12.31.08
Goodbye, Oh Ate!
Thanks for another great year!
At the Spiddlement office holiday party, someone recommended we start running a regular comic strip. I thought it was an interesting idea, but wasn’t sure if our readers would like it. It’s one of the projects we hope to explore when we reopen in 2009.
Until then, we wish you a Happy End Of 2008!
12.30.08
The Ocean Blue, “Between Something and Nothing”
Spiddlement has been really really into rock music in 2008. Here’s a band we used to listen to in the early to mid ’90’s, but only recently rediscovered, The Ocean Blue. All of their albums are worth checking out — and here’s hoping for a new one soon.
We liked this Youtube video because the audio quality sounds good to our ears, and the photograph is nice. Also, The Ocean Blue is a band we associate less with “music videos”, and more with their records just being on repeat on the stereo for days and days.
If you’re just getting started with this band, their crowning achievement was probably Beneath The Rhythm and Sound, but their later albums take the band in some new and very enjoyable directions as well.
12.28.08
ELO “Starlight” with Hubble Telescope
“Here are some of the visual secrets of our beautiful Universe made clear and visible with the Hubble Telescope coupled with ELO’s song ‘Starlight’!”
12.25.08
Thanks for a great 2008!
Spiddlement wishes all our friends around the world a happy winter season, and a peaceful new year!
12.24.08
Messy vs. Clean
Pretending to be clean (if you’re not) requires a lot of energy, and doesn’t really fool anybody.
Lately, rather than having a heart attack trying to make my place look spotless whenever someone comes over, I’ve found it’s easier to just say, “Yeah, I’m a little messy. Sorry for the clutter and papers everywhere.”
Otherwise, they eventually catch you when you don’t have time to tidy up beforehand.
Why lie to people about such a stupid thing? And also, why create so much stress for yourself?
Personally, I like a little clutter. It’s the natural byproduct of doing lots of stuff. My home is not a showroom unfortunately, it’s a work / living space. If I had more rooms, I might consider making one room a “showroom area”, used only for entertaining guests. Unfortunately, I don’t.
Please note that I am talking about “clutter messy”/idiosyncratic filing systems/lots of books and stuff everywhere, NOT filth, which is obviously a different story. I just mean that I’ve never been able to actually live in a place where everything is filed away nicely, put on its shelf, organized, etc. And I finally decided to stop trying to achieve that look just for the sake of (thinking I’m) fooling company.
12.19.08
How To Make A Ninja Mask
Someone sent this to Spiddlement a long time ago, and we’ve been meaning to post it.
When cleaning out our bookmarks archive, we found it again and remembered how cool a tutorial video it was.
12.14.08
Go Ahead And Tell The Truth
I think writing is the best creative outlet I’ve ever found.
First, it’s cheap. Really cheap. How minimal are the supplies needed? I have written entire articles — that have been published — on the backs of convenience store receipts or napkins, and in the margins of already full notepads… with borrowed pens! Basically, all you need is something you want to express and some way to capture it.
Second, writing requires minimal set-up. You can do it basically anytime, anywhere. You can even do it without paper — often I “write” in my head when I’m riding on the train or taking a shower and then “transcribe” it later. There’s no need to make an appointment with anyone else. When I’m crazy busy, I often record ideas into my MP3 player for later use.
The hardest part about writing, I think, is the natural inclination to want to censor ideas. This often comes in the form of worrying what an imaginary audience will think about an idea, especially an unpopular or silly one.
I have been writing “seriously” since 2002. That great year was when I got my first paid publication. I don’t count being published in the high school newspaper before that or whatever. When I look back, I think my favorite stuff I’ve written is the stuff where I’ve shared my honest thoughts without the aforementioned self-censoring.
12.12.08
“I’m Outta Time”, new Oasis video
Great new song and video from Oasis.
Spiddlement has been spinning their latest album, Dig Out Your Soul, recently.
Link (to video)
12.09.08
Better Than A New Year’s Resolution: Zero Basing
I found a cool word in a book I was reading this week: Zero Basing.
The word originally comes from accounting. It seemed to perfectly describe a process I’ve used for years to think about my life — without ever naming it.
The idea is that you start from ZERO and then have to justify everything, rather than starting with assumptions about how your life is or should be.
You start with the minimum you need to survive — food, a roof over your head in a safe part of town — and build it up from there. After these absolute essentials, you must justify every other expense or thing you spend time on — not based on their HISTORY but on their PRESENT VALUE.
It’s saying, “If I could start at zero, with any possibilities available, what would I keep and what would I do differently?”
It’s an interesting thought experiment – especially when life gets complicated – to start at zero and think about what’s really important. “Which things really serve me and make my life better?” “Which are just routines, self-imposed shoulds, or unchallenged assumptions?”
Zero Basing is a tool to override our natural tendency to consider sunk costs when making a decision. Sunk costs are the time and energy we’ve already invested in something — time and money that is now gone forever. In economics theory, a rational actor doesn’t consider sunk costs when making the decision whether an expenditure is worth continuing to spend time, money, and effort on.
