I am an unabashed fan of the Simpsons. I think overall this show has been one of the consistently funny and best written shows on television. Nearly everyone seems to agree that this applies to the “classic ” years of the series. Where these years land may be debatable, but some range within the first ten years is usually considered among the best. Years 3-8 are highly lauded.

There was a great series recently on Splitsider.com. I would highly suggest you check it out, even if you’re not a big Simpsons fan, but especially if you are. As a part of the series, Simpsons writer Bill Oakley took time to explain how their writing process worked, as well as break down the whole process for one  particular episode.

The Simpsons From Pitch to Screen

There are parts of the Simpsons writing process that resemble what happens when joke writing at the Onion. At the Onion there is a weekly meeting to pitch and work through hundreds of headline ideas. When this team was writing for the Simpsons, there was a yearly story retreat where all of the writers had prepared story pitches for the producers. They would explain and pitch each story in front of the group.

One difference (between this and The Onion) is how much the ideas were thought through. These were less shotgun approaches, like the Onion, and more sharpshooter planned attacks. Writers were expected to have well thought out story ideas that would not waste the time of the producers. They weren’t expected to have a draft done, but they needed to have a solid concept. The story should have a definite beginning, middle, and ending. Typically the pitches would take a least 10 minutes.

At the retreat story ideas that had promise would be reworked and refined. Once this was done, the story would go back to the writer to work up into a first draft.

Cut Cut Cut Cut the Story

Here comes the painful part of creative writing for some of us. The original draft would usually be 62 pages. A broadcast script would usually be about 42 pages. That is ten pages of story and jokes lost forever. As a writer than can be painful to see, and it can be very hard to trim the story that much and keep it together.

What happens is lots of real refining. The original story is trimmed and polished into a more clear, clean, beautiful nugget of jokes and plot. One thing the writers mentioned is that they usually wrote 3 or 4 more jokes than they needed per scene.

Would this gag be as funny surrounded by 3 or 4 more jokes?

A lot of jokes were cut, but not because they were bad jokes. They were cut because the story needed to be tightened up, and everything had to serve the best interest of the plot. This goes right along with what we discussed last week: good stuff has got to go so the great stuff can really stand out.

For Better Or Worse, Til Script Do We Part

Is the process always perfect? No, not always. There is a great article as part of the series on Splitsider that covers the process on what particular story: “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song.” After revisiting the story, the writers felt like it actually lost quite a bit in the editing. The original script could have been an hour long episode. Much of what was cut changed the character of the plot and the spirit of many of the jokes.

This can be encouraging and also a cautionary tale. On the one hand, we can lose a lot in making cuts to a story. On the other hand, a story that doesn’t work can be dramatically improved the same way. Precision cuts and edits can totally recreate a joke or story. How this whole process works can vary a lot depending on who is running the show and who is in the room.

What Are the “Take-Aways”

There are a few creative process principles we can put to work for us here.

Planning for a pitch helps you to build a quality idea

Consensus from a talented group is usually correct

Writing too much and then cutting away can build a slick, sharp final product

Who we put “in the room” can dramatically effect the final product

As referenced above, HUGE information and research credit for this post goes to Splitsider.com and Classic Simspons Week.

As one blog pointed out, slow motion takes the mundane and makes it extraordinary.

This video is from Discovery. They have a whole section of “Time Warp” videos that you can watch on their YouTube page. I love how the balloon literally wraps around the dude’s head.

This amazing video is recorded with a Phantom Flex camera.  A bored and engineering guy recorded this in his hotel room. The sound effects and music make it just about perfect. This is probably the most creative slo mo video of the bunch here.

The framerate here is 1 million (1,000,000) fps! Holy crap. Gunshot videos in slo mo are a bit overdone, but heck, it’s cool.

