Apparently NBC Universal Likes My "Week in the Woods" Idea

Last week I mentioned my plans to spend a week in the woods while still continuing my full-time blogging and writing schedule. Looks like NBC Universal/DVICE thinks it's a good idea, too, since they're looking for someone to do it later next month.

Did they swipe the concept from me? Who cares! Now I just know I have to hit the woods the week before. Or what would be cool is if they chose to do it somewhere else besides the woods so we could contrast and compare the experiences.

From: Peter Pachal Date: March 11, 2008 4:03:35 PM CDT To: NBC Universal Subject: Green Week is coming! Time for one lucky blogger to get off the grid...

Hey guys,

Believe it or not, NBC Universal is doing another Green Week (begins Mon. 4/21, lasts a week), and this time out we want to do a stunt for DVICE. The working idea is to have someone try to live off the grid for a week, but stay hooked up.

Sound contradictory? Maybe, but the plan would be for the person to not get any power from a wall outlet — it would all have to come from renewable-powered gadgets (solar, wind, etc.). So they’d still have a cellphone, laptop, iPod, etc., but they’d get all the power for them from the sun, wind, and other green sources (compost?). We’re not sure if the person would live on a rooftop or the woods or whatever, but anything is possible, and the bigger the idea expands, the bigger the coverage (video, pics, blogging) — and the bigger the fee.

So I’m putting this out there: If you know of anyone who would jump at this opportunity (maybe that’s you), then by all means, send them the message and my contact info. We’d like to finalize this in the next couple of weeks. Feel free to forward to anyone who you think might be interested. Also, let me know if you have ideas for renewable-energy gadgets.

...Oh, and ideas for Green Week itself!

Thanks all,

Pete
--
Peter Pachal
Editor, DVICE
NBC Universal
http://dvice.com

[#1 posted by Deadmeat , March 12, 2008 11:10 AM]

You should one-up them for stealing your idea and instead do it on a raft in a lake.

[#2 posted by Anonymous , March 12, 2008 1:02 PM]

As it was taking too long for my account creation email to arrive...

I was talking to a friend about your 'Week in the Woods' idea a few days ago and how humorous it would be (for us at least) to schedule a trip to the woods at the same time as you, somehow find you, and pretty much just fuck with you the entire time. For instance: setup camp 20-30 yards from you, spend a lot of the day thwarting any of your survival technique experiments, staring at you, and generally being loud and obnoxious. Besides the inherent humor in doing something so pathetically malevolent there would be the associated delight of reading the posts written about the "two assholes who keep staring at me".

Maybe going someplace other than the woods and comparing your experience with NBC's would be interesting but I'd suggest a party crashing might be better.

-Berylium