The Next Big Thing in Social Media?

me2everyone is going to be a cool new virtual world where you can meet friends, chat, shop, play, watch videos, create an art gallery, open a virtual newspaper, play the free inworld lottery and make money from your own online store! You and everyone you know make the decisions, shape the world, create real incomes and share in the profits. It’s a new place where you meet new people or invite your friends. Learn new skills or expand your business. Find the love of your life or help the planet.

Membership is free and every member automatically becomes a shareholder in me2everyone Limited.

I'm going to spare you the rest of the "cheesy canned message," since it simply doesn't resonate with me - or most of my similarly cynical friends. But what if you'd been given an opportunity - at no cost - to get in on the ground floor and own shares of MySpace or Facebook or Second Life? Would you have taken it, pre-launch? Or would you have said, "If it sounds too good to be true, it is"? What might those shares be worth, now?

me2everything.com sounds similar to the virtual worlds that exist today, such as Second Life. me2everything.com hasn't launched, yet, and they're giving away shares to anyone who registers. They're giving bonus shares to those who refer their friends. They're not asking for money or bank routing numbers. They're not even asking - yet - for your street address or phone number. Naturally, there will come a point where shareholders will need to prove that they are real human beings (not infants, pets, alter egos, avatars, or imaginary friends), and will need to register these shares. We can all decide, then, just how comfortable we are doing that.

My guess is that, in order to get businesses to view me2everything as a viable place to advertise and conduct business, they first need to populate the virtual world. That's us. They'll also need to make it a rich, entertaining, multimedia experience that can give long-standing "virtual worlds" a run for their money. Competition is a good thing; we all benefit. It could fall flat. Or it could be "the next big thing."

Sound intriguing? If so, you can sign up now at http://www.me2everyone.com/240349 .

You Know You're a Geek When...

...Facebook reminds you you have a birthday coming up, and you're slightly surprised by this.

...the first friends to wish you a Happy Birthday are people you've never met in person - and your favorite Web sites.

My dad called to tell me it's also "Square Root Day." There are only nine of these in any century, and only a few of us get to celebrate a birthday on one. My husband has to wait until he's 77 to celebrate his birthday on Square Root Day.

I'm not a math geek, but I do think that's pretty cool.

Spring Seems a Long Way Off at Spring Creek Park

In a moment of clear-headed honesty and self-awareness, I'm ready to admit that I'll always be a fair-weather camper. Just imagining myself trying to pitch a tent in a thunderstorm brings a vision of me, in a muddy, crumpled heap, howling tears of frustration. But this weekend was beautiful, and perfect for camping - despite a wind advisory and temperatures falling into the mid-thirties at night.

We camped near the site of an old Confederate powder mill. Cannon powder was made at the mill for the Confederate Army from 1861 to 1863. An explosion at the mill in 1863 killed three men: William Bloecher, Adolph Hillegeist, and Peter Wunderlich. In 1966, the marker shown below was donated by Mrs. E.B. Hillegeist and her sons, Earl and Roy Hillegeist, and was erected by the Harris County Historical Survey Committee, Spring Creek County Historical Association, and the decedents of those killed in the explosion.

Here's a little Lord of the Flies moment:

Boys. Sticks. Axes and pocket knives. It doesn't get much better than this, does it? Well, maybe it does - when the day is done, there's dinner.

We had pasta, followed by a Dutch oven dessert competition.

I won, with a scrumptious lemon pound cake that reminded our Scoutmaster of his grandmother's cooking. But it was a close race, and we all got to enjoy a taste of the entries. Here's my stiffest competition - he and I have challenged each other to a cook-off at the next camp-out. Our Scoutmaster says we have to come up with new recipes, though - no repeating what we did at this camp-out.

Cold-weather camping means fewer bugs and less sweat.

Wait. Scratch that. Fewer mosquitoes, maybe.

This little guy decided to hitch-hike home on my abdomen. All together now: Ewwwwww! Nothing like getting into the bath and realizing that the fleck of dirt or leaf you're trying to brush off your tummy has...LEGS. Eww.

@#$%. The downside: I get to worry about all the dreaded tick-borne diseases out there for something like 12 weeks. Fortunately, none are "common" and most tick bites are harmless. The upside: William got hands-on experience removing a tick, something he's supposed to know for his First Aid merit badge. He did a lovely job of it.

Anybody out there know what kind of tick this is? To me, it looks like a dog tick (no snickering from the peanut gallery - that is NOT proof of anything!) but it could be a Lone Star Tick (now we know the REAL reason Texas is known as the Lone Star State!). Tenacious little suckers. They hang on for dear life and are not at all easy to pull out.

Anyway, we had a great time. It was cold, and I'm wind-burned and tick-bitten, but it was fun.