BlogaDay Dos

BlogaDay 2007 was a success in the sense that it encouraged consistent readership, and also, consistent writership.

Unflummoxed success is rare enough that I like to build on it when I find it. So for 2008, I present an all-new BlogaDay. Visit Quickthinking every day in November to see what thing I think.

Posts will not be mere one-liner links to something on the Internet that someone else went to the trouble of creating, but will contain original thoughts and opinions, developed into short paragraphs. Similar to real writing!

Also new for 2008: Blogger supports scheduled posts! Via the miracle of science, expect updates each new day, even if I am too drunk to press buttons.

Furthermore, if any of you reading this are also bloggers, feel free to join the BlogaDay movement by writing a new, original post every day in November. We will be doing it together, only very far apart! Leave me a comment with your blog address if you're in.

It all starts tomorrow! November 1! Here is a brief excerpt from tomorrow's post:

"the"

Art Shop 2008, Dec. 5 & 6

This is happening soon, so you'll want to make plans to attend.

ALSO NEWS FLASH: I, Jeff Quick, will be showing and selling plush monsters at this event. Come and be entranced.



In these frightening economic times, you'll want to support local artists for your Xmas shopping. And if you are not local, then you'll want to support ME.

Furthermore, the underappreciated capitaltruism of Unda Water will be on sale both days.

COMMENCE EXULTATION.

Late bloomers

I would like to be writing new things, about the one-eyed puppy we picked up, about monster-making, about a resurgence in Unda Water, about lessons learned in the world of advertising, about further half-formed theology, about the children I pass driving to work, waiting for the bus, pulling on the air, a mimed plea for passing cars to honk.

But writing well takes time, and if I'm going to write, I at least want to try to write well. And of course, it's not that I don't have time, it's just that I don't want to spend it on blog writing these days.

Instead, I'll post again by pointing you to an article by the always-pleasing Malcolm Gladwell on Late Bloomers, comforting reading for a mid/late-30s still-wannabe.

Left-handed scissors

I bought a pair of left-handed scissors weeks ago, and just got around to using them a couple nights back.

Verdict: I don't know how to use left-handed scissors.

I'm so used to right-handed scissors, that I don't know how to cut with the blades reversed. When right-handed people cut with scissors (I assume), they look on the left side of the blades to see what they're doing -- closer to the middle of the cutter's body.

As a lefty, I also look on the left side of the blades, but that side is away from the center of the body when held in one's left hand. Which is slightly awkward, but you adapt, and things work out. (Except that statistically, left-handers die 9 years sooner than right-handers, probably for these sorts of reasons. Not that I'm bitter.*)

Left-handed scissors are designed so that you look on the right side of the blades -- a mirror image of right-handed cutting. But I'm still in the habit of looking on the left side of the blade, and so I've made some pretty awful cuts because I can't see what I'm doing. That's the opposite effect of what I wanted... perhaps to be expected from an opposite implement.


*Although I would like to point out that if any other group made up 10% of the population and had a physical distinction of biological origin that could potentially impair job function, they'd damn well get federal funding and "protected class" status.

Bailout, part 2

I am generally pro-avoidance of suffering. But here's the deal, "Main Street": your hands are dirty too. You bought shit you didn't need and charged it. I am usually in favor of soaking the rich. But nearly every middle class-and-up citizen made our current mess, and many of the poor ones too.

Seriously, HDTV? Was that invented for any reason other than to suck money out of pockets? Was mortal television insufficient?

There's a long list of ridiculous money holes at places like engadget.com. And people willingly, joyously, threw their cash down it.

The "bailout" that would save us would be national sackcloth and ashes. It would be healthy and sane for us to suffer some, to understand the consequences of our behavior.

But we won't do that. We're too silly, too fat and spoiled. What's happening now is a flailing after the last ditch. This will not solve anything. If we're fortunate, it might prolong it for a generation. It is not a solution.

People: Americans: Stop spending money on things you don't need. Save money instead. This is the only way out of our current problems. The economy is what we do. Do wise things.