The Drooly Dog Blog

Two! Two! Two blogs in one!

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:57:00 +0000

I was thinking about how this blog is for inspiring creativity, and how it would help if I shared more about how I create my cartoons and illustrations... and what it's like being a working artist.

Well, it turns out that I already do that, just in a different blog.

So, you may be wondering, why are these blogs separate?

Hmmm.

They actually shouldn't be.

So from here forward, I'm going to publish ALL of my updates in one blog, located here:

Betsy Streeter's Blog.

It will be filled with projects, ideas, artwork, doodles, cartoons, and creative fabulousness.

I'm going to leave the Drooly Dog blog here, with all the archives, until I figure out how to import them into the other blog... which appears to be kind of complicated. Technology is our friend, right? ...Right?

If you subscribe to Drooly Dog email, you'll be getting a note subscribing you to my other blog - you can click to verify your subscription, and you'll keep getting the Drooly emails. Plus, you'll get new drawings, cartoons pulled from my archives, and lots of other cool projects that happen in my travels as a teaching cartoonist.

Thanks for reading (my readers are the most excellent smarty-pants readers in the world), and I look forward to keeping you up to date all in one place!

Cool Blog: Urban Sketchers.

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:33:00 +0000

As a person who draws all the time, my sketchbooks are filled with random drawings made wherever I happen to be - pictures of a stage before a concert starts, or a big rock in the ocean, or a street, or a cup of coffee in a cafe, or just parts of my environment.

Over the years I've accumulated these little drawings from numerous states and countries, and I love when I come across them later.

I really feel like I really am somewhere once I have 1) Gone for a run there and 2) Drawn it. The place, not the run.

So, I'm enjoying looking through this blog, Urban Sketchers - it's like touring around the world through people's sketches, and for me at least many of these pictures seem almost more real than a photograph. Take a look at how different people see their cities and towns and streets. It's super cool.

In Praise of Tape

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:55:00 +0000

Tape is so great.

When you're a kid, you can make almost anything out of tape. This is for two reasons:

1. It's sticky and bendy, and

2. Grownups let you have it because it is not scissors.

Once you get past the annoying stage when you keep getting it stuck to itself, tape becomes a source of joy.

Plus, there are all those colored tapes you can get at craft stores.

Yesterday I was hanging out drawing with some kids, and two of them decided to put facial hair on, made from paper. They drew themselves beards and mustaches, then taped them to their faces. Then they would "shave," making a bzzzzzzt noise while pulling the beards off. Then they would make a longer beard or whatever, and do it again.

See? Tape. What a great thing.

Listening to Your Pencil

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Have you ever just sat in a quiet room doodling with a pencil?

The lead makes such a nice sound on the paper.

Try this sometime - just listen to the sounds the pencil makes as you make different types of marks. Don't worry too much about drawing something.

It's a very interesting way to draw.

In fact, you can get quite a bit of insight into your mood based on whether the sound is calm, or scratchy, or if you hear that snap of the lead breaking.

And, in the spirit of pencil drawing, here's a presentation I did a while back...

Ten Great Uses for a Pencil

View more presentations from betsystreeter.

Travel Expands the Mind. - Dr. Who

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:08:00 +0000

The United States is such a huge country that it's easy to forget that there are other countries sometimes.

We have these different states, but we have a tendency to argue amongst them rather than think of them as interesting cultures to visit.

When's the last time you heard someone say, "Those Colorado residents certainly have an interesting culture!"

But then, there's the Amish.

A week or so ago, we were in Iowa in an area where Amish settlers have moved in and bought land in recent years. They've built a school house, and they ride along the sides of the road in their hand-built buggies.

They refer to us non-Amish as "English." Who knew?

Anyway, we got to ride on a buggy, and I was struck by how much this was like visiting a foreign country. Even the sound of the buggy wheels was new. And, everybody went out of their way not to offend one another. There was a back-and-forth that seemed a lot like how you deal with people when you don't speak the language or are not sure how to pay for something or are just trying to find the train station.

