Ebay sellers as literary feedstock

As a part of my ongoing service towards Project Arcturus, I’m often poking around Ebay looking at past selling prices and trying to decipher the pricing “code” for various items As a part of this research, I usually look at auction listings to see what kind of detail and language various sellers used and what the final price was. Often, but not always, people give a reason why an item is being sold, if only to allay potential buyers that the item is indeed not a piece of broken crap. This was one of the more pithy ones I have come across as of late.

Lonely Trivial Pursuit seller on Ebay

"You are bidding on trivial pursuit 20th anniversary Edition game. It is used but in great shape. Only played twice. The reason I am seeling it is because I don't have anyone to play it with anymore. "

Aren't you wondering why and how this came about? You could do half a novel off this starting point alone.

What doesn't Amazon Sell?

I stumbled across this via one of those Listmaina lists on Amazon. While currently out of stock, you never know when you’ll need 1500 ladybugs, 6 praying mantis egg cases, or 10000 fly parasite eggs.

Insects you can order from Amazon

The reviews of the fly parasites are pretty funny.

They make a great gift for the hard to shop for!
Five stars. A+++

The 24 habits of highly effective Ninjas

I saw this on another site a few weeks ago and I thought it was pretty amusing...

There was a story in the Mainichi a few weeks ago about how new employees for the Iga City government were made to dress up like ninjas to publicize the upcoming Iga Ueno Ninja Festival.

IGA, Mie -- Eleven newly hired officials from Iga wearing ninja outfits visited Osaka and Nagoya earlier this week to advertise a local festival highlighting feudal secret agents as part of their on-the-job training.

Iga, Mie Prefecture, central Japan, is famous for ninja who have been popularized in countless movies and cartoons.

The Iga Municipal Government dispatched the 11 new officials to Osaka and Nagoya to help them improve their communication skills and to advertise the ninja festival.

"I hope you learn how to smile naturally and overcome your shyness (to wear ninja outfits)," a senior official of the Iga City personnel section said before they left the city.

"I'm wearing ninja garb for the first time," a 24-year-old woman said before visiting Nagoya.

The Iga Ueno Ninja Festival 2005 will last until May 5.(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, April 9, 2005),

I found this interesting and did a little more web digging and came across an interesting site run by The Ninja Museum of Iga-ryu in Uneo City.
http://www.iganinja.jp/index.html

While taking their topic somewhat seriously, they do have some fun with it as well. As you can see here in the section entitled “Modern Ninja Life” (although the button says "Modem Ninja Life"), which contains photos and advice that seem taken from Ninja Corp’s new employee handbook.

Methods to strengthening yourself with multimedia

The most important mission of the Ninja was to accumulate information, andtherefore a good Ninja was a person that could gather and deliver necessaryinformation the most fastest. Now is an age when necessary information can beobtained speedily and efficiently through taking advantage of various media such ascomputer communication,internet and e-mail. By gaining information in this manner, business can be executed with the least stress.

Methods to upraise your motivations
It can be said that modern business are mental battles. At important business meetings, you should forward the negotiations favorably as strategists through good strategies. As the Ninja practiced Kuji before taking actions in the battles in order to enhance motivation, is may be effective to practice Kuji before starting important business meetings. You will feel the motivation and concentration rise.

Communication methods
The Ninja always worked in groups and every Ninja had their own responsibilities.
There was a rule among the Ninja to make frequent contact with others and to unite together firmly until the victory of the battle is seen. Even now in the modern age,reporting, contacting and consulting are the three keywords to success in business. Among them, contacting is the most important, and if you make frequent contact with others, the possibility of unpredictable situations will be lowered, which results into the reduction of stress.

Methods to hide yourself
There is always competition in business and it cannot be avoided to keep a keen eye on your competitors. Although there may be cases when your competitors become aware of your movements. On such occasions, it is necessary to control your breath and hide yourself from the competitors.

The Ecstatic Joy of the Economist / "Post Privatization Total Surprise Bra!"

This blow in card fell out of a recent issue of the Economist. I was somewhat taken back by the image of the woman jumping in ecstatic joy as a result of possessing an apparently oversized copy of the magazine. I started to wonder how this card came about…while I suspect a great number of Economist subscribers are happy to get their weekly issue, I imagine them as somewhat august lot whose last jump for joy was likely several decades ago. But then maybe it’s the top banner teaser of “Special: How to fix Social Security” that’s got her jumping for joy.
On a similar incongruous note, this image caught my eye a few weeks ago. From a photo spread in the Mainichi, a Japanese lingerie manufacture decided to voice their support (and get some brand PR via horndog photo editors) for J PM Kozumi’s attempts to privatize the Japanese Post Office (a big and controversial issue because the Japanese Post Office serves both as a mail handler and the primary banking institution for a large percentage of the J population) by developing a special lingerie set. The 'T' with a line above it is the symbol for the J Post Office.
Post Privatization Total Surprise Bra!

Triumph International Japan Ltd model Yu Misaki shows off the "Post Privatization Total Surprise Bra!" in Tokyo on Tuesday. The lingerie maker said it designed the bra to express support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his push to privatize Japan Post.