I love how watching these videos so slow makes it no longer about what is actually happening. It makes the video about the experience, and the shapes, colors, and reactions. It reminds me of Impressionism. Impressionism takes a painting and makes it about the colors, light, materials, and strokes. It’s no longs just a painting of a thing. The work becomes a part of the art.

Just for kicks, here is one last compilation video. It has some more generic slo mo shots, but some really cool gems are hidden in there, so be patient.

Writing at The Onion

Specifically, this is a post about the creative writing and planning process at The Onion. In case you are unfamiliar, The Onion is a parody newspaper that you can get in print, on the web, and through video. I even have an Onion app on my Roku box at home.  The writing on the Onion is always on point, and the funny ideas they generate are great.

Quick confession. My first website, ever, was my attempt at creating a personal version of the Onion. This was in 1999 maybe, I don’t think the Onion had been out for long. It was a Yahoo Geocities site, so unfortunately it no longer exists. I called it “The News on News.” Trust me, it could have benefited from a writing team using this process.

I wish I had a screenshot of that site to share here. Alas it exists only in my head now.

One more note. My main info source for this post is a podcast from This Amercan Life. I think I may have referred to this program before, but if you don’t subscribe, stop reading right now and go subscribe. It’s some of the best radio production on the air, and one of the best collections of stories from across the country in news or entertainment. I also got a few notes from Bob Sutton’s blog.

Peeling the Onion

The process for coming up with headlines at the Onion is just brutal. Every Monday and Tuesday, the team of 12 writers gather with an average total of 600 ideas altogether. One by one they read them off, soliciting silence most often, sometimes laughter, and occasional heckling. Mostly they move on from headline to headline, but might fight for a personal favorite. This doesn’t seem to make it more likely that it will get through.

The leftover ideas are rehashed on day two, and in the end they have 18 headlines. That’s right, from 600 to 18. How does this happen?

First, they are pretty brutal. Which doesn’t mean they are rude, from what I can tell. It’s just simply understood some things are funny and some are not. Only the best make it to the paper. Even beyond that, only the ideas that match the editorial style of the Onion make it to the paper. Which is to say a lot of good jokes get cut.

Good doesn’t always mean good enough

I’m not one to always beat the drum of EXCELLENCE(!). There’s an insane American ideal that can drive us all crazy at times. But…I am all for trimming and cutting and refining until an idea is the best you could possible make it. That’s part of what happens at the Onion. The relentless cutting of what doesn’t fit and peeling the layers (get it?) leaves you with a delicious core of hilarious perfection. Delicious core of hilarious perfection.

I think we can apply this principle even when working alone. It is going to be more effective with a team though, just because we inherently tend to have blinders about our own ideas. I have certain topics that I like to sniff around pretty often.

I keep coming back to them because they really lie at the core of excellent creativity. One of those topics is creative teamwork. Or, you might call it creative collaboration. Whatever the term, working on ideas as at team can really help to get past creative blocks or get you out of a rut when stress affects your creativity.

All that being said, we can use this creative technique on our own. What it will require is honesty, persistence, and some extra time. The tendency for me, and I’m thinking for others as well, is to work long and hard on that new idea, and then be exhausted and happy when it’s finally done.

The problem is we may have those creative blinders on at this point, only seeing the result of our hard work. We might not see it in the context of what would be best or what is most appropriate.

What we have to do at this point is take some time, look again, and push the envelope on ourselves. We have to be relentless and brutal with our own ideas. It’s not easy, and pushing ideas this way is something that is a struggle for me all the time. But the results are great.

There’s a lot more I want to say on this topic, so I feel a series of posts coming on. Be on the lookout over the next few weeks. I’ll collect all of these posts together when I’m done.

Until then, how do you push yourself creatively? Do you think you are challenged more when part of a creative brainstorming team? Leave a comment below!

My personal favorite Andy Goldsworthy piece

About Andy Goldsworthy from his website:

Using a seemingly endless range of natural materials—snow, ice, leaves, bark, rock, clay, stones, feathers petals, twigs—he creates outdoor sculpture that manifests, however fleeting, a sympathetic contact with the natural world. Before they disappear, or as they disappear, Goldsworthy records his work in suburb color photographs.

