Friday Menagerie: Collection #8

by Marissa on 27 August 2010

The “Friday Menagerie” is a handful of links & tweets & other goodnesses from around the web that I gather throughout the week and then corral into a post. Stuff I loved, found fascinating, got a kick out of, etc. Please to enjoy!

Happy Friday by AshtonPal

Dude (Links Like A Lady)

  • What if there is no such thing as falling “behind”? Julien Smith points out in The Myth of Behind that thinking you’re behind is an energy & motivation suck. He suggests acting as if you’re beginning fresh in this very moment, cutting away all that heavy energy that “behind” brings with it and instead just making progress from the moment you’re in right now. This article turned my entire week around.
  • “Your life needs you away from your email inbox.” So sayeth Goddess Leonie, and I emphatically agree. Leonie offers up four tips for dealing with email overwhelm, all of which are absolutely doable for anyone in any stage of email overwhelm. The shackles of the inbox can be tough to break–Leonie gives you four simple ways to do it. (Really, do it.)
  • I chatted with Srinivas Rao at BlogcastFM about how to find your voice online, why your offline voice matters for your online presence, and the value of authentic connections. You can tune in to my interview (and find out just how long I’ve been online… and what on earth I used to post about in my Angelfire days!).
  • Gala Darling puts her foot down about radical self-hate–specifically, the insidious focus on calories / points / fat grams / dieting / collective body bashing in which women, especially, tend to engage. I’m with Gala–I can’t stand it when people use that as conversational fodder. If you’re not interesting enough to talk about something other than your thighs and calories during a meal, I don’t care to dine with you. Gala declares, “Radical self-hate is bullshit, & standing by & being a silent witness to it is almost as bad.” She & I both are all for emphasizing wellness, but doing so without the “body snark.” Right. On.
  • Turning the experience of receiving criticism on its head, Lori Deschene serves up a host of reasons to embrace criticism. Lori points out criticism can reinforce the power of our personal space, give us a chance to teach others how to treat us, and help us become better listeners. Not that I’m evolved enough to look forward to my next criticism, but at least I’ve got 25 new ways of examining it when it happens!
  • And turning the experience of going viral on its head, Gwen Bell examines “going viral” impacts you, how it impacts others, and ponders what our responsibility is (or should be) for what we say online. Percolate on this: “Sharing is no longer sharing for the sake of sharing… We’ll help someone, some product or service, go viral today with the hope that they’ll help us reach our personal tipping point tomorrow.” I see a lot of overlap between that notion & the echo chamber effect of affiliate marketing too. The article is good food for thought, and a conversation worth continuing.

Billie Tweet

  • Great secrets can be found at the bottom of an iced latte. @sbspalding
  • I am afraid to exorcise my demons, ’cause my angels might go too. –Tom Waits @Jim_Brewer
  • I am incredibly frustrated by people who are given opportunities, but deign not to take them. That’s way worse than a genuine obstacle. @amyhoy
  • I am going to have oreos and milk for dinner. Because I’m a grown up, damn it. @vevice
  • I’m not going much of anywhere today but MAN, am I going there fast. @communicatrix
  • The only way your passion will pay off is if you don’t give up on it. @nickberger
  • When Shakespeare wrote: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” I believe he was describing Friday. @mrjackolson

This Week’s Jukebox: It’s Dance Party Week!

You can visit the Friday Menagerie Jukebox playlist anytime, all week long!
If you’re viewing this in a feed reader or by email, you may need to click through to see the videos.

This week is Dance Party Week on the Jukebox. Go on, clear yourself some space, kick off your shoes and prepare to shake what yo’ momma gave ya.

01. Dude (Looks Like A Lady) by Aerosmith

02. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson

03. Smiley Faces by Gnarls Barkley

04. Love Train by The O’Jays [Soul Train]
There’s a red rectangle on part of the video, but the dancing is so freaking great, it makes up for that. Frankly, I love the idea of just forming a Soul Train dance line at random times throughout the week, wherever you’re at–grocery store, office, traffic–and just taking 5 minutes to give everyone around a chance to strut their stuff. How awesome would that be?!

05. Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel by Tavares

06. Hey Ya! by Outkast

07. Shake It by Metro Station

Photo Credit: AshtonPal | creative commons license

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Friday Menagerie: Collection #7

by Marissa on 20 August 2010

Perfect Summer Melonscape by Josh Liba

My favorite indulgence this summer: watermelon. Juicy!


The “Friday Menagerie” is a handful of links & tweets & other goodnesses from around the web that I gather throughout the week and then corral into a post. Stuff I loved, found fascinating, got a kick out of, etc. Please to enjoy!

