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DayMaker Awards!

Wouldn't it be great if it was somebody's job to make your day? We'll take that job. One day a month, we select a web site, service, product or person that, we believe, will make the day of our newsletter readers.

Occasionally in Fun@Work News, we laud and applaude a DayMaker Award winner and tell you how to see for yourself if their product, service, web site or story makes your day, as we hope it will. We also enshrine the winners on this web page for future reference.

Current Winner:

What's going to make your day today? We think it'll be Google.com's hilarious description of how pigeons power the Google search engine.

It's great to see a tech company that doesn't take technology too seriously. Have a laugh and give get some inspiration for how your company might have a little fun with a comical description of its inner workings at www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html

Past Winners:

When you dream of a fun place to work, "fish market" is probably not the first thought in your head. But Seattle's Pike Place Fish is famous for its flair for fun. And www.pikeplacefish.com lets you get in on the good times.

The site captures the sights and sounds of the place. You can send free Fish Cards (electronic greetings) to friends, take a virtual tour, watch fun movie clips, and find out about the fishmongers who work here. You can even order some fish in the virtual store! So treat your self to a good time -- just watch out for the low flying fish!

What's going to make your day today? We think it'll be a cool Internet service that serves up free cartoons featuring YOU.

The professional cartoonists at cartoonlink.com work your name into every cartoon's caption. Click the logo at left for a sample.

The cartoons are all single-panel works written and drawn by professionals. Choose from up to five different series: Animal Bytes (offbeat), Fly on the Wall (modern life), Women at Work (work), High Finance (business) and Name of the Game (sports).

When you find a personalized cartoon you really like, you can do all kinds of fun things with it: Create a fax cover sheet, notepad sheet or calendar. Email the card as a postcard, birthday card, or other options. And when you need a really *nice* and fun gift, you can pay to have a cartoon personalized with the name of the gift recipient, hand-signed and framed -- a unique and fun gift.

Most services are free, including a weekly email that links you to fresh, personalized cartoons. If you laugh at the sort of cartoons that appear in the New Yorker magazine, then cartoonlink.com is going to make your day.

Wackyuses.com

What's going to make your day today? We think it will be www.wackyuses.com, the site where you can find hundreds of funny, little-known uses for well-known products like Alka-Seltzer*, Jell-O* and Slinky*.

For instance, your little tube of ChapStick* can help prevent battery corrosion, lube your stuck zipper or shine your shoes! Loosen rust or clean the toilet with popular soft drinks. Turn that annoying old Slinky* into a burglas alarm. And let's not even get started on the 50 things you can do with baking soda!

Site creator Joey Green is like a cross between MacGyver and Pee-Wee Herman. His wackyuses web site offers bunches of info., books, a newsletter, and message boards. So next time you need a fast retreat from predictable thinking, this is the place!

* These are all trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

The Silly Con Valley Report (Mike's List)

Mike's mug What's gonna make your day today? We think it'll be "The Silly Con Valley Report," also known as "Mike's list." Mike's motto is "Technology is funny" and his "report" delivers the evidence.

Every week, Mike's List serves up a triple inside scoop of amusing media, technology and gadget news -- stuff you're unlikely to hear about elsewhere.

"My newsletter focuses on off-the-beaten-track stories that go unreported, underreported, or should never be reported by the mainstream press," says Mike.

A recent issue revealed who's behind the so-called "Cyberwar" between the U.S. and China (script-kiddies!), AOL wristwatches, hot coffee in a can, security systems designed to make intruders sick, hand-cranked cell phones, flying robot spies, plus assorted rumors and amusements.

Who is Mike? He's Mike Elgan, a Silicon Valley-based writer and editorial consultant who has done time, editorially speaking, at Windows Magazine and Portable Life, among others.

Make your day with news to amuse and an insider's take on media and technology. Subscribe free to Mike's List and check out the current issue online at www.mikeslist.com

Who's gonna make your day today? We think it'll be Thomas and Ruth Roy, the inspired creators of a slew of crazy, fun holidays.

