Recently, I dug my original Nintendo Entertainment System out of the closet because I wanted to experience the nostalgia of old games once again. Like all old NES systems, I was cursed with the infamous flashing blue screen.
I Google the problem on the internet. I cleaned my games with alcohol and a Q tip. I took the system apart and attempted to repair the 72 prong connector. None of this worked, the blue screen still flashed.
Then I decided to use the method that made the least sense. I hit it. I gave the system a smack and lo and behold, Mario 3’s curtains appeared on the screen. Sometimes what works is not always what can be easily explained.
I think it’s an interesting life lesson to live by. The road we choose may not always be the most logical, but they may lead to something awesome. The answer to problems might require thinking outside of the box (or in this case hitting the box). However, giving up should never be the conclusion.
“Evil Plans- Having Fun on the Road to World Domination” is a cleverly titled book from comic writer and entrepreneur Hugh MacLeod. In fact, I actually discovered the book because it was sitting in the discount book section at Chapters and it sounded both adorable and intriguing.
To those unfamiliar, MacLeod is the artist behind gapingvoid.com. He creates original art for businesses in hopes to spark creativity, not sit in the background like the majority of mountain-climbing motivational posters.
In Evil Plans, he encourages those who are unhappy in their careers to take the risk of leaving and to figure out their life calling aka “evil plan”. The book is written in short chapters, or tips which are then elaborated on with examples and anecdotes. Oh and of course MacLeod’s signature comics.
I think my favourite tip by far was:
“Don’t worry if you don’t know absolutely everything before starting out.”
It’s something many of people struggle with (I know I do) when changing career paths, or starting their own businesses. However as MacLeod states later in the chapter,
“Interesting destinies rarely come from just reading the instruction manual.”
We may not be the most skilled or talented in whatever it is that we enjoy doing, but it doesn’t validate whether we’re able to do those things. The choice we can make is to find something that matters to us and well, just do it.
I’ve never really considered myself to be a writer. I sort of just fell in to it through blogging. I’m continually growing, finding my style and turning to others for inspiration. I read obsessively about anything and everything.
I picked up The Art of War for Writers, mostly because it would look awesome on my someday office desk. It wasn’t until recently that I picked it up and read it.
The little reference book by James Scott Bell focuses mostly on novel writing but a lot of it can be applied to other circumstances. Like the title of the book hints, it compares writing a novel and getting it published to fighting in a war.
There are three sections in the book. Reconnaissance deals with the mental game of writing. This was probably my least favourite section as I found it obvious and fluffy. It might be a proper push for those who are afraid to write in fear of judgment. As a blogger, I feel like this fear is close to non-existent or I wouldn’t be a very good blogger.
The Tactics, the most resourceful section, is loaded with tips to improve as a novel writer, many of which can be translated into writing in general. One of my favourites tips is when you have writers block, call on a word and its cousins (synonyms or related words). They can strangely open you up to new pathways.
The final section is Strategy, where Bell gives tips on entering the publishing world including finding the right agents.
The book reads a lot like a series of 78 short blog posts. They get the point across and there are plenty of examples from existing fiction. I recommend this book to any writers (not just fiction) looking for quick tidbits of inspiration. Bonus, the book has a lovely design.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to start document some of my adventures in video format. I’m going to do this Vlog style, so it isn’t going to be anything fancy and time consuming. Straight cuts of brief moments in hope to share some of the more interesting tidbits of life with you.
Here’s the first Vlog documenting day 1 of ALL CAPS music festival. I’m doing this on my own Youtube Channel instead of the Ride the Tempo one because they may not always be music related. There probably will be more of me talking eventually, but I haven’t completely planned it all out yet. Enjoy!
A few weekends ago, I attended The Grove Music Festival. Instead of photographing it, I had the pleasure of taking part in Canadian Club’s Mixed & Ready Moments campaign, along with fashion stylist Chloe Wise. You can watch the result of our adventures in the video above! You can win some cool stuff at mixedandready.com.
The video was filmed with a GoPro. I didn’t realize it was so small and versatile. I totally want to buy one now.
Whenever I’m at shows, I am usually photographing or reviewing them. For once it was nice to relax, watch the show and have a couple of drinks!
We got a bit spoiled with backstage access, which included the catering tent with this snazzy ready-to-order pasta bar thing.
So, uh, funny story.. I went backstage to find somewhere to charge my phone. Before I knew it, I was on stage dancing with Girl Talk!
Also, I met Phoenix. They were very very French and super nice guys!
Hot Chip!
This adventure made me realize that I have a damn cool life for an underemployed person and that I should document some of these in video format. It’s an idea that is still on brainstorming mode but hope to have more videos for you guys soon!
In The Power of Habit, Chris Duhigg looks at how the smallest act of habit can have a huge impact on our lives. It also delves into how businesses build marketing plans around our studied human habits. For example, when you walk into a grocery store the first thing you see are fruits and vegetables. They are purposely arranged this way so that we will buy healthy things first and can later convince ourselves to buy junk food.
He also looked into how Febreeze began from failure to a now conscious habit as well as how Target knows what you want to buy, before you even do. There’s plenty of unlikely anecdotes from Starbucks to Martin Luther King Jr and the Indianapolis Colts.
