From crispen@CAMPUS.MCI.NET Wed Jan 8 22:04:06 1997 Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 17:14:49 -0600 From: Patrick Douglas Crispen Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: TOURBUS -- 9 JANUARY 1997 -- VIRTUAL "TICKLE ME ELMO" AND THE TOURBUS FAQ FILE /~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~|~\ | "Why | Surf When / You Can | Ride The | Bus?" / | \ |__________|__________/__________|__________|__________/ | \ / /______|----\ | Try your wits at JEOPARDY PRO, now at WorldVillage |//////| | | Gamer's Zone! http://www.worldvillage.com/jeopardy |//////| | | |//////| | | |//////| | ~~~/~~~\~~/~~~\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~\~~~~ \___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/ TODAY'S STOP: VIRTUAL "TICKLE ME ELMO" AND THE TOURBUS FAQ FILE TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://www.clark.net/elmo/elmo.html http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/hotel/tourbus/ http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html http://www.yahoo.com/ Hi, kids! I hope that y'all had a safe and happy holiday season. For those of our bus riders who are not in the United States or who may have (thankfully) missed it, the hottest toy this holiday season was Tyco's "Tickle Me Elmo" doll. The doll is pretty much a $30, red, stuffed Sesame Street character that laughs and vibrates when you tickle it. Well, if you were unable to find a Tickle Me Elmo doll in the stores or if you were unwilling to pay up to $1,500 (US) for a doll that pretty much just twitches when you poke it, I have some incredible news for you: you can now find a Virtual Tickle Me Elmo on the Web at http://www.clark.net/elmo/elmo.html Wait ... it gets better. If you click on the Virtual Elmo's tummy, you can download a 273 K wav file of Elmo giggling and twitching! [I was just wondering: is this the 4th or the 5th sign of the apocalypse?] I have also noticed that *my* Tickle Me Elmo (yes, I actually bought one) rotates clockwise when it is laid on a table. I wonder if South American Tickle Me Elmos rotate counter-clockwise? :) Seriously, before we start today's tour, I want to thank one of our long-time sponsors for making today's TOURBUS possible. While Aardwulf doesn't have any Tickle Me Elmos, they do have some of the best-priced men's apparel I have ever seen. If you are looking for a good place to spend this year's holiday bonus, look no further! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FREE Coupons on great apparel brands like Timberland, Duck Head, Woolrich, and Calvin Klein. Just sign up at Aardwulf Apparel's web store. Since they're electronic, they'll never clutter your drawers! ---------------------( http://www.aardwulf.com )---------------------- Today, our little bus of Internet happiness won't be visiting a particular Internet site or tool. Instead, we're going to take a quick peek at the second "First Annual TOURBUS Frequently Asked Questions" file. :) ------------------ WHAT *IS* TOURBUS? ------------------ TOURBUS is a free, on-going, semi-weekly, text-based tour of some of the neatest sites on the Internet. TOURBUS' posts are written by Bob Rankin (author of "Accessing the Internet by E-mail") and me (Patrick Douglas Crispen, author of the ROADMAP workshop), and are distributed via a LISTSERV e-mail distribution list at America Online. What makes TOURBUS unique is that each TOURBUS post not only gives you the addresses of neat Internet sites, it also gives you a really in-depth look at how to fully use those sites. Surf the Net for any amount of time, and you will soon discover that many of the Internet's most exciting sites do not come with instruction manuals. TOURBUS helps you overcome that problem. Bob and I also try to make each TOURBUS post as conversational -- and humorous -- as possible. Above everything else, the Internet is FUN ... and Bob and I try to show that in our TOURBUS posts. :) --------------------------- HOW MUCH DOES TOURBUS COST? --------------------------- Nothing. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. TOURBUS is absolutely free. All of the costs associated with running the TOURBUS list are paid by our sponsors (and by Bob and me). ------------------------------------------ IS THERE AN ARCHIVE OF PAST TOURBUS POSTS? ------------------------------------------ Yep! You can find the TOURBUS archives and other TOURBUS stuff at the TOURBUS homepage at http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/hotel/tourbus/ -------------------------------------------------------- HEY! THAT'S A WEB ADDRESS! I DON'T HAVE A WEB BROWSER!! -------------------------------------------------------- Don't panic! You can still access the TOURBUS homepage (and, for that matter, ANY other Web page) through e-mail using the information contained in Bob Rankin's free guide "Accessing the Internet by E-mail." To find out how to get this guide (and how you can still participate in my ROADMAP Internet training workshop), send an e-mail letter to LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU (that's "you-aye-won-vee-em") with the command GET NEWUSER PACKAGE F=MAIL in the body of your e-mail letter. --------------------------------------- WHEN ARE THE TOURBUS POSTS DISTRIBUTED? --------------------------------------- Its kind of hard to say. TOURBUS is, for the most part, distributed every Tuesday-ish and Thursday-ish. ---- ISH? ---- Well, sometimes we are a little late in getting these posts out. If you want to be technical (or at least "statistical"), I guess you could say that TOURBUS has a probability distribution centered around Tuesday and Thursday, with a standard deviation of a day or two. :) ---------------------------------------- HOW CAN MY FRIENDS SUBSCRIBE TO TOURBUS? ---------------------------------------- Just have them send an e-mail letter to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM with the command SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME in the body of their letter, replacing YOURFIRSTNAME