Self Improvement

Snail - The Adventure Time Wiki. Mathematical! The Snail is a character that has hidden in every episode of Adventure Time to date (excluding the Animated Short), usually seen waving at the screen. His cameos are a running gag. He’s also hiding in all the comics. One of my favorite little easter eggs out there. Definitely our household’s contemporary Goldbug.

On February 12, 2007, I pitched my pal, Nelson Minar, on an idea for a web service we could build that would make it easy for people to setup their own mini-site where they could post random bits of text, photos, etc. In retrospect, I realize that it probably never would have gotten much traction with casual users, but, hey, who knows? Maybe someday, amirite? [quote] STIKKIT STARTS HERE Tumbalog scratch sheet @tumbalog tumblelog businessideas nelsonminar share nelson@redacted.org Elevator Pitch Easy hosted tumblelog + [twitter and other API mashups] == MySpace for smart, wired grownups The Basic Idea Today, we don’t want for ways to share our stuff with friends (and the rest of the world). Sites like Flickr, Del.icio.us, Twitter, and Blogger have made it easy to broadcast what we’re seeing, reading, doing and thinking with anyone who has a web browser. So finding places to post our stuff isn’t a problem. But — although geeky tools for aggregating feeds and calling APIs certainly exist — so far no one’s made it easy and fun to combine all your disparate threads of personal content in one cool-looking place. That’s where Tumbalog comes in. How it Works Once you’ve created a Tumbalog account, you tell us where all your stuff lives on the web, and we mash it into a single, you-branded home page at your own personal URL. Updates on all your sites and services are added automatically, plus you can add new stuff directly to your Tumbalog using any of several easy entry points: Add a new blog post from a secure web login Send photos or status updates from your mobile phone Post snippets of pages, song lyrics, or quotations into your page using a javascript bookmarklet Add your pals’ Tumbalogs to your “friends” list, and keep up with what they’re up to from one big page. Tumbalog gives you a single URL to show friends everything that’s going on in your world. Feature Details Your existing web content: We pull in all your stuff from Twitter, Flickr, Del.icio.us, and any other site that uses APIs or produces XML feeds. You can also choose to just pull in content tagged a certain way. It’s all up to you. Your look: Choose from N provided skins and color options, or skin your site using an external CSS file Your controls: Control panel lets your choose categories, organize tags, tweak settings, and manage friends Your posting options: CP posting; smart javascript bookmarklet; mobile phone, email, IM Your site to-go: Drop a few lines of javascript into your non-Tumbalog site’s templates or MySpace/Facebook page to publish your latest Tumbles wherever you want Possible Roadmap (very rough strawman ideas) Basic backend for adding feeds Blog-like posting functionality Tags and Categories Multiple skins Outbound XML feeds Tumbalog API ??? Background http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblelog http://www.kottke.org/05/10/tumblelogs http://ozimodo.rubyforge.org/ - crazy-making Ruby app. Gaaaaaaah! Inspiration http://project.ioni.st/ - I mean, wow. Beautiful design and easy to get http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/tumble/ - Again, just gorgeous http://anarchaia.org/ - Probably the original tumblelog http://moi.st/ure/ - Very stylish http://example.com/redacted/ - Meh [unquote] Ten days later, I emailed Nelson this: Like I say, who knows? Maybe it ended up catching on. I dunno. I don’t really follow the trades.