Check out some of these awesome photos of Goldsworthy’s work. Also make sure to check the clip from “Rivers and Tides,” a documentary about Goldsworthy, below.

Location as Art

What he build becomes a part of the landscape. Very often, it is the landscape itself that makes the work stand out. Many of his creations are studies in contrast. There may be a color that doesn’t seem to belong. It could be a pattern or bit of organization in the midst of a lanscape . In this, the location becomes a part of the work. The two can’t really be separated, at least without losing some of the power of the creation and art.

Andy Goldsworthy

A quote from Goldsworthy:

“At its most successful, my ‘touch’ looks into the heart of nature; most days I don’t even get close. These things are all part of a transient process that I cannot understand unless my touch is also transient-only in this way can the cycle remain unbroken and the process be complete

Here is a clip from “Rivers and Tides.”

Art as a temporary creation

Another unique thing about this art is that it is temporary by its nature. They wouldn’t exist to the outside world without the use of Goldsworthy’s great photography. I keep thinking that this type of art could have been created at any time in human history. Heck, it probably was, and it’s just gone.

What we often categorize as “primitive” art was in fact sophisticated. I think it’s very likely that there was a lot of very sophisticated art that was overtaken by nature and the elements very soon after it was created.

Do you think you could do it?

One of the great things about this style is with a little time and inspiration, anyone can give it a shot. Just step outdoors, take in the world around you, find some raw materials, and go for it. That’s exactly what blogger Rick Carrey did. Here’s an image from his blog Living Ricariously where he made an attempt at this style of art.

Do you want to see more of Andy Goldsworthy’s art? A quick Google Image Search will turn up tons of amazing examples.

Do you think you would try this type of art? I know I will. If you do, share it with us here!

What is A Wrong Question?

The first thing you have to do is realize that you are asking the wrong question. This is the hardest part. What is a wrong question, and why is it a problem?

A wrong question can result from a number of things, which we’ll cover below. We ask the wrong question when we get fixated on approaching a problem from one direction, in one way. What happens is we keep getting stuck in the same place or with something that doesn’t quite fit.

This is a problem in any area of life. Let’s say your kid is having tons of trouble in math. We might spend more and more time studying with them, but it might not make a difference. This can get amazingly frustrating. The temptation is to work harder and harder and study more. In this situation everyone gets more and more frustrated, and no progress is made. But what if it turned out that your kid just needed glasses? Or maybe it’s not a what but a where: they might need to study in a different location to get a better result instead of simply studying for longer and longer periods.

Lets go for a creative example. I’ve worked on a site before and I just couldn’t get the look right. I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I tried using different colors on my website, different fonts, different layouts. But then I tried a new approach. I switched over to a new grid system and it was like magic. Everything fell into place.

The Danger of Asking the Wrong Question

Where we can really get tripped up is that a “wrong” question isn’t the same as a bad question. Does that make sense? Think about it this way. Just because an approach doesn’t work doesn’t mean it’s a bad approach or it doesn’t work at all. In fact, there is a very good chance that the idea worked before!

Let’s go back to the studying example. Studying more isn’t bad. Often studying more will fix the problem. What about the design example? Experimenting with typography and color are both good approaches. They just weren’t the right approach this time.

Let’s Get To It: How to Get out of the Creative Rut

Question your prejudices!

What are you already bringing to the table. We all have prejudices about everything. We make assumptions everyday. That’s how are brain works, and it helps us to make quick decisions. Lots of these are based on experience, so they’re not always wrong or bad (see above).

Ask yourself, “Do I always find myself making the same assumptions?” Or, “How is this project different than the last?” It might help to make a quick list. Write out what you’re bringing to the table and assuming about this particular project, then go through and analyze each one. Maybe make a second list categorizing anything you can think of that is specific to this one project. Then go back to the beginning with your new approach and see if you can find a creative solution.

