Tea Leaves

It makes me somewhat disgusted that people are still trying to profit off of gmail invites, “selling” them on craigslist and elsewhere for $5, $10, etc. I mean, how desperate do you have to be? What happened? Did the blood bank stop accepting your plasma? Did your attempt to corner the suburban lemonade stand market fail when some sixth graders moved in on your turf? Did no one join your Ponzi scheme?

So the other day, in a fit of pique, having already invited all of my friends that I knew wanted in, I offered to give my gmail invites away for free to the first takers on craigslist; all I asked for was that they tell me what their favorite Pittsburgh restaurant was, and why. I had about 8 takers, and all my invites (and those of some helpful friends — thanks!) were slorped up in no time. It was a good deed, and I feel good about it.

So, why not expand it? I’m out of invites right now, but more will undoubtedly come in. Thus: if you’d like a gmail invite, add a comment below saying so, and I’ll take responsibility for trying to get you one. I can’t make any guarantees, obviously, but I’ll give it my best effort.

Since this weblog is subtitled creativity x technology it’s appropriate to attach a little proviso to this to make it more fun. Requests will be given priority if they come with a short yet interesting story. Some suggested topics (which, not coincidentally, are among the topics that I concern myself with on this site) might include:

• The best meal you’ve had in an unlikely place.
• A nostalgic reminiscence about an obsolete video or computer game.
• A story about a software development nightmare and/or the people who were involved with it.
• Something interesting and unusual about the Pittsburgh region.

As I say, these are just suggestions — if something else is on your mind, feel free to lay it out there as your contribution.

Lastly, if you already have a gmail account, feel free to contribute a story if you like, just to show people how it’s done. If you’re interested in donating invitations to the cause, just drop me a line at the address gmail-invite at tgr dot com and let me know how many creative contributors you’d like to sponsor; I’ll gate their requests to you as they come in.