One of the best ways to master something is to just jump in and do it. However, for some, this can be seen as a waste of time blindly doing something you aren’t sure you’ll succeed in. So, why not dedicate a weekend to it? This is known as a “Weekend Project” and today, we will talk about how a weekend project can help you improve your skills, knowledge, interests, and in return, your life. We will also talk about how you can get involved with your own weekend project. What Exactly is a Weekend Project? Originally, weekend projects were geared more toward home improvement. During the week, you can’t work on a high-traffic area of your home, and the responsibilities of one’s occupation plus the high energy of the work week just deemed it too time consuming. So, individuals would wait until the weekend to do repairs. However, in modern times, weekend projects don’t have to involve a hammer—they can encompass everything from cleaning out your home office to building a computer. These are the type of weekend projects we will focus on. The Productivity Factor The average workweek has changed for most individuals; it’s the weekend that has changed. One thing to make clear is that your “weekend” project doesn’t have to occur between the days of Friday and Sunday; any period of time during the week that you would otherwise spend in idle mode can be a time for your project. Weekend projects can even make you more marketable in your job and keep your skills sharp. For example, no matter which industry you work in, having skills in database management could be marketable in your current job or the industry you attain to be in. Spending a weekend learning the basics of the database language SQL can allow you to learn an easy-to-understand language. Creating Your Own Project Not everyone views productivity in the same way, which presents a question of how you can apply the productive benefits of weekend projects to your own life? One thing to ask yourself is how you wish to benefit from it. The benefit doesn’t have to be extravagant, like saving the world, but the project should be a personal one. A weekend pursuit that helps you, and improves your life directly or indirectly, will allow you to feel more accountable to get it complete. Weekends are the time when you are allowed to be a bit selfish; you have worked so hard during the week, and on your day of rest, you should pamper yourself and your mind in some way. You should think about how long you’d like to devote to this project. Projects can cover multiple weekends if warranted, like learning a computer language or purging your home of clutter. Lastly, you should consider how much of an investment you’ll like to make in this project—you can have weekend projects as inexpensive as learning new yoga poses, or as costly as reviving your vintage car. It is truly up to you, but something to consider. 5 Suggestions for Weekend Projects Below, we have give suggestions for projects you can take up for this weekend. Also, to get you started, we have each project linked with a great page that can point you in the right direction: Learn a New Computer Language – Easily marketable, applicable, and rewarding. Try Out a New Recipe – While lounging around the house during a weekend, why not cook something up that you wouldn’t have normally tried during the high stressed work week? Revolutionize the Way You Work – Start the new week by spicing up the way you work. Improve Time Management – Spend your idle time planning how to use your time during the week wisely. Create a Home Office – Bringing your work home is usually frowned upon, but having a dedicated location for work at home makes you more productive. As you can see, these small endeavors are more productive than you think. Some of the best creations, in technology especially, have been created out of side projects. While you don’t have to have a weekend project with those high expectations, you may be

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up. There is an epidemic spreading across the world. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re all carriers of the disease. It’s called Offend-initis, a skin condition whereby the thickness of our skin melts away to the point where everything offends us. Symptoms may include: hurt feelings, indignation, irritability, disappointment, grumpiness and an all-around allergic reaction to anyone who says or does something we don’t like. Fortunately, there is a cure. Stop Being Offended Today: 3 Cures for Everything That Irritates You The post Daily Quote: Don’t Ever Take a Fence Down appeared first on Lifehack.

brianmichaelbendis: Watchmen #1 cover color guide by Dave Gibbons, John Higgins

Wolverine and the X-Men, #25 You can’t tell the players without a program. (whether in Avengers, FF, WXM, or otherwise, I always just love these)

The world does not reward perfectionists. It rewards those who get things done. As a rule, thinking is a good thing and while some people don’t do it enough, some over-think everything. Both genders can fall into either category – today we’re going to chat about the one who does too much. How to Stop Being an Over-Thinker The post 30sec Tip: The World Does not Reward Perfectionists appeared first on Lifehack.

If you’re anything like me, you hate doing chores, whether it means vacuuming or washing clothes. Fortunately, there are tons of ways to cut down on the time you spend doing chores and this great BuzzFeed article features 31 fantastic ways to make laundry easier. If you find sorting laundry to be tedious, then just install multiple hampers on a wall in your laundry room or garage and sort your laundry as you toss it in the hamper, or buy a hamper with dividers built in. Always have stains on your clothes, then post a stain-removal cheat sheet right beside your washing machine.Tired of losing socks, then put your socks in a mesh bag before you wash them and they’ll stay together. Remember, if you try to make laundry easier, you’ll have way more time to do the things you actually enjoy doing.   Original Source – Buzzfeed The post 31 Ways to Make Laundry Easier appeared first on Lifehack.