Break the rules…dont’ be afraid to be unique!

Brace yourself. I’m about to give you a great gift. Are you ready? Here it comes: I’m giving you permission to break the rules. Don’t take this too lightly. This isn’t just a “be yourself!” speech. I want you to go against the grain when you need to.

Let’s be honest, the rules are there for a reason. There are design rules, color rules, music do’s and don’t, best video practices. They help us stay sharp and avoid mistakes. But they can also keep us in a box. But used correctly, the rules can set us free with practiced, specific rule-breaking.

This isn’t free reign rule-breaking just for the hell of it. It’s a skill that we should hone and practice everyday. Once again, let’s take a step back from the project. Pick one “rule” that you are following. Just one, don’t get too crazy now. Now bend that rule until it breaks. Feels good, right?

Now analyze: what happened? Is this better or worse than what I did before? Can I push the idea even further? The rule breakers have historically been the one’s who did amazing things. Make breaking the rules a part of your workflow!

Ask someone who has no idea what they’re talking about!

This could be a sub-section when it comes to breaking the rules. Put your work in front of a complete novice. Ask your uncle, ask your buddy with no creative bones in his body. Ask a stranger, I don’t care. What you’ll find is someone who has no idea what they may be talking about, per se, but they might see something that you are missing completely.

We can get too close to a project, and even if we go through the above steps, we might not be able to break through our prejudices or even realize what rule we are following. By bringing someone totally outside the creative area where we work, we just blow all of that up.

What Wrong Questions Are You Asking?

Now is when it has to get down and dirty. What approaches are you using every day that are keeping you from breaking free? Give yourself permission to do something different. Be open minded. Don’t be afraid to be wrong!

Leave a comment. What other ways do you get out of a creative rut?

If you want to watch the video now (great song also, by the way) then you can cut to the bottom. Then come back up and read more about it.

First off, don’t be mistaken. When I say simple, I’m talking about the elements involved. You don’t have to spend $1 million to make a great video. You can make some great film for $300! Not sure how much this video may have cost, but the elements involved aren’t Lord of the Rings level. No matter the cost though, this level of art takes skill, time, and attention to detail. More on that further down.

One of the most mesmerizing parts of the video is the mysterious dancer tossing up clouds of smoke and dust. The way that the dancer moves, I just can’t look away. Adding the visual of the dust and the light at the slow speed, it’s just amazing.

Rippling water hasn’t been this exciting since Jurrasic Park. One of the ways the video builds tension is the longs shots of the water rippling to the beat. The wide shots of the glasses filling the room are weirdly amazing. Lots of shots really have an air of mystery. There are shots of large rooms, and a pile of broken plates.

As the four on the floor beat builds, we see where the pile of plates came from. We see the plates fly down the stairs and slam into a wall. We can’t see who throws them, we just see them pile at the bottom of the steps. Every beat, one plate smashes into the wall.

Like I said, there’s lots of technical skill involved here as well. The lighting of the video is great, and the editing is amazing. It moves from long, slow shots to fast quick cuts as the tention builds. The camera pans across a slow-mo rain of sparks as the song reaches a fever pitch.

Well, without further ado, here is the video for Adele’s Rolling in the Deep.

So what do you think? How could you make a short creative video with simple, effective ideas that ends up being awesome?

Being creative requires commitment and staying on task. I’ve talked about productivity and creativity before. We may want to be all right-brained hippies, but if we only create when we really really feel like it, we won’t get much done.

I am both a procrastinator and a task management junkie. I know, right! I love tools to help me keep on task. In my quest, I have found a few that seamlessly integrate into my daily life.

That’s what I need. A way to manage tasks that works where I already am. I don’t want to have to go out of my way to integrate a new productivity system.

Here are my 4 tools that I like to use to stay creative, productive, and on task.