For the Spring season alone, they've cooked up and copyrighted 17 different holidays, including such gems as "No Housework Day" (April 7), "Blah Blah Blah Day" (April 17), and "Panic Day" (Don't panic, it's passed -- March 9). In all, the Roys have created more than 60 holidays on their Healthy Herbs, Hilarious Holidays site, wellcat.com.

But they're not hogging all the fun -- they want YOU to get in on the act. So they designated March 26 as "Make Up Your Own Holiday Day." They've even teamed up with Blue Mountain Greeting Cards so you can easily spread the fun. Here's a card for the occasion.

Next time you feel stuck in a rut, wobble over to the Roy's web site and let them make your day with hilarious holidays.

What's gonna make your day today? We think it'll be http://www.Searchbots.net.

Feb. 2001 - From the opening movie (don't miss it!), to the ultra cool search tools it offers, searchbots.net is a fun gateway to the web that can transform a dull day into a sci-fi, comic blast. While Alta Vista and Yahoo deliver comprehensive results to the point of overload, searchbot is short on answers (just 5 per search) and long on fun.

Check out these fun ways to search:

Temper Bot searches by your state of mind
Sector Bot gives you choices by category
Chroma Bot presents links based on your color choice

Whacky fun. And for the most fun of all, build your own Bot! Name it. Assign it keywords for searching, and turn it loose to roam the Internet. Your bot promises to send back weekly field reports.

When I built a FunBot to search for fun stuff, it promised: "I will devotedly carry out your orders, scouring the earth and data waves until my circuits pop."

After making my own bot, I felt like a kid again waiting for a cool thing to come in the mail. When was the last time you felt like that?

Go put a web bot to work for you. It might just make your day!

What's going to make your day? Buzzwhack.com: Whether you need to decode the buzz from your boss or just laugh yourself silly at the latest feats of pompous communication, this site delivers a clueful, seamless e-solution for buzzmanship. Check out all the fun you can find at this site:

Hoot at the "BuzzRant," where buzzwhack writers nail the latest buzzspeak trends to the wall.
Check the top 10 Buzzwords of the moment
Debuzz a buzzword by looking it up in the Buzzword Compliant Dictionary
Nominate a buzzword for the dictionary
Sign up for an emailed buzzword of the day
Sign up for BuzzWhackery, the weekly ezine.
Read the "Whack of the Week" to see buzzwords in action
Nominate a buzzword-laden web site or news release for the "Whack of the Week"

Buzzwhack.com -- the only buzzword portal you'll ever need!

Who's going to make your day? - Andrew Gray is our choice, thanks to his free little program, "Brick for Windows." Brick delivers a quick blast of stress release by letting you hurl a virtual brick through the screen of your PC. The program simulates the damage with a graphic "hole" and a satisfying sound effect. Just think of the big smile you'll be wearing as you hurl a brick through the screen at the 9th draft of your Budget for 2001. No harm done, of course. In fact, "Brick" won't even put a dent in that budget, because it's freeware.

When asked why he created "Brick for Windows," Andrew said: "I was spending my spare time on a program that allowed the user to grow virtual potted plants on their Windows desktop. There were technical problems, and in frustration, I took a couple days away and wrote 'Brick for Windows.'"

"Brick" has been downloaded nearly 100,000 times in four months. You can make it 100,001 if you go download your own copy at ZDnet's download web page

What's going to make your day? - www.ugetheard.com: This site has streamlined the process of venting your feelings! Ugetheard.com would probably win our award just be providing the human race with a new way to complain, but they go one important step further. They actually try to help you get your complaint resolved! (Or if you are issuing praise, they help deliver that, too.)

The idea is brilliantly simple. This site is your one-stop place to file a fast letter of complaint or praise for any industry. Autos, electronics, media, travel -- they have them all.

If you're like me, you often get the urge to fire off a letter of complaint or praise, but rarely follow-through. It's the mundane tasks that douse the flames -- find the address, get the right contact, mail the letter, blah, blah, blah. Ugetheard.com spares you all that. It provides online forms tailored to specific industries. They've done the rearch for you. And they offer complaint resolution services, compliment forwarding service, resolution tracking and more.

Companies that are serious about improving their customer service will find benefits to this service as well. So next time a company's customer service makes you crazy, don't get mad, get heard! http://www.ugetheard.com