Whatever you might think of Amish culture, it certainly expanded the mind to visit with people whose entire lifestyle was, well, foreign. Right there in Iowa.

Comics at the Field Museum

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:17:00 +0000

Well, we're back from a week of adventures, with tons of ideas and thoughts to share.

Here's the first one that came to mind: Comics. Otherwise known as, visual storytelling.

Obviously I'm biased, but I think the cartooning/comic medium is sadly pidgeonholed and not really used to its vast potential.

One place we went was Chicago. While there, we got to the Field Museum, which has everything from Egyptian mummies to giant sloth skeletons.

It's amazing how many man-made artifacts were pretty much stories told in pictures. I mean, this room is a gigantic picture book. The place was filled with what we would see today as comics.

There were Greek urns with myths retold on them. There were walrus tusks with hunting stories. There were of course tons of hieroglyphics, and scrolls, and papyrus, and various other means of recording either things that happened or ideas that needed communicating.

We have used visual storytelling forever, on everything from cave walls to pottery, but lately it seems to have gotten shoved into a corner called "comics." I suppose that's because the comic genre has had such a following, and there's a particular look and feel and convention to the storytelling that really works.

But when I see how kids draw, it really reminds me of those scrolls and tusks and all of it. Movies and TV are natural extensions of this idea, but sitting down and drawing out a story is such a magical and brain-expanding thing to do. I wish more kids got a chance to do it without having to think of their work as "just comics." I doubt that's how the Egyptians thought about it.

Creative Happiness - The Short List

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:21:00 +0000

Yesterday, my daughter was in a play. She's 7, but she got to wear granny glasses and wear a shawl while singing and dancing. It was fabulous. The whole cast was so great.

Afterward, my husband told her why he was so proud of her, and what he said next, I thought, was wisdom that could be applied to anyone pursuing creative happiness.

He said he was proud of her because:

1) She was really good at what she did,

2) She worked really really hard at it, and

3) It brought her great joy.

I thought, what a great way to look at whatever you pursue in life. That combination of things has been described endlessly. Malcolm Gladwell talks about #2 in his book "Outliers." Bazillions of books have been written about #1 and #3. But it's putting them all together that really causes great things to happen.

On a large scale or a small, community-theater scale.

So I'm going to keep that list in mind. Thanks to my husband, such an organized thinker who can lay things out like that and make them seem so clear. Much clearer than a shelf full of self-help books at the store.

A Simplified Abacus

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:31:00 +0000

Alright then, we've been messing around here making abacus(es) (abaci?) using beads, kebab sticks, and tongue depressors.

The first ones we made were traditional and had the "heaven" and "earth" beads and all of that. Which was cool.

However I also recently made a simpler version, which is great for anyone learning math facts for both addition and subtraction.

I just put ten beads, in alternating colors (so you can see even vs. odd numbers) on each level. Then I labeled each decimal place. The kids wanted to go up to millions so that's how many we did.

The cool thing about using this one is that often when you add you also get to subtract.

Example: Suppose you've moved over 5 beads in the bottom rung. You want to add 8 to that.

Well, you haven't got 8 more beads to add. So what do you do? Go up a rung and add 10, then go back down and subtract 2. That's it. Then you've got one bead in the 10's place and 3 in the 1's place. Or 13.

You can do that all up and down the various decimal places.

I'm liking this one for my kids since they're in math-fact-learning mode. And it teaches things in decimals which is useful for how our numbers work.

Anyway it's worth a try. I kind of like just messing with it while I have breakfast.

Recipe for a Superhero

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Yesterday I had the pleasure of drawing cartoons with lots of kids (and their tutors) at 826 Valencia in San Francisco.

Our theme was superheroes.

First we brainstormed a list of all of the things that you need in order to create a superhero. This list method can come in really handy when making up a character. It is a "skeleton" that you then fill in with your own details.