TEUX DEUX

I’ve blogged about Teux Deux before. It is just so awesome, I have to bring it up again here!

Teux Deux appeals to me from a design and simplicity standpoint. It’s just one screen containing the days of the week with a spot for a to do list underneath. At the very bottom is a “Someday” list for items you don’t want to forget. Items can be clicked to cross them off. If you don’t complete a task, it will roll over to the next day.

That’s pretty much it.

This falls right into my workflow because it is so simple. It doesn’t ask me to do tons more stuff and go through layers of complexity to set up a task. I type, read, check off . . . that’s it.

One great bonus since I the last time we spoke about Teux Deux: there is now a Teux Deux iPhone App. The interface was already perfect for iPhone and touch, so it’s really the same experience, just portable.

Lifetick

Lifetick is a bit more complex, but how it keeps you up to date is what makes it seamless. Lifetick is a life goal manager. Think of it as a more long term task manager. Goals can be broken up into large chunks, and then separated out into smaller and smaller tasks. This is less of a daily to do manager and more of about accomplishing something big in incremental steps.

Thing that makes is cool #1: It gives tons of information in a very pretty package. It’s a very pretty flash-based web app. What’s great is that things stay clean while giving a huge amount of info. Goals can be graphed and sorted in incremental levels. Goals are put into certain life categories, and then you can view how balanced of a life you are leading.

Thing that makes it cool #2: Notifications! Lifetick will keep you notified via email when you have a task coming due. You don’t have to constantly login to check progress. You’re already in your email, so it stays relatively simple. And of course there’s an iPhone app for that.

Boomerang for Gmail

I really like Gmail. If you’re like me, you spend much of your time in Gmail. That said, living in your email isn’t always great. Boomerang helps to manage email a bit, and also is a way to keep yourself on task. Boomerage accomplishes two main things.

First, it allows you to send emails in the future. No time travel involved, it just sucks them up and sends them when you want them to go.

Second, and more about time management, it has magic! Yep, time travel and magic. OK, what it actually does, whether magic is involved or not, is check your emails for date-sensitive info, and suggest they be boomeranged back to on at the appropriate time. Simple, say I send you an email about our hot date next Friday. Boomerang will ask if you want this email returned to your inbox on Friday as a reminder. It’s super simple, requires one click, and gosh-darn, I like it!

Taskforce (Beta)

Before I go on, I will warn you that this is still in Beta. Sorry. No, I do not have any invites. If I do though, you’ll see here first or by following @createmonster on Twitter. Now that the formalities are out of the way . . .

Taskforce is super cool! And, to qualify for this list, it is also simple and easily integrates into everyday life.

Taskforce is a task manager that integrates into Gmail. At its most basic, you can enter tasks like any task manager and check them off when your done. The interface for this is simple and clean.

But there’s so much more! Taskforce works as a plugin, so it can do cool stuff inside your Gmail. It inserts a button above an open message that lets you convert an email to a task, or add it to an existing task.

But wait, there’s more! Collaboration.

You can automatically add the person who sent you the email to the task. If they have taskforce installed, it will sync up with yours. Even if they don’t, however, it will still update them by email. Cool beans! It can be a great way to collaborate on creative projects.

I Heart Seamless Integration

As you can see, besides being simple, one of the most important things to me in a handy app is how well it integrates into my daily routine. For me, this is the only way I can insure that I will make it a part of my daily workflow.

Everyone’s workflow is different. Some of these may work for you (especially if you use Gmail). Some of them may not be a good fit. I would love to hear what tools you use that fit your daily life, or if any of these work well for you.

Let me know in the comments!

What time of day am I most creative? When is the best time to work? Does the time of day affect my productivity and creativity? I ask myself all of these questions. I think I may finally have the answer!

Does the early bird get the worm? I’ve decided that this is the wrong question. It all depends on what type of worm you want! There are three different types of creative worm we can peck about for during the day.

