My wife and I were talking the other day, as we casually strolled through Wal-Mart, about the Gift Registry, and how you can look up anyones registry. We decided, as a fun little game we can play, we'd start buying gifts for random people, things they really want, and have them shipped to the registered address. Maybe even send some nice little Congratulations cards for whatever event this person was registered for. We thought this was a good idea, partly from a desire to inspire bewilderment in the hearts of pseudo-randomly selected strangers, but mostly out of kindness and generosity.
We first thought we'd look up people who share our last name, in an attempt to create long-lost relatives in the minds of the recipients. Alas! my family name is not that common. There were no others in the extensive wishlist database. Then we thought, perhaps, we'd select people on the basis of Surname Obscurity. Anyone we saw with a family name we deemed funny or interesting would receive a gift. We haven't selected or finalized any particular method of selection. We may just wing it. Ideas?
Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner. My family has enough shit. This Christmas, I think all my Christmas shopping will be of the random registry variety. Hey, if you wanna score a gift from me, whatever the occasion, you should go to your local Wal-Mart and create a registry. Perhaps you will be pseudo-randomly selected.
Nodeshell filled with something I was thinking about anyway. Hooray!
Junkill had the idea of doing this with Amazon.com wishlists as well. Very cool idea. | 