Recipe for One Superhero:

Name

Species (what type of creature your hero is)

Cape (or not)

Mask

Secret Identity

Hidden Lair

Transport (flying, rocket, car, etc.)

Utility Belt or other Tools

Superpowers

Weakness

Story of how they got their Superpowers

Costume

Logo or Emblem

Transformation from Secret Identity to Hero

...there's more I'm sure.

We came up with Captain Poodle, who is by day a mild-mannered poodle but who has a special collar that lets him transform into a Mastiff with a cape and boots. He also has laser vision through his goggles and can fly and has super strength. His hidden lair is accessible through a secret door in the bottom of his dog house.

Next, you need a Nemesis or Enemy.

Recipe for one Nemesis:

Name

Species

Powers (usually directly opposed to Superhero's powers)

Costume

Weakness

Lair

Technology

Transport

Story of how they came to be the Nemesis

We came up with "The Dog Catcher," who is of course a cat. He wears a hat and trenchcoat and can shoot out a special super net.

Then the kids came up with their own. We had an ant with armor, and cats, and unidentified creatures, and folks with jet packs and rockets coming out of their feet, and lots more.

You can try this too -- what would your Superhero and Nemesis be like? Oh, and for extra points you can also add a Sidekick. For both of them, to keep things even.

Felt and Glue and... Puppets!!

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:34:00 +0000

At the afterschool center where I teach we are messing with a)Felt, b)Fabritak (expensive but works well for quick fabric projects c)scissors and d)eyeballs.

This was my puppet - a 4-eyed dragon type guy.

I hope to bring you pictures of more of the creations once the glue dries. Then, perhaps we can put on a show!

Here's a place where you can find a nice pattern for the outline of a puppet. Note: This pattern is kid-hand-sized, so make it bigger for grownups. And, if you're wanting to venture further into puppet-land, here's a pretty cool site on all sorts of puppet making.

Looking Up

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:40:00 +0000

Since a movie came out this summer called "Up," I think it's time to notice more things about changing one's perspective.

I already wrote about looking from the inside out - any change in how you look at your environment can reveal a lot about what is around you, what you've been missing, and how you tend to look at things.

This morning, I spent some time looking straight up into trees.

It's amazing how many people go around looking down all the time. Nowadays, often it's looking down at some screen or other, thumbs a blazin'.

Looking up shows you information you didn't know before. Like, what tops of buildings look like. Or, what it's like to turn your gaze toward infinite space.

Interestingly, my sense of hearing also perked up when I started looking straight up. I became aware of lots of bird conversations going on up there that I had been oblivious to.

I remember looking up a lot when I was a kid, since I was too short to see anything. I remember what the undersides of counters looked like at the pizza parlor and the bank.

Now I have to remind myself to look up, even though I'm still just human-sized.

From the Inside Out

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:54:00 +0000

So if you look at a Pottery Barn Kids catalog, you see lots of nifty play kitchens and boxes and easels and things that are so... color coordinated and perfectly proportioned and meant to look nice.

And, I think you can spend $250 or more just by looking at one of the pages for too long.

Yesterday we scored a big box.

So I consulted with my 2 kids on what to do with it. We took it outside and cut it in half. We discussed how to make it so it wouldn't fold up on them. We cut out "trap doors" in the top.

After that, they grabbed their boxes and took off into the house.

Did they paint them pretty colors? Cover them in cute drawings? Um, no.

The first thing they did was locate a suitable wall in their room and put the box up against it, creating a little cave.

Then, they put things in there. Like a "rug," or a "bookshelf." And they added things like buttons, which control something I think.

These are so not Pottery Barn. But it's not because they aren't up to the task of making things cute and colorful, it's because they are looking at these boxes from the inside out.

The minute they saw a big box, they saw a cool space that was theirs. They set them up and burrowed into them.