and YOURLASTNAME with their first and last names. ---------------------------------------------------------- WHERE DO YOU AND BOB GET YOUR IDEAS FOR THE TOURBUS STOPS? ---------------------------------------------------------- Bob and I receive a lot of suggestions from the TOURBUS riders (like "get a life"), but most of the sites that we write about are sites that we accidentally find while surfing the Net. :) -------------------------------- HOW DID YOU AND BOB RANKIN MEET? -------------------------------- Well, actually, we've never met. I know Bob from the NETTRAIN list, and Bob and I have exchanged hundreds of e-mails (and about five phone calls) over the past couple years, but I have no idea what Bob looks like ... and, from what I hear, that's a good thing! :) Bob e-mailed me shortly after the end of my last Roadmap workshop with the idea of creating a sponsor-supported, two or three week workshop of neat Internet sites. I suggested that we make the workshop on-going ... and the rest, as they say, is history. :) ----------------------------------- ARE YOU *REALLY* A COLLEGE STUDENT? ----------------------------------- Unfortunately, yes. I am an 11th-year senior at the University of Alabama majoring in Economics ... but, in light of the success of my Southern Word collection, I'm thinking about changing my major to "Ala-bonics." :) ------------------------------- WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GRADUATE? ------------------------------- I dunno, mom ... soon (August, I think). :) -------------------------------------------------------------------- YOU KEEP MENTIONING "SQUIRRELS" IN YOUR POSTS AND IN YOUR SIGNATURE. WHAT'S THE STORY? -------------------------------------------------------------------- The "squirrel story" comes from the fact that the squirrels living in the trees on the campus of the University of Alabama have developed quite a taste for power lines ... especially for the power lines leading into the University's mainframe computer center (if you are not electrically inclined, let me just add that energetic squirrels and power lines do not mix well). Back when I was running the Roadmap workshop (that online Internet training thingy that I did in 1994), I was really concerned that if the University of Alabama's mainframe was taken down by a squirrel (which was a regular occurrence at the time) and I was not able to deliver that day's Roadmap lesson to the 64,000 people in the workshop, the workshop participants would panic and mailbomb me with 64,000 "where is today's lesson?" messages. By telling the subscribers up front to expect a squirrel attack, I kept myself from being mailbombed, I elevated Alabama's squirrels to Net-legend status (people around the world were even rooting for the squirrels), and I gained a really neat "trademark." :) ------------------------------------------------ WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY? ------------------------------------------------ The TOURBUS subscribers send them in to me. I may not be able to respond to everyone who has sent me a submission, but I have saved every Southern Word that I have received. -------------------------------------------------------------------- IS THERE AN ARCHIVE WHEN I CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY? -------------------------------------------------------------------- Yep! Just point your web browser to http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html If that doesn't work, try going to Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/) and do a keyword search for "Crispen." Yahoo has two links to the Southern Word archive. A couple of alert TOURBUS readers have informed me that you can also find a couple Southern Word dictionaries in your local bookstore: How to Speak Southern by Steve Mitchell ISBN 0-553-27519-4 Price: $3.99 (US) More How to Speak Southern by Steve Mitchell ISBN 0-553-27392-2 Price: $3.99 (US) ----------------------------------------------------- AND FINALLY, WHAT'S TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY? ----------------------------------------------------- Actually, in honor of Ruth Parker, a TOURBUS rider who begged me to put a whole bunch of Southern Words in today's post, here are a whole bunch of Southern Words: Duitcher (pronounced "DOOT-cher"). The command form in Southern. Usage: "Duitcher momma tells ya to do." Utcha Doon? -- The traditional Southern greeting. Meerfuraminit! -- Mandating a person's immediate presence. Jauntsamore? -- Asking if one wants seconds at mealtimes. Wongo? -- A query of companionship. Ahsposo -- The affirmative response to "Wongo?" Preshadit (pronounced "PRE-shay-diht") -- A way to give thanks. (An extremely special thanks goes to Adam Joshua Smargon of the University of Florida -- the SEC and National Collegiate Football Champions -- for today's Southern Words). YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html ====================================================================== Join : Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Leave : Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Info : On the Web at http://www.worldvillage.com/tourbus.htm Advertising: E-mail BobRankin@MHV.net w/ Subject: SEND TBRATES =--------------------------------------------------------------------= For info on my new book "Atlas for the Information Superhighway" send an e-mail letter to LISTSERV@UA1VM.UA.EDU that says GET ATLAS INFO F=MAIL in the body of your e-mail letter ====================================================================== TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1996, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission. Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to get on the Bus! (\__/) .~ ~. )) /O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen {O__, \ { The University of Alabama / . . ) \ crispen@campus.mci.net |-| '-' \ } http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/ .( _( )_.' '---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.