But first, one word about being an early riser.

If you are an early riser I’ve got nothing against you, friend. But I’ve got to say this: please stop freaking trying to get me up. From what I understand, there are studies about getting up early and being productive and all that, but I’m here to say there are different types of productivity. Don’t feel bad about yourself because you like to sleep in late.

Being an early riser is not always the “win” for everyone.

So without further ado

The tales of the three types of worms

1. The Early Worm

We all know the early worm. Chipper and warm, sometimes even without coffee, he gets a jump at the day. Often, he does this while making everyone that is waiting on their coffee very annoyed.

But let’s not disparage our friend E.W (the Early Worm, that is) He does have his strengths. He gets started right to work on the day before he can get distracted by Wormbook or his wPhone. He’s quick to get on the right foot, which is easy because he doesn’t have feet. He shows up prepared and ready to slither his way into success.

This is all assuming, of course, the Early Bird didn’t already eat him. OK, so the metaphor isn’t perfect, but stick with me.

2. The Collaboration Worm

The collaboration worm always gets a gold star for “works well with others.” He can get the job done, but he does his best worming when he’s part of a team. He loves to bounce ideas off of a whiteboard session, go out for a long lunch, and hash out new ideas over Twitter. Our friend C.W knows that great ideas are not born alone: they are created as a group of talented individuals sculpt, hone, and refine the raw idea into a gem.

3. The All-Nighter Worm

Finally, we meet our friend the all-nighter worm. Here is a worm that will surprise you. Often looked over as a layabout, he can work in amazing bursts. This fellow can bask in the uninterrupted joys of the AM. He revels in the glory of the 24/7 Internet. Once he sits down to his project, he plows through the dirt until he pops out in China. Used correctly, this worm can wield amazing power.

What Worm Do You Want?

Here’s the cool part: we don’t have to pick just one. Although, I would choose one at a time to be sustainable! Creativity doesn’t have to come at a certain time of day. There are benefits to different times of day. You just have to decide what type of work you want to do, and then ride that worm into success. Or eat it, if you’re the bird. I’m a little lost on my word pictures here.

If you need to be productive very fast, then get the early worm. If the work you’re doing requires collaboration to really hone your ideas, go for the afternoon worm. If you are in the zone and need a long, uninterrupted stretch of productivity, then the late-night all-nighter worm is the way to go.

Don’t get bullied into working outside your “zone.” Find when, where, and how you work more creatively, and then be a champion.

Check out these awesome posters from a guy named Fro.

I am a sucker for really good poster design. I also love movies, so great movie poster design is like a super win/win. Poster design is one of my favorite places to find creative inspiration when I need it.

These remind me in spirit of some of the Polish Posters that I love so much. It has that same de-constructed/re-constructed vibe. The poster design boils the theme down to it’s simplest essence. There’s not much there, but you totally get it. Even more so, if you’re familiar with the material some of the designs carry even more weight in the subtlety and inside jokes.

If you’re a LOST fan, be sure to check out the page dedicated to LOST poster designs. They’re quite awesome.

One of the strongest elements, in my book, is the color choice. The palettes for the designs hit the mark so well. Combined with the use of texture on the poster, they all manage to capture this slightly retro, somewhat aged look. It’s a bit of a trendy style right now, but it’s trendy for a reason. This guy is no copycat hack, he is choosing and using his colors with skill.

For more, check him out (and buy something from him) at FroDesignCo.

(Special thanks to one of my favorite movie websites, CHUD.com, for introducing me to this artist. Put them on your radar: Fro regularly designs art and special prints just for CHUD.)

This is an amazing site to get inspired, to learn, to get educated, and meet others if you’re a designer.  It’s dribbble.com. (with three b’s) If this site is not already bookmarked in your browser, then do it now. No really, now. I’ll wait. : )

…

Done? OK.

