My first thought was Minecraft. Even in the vanilla game, people have created full scale models of the Enterprise-D, and even Middle Earth as depicted in Lord of the Rings. Then there are is redstone that people build actual working (albeit slow and huge) computers out of. Just search YouTube for redstone computer and see what I mean.

Another example is LEGO and particularly Mindstorm. Add in a smartphone to control it and they can solve Rubik’s Cubes as fast as the best human cubers. There have also been machine guns that rapidly fire LEGO ammo, a machine that can score 300 in Wii Bowling, and even 3D printers.

I think this may be why fan-art and fan-fic are so very popular. The artist/author doesn’t need to come up with characters, subjects, or even necessarily a style because they already exist. My first My Little Pony fan-comic wasn’t really scripted; it just used Wash’s “This Land” dinosaur interaction from Firefly as the dialog, and I drew the ponies acting it out using costumes and a background from a recent episode.

I do think the limit is a huge creativity boost when it comes to twitter.

My job was to go through the day’s newspapers and look through the obituary column for people who would have been around in the war. I then had to use my research skills to track down the undertaker or solicitors handling the estate and send them a letter expressing our deepest condolences, and informing them of the (very presitigious) collection, and would they consider allowing us to look after any items they may have which related to the war?

Slightly macabre.

I also worked as a “runner” at a horse track. A runner stands behind the ticket cashiers with wads of small bills. Every so often, a cashier would yell “CHANGE!” and the runner would swap out the cashier’s fives, tens and twenties. Occasionally there’d be a fifty or hundred to break up the monotony.

I eventually got promoted to running the tote board. This is the display (actually a small, narrow building) in the middle of the track that shows the odds on each horse and, after the race is finished, the payoffs. The odds were electric displays and controlled remotely, so I didn’t really have to do anything there except occasionally fix a loose connection.

The payoffs were done by hand, though. I sat inside the board with a stack of wooden cards with numbers painted on them. I’d get the payoffs recited to me over a headset, slide the numbers into panels, recite them back to verify, and flip the panels around for the stands to view.

The panels could only be flipped around properly if there were 4 digits or fewer in the payoff (up to $99.99). In order to do 5 digits, you’d have to slot in 4, turn the panel part way, walk around to the front of the tote board and slot in the 5th digit. Whenever I left the perfecta or daily double turned part way, there’d be an audible gasp from the crowd. This is the sort of thing that passed for excitement in my home town.

Eventually, I got a job working at a TV repair shop – this was waaay back when TVs actually had replaceable parts. Job duties included fixing things and not getting electrocuted, which I managed to succeed at most of the time.

Thinking back, I’d have to say my youth was a lot like “Napoleon Dynamite”, but with a slightly different accent and less dancing to Jamiroquai.

Weirdest business: The Academy of Cultivated Learning. They were in the business of mail-order diplomas and mortar boards for cabbage patch kid dolls. I did calligraphy on the diplomas.

Weirdest desk: the respirator collection at Willson Safety Products. I was an office assistant in the customer service department. The permanent staff kept samples of all the breathing gear in my desk drawers. Down the hall was a fabulous safety products museum including of all the gas masks they had manufactured for the military.

1) The guy who’s initial reaction was one like I was there to arrest him. No surprise that he didn’t donate. But boy did he look nervous. Gave me the creeps.

2) The very nice mother, who invited me in and then explained to her daughter (age 6 iirc) why I was there, the place I represented, how it pertained to recent talks her daughter had on talking to strangers (and not wanting to be touched, etc.) I was really impressed how the mother used it as a positive teaching moment. (and got a nice donation too.)

3) The very nice looking young man (o.k. we were about the same age at the time) who answered the door in nothing but a towel. Unperturbed I launched into the patter, he stood there with the look of “you’re going to do this.” But as a reward for my chutzpah (?) he stated “obviously I don’t have my checkbook on me.” then went and gave a rather nice donation to the center.

On the flip side I didn’t last long… as the pressure to “perform” everyday and get a minimum amount of money was more stressful than I thought it would be.

Needless to say, we didn’t send that take to the client.