Art projects are often judged on what they look like, but some projects should really be judged on what they feel like. What it's like to push them around, or create a new little space to be in or use materials in some new way.

They may not be much to look at for the Pottery Barn crowd, but there are whole little worlds in there.

An Old, Tired Quote... or is it?

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:23:00 +0000

"It's what's inside that counts."

Wow, that's an oldie. The sort of thing your grandmother would say, right?

As I mentioned, I've just finished reading "The Beauty Myth." And, I've also mentioned that I think the concepts in that book could actually be applied to just about anyone.

One of the major concepts is that a consumer society strives to keep its citizens focused on things outside of themselves, in order to manufacture "need." You see, in order to need something you have to not already have it. Or enough of it.

So, the beauty myth keeps women always looking outward, toward ideals, and away from their true selves.

This is the exact opposite of art.

Art is about what is inside, it is a way people have of taking what they have inside them and making it visible. Writing does the same thing. Same with music.

So you could argue that in a certain way, the arts are how we counteract this culture of manufactured need. By letting people express what they have inside, and giving them lots of ways to do that, we acknowledge that an inside exists. And that it does not "need" external things to be fabulous.

Seattle - Science Fiction Museum

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:27:00 +0000

I have a confession to make. Earlier this year when we were in San Diego, we actually skipped the zoo and actually went to an exhibit at the Space center on Star Trek. We even had our picture taken as a family on the bridge of the Enterprise.

So, these are geeks we're talking about here.

But, I have to say that the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, which is in the same building as the Experience Music Project (near the Space Needle), is well worth a visit.

What they did really well was to mix together the work of many different science fiction creators, and show how their ideas influenced one another. And, they had really cool artifacts like a model of the Death Star used in the movies and the plastic raincoat from "Blade Runner" (which appeared in a pretty gnarly scene, so it's a grownup thing, but just hanging there it's no big deal).

Science fiction is like one big thought experiment, where people try on various realities and decide what happens. Star Trek was a huge breakthrough when it put people of multiple races and genders on the bridge together. And there are so many other examples.

Anyway, if you are a sci fi nerd like me, it's totally worth it to see such a massive number of artifacts and props and stories and personalities so well presented.

Seattle - Experience Music Project

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:18:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous post, we're just back from Seattle. While there we got to the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. The EMP was both nostalgic and interactive simultaneously, with tons of artifacts from Seattle-area artists and bands arranged chonologically. There was also, of course, a memorial to Michael Jackson outside and a small case containing his sequined jacket and glove from when he first performed the "moonwalk." And, a really big room with Michael's music playing where people could just dance around and watch the back wall light up. What a great space.

But the coolest part, especially for kids, were the soundproof rooms where you could take ten minutes and jam. There were keyboards, drums, guitars, and computerized lessons on how to play them. There was even a room for vocals, although we didn't get into that one. But I did manage the bass line from "Smoke on the Water." Thank you, I knew you would be amazed.

Anyway, these exhibits really showed people of all ages the basic structures of music on lots of different instruments. And the way they did it, with exhibits and with soundproof rooms, meant people with little or no exposure to making music could goof around in a way that made them comfortable.

We have a spinnet piano in our house, and I'm observing as my daughter makes progressively more structured sounds with it. She doesn't take any formal lessons, but you can really hear her thinking as she noodles around. I wish all kids had something like that. I think you could accomplish a lot by just providing some boxes or upside-down buckets and a paper towel roll to use as drums and drumsticks.

I really recommend those exhibits and rooms for anyone of any age. If you're near there, go. It's right near the Space Needle.

Seattle - Jim Henson Exhibit at the EMP

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:11:00 +0000

We're just back from a visit to Seattle, where we got to go to the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. I highly recommend both, although we are bigger geeks than your average bear...

They currently also have an exhibit on Jim Henson's work, including Muppets and a lot of storyboards and sketches. It's fascinating to look at proposal covers for the Muppet Show, done by hand with ink pens and whiteout. This stuff was put together waaaay before desktop publishing.

