U Feel Creative?
Idea Guy scheduled to speak at American Marketing Association's "Creative U"
Things have been confirmed for my appearance at the November 18th CREATIVE U conference in Columbus, Ohio. It's a half-day event filled with a bunch of great speakers like my friend Mark Henson of SparkSpace, and advertising guru Artie Young of the Young Isaac agency.

During my one-hour breakout session, I'll be sharing some of my favorite free, almost free, and for-a-fee creativity toys (creativity "tools" sounds like too much work!) that are guaranteed to inspire your innovative nature.

Expect a day filled with fun, creativity, and the excitement of sharing ideas! For more information, or to register for the event -- visit the Columbus AMA's Creative U info page.

The Best Cure For Insomnia Is To Get A Lot Of Sleep
TylenolPM offers free guide for those who find getting to sleep a real pain
When I first learned of the sleep guide, I figured it was just a booklet hawking their new TylenolPM drug, but after I downloaded the free PDF file, I was happy to find it filled with cool stuff and useful advice about getting a goodnight's sleep.

Although the color palette and font size make the book a little difficult to read, (perhaps making the reader squint is getting them one step closer to closing their eyes?) I really enjoyed the book -- especially the page of quotes on sleeping. The quote in today's headline is attributed to WC Fields, here are a few more:

• “I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.” -- Mark Twain

• “I take a two-hour nap from one to four.” -- Yogi Berra

• “Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.” -- Anthony Burgess

• “There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more.” -- Woody Allen

There are also tips and advice for getting to sleep and a mini guide to interpreting dreams. This twenty-two page booklet manages to both educate and entertain, and concludes with a checklist allowing you to track your progress and sleep habits.

Download your FREE copy of Sleep for Success: The TylenolPM Guide to Sleep Well-being from their official website, www.TylenolPM.com

String (Bean) Bikinis
At least I didn't make a joke about "checking out their melons"
I have a couple friends who are total "Foodies" -- the culinarily obsessed -- and I earned big brownie points after recommending this tasty website:
FoodPorn.com

I think it's a creative and cool concept and assume they get some very bizarre emails from equally bizarre people wondering where the "nekkid pictures" are.

If you think food should be creative and fun (as well as tasting pretty good) visit FoodPorn.com!

Whacked Out
Virtual Whack Pack Provides Instant Online Innovation Inspiration
Any idea guy or gal worth their salt has read Roger Von Oech's brilliant books on creativity:
A Whack On The Side of the Head
A Kick in The Seat of the Pants
Expect the Unexpected... or you won't find it
You may even own the wildy creative card deck Whack Pack.

But did you know there is a free version of the creativity cards online?

If you visit Von Oech's website, you'll be treated to random drawings from the card deck, complete with incredible illustrations by George Willett. It's a great way to blow away those mental blocks when you're caught without your physical Whack Pack.

Even shuffling the deck for a new virtual card is fun -- all you do is click the button that says "Whack me again!"

You Write like a GIRL!
GenderGenie judges author's sex via writing samples
Today's entry is nothing of earth-shattering importance, just a bit of fun. Visit BookBlog.net's Gender Genie to see how your writing ranks -- is your writing masculine or feminine?

As a test, I entered the text of the blog entry immediately below this one (about the Staples Invention Question) and I scored a Female Score of just 193, while the Male Score was a whopping 464! The algorithm correctly judged the writing to be crafted by a male.

Interestingly, after you enter the text you categorize the type of writing: Fiction, Nonfiction, or Blog Entry. Originally I had enter the category as "Nonfiction" and the results were judged to be "female." After re-entering the identical text and selecting "Blog Entry" the results significantly changed.

BookBlog says the results are correct 80% of the time, and offers you an opportunity to enter the correct sex of the author after viewing the results in order to update their answer ratio.

It might be fun to enter famous text from history; such as the Gettysburg Address, a presidential innaugaration speech, a story by a famous author, etc. to see how they rank on the Gender Genie.

Idea Guy Invited to Speak at AMA Event
Catch the Idea Guy "LIVE" during the Columbus chapter of the American Marketing Association's Creativity U.
More details as available, but I was invited to speak during one of the one-hour sessions on the topic of Creativity Tools. The official event web page is here, but not many details at the moment.

The event is tentatively scheduled for November 18th.

Staples Invention Quest
Win $25,000 for your office product idea!
I was picking up some supplies the other day and saw an entry form for this exciting contest. I've dug through my idea journals and found several ideas that will make suitable entries. The deadline for entires is 11/21/03, so I still have plenty of time.

Visit the contest website, www.staples.com/IQ, for entry details.

If you have an idea to enter, but feel it needs some work, I'm willing to help finetune the concept in exchange 30% of the cash winnings. Like those ambulance-chasing lawyer commercials: I only get paid if we win.

If you'd rather keep all the potential winnings to yourself, I'm willing to create a one-page critique of your entry idea for $50.00 (that's .2% of the potential prize money) but the fee is payable in advance -- whether you win or lose.

Write to StaplesIQ@dontheideaguy.com if you're interested in working together.

I'm a Sticky Site of the Moment!
Brain|Blog holds honor for about 20 minutes.
Although it sounds more like an award for a porn site, InternetBumperstickers.com bestowed the award upon Brain|Blog -- for just a moment -- before passing it on to the next recipient.

Thanks IBS.com, it's the only award I know that gets repossessed before the acceptance speech is over. Perhaps if the Emmys and Oscars worked that way the award show would be over before midnight!

If you require proof of the honor, visit IBS' Previous Sticky Sites page.