’Net Junkie
D’s Wal-Mart receipt
site is a real snoozerDerek D. Sysop can't tell you why he saves all his Wal-Mart receipts. He just does. "I just keep them all in an old toaster box," he writes at his Web site at lightning.prohosting.com/~receipts.
"No indexing, no purpose, no real reason to hold on to them. Until now."
Thus begins "Derek's Big Web site of Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts," a site that even Sysop admits serves little purpose other than to share his quirky hobby with the world. Click onto Derek's FAQ for his explanation:
What's so great about your receipts?
"Nothing, actually, other than that I have three years' worth on file. Most receipts are for the purchase of diapers and baby wipes, so there's really nothing interesting."
Wouldn't your efforts be better put toward doing something that people will like?
"No."
I went through all your receipts and found nothing worthwhile. Now what?
"Go someplace else. Or go back through all the receipts and add stupid comments on all of them."
Yes, Derek's given his Big Web site of Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts an interactive touch. Big deal, you say. I've just wasted an hour of my life looking at this nonsense. Speak your mind, if you like. He may just answer you, as contributor "Rebecca" found out after submitting her query back in April of '97. "Why did you feel the urge to put all these things on the Internet?" she asks. "Do you not have a life?"
"I dunno ..." is his reply. "YOU'RE the one reading them all and leaving comments."
Touché, big D.
As Derek puts it, the Web site is simply a way to help hone his CGI, Javascript and HTML skills. It now includes a bulletin board, a guest book, links to both pro- and anti-Wal-Mart sites and a "receipt slide show," which offers Web surfers a gander at actual receipts in their original glory. Make what you will of his purchases: Snickers bars, toilet paper, Epsom salt, silly putty, Robitussin, light bulbs, blood worms, a nine-pack of panties (he was married until 1998, he says) and an eye patch, among other items.
An interesting note: Derek's site's been viewed 218 times by the Wal-Mart home office. More trivial info, perhaps, but you have to wonder ... who's really keeping records of whom?
’Net Junkie drops every Monday.
Contact Shawn "Speedy" Lopes at slopes@starbulletin.com.
Note: Web sites mentioned in this column were active at time of publication. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin neither endorses nor is responsible for their contents.