Links From A Rose

  • That I’m a Gwen Bell fan is neither new nor something I’ll refrain from repeating. I like her mojo: she’s got her finger on the pulse of social media and digital engagement, one foot on the yoga mat, and the other in a salsa club. I like that she’s frank but classy, fun but not frivolous. And I like that she took a whole month off for a digital sabbatical and managed to make it her most profitable month. She noted that she wanted to “take my creativity more seriously. To put some muscle into my creative life. Without the backbone of action, creativity is a nice idea.” My first thought was, “Hashtag hellyeah.” (That I think in hashtags may be an indication I could use a little more time away from the digital world myself.)
  • I recently re-discovered Chris Guillebeau‘s article, Sufficiency. It was a great reminder of the reasons I’m generally very happy being an entrepreneur even though my income is less than it was when I was an attorney. I’m working with an entirely different paradigm of sufficiency now than I was then.
  • What do you want to remind yourself about the person you want to be each day? What if you could write a letter to your morning self, gently offering those reminders? John Styn wrote his Morning Letter, and it’s lovely. A great idea I’m stealing for my journal.
  • Linda Wolf tackles the subject of detachment and not taking everything so personally: “While the intent behind the words is important to our long-term decisions in the relationship, it is always possible to maintain detachment in the immediacy of the moment. Other people’s words and intentions are their responsibility. We can pause, recognize they are going through their own experience, consider our choices for responses, and let it go.” Smart woman, great article.
  • As my fellow unmarried, child-free peers grow ever more scarce, I admit to finding myself playing the “Who would I be now if…?” or “What would’ve happened had I not…?” game from time to time. It’s what Tim Kreider calls The Referendum: “Watching our peers’ lives is the closest we can come to a glimpse of the parallel universes in which we didn’t ruin that relationship years ago, or got that job we applied for, or got on that plane after all. It’s tempting to read other people’s lives as cautionary fables or repudiations of our own.” It is a witty, but wincingly true article.
  • Taking a different perspective, Sonya Derian reminds us to ask ourselves, when we think things aren’t happening fast enough or that things won’t happen until it’s too late, “If everything is perfect exactly as it is, what is it that you are not seeing?” What a rich question.

Tweet Lady Tweet

  • Argumentative people aren’t looking for an answer. They are looking for recognition. @KristinJArnold
  • Pricing tip: Base prices on value you deliver, not your self-esteem. @shaboom
  • A lot of times I’ll usually say things I sometimes typically can’t follow later. @sparkyfirepants
  • Live like your biographer is dozing off. @sbspalding
  • The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary. –Nassim Taleb @willieljackson
  • Dear Mr. Form. We’re bringing on Mr. Function to take over our marketing department. Please inform Mr. Hype and Mr. Tradition. @kmullett
  • I have managed to utilize every procrastination method in my toolbox today. Favorite: Reading productivity blog posts. @clrsimple2

This Week’s Jukebox

You can visit the Friday Menagerie Jukebox playlist anytime, all week long!
If you’re viewing this in a feed reader, you may need to click through to see the videos.

01. Kiss From A Rose by Seal

02. Lay Lady Lay by Magnet & Gemma Hayes

03. Low Rider by War

04. Dreaming Of You by The Coral

05. Save Room by John Legend

06. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room by John Mayer [dance choreography by Wade Robson]

07. Jackie Blue by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Image Credit: Josh Liba | creative commons license

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Friday Menagerie: Collection #6

August 13, 2010

The “Friday Menagerie” is a handful of links & tweets & other goodnesses from around the web that I gather throughout the week and then corral into a post. Stuff I loved, found fascinating, got a kick out of, etc. Please to enjoy! Cantaloop (Link Fantasia) Want to learn how to play Monkey-Pirate-Robot-Ninja-Zombie? No, seriously, [...]

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Giving myself permission

August 11, 2010

I want permission… To do it my way. To do it wrong. To say, “I don’t want this,” without giving any further justification. To bask in the spotlight. To frolic through the meadows of off-brand-ness. To be angry. To grieve–still. To let go on my own time. To ask the questions I really want to [...]

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Figuring out what to write about when you think you have nothing to write about

July 7, 2010

When you’re stuck on what to write, or what to teach, it’s rarely because you actually lack good topics or enough knowledge… even though that’s the conclusion most of us draw when we have trouble coming up with a topic. You’re probably sitting on a treasure trove of great potential topics. The trick is to [...]

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Riding the Entrepreneurial Coaster: Eyes Open & Exhale

May 17, 2010

I started taking yoga classes in college, and I was immediately impressed by the dramatic effect focused attention on the breath had on my body as a whole. Before the poses themselves came to mean much to me, the breath and awareness of it really hit home. The summer after I began my yoga classes, [...]

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Field Trip Time! Guest Post at ProductiveFlourishing.com

April 22, 2010

It’s Field Trip Time! My first Guest Post at Productive Flourishing is live! It’s called The Three Tribes Within Your Tribe. And just to whet your appetite, here’s an excerpt: We all know that our businesses depend on people, and much of the advice about growing your business focuses solely on getting more people to [...]

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The Friday Menagerie: Collection #5

April 9, 2010

The “Friday Menagerie” is a handful of links & tweets & other goodnesses from around the web that I gather throughout the week and then corral into a post. Stuff I loved, found fascinating, got a kick out of, etc. Please to enjoy! When Links Were Young You know what rocks? Intersections. Not necessarily the [...]

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