As you can see, one of our members played Easter bunny yesterday and sent us loads of chocolate bunnies. They were much appreciated by the XING team members: we could only keep them alive just long enough to take this picture.

We'd like to use this opportunity to send our thanks out to our members who are always thinking of us on special occasions like this! Thank you very much for all the good wishes and sweets we receive for Christmas, Easter and other occasions! We wish all of our members a wonderful Easter weekend. Hope you enjoy your days off and can spend some quality time with friends and family searching for Easter eggs!

Yesterday it felt like birthday, Christmas and Easter had all come at once: the marketing department asked me to test out some of the new goodies we'll be using for merchandising in future. But why on earth did they asked me to try out the brainfood and networking pills? What about all those funky shirts and cute caps? ;-) Watch out for our merchandising shop coming sooner or later.

For all our members who are going to be celebrating Easter: We wish you all tons of fun looking for your Easter eggs, relaxing with family and friends and generally enjoying your days off.

Here in the office the team has already had a visit from the Easter bunny - as you can see from the ipod, this year in extra large! Wishing all you chocoholics out there a particularly enjoyable weekend :-)

I have to say that I often have a lot of fun when I come to the office in Hamburg,
despite there being so much to do,  Today was no exception, we had a little
party to celebrate the new brand and yes T-Shirts for all and XING CAKE!

So here is a pictures of the team XINGing together for my camera :-)

And lookXING at the new banner behind them!

You know XING is a copywriters dream Xere are Xo many XINGs
you can do with it. :-)

By Chris Pirillo (blaugh)

don´t click!

(thanks micro persuasion)

Every movie has it´s out-takes and so do design competitions. We found this in our inbox today...uhmm, somehow I am afraid that we can´t upload this design. If you want to see what´s going on with our design competition click here.

Dear Sir or Madam: Thank you for your kind attention. We are a leading manufacturer/exporter on scooter and motorcycle and auto parts and spare parts for Asia. We are in a growing market situation because of our competitive prices as well as excellent quality. We produce a wide range of products as below.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Thanks Robert!

Nifty little feature from Sala [aharef] found via Robert. Just type in your website or blog url and see your tags popping around like confetti.

click here if you can´t resist to test it

openBC

This is pretty darn good and we´ve wrenched our heads since Bill uploaded it on Flickr inviting us to take a guess and win some pocket money. Sigh, it´s not easy but nobody told so. ;-)

Just leave your guess as a comment!

[click]

Well actually "our" award, but the title was too good to pass up!

It´s hilarious. When Lars came back from Paris this morning he didn´t bring with him anything other than a good story: Some other Red Herring winner must have taken our award home Red Herring told us.

We´re laughing tears here, but hey our showcase looks empty and sad now.

If anybody have seen our award or is reading this: Keep it!

So, we may not have one the Red Herring Award, but because we are nice people here, we're going to give away a one year membership to openBC for one lucky reader of openBLOG.

All you have is guess, "who run away with our red herring"?

The Computer Bed

(Thanks Make Blog!)

Always look on the bright side of life...

The clip is hilarious, pure 70´s with open shirt, chest hair and a stuffed armadillo. Watch Pythons' first stop in the US after the premier of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Los Angeles in 1975. Unfortunately it cuts of after about 14 minutes.

Permalink Video
(Thanks to The sound of young America!)

Him: How are you doing?
Her: Didn't you read my weblog?
Him: No, I just wanted to talk to you.
Her: Oh.

(thanks Heiko!)

Business week online reminds me of that special day of the year just around the corner. That's right: Valentine´s Day.

Jeez, I am torn. I love to give and to share 365 days a year, and I love to love 24/7 - and I don´t mind in the slightest if I get given a beautiful bunch of flowers once a year :)

I am also quite taken with Business week's concluding bit of food for thought, which I'd also like to share with you:

"When you´re doing something you love, who even cares if you have a Valentine or not?"

I'm looking forward to reading people's thoughts on this...

Time for a coffee break...do some stretching, turn up the sound and move your head slightly to the music. Ready? Alright, Click here.

Scratch n Spin is a very amusing short video advert that combines footage of a DJ's hands working on a set of turntables with footage of a streetscene...(Thanks, boingboing!).

Have a successful day in the business world!

Believe it or not this was the winning joke of an internet experiment called LaughLab five years ago. It was a scientific experiment to discover the world´s funniest joke. They´ve received over 40.000 jokes and about 2 million ratings. Respect! That really shows interaction.

A  couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?"

I must truly say: I´ve heard much better jokes :)! What about you? A good joke to tell?

Go ahead! :)

Start now!

Rule no.1 : work on your ego score... www.egosurf.org

Thanks Jaffe Juice for inspiration.

For my birthday this year Lars gave me a very nice present in the form of a folding bicycle called a Brompton and I have to say when in Hamburg I really enjoy riding into the office it feels good to be under my own steam again after so many years not riding. 

That said I come in for roughly equal parts of  praise and heat  for  riding this  tiny folding machine as people either find it seriously cool or ridiculously funny ( a bit like a Sedgway).

We have recently had one of our top super connectors Udo Hamm working with us on global strategies  here in the office and he is definitely and arbiter of good taste so naturally had comments on my little bike.

I think the argument of cool or not is settled admirably and in both directions simultaneously by Udo in the following photo....

:-)

For more of my ravings about my bike click here!