At the end of the book, there’s an appendix that teaches the reader how to integrate some new habits in their lives. There are 4 overall steps:
Identify the Routine – Look at any bad habits you want to change or a good habit you want to add in your life
Experiment With Rewards – Why did you do the bad habit? Did it give some type of satisfaction? Identify how to gain that sensation another way, or to replace it with another reward.
Isolate the Cue – What makes you keep up the habit? Perhaps a friend? Location or time of day? State of mind (ex bored)?
Have A Plan – figure out exactly how you are going to rid a bad habit or add a good one. When will you start?
I’m 25 so I’ve already sat through many lectures as a university student, college student and the conferences of music festival. By far the most inspirational has been Johnny Cupcakes‘ talk during Toronto’s NXNE. I could be biased because I am a huge fan of the T-shirts myself and it has become a large part of my own personal branding. However, I’ve seen a lot of my favourite bands, labels and companies speak over the years and few have come close to being so memorable, not to mention hilarious.
I had not planned to go to many panels this year during NXNE. I didn’t even look at the schedule. I thought I would need the sleep or extra time to edit photos. However, I ran into @plafleur and she had saved me this Johnny Cupcakes history booklet she found on the ground. Apparently it was in all the delegate bags (with exception to the media ones). I then looked at the program and discovered THE Johnny Cupcakes was doing a panel. Of course I HAD to go.
I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve done festival conferences before and most panels just say what everyone else is saying (THE CLOUD IS THE FUTURE etc etc) or gloss over fancy points. Johnny Earle aka Johnny Cupcakes taught us to think outside the box, and showed us examples of how he has integrated this philosophy with his brand.
Johnny Cupcakes making his signature face and I!
Johnny began by telling us his history. He told us how at a young age he tried to make money in different ways such as selling his father’s tools at yard sales (he got in trouble of course) and selling candy, lemonade, whoopee cushions and yearbooks. The name Johnny Cupcakes was something random that co-workers at Newbury Comics had given him. He played with the idea and that’s how the shirts were born. He began selling these shirts to friends and it spread by word of mouth.
Johnny Cupcakes now has stores in Boston, LA, London and of course online, where they ship internationally. The stores all look like bakeries and smell like frosting. Everyday somebody walks in mistaking it for a place that sells food. Delivered packages look like presents and often come with trading cards. You’re meant to be treated like it’s your birthday. Johnny had set out to sell more than just cupcakes. He wanted to give people an experience and it’s a huge reason why he has been so successful. In fact, he even gave the audience members a glimpse of the experience. At the end of the lecture, he told us he had put little gifts under our chairs. When we reached down there was a little packet of stickers, buttons, candy and a trading card. He had even gone to the trouble of making sure we each had different trading cards so that we could trade with our neighbours. After the lecture, he hung around and took pictures with fans old and new. There was candy, but I got hungry that week and ate it
Anyways, I had written down a lot of the things Johnny said in a notebook but I lost said notebook on the streets of Toronto. It was later picked up by some American musician who brought it home with them. Long story. Here are a few important points I did remember about entrepreneurship and about life:
– Building a brand is hard work, Johnny Cupcakes mentioned that he doesn’t do drugs, drink or play video games. He had put all his energy on video games. He even hired his family to help.
– Connecting with people is important. When he sold things growing up he always went back to the people who had purchased something form him once. Then when he started making T-shirts it was their word of mouth that got things started.
– Small details make a big difference. If you buy a Johnny Cupcakes the tag is an oven mitt. Online boxes are patterned and in-store ones look like cupcake boxes.
– Name 10 things that make you unique. It’s good thing to brainstorm for both job hunters and brands.
– Weird is Good. It gets people talking. Johnny Cupcakes has sold breakfast themed t-shirts with breakfast, put shirts inside icing jars and much more.
– Make things exclusive and limited edition because people like what nobody else has. Johnny had declined offers to mass produce his shirts because he didn’t want to be another fast fad like Ed Hardy T-shirts.
On Sunday, our family went down to the Harbourfront Centre to check out the Tall Ships at the Redpath Waterfront Festival. Teddy also came with us. Either we thought the boats looked the same as regular boats, or we were on the wrong side of Queens Quay but we couldn’t find too many to take photos of.
Since we had the dog with us we ventured into Paws Way. Inside was a cafe where you could share your food with your pet, a store and walls full of random beloved pet stories. To play in with the Tall Ships theme, in the event/activity room there were dog breeds that sailors used to bring on ships.
Since we seemed to fail at finding boats, we decided to go the island. It was somewhat cloudy so the sky in photos looked a bit boring.
On Sunday I took Teddy to Jack Darling Memorial Park. The huge park by the lake also had a huge off-leash dog park. Teddy was pretty overwhelmed by all the other dogs but he did manage to make a friend.
The same day as Woofstock, IAMS SOGOOD hosted a concert for dogs. 45 piece Toronto Concert Orchestra played dog themed songs like “Who Let The Dogs Out” and “How Much is That Doggie in the Window”. They also performed a selection of popular classics including themes from Phantom of the Opera and Westside Story.
Surprisingly, most of the dogs were well behaved and nobody was howling at live music. I expected Teddy to be a fuss because he usually howls at the piano.
There was free goodies and a photobooth adding to a lovely afternoon by the beach.
, mostly because it would look awesome on my someday office desk. It wasn’t until recently that I picked it up and read it.
Tiana Feng 