So here’s the lowdown on Dribbble. The site has one simple request: share what you’re working on. Designers have a 120,000 pixel quota to share a shot of what project they are working on. People share completed work, in progress work, or “rebounds” off of another idea.

It’s part of that crop of sites that eschew “openness” for quality. Which isn’t to say it’s totally closed off, that’s part of what’s great. You can be a design stalker. Or, as they call it, a prospect.

Only “players” can post, but if you’re a prospect you can be drafted by a player and join in the fun. Until then you can search through the site and gain all kinds of inspiration. I like how you can sort based on how images are tagged, so if you’re looking for something specific it’s easier to find. By the way, that’s not an invitation to copy ideas. : ) Remember, great designers steal.

You can join, make friends and gain followers. Even if you don’t join, you can check out all of the coolness that everyone is working on. It’s like somewhat exclusive social network for designers.

So check it out, follow some people, learn from others and see what they’re up to. Be a design stalker!

#4 How Does Stress Affect Creativity

All of the top posts are very interesting to me. They say something about how we think about creativity, and what concerns us. This was definitely a top concern, pulling in tons of results from Google. I’ll definitely revisit this topic again. Stress is something that we run into everyday of our lives, and we have to learn to stop its adverse affects on what we create.

#3 Creative Inspiration: Paper Map Art

This is STILL the number one search result from Google that brings people to this site. That’s crazy to me. This is also one of my favorite art projects I featured on the site in 2010.

#2 Three Ways the Internet Affects Creativity

Much thanks to Scoutie Girl for the inspiration behind this post.

#1 Five Christmas Songs with Strange Lyrics

It cracks me up that a post so late in the year became my most popular post of the year. I don’t know if this means I should do more lists or write more about Christmas songs. I’m glad that everyone enjoyed the post though, especially for one so full of my rantings!

(This is a bit of a state of the blog style update. I do this sort of thing maybe once a year, so don’t get too used to it!)

Today begin’s “take 3.” When I originally launched the site, I tried out some different avenues, then took about four months off. Last fall I kept up a schedule of posting nearly every day for quite a while.

Starting this week, here’s the new format:

Mondays I’ll post a great source of inspiration. Wednesdays will be an original article. Fridays I’ll share a new tool or resource. That’s it! A great, simple schedule of events, so to speak.

In addition, a couple other ways you can follow if you love creative tips and resources. I’ll share all kinds of things whenever I find them on Twitter and Facebook, so follow me there.

I’m looking forward to the new year! See you around.

Don’t you wish you could edit and prep images inside your browser? I’ve got a new favorite tool for quick image editing: it’s called Pixlr.

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This was edited and hosted with Pixlr

Pixlr

This is the main app you see above. It’s like a basic, online Photoshop of GIMP editor. It allows for drawing, cropping, resizing, filters, and even more advanced tools like the stamp tool.

I can think of a billion uses for this. Resizing and cropping images. Adding text to an image. Commenting on a screen capture. Using the dropper too to steal a color I like.

Pixlr allows saving to the desktop , Imm.io, your own Pixlr library, Facebook, or Flickr. The image above is hosted on Pixlr storage. This also makes it a quick way to share an image with someone. I could also see using it to make quick notes on a graphic or website for a client and instantly sharing it online without email attachments or requiring them to sign up for anything. Awesome.

For me this runs super fast, which is great. Even on my beloved Mac, Photoshop takes a lot of gas. This runs like a sexy, simple Vespa: quick, basic, and nimble.

Pixlr Express

This is the super simple version that does all the basics you might need and nothing else. It’s similar in some ways to Piknic (but it seems to run quite faster) It actually packs some pretty nice filter in there. It includes the trendy cross process and tilt shift filters. Nearly every photo you’re seeing shared on Instagram is using this type of filter.

This screen cap took me about 15 seconds

You can also do quick cropping and image resizing. Express doesn’t connect to online storage. It is also strictly for photo editing, you can’t create anything from scratch. That being said, this if perfect for 90% of the folks online, and from a creative standpoint it’s just freaking fun to play with.