Two Key Priority Questions One of the first things to do to trust your priority decisions is to make sure you’ve got a current inventory of everything you’ve said “yes” to. Turn over every rock. Look everywhere you’ve allowed input in—especially your head—and make decisions about what each one of those things means and what you want to do about it. If you’re like most people, that will leave you with a pretty healthy (and long) list of things to do. When it comes time to choose what to do, you will first be limited by your context, time available, and current resources. Good chance though, that will still leave you wondering, “Which one should I choose?” This is where priority comes in. There are two key questions I have found to be enormously helpful with priorities. Ask yourself: What’s the value in getting this done? What’s the risk if I don’t? Try asking yourself those questions next time you’re staring at your list and deciding how to best invest your time and attention. —Kelly Kelly Forrister is a Senior Coach & Presenter with the David Allen Company.

When I graduated from college in 2009 with a BA in French, I spent six weeks looking for a job. Any job. I needed to save money for my impending move to Paris, where I would spend a year working as a teaching assistant in an elementary school, frolicking in the City of Lights, and I needed to save money quick—$3,000 in the span of a couple months—in order to afford all of those baguettes and bottles of vin. I don’t know if you recall, but the summer of 2009 wasn’t exactly the best time to find a job/graduate from college because of the…ahem…recession that had just hit the U.S.. Merci, economy! When June arrived and I still hadn’t found work, I started to panic. In my desperation, I posted an ad on Craigslist entitled “French Tutor: $15/hr”. Two days later, I got an email and scheduled my first student: a Russian-American eighth grader with a deep love for David Bowie. That, my dear reader, is how I got my first taste of how to earn money on the side. No, it wasn’t a ton of money (I eventually found a full-time job to save the money I needed for France), but I realized an important lesson: it’s just not that hard to get people to pay you to do things. In the four years since I graduated, I’ve become more and more obsessed with the idea that I can earn money without getting a real job. In fact, while living in Paris, I continued to grow my tutoring business and offered up my services as a nanny. I made bank. I even moved back to France in 2011 and spent eight months living off of my side hustle, earning money “under the table” or “in the black”, as the French say, by tutoring ESL, babysitting, and even continuing to tutor American students via Skype. Now, I even teach new entrepreneurs how to land their first three clients and start earning money on the side. (My “side hustle” has become my main income). How did I do it? More importantly: How can you start earning extra money (at least $500) on the side, too? Lemon squeezy. You just need to try a few of the following things (as many as you can, really). It’s fun. Just think of it like a game! #1 – Teach someone something You, my friend, are talented. You have knowledge and wisdom that others just don’t have. You have knowledge that they need. Stop hogging it all! Maybe you have an academic skill, like tutoring French or Math or Biology. Maybe you’re an amateur auto mechanic. Maybe you have a knack for cooking tapas or sneaky vegan recipes that even meat lovers will love. Contact the local high school, library, etc to see if they’d refer you. Whatever it is, there’s someone out there who is willing to pay you to teach them how to do what you do best. You have to get over the unwillingness to earn money for doing what comes easy to you, because, well… it doesn’t come easy to them. (I, for example, would love to hire someone to teach me how to sew or do my taxes). Make a list of 50 things that you know how to do. You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to know how to do it better than the person who hires you. (I am not the best French speaker in the world, but I know way more than my students and have diverse teaching experience, and they get an incredible value from my lessons). Charge what you’re worth. Don’t do what I did and charge a measly $15. (My lessons are now triple that cost). If you do this right, this is the best and easiest way to make money on the side. #2—Sell something (not your body, duh) Don’t even try to tell me that you don’t own anything that you can sell. I’m a minimalist, for crying out loud, and I still have things lying around that I can sell. Do you have: Nice clothes that you rarely wear? Shoes? Furniture? An instrument? An old computer, phone, or other electronics? A designer purse? Books? Walk around your house with a pen and paper. Make a list of items that you see that you might be able to sell. (Note: the best places to sell things are eBay, Craigslist, and at garage sales). I sold my piccolo from high school f