Play a fun game at work on your whiteboard. Have people guess what the first 70-degree day will be in your city. We started this competition about a month ago. Guess what today is? THE FIRST 70 DEGREE DAY IN CHICAGO!

Guess who had the closest guess?

:-) I am one dollar richer. After winning the dollar bill, I wrote the following on it:



We are currently looking for a new whiteboard game. If anyone has any suggestions, please suggest it in the comments. Let me say this, we are not doing a NCAA bracket. Sawwy.

Trader Joes Coloring Contest!
Color the Chicago bean and get your drawing on display in the downtown Chicago's Trader Joes grocery store. At the front door of the store they have sheets of paper with an illustration of the Chicago bean done by Travis Clement. I took one and scanned it in, so anyone online can color the Chicago bean. Hooray!

Download this pdf file, print it out, color it, and bring it on down to the Trader Joes at 44 East Ontario, Chicago, IL.

Tribune Media Services (my employer) occupies four floors in the Tribune Tower: 13, 14, 15, and 16. I work and spend 99.5% of my time on floor 14. Visiting the other floors is like visiting a parallel dimenstion, because they are similiar but also different.

Every floor has its own set of unique customs and traditions, here's ours:
--The 14th floor pencil sharpening club
--The 14th floor yearbook (a reference sheet for newbies with everyone's photo on it).
--The 14th floor whiteboard games

I'd imagine other floors have traditions with food. Like when I was on 15 for a couple months, they did something with someone being assigned each friday to bring in snack food for the kitchen.

What are unique customs and traditions specific to the area you work?

A simple surprise for your office is the classic plastic mouse. Hide it under someone's monitor or under a stack of sheets and let the fun begin!

Tip:
If you get a small plastic mouse (like mine) then you won't totally freak someone out. In fact, the receiver might even think that it's a cat toy. Personally, I'd opt for a larger, more real mouse to create that authentic surprised screech.

Have some interactive fun in your office with this great new idea for New Toy Friday: Build a stickie note village on your office bulletin board. All it takes are some sticky notes and a bulletin board.

Start off by posting one stickie note with the following message:

Let's make a Stickie Note Village
1) Draw a line on any sticky note
2) Draw any houses, people, dogs, whatever
3) Post your note, connecting the line

It's fun if you put these instructions in word bubbles and have them spoken by some simple stick characters.

People are then encouraged to follow the instructions and continue the stickie note village by making new houses, buildings and people to live in the village.

A few tips:
1) Stickie notes don't stick very well on cork. Make sure an abundant supply of thumbtacks are available on the board.
2) Line up all the thumbtacks by the original instruction sticky note, so people can easily identify the instructions.
3) Make your beginning drawings pretty simple so you don't scare away people who say they can't draw.

We all know that dart guns are fun at work. They should be a standard office equipment of any good corporate America worker. Right next to your stapler and scissors is your dart gun.

Here's one way to target higher fun productivity at work:

1) Draw a big fat target on your office whiteboard. Use concentric circles and give point totals to each circle.
2) Determine a shooting range--this will depend on the quality of your gun. Our range was about 15 feet.
3) Instead of shooting just one dart, let each person shoot like 10 darts per turn.
4) Add up the point total for each person and write then on the whiteboard right next to the target. Let's get some fun competition!

Hint A: For this idea to work, you'll need a darts that can stick to the whiteboard. There's darts with suction cups on the ends. Those work ok. But even better are these dart guns being sold at Walgreens that have a super sticky end to them. Think wacky-wallwalker-sticky, but on a dart. It's called Foam Force Clip Load Tacky Dart Blaster by Imperial


Hint B: Instead of stashing the dart gun at somebody's desk, keep it by the whiteboard target at all times. That will help to foster spontaneous attempts.

Hint C: Some alternatives to this idea could be drawing drawing an outer circle that is worth double the amount for the bullseye. This helps to reward those whose accuracy is not the best. Or maybe even draw triangles instead of circles. Or even random irregular shapes to make it even more fun.