Edited in Pixlr Express

Pixlr Grabber

This is a super-handy plugin for Firefox or Chrome. (You’re not using IE are you?) Other than quick access to the Pixlr tools, this lets you take quick screenshots of webpages, which comes in handy for me quite a bit. This also adds a cool option to the right-click context menu in your browser. It adds the “Edit in Pixlr” option. So, if you need to grab an image online and edit it for quick sharing, you can do it in a couple of clicks.

Hopefully I’ve persuaded you to check out Pixlr. There are other tools out there like it, this is just my favorite so far. It’s a great thing to add to your workflow if you use lots of images online.

Do you have any online tools like this that you like to use? Share them in the comments!

First off, I’m not a Scrooge, I promise. I just tend to listen to songs in my own way, and to me lots of Christmas songs have strange, odd, or just “off” lyrics when you think about them for a moment. This goes for modern and classic Christmas songs.

I have a tendency to do this with all songs actually. To serve the song structure, sometimes writers end up with interesting lyrics. My wife has accused me of ruining many songs for her. I just think I have a unique way of looking at the world. : )

For today though, I will focus my special talent of some of our favorite (and perhaps not so favorite) Christmas songs. By the way, if you have any other examples, leave them in the comments!

1. Winter Wonderland (as sung by the Eurythmics)

In the meadow we can build a snowman
and pretend that he’s a circus clown
we’ll have lots of fun with Mr. Snowman
until the other kiddies come around

I’m not sure what’s happening here. What is the situation with the other kiddies? This is especially weird since the original lyrics are “until the other children knock him down.” While this makes me question what sort of rough winter wonderland neighborhood they live in, at least there’s a story. The Eurythmics leave me wanting more. What’s going on with the other kiddies!?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPps50bAUJE[/youtube]

2. It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Parties for hosting? Check. Marshmallows for roasting? Double-check. Scary Ghost Stories? Che….wait what the heck?

3. Do You Hear What I Hear?

This is one of those where I see the intent, I really do. But the lyrical juxtaposition (that’s right, lyrical juxtaposition) is a FAIL moment for me.

In your palace wall mighty king
Do you know what I know?
A child, a child / Shivers in the cold
Let us bring him silver and gold, Let us bring him silver and gold

This kid is freezing. Blanket? Nope. Wood for a fire? Nope. Bling? Oh, heck yes!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLhL0UQwJ8E&feature=related[/youtube]

4. Santa Claus is Coming to Town

He’s sees you when you’re sleeping. Creepy

5. Twelve Days of Christmas

We all know the song. Let’s be honest though: pretty much the worst Christmas ever. Did anyone see the Office episode where Andy tried to gift the twelve days of Christmas? Hint: it did not go well.

Could we not skip all the birds and lords and just go with the five diamond rings? Personally, this guy/gal sounds like a seriously disturbed stalker to me.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL33rWV4ChA[/youtube]

“Is it my fault that the eight days is basically 30 birds?” Classic.

Food is Creative, Right?

The most creative thing is probably the food. At least, it’s a big creative opportunity. For many people it’s the biggest and most diverse meal they will fix all year. Maybe the tablescape could get creative?

Thanksgiving is definitely more of a holiday about family, comfort, and quality time. And for some, football and parades. Hey, there’s another creative opportunity! The Thanksgiving Day Parade. Floats and performances can be very cool, although it’s not a totally fair answer, since the Thanksgiving parade really focuses on Christmas. Christmas really is a dominant holiday; it pretty much takes over Thanksgiving.

Ideas?

So, after all of this stream of consciousness writing, what do you think? Can you think of a particular element of Thanksgiving that is artistic or creative in some way? Is it really that kind of holiday? Are there ideas we could introduce to engage the creative side of the mind (besides food) on Thanksgiving?