I also really enjoyed seeing storyboards and sketches for what were called "counting films," which you may remember from Sesame Street as the bright animated shorts in which they counted up to some number using fabulous shapes or characters and music. I love seeing the thought process, and for kids it's cool to show them all the thinking that takes place before anything ever shows up on a screen.

In fact, it was really striking how low-tech most of the productions were. And, as an added bonus, there was a sketch showing exactly how the puppeteer gets inside of and operates Big Bird.

And, as a nice touch, they had a notebook out with a pen where you could sketch out a character just the way Henson used to do it. I loved how that made the exhibit about inspiring people, not just showing them what someone else did.

Anyway, if you're in Seattle before August 16th it's well worth seeing both for the nostalgia and for the peek at the ideas taking shape.

Where Do They Get This Stuff?

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:40:00 +0000

If you've ever watched "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," you'll recognize these fellows as the not-so-smart droids that are everywhere. But look closer - these droids have their own disco ball. And, they are dancing on one of those light-up disco dance floors. I have no idea how this particular combination occurred - perhaps the artist saw part of "Saturday Night Fever" in the last week? But I was impressed by how thorough this is. Go droids!

Drawing Over Time

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:36:00 +0000

This drawing, on a white board, looks like there's a ton going on - and there is. The space-invader-like creatures are battling the black rocket things, everyone is shooting at each other, and there's even a lot of yelling of "Zowee momma!"

But what's also interesting here is that this drawing was made over about 45 minutes. It started as one alien, then another one attacked, then someone's friend showed up, then people started yelling "Zowee momma," and things went from there. Along the way, a lot got erased also as the story developed. So this was not just a single drawing at all - it was a whole movie. Zowee momma!

Drawing in Reverse

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:29:00 +0000

I just spent a week at my son's school teaching a drawing camp - we used white boards, and paper, and drew from books and from our imagination. We even took the white boards out to a park one day and drew under the trees (no paper, since that would have gotten all over the place).

Since we had shiny new dry erase markers, there was a lot of ink (good thing these were the non-stinky kind). This meant the kids could color in the entire board and then erase to make their drawing. As you can see here, that's especially good for making space scenes. If you look closely, there's a rocket leaving earth to go visit some distant planet.

Studying the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:19:00 +0000

On Thursday, NASA will launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and the LCROSS or Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satelllite. So we've set about studying the LRO first, to see what it looks like, what its payload will be, and how long its mission will take. The kids then took some clay and made their own LRO displays. The second one is a little more free-form, sine my 5-year-old mainly wanted to make a Lunar landscape, but you get the idea. The LRO is kind of a blunt-looking vehicle, and that's the moon over on the right. We used clay and then colored it in with paint and markers. You can see more about it on the NASA site.

This is gonna be some cool stuff and tell us a whole lot more about the moon. They're going to study radiation, craters, resources, and more. I'm hoping we can see the launch on Thursday!

On another note, I heard that there's actually astronaut poop on the moon. I'm not kidding. I mean it makes sense, given the *ahem* in's and out's of those space suits, but that's certainly not something I had considered. I've said enough - if you want to know more, you can go here.

Things You Can Make with a Box - Robot Head!

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:24:00 +0000

Some robots come with enormous numbers of puffballs on top. External brain perhaps? Exo-brain?

Ideally, what I'd like to do is now attach some big robot arms that are controlled with sticks that the wearer holds in each hand - but first we've got to figure out what materials to use. A good start though, eh?

It's an Abacus! It's a Soroban! It's....

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:40:00 +0000

So, my kids and I have created a school for the summer, which they have named "The Cherry Lane School of Craziness." Each day we decide what we're going to do, like field trips and projects and such. Yesterday, we made an Abacus out of beads, bamboo skewers, and popsicle sticks. And glue. Lots of glue. Here is where we got the instructions.