Hint D: Offer some goofball prize for the person with the highest score. I highly suggest that you get a bag full of trophies like these 4-inch tall gold trophies from S&S Worldwide:

4" Gold Trophy (pk/12)

On a mailing sticker you can write something like "14th floor Best Sharpshooter." Or if you are really fancypants, you can get the gold foil mailing labels and run through a printer to make it even more official looking. Then put the trophy on top of the whiteboard and say "Highest score by May 26 wins this trophy!" Play up the tease of the trophy! (and having a date gives it more urgency)

Every Friday at work we have New Toy Friday. Yesterday's toy was the Animal Cracker (thanks to Lisa Radke). How many Animal Crackers can you eat in 60 seconds? I was able to down 10 Animal Crackers in 55 seconds. Beat that!

1. Open up the lid,
2. Gently blow into the ant farm.
3. Watch ants go WILD.

Often the ants in a little ant farm will get all lathargic and lazy. Doing
this trick will breathe life back into them. Really! They go totally CRAZY.

For New Toy Friday at work, we got an Uncle Milton Ant Farm! (thanks to our creative director, Jill!)

Updated photos of the ant farm at work will be posted at: http://antfarm.textamerica.com.

This record has GOTTA be an easy one to break:
The longest time a coin has been spun until coming to a complete rest is 19.37 seconds by Britain's Scott Day.

WANNA BREAK THIS RECORD?
Here's what you need to know if you want to have a spin at the record:
1. The coin should be spun on a smooth, flat surface measuring a maximum of 1 x 1 m (3 x 3 ft) which should be dry.
2. The coins to be used are 10p coins in Great Britain, 25¢ coins in the United States and, in other countries, coins weighing at least 0.21 oz or 6 g and having a maximum diameter of 2.5 cm or 1 in.
3. Any coin used must have a grooved edge and be offered for inspection to make sure it has not been tampered with.
4. The time starts when the coin starts spinning and stops when the coin comes to a complete rest.
5. An official timekeeper should be present thoughout the attempt.
6. Each participant is only allowed three attempts.
From: Guinness World Records

This will be the featured item today for New Toy Friday at work. I can't wait!

Every Friday at work, we have New Toy Friday. This Friday was three-foot long sticks of gum bought at the dollar store. The challenge was to see if one could fit an ENTIRE piece of yardstick gum into his/her mouth at once.

THE SPECS:
* THREE feet of gum.
* 24 servings in one package.
* 2 grams of sugar per serving, so...
* 48 grams of sugar... that's just like a can of soda.
Surely this would be a breeze.

THE PLAYAZ:
* Billy: Blue Raspberry
* Dave: Strawberry (pictured above)
* Matt: Green Apple

Upon the first couple bites it was deemed that all flavors of the gum were "icky."

Things were going pretty good at first. Happily chewing on gum. *chew* *chew* happy Tribune employees having a jolly good time.

Then it quickly changed into the pure CHEWING CHALLENGE!!! Fellow employees soon became grossed out by the sound of gum smacking. Colored drool was extruding from our lips. It was clear that strategies were needed to be employed to accomplish our mission.

STRATEGIES FOR CHEWING 3 FEET OF GUM AT ONCE:
1) Gum packing:
Billy opted to go with the method of rolling the gum up into a tight package and shoving it into his mouth. Dave and I merely chomped off pieces at a time.

2) Gum stick as tool:
It's easier when you clump all the gum onto one side of your mouth. To achieve this, you can use your unchewed gum as a stick to mush the gum onto one side.

3) Laughter:
Laughing does not help. It only increased the extrusion of drool.

4) Talking:
Talking on a cell phone with 2 feet of gum in your mouth is quite challenging. Leave this only to the pros.

5) Careful chewing
Do not bite your lip. I bite my lip in three different places causing blood to infect my gum. Bloody gum. Not good.

6) Toothpaste and toothbrush:
Essential post-game ritual. This feat is like swishing soda around in your mouth for 15 minutes.