For those of us who still leave our laptops in the care of strangers at the coffee shop when we need to use the restroom, my most recent WePC post is a roundup of anti-theft devices for your computer.

My favorite is inexpensive homing software that lets you disable a stolen computer remotely until the police can track it down. There’s also a pricey electric briefcase that envoltifies would-be thieves, but I’m pretty sure your name ends up on some government list if you buy one. Sort of like checking out Mein Kampf at the library, or muttering under your breath about Dick Cheney.

Who I’ve heard is a very nice man, by the way.

This was just after a six year old copped a feel of Aubrey’s bum and then raced through the crowd. To her credit, Aubrey just let out a startled, “HUH!” and kept right on walking, as the men on the street roared. In retrospect, we think the kid might have been part of a pick-pocket distraction technique, though no pockets were picked. Such is the upside of traveling with an unflappable Southern girl.

Shortly afterward, we got caught in a sea of fourteen year olds, who swept us up a hillside in their wake. When we got our wits about us, Aubrey said, “I believe we’ve just accidentally found the church parking lot where teenagers go to makeout.” We refrained from making out with any teenagers.

Other small differences between here and home:

-The bathrooms have single use toothbrushes with toothpaste already on.
-Cats on the street sit under your table and meow for supper.
-At 11 p.m. on a Tuesday night, everyone is still gathered on the square.
-If you accidentally make eye contact with a man on the street, he takes you very, very seriously.

Laura. Get your bum over here. There’s a six year old we want you to meet.

Intel is making my site more interesting by sponsoring my Mighty Life List over the next few months. I’m in Greece because of them. Hi, you guys!

Traci number 431 is the winner of the Young Love Unrequited Gift Pack, sponsored by SanDisk slotRadio.

I’m still working my way through everyone’s music-driven movie scenes, surprisingly good and varied thread. These are Traci’s favorites:

Traci, your pop rocks are on the way. Please do not consume them with soda, as we all remember what happened to Mikey.

Hi. I haven’t slept in a while, as I’ve been preparing for the next leg of this adventure.

As many of you already know, Intel is sponsoring ten items on my Mighty Life List. So far, I’ve:

1. Redesigned Mighty Girl.
2. Taken tap lessons.
3. Gotten a little closer to my goal of tasting 1,000 fruits.
4. Gone swimming with bioluminescent plankton.

The campaign has even inspired me to get moving on some of the more personal goals. On my own I’ve taken Hank camping, given him his first ice cream cone, and played with some sparklers on July 4.

So what’s next? Well, very shortly, Intel is putting me on an airplane to Greece. The country where they keep the Feta and the philosophers.

I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with gratitude as I type this, and honestly I’ve been weepy over the last few weeks whenever I think about any of it. That could also be sleep deprivation, of course, but let’s not split hairs.

I’ll be visiting Athens, Santorini, and Mykonos. If you’ve been to Greece and you have any tips, please let me know in comments. I know from reading all of your lists that lots of us dream about Greece, and I love knowing that. So if you’ve made your own Mighty Life List, please don’t feel weird about linking to it, because I like it when you do.

I’m traveling with Laura and Aubrey, who are both very fun, so that means no sleep in my immediate future either. Our main objective on this trip is to watch the sun rise over the Agean.

You guys, I have always wanted to do that.

Intel is making my site more interesting by sponsoring my Mighty Life List over the next few months. They’re paying for my trip to Greece as part of their Sponsors of Tomorrow campaign, and also because they are nice people in general.

Over the next few weeks, I’m doing a campaign for Gap that features profiles of other design bloggers. The interviews are an extension of Gap’s Born To… Campaign, which is about pursuing your passion. As you may have noticed, I’m into that. Find out more about the campaign on the Facebook page here. For completists, the whole set of interviews is over here.

This is Jeremy Gutsche, author of Exploiting Chaos (due out Sept. 1), and founder of Trend Hunter, which is why he can rock this Risky Business action:

I personally think the shot would have been better in tighty whities, but Jeremy has a professional image to maintain, and I guess that means pants. Fair enough.

Trendhunter is a social network for trend spotting and innovation, which means Jeremy is the kind of guy MTV calls when they want to know what’s hip with the kids these days. He grew up in Rural Alberta racing dirt bikes, and now heads up a team of editorial interns and programmers at the Trendhunting office in downtown Toronto.

“Sometimes I’m doing graphic design, other times I’m programming, and other times I’m off in another city doing a speaking gig,” Jeremy says. “I deliver keynote speeches about five to ten times a month, so I’m typically traveling somewhere new.”

The site’s goal is to outpace mainstream media, the idea being that by the time these trends reach the printed page, they’re not cool anymore. But do his eyes ever glaze over at all the hipness? Does everything start to look the same after a while?

“By definition, we’re looking for new things,” Jeremy says. “So they don’t look the same. However, after a week of looking at TrendHunter, everything in a traditional magazine does seem boring and outdated.”

After years of trend immersion, Jeremy has developed a pretty good eye for what will hit. Common themes are creativity, elements of shock or suprise, and of course, the naughty factor. “I’m more happy to see when I am wrong [about a trend],” he says. “We’re looking for all of the little sparks that could capture viral attention, and to be surprised is actually rewarding.”

What’s on Jeremy’s radar right now:

Stupidest Trends

Self-Mutilation as Art

Danger Foods

Spoiled Pet Mania

Most Original Trends

Faking Awesome

Becoming Superhero
[ed note: I'm way ahead of the curve on this.]

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