It kind of took all day to do this because of waiting for the aforementioned glue to dry, but the results looked pretty good. We started out making an Abacus, which has two beads up top and five in the bottom. Then I went out and looked for pointers on how to use the Abacus to do calculations, at which point I learned that the second and fifth beads in the top and bottom, respectively, are used to do hexidecimal stuff like calculate pounds and ounces and things like that. I was looking for a simpler calculation device so now we are starting in on a Soroban, the Japanese version which has just one bead up top ("heavenly bead") and four in the bottom ("earthly beads").

On an Abacus or Soroban, the decimal places get bigger from right to left just like written numbers. We did a simple one with just three decimal places - ones on the right, tens in the middle, and hundreds on the left.

This is a pretty nice demo on how to use an Abacus, and why those extra beads complicate things - We are still trying to get the hang of it, but I think it will be a cool way to visualize numbers. Plus, there's pretty beads. What's not to like?

Here, Kitty Kitty

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:38:00 +0000

There is a ton of cool street art in the Mission District of San Francisco - however, this one is closer to the Financial District. I saw it on my way to dinner the other night. I think someone had better get this kitty a bowl of milk before it eats a car or something.

And Furthermore...

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:31:00 +0000

A follow-on to my last post about Creativity and Careers...

Okay I read the Harvard Paper, found here.

While interesting, it is missing a big ol' Chunk out of it - the basic Function of art. It talks a lot about art's Value, and sort of its role in society, but not its Function.

The Function of art is to communicate something.

That Something could be communicated to one person, or lots of people, or differently to everyone in the world, or only between the artist and him or herself. But art communicates.

Sometimes art doesn't communicate anything to one person, but volumes to another.

Here are some examples of what art can communicate:

1. What it was like today inside someone's head (Van Gogh)
2. What God is like (Michaelangelo, oh and a whole lot of other people)
3. A good story about a hunt or other event (Caves)
4. What emotions feel like on a deeper level - anger, sadness, joy (Beethoven)
5. How the paint is behaving today
6. Who we love
7. What a place felt like at a particular day and time
8. A historical event (Goya)
9. How light works
10. How dark works
11. Things that scare us
12. Things that make us laugh
13. Things we remember
14. How we wish the world was
15. How we wish the world wasn't
16. Ideas about space and time
... and on and on...
... in short, what it is like to be human, communicated in deep, varied ways.

That's art.

Creative + Career = ?

mail@betsystreeter.com (Betsy Streeter) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Alright here we go again with the Ongoing Theme of how Stupid it is to think of Creativity as a. A luxury b. A rarity c. Not "useful" or d. Not the makings of a career.

As I've mentioned before, I've encountered many cues in our society that creativity and art are somehow these exotic, fluffy things that you do only if you have the time or if you aren't smart enough to do other "real" things (i.e. accounting, medicine, etc.)

I was at dinner at someone's house once when the husband stated that art had no value except economic... if it did not have economic value, there was no reason for it to exist. I don't really keep in touch with those guys.

This isn't a discussion about the value of art, it's about the values of our society. A society that is one-dimensional is unhealthy. Our one dimension is capitalism.

Oh, and have you noticed how capitalism rewards creativity? I mean, everyone who has ever invented or innovated anything Important or figured out how to do something New that People Want has done really, really well. Like, mansion- on-the-hill well. The evidence is all around you right this minute, in people's pockets and cars and ears and homes and stores and doctors' offices and movie theatres and, well, Everywhere.

Here's a paper from Harvard that looks interesting on the topic: "It Is Okay for Artists to Make Money…No, Really, It's Okay".

Anyway, I'm not going to go on about "art is valuable, really, let me spell out various reasons why," because that's not the issue. The issue is examining how we get out of a mental rat-hole about how we value things and how we remind ourselves that sometimes, money isn't part of the equation. No, really.

Oh and then when we put our Capitalist hat back on, we can look around and notice how creativity and innovation have a whole stinkin' lot of money associated with them.