sharron for the test on the left, and second-best-est friend Krista Ayne for issue one on the right). Taking pictures is fun, so I couldn’t give up the idea of a cover, but I couldn’t quite settle on a name. At first Zoondoggle sounded good – hell, it was only one letter away from what I really wanted – but when Micah Spear somehow head Zoomdoggle, that sounded even better. To this day, either URL points here. It was Micah’s brother Josh who changed the tag line.

Either way, for the first month, things pretty much ran the way I’d envisioned, with a single, magazine-ish, long form post per day. It was way too much work. And people don’t want to read magazines online anyway. Thus Zoomdoggle V2.0 was launched.

Remember this thing? It had a free theme I’d found online, a Z I’d stolen from god-knows-where, and giant pink flashing button my friend Mike Shirley hacked together to randomly access posts. More importantly though, there were 7 or 8 posts per day (one for every hour you’re trapped at work), with most of them pointing outward to other stuff online. Eventually Sabotage media’s Josh Pigford stepped in, giving Zoomdoggle it’s current look and feel.

And that my friends is how it came to be, the big bang if you will. The covers had to go away (who wants an extra layer to click through), but it’s still updated multiple times per day (though now it’s written between 6 and 9AM so I still have time to take care of other stuff). It still runs mainly on favors and friendships. And I just realized WordPress has spell check. How fun is that? If you actually took the time to read this far feel free to post a birthday wish, question, comment, or even better a suggestion for the year ahead below.

A quick how-to for everyone who’s written over the past few days asking how the the BuckyCube is formed.

What’s that, you say you don’t have a set?!?!?! Time to get one. I’ve hidden 5 promo codes on or within one page of this, Zoomdoggle’s current home page. Each promo code is good for $24.95 (the price of a set of BuckyBalls, not including shipping) and can only be used twice. If you’re the first to find the promo code, have at it… plug it into the BuckyBalls checkout cart and take a set of balls on me… all I ask is that instead of using the code twice, you post it below in the comments section. In doing so, 5 code finders will get free sets, as will 5 people who just happened to check in at the right minute. How fun is that? Any where I’ve put a promo code, I’ve announced it as such “promo code =” and then the code.

Again, take it over to www.getbuckyballs.com, push the “order now” button, then plug in the secret code at the shopping cart and you’re golden. Post the code in the comments section after you’ve used it, and you’re sharing the love with someone else. How fun is that?

NOTE: Sorry about the poor video quality… this was a midnight idea.

UPDATE: It looks like all of the codes have been found now (amazing, some of them were hidden REALLY well, good work team). For everyone else, I’ve set up one last promo code. The first 100 people to put in ZOOMDOGGLE save $5 per set. That pretty much makes us partners in this thing. Anyway, enjoy the weekend (as you might have noticed, I’ve taken off early), and I’ll see you back here Monday.

LINK: Getbuckyballs.