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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
September 2006
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How To: Make and Edit Hyperlinks
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Blogging: The Only Winning Move Is Not to Play?
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Remembering 9/11
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The Ultimate Blog Post?
Doogie Howser, F.B. (First Blogger)?
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Following Up on Unfinished Business
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Hello, September (redux)
Everywhere There's Signs
Hello, September (Sort of) and Cherry-Picking the Boards
« September 2006 Archive
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
4:54:00 PM EDT
Hearing Needle in the Camel's Eye -- Brian Eno

Dragonfly, Hippopotami, Blogger Tools


Every second today has been a glowing streak like you see in time-lapse astral photography. I've had so much coffee that I am slipping backwards through time, nimbly dancing through radiant spaghetti stars. I am a dragonfly in an office of hippopotami, flitting around giant creatures that are standing still.

But no matter what I do, there's other stuff screaming to be done. Like this blog post, meant for time-stressed bloggers who want to crack it out now now now.

Here's two essential tools to do just that:

A web-based alarm clock. Just set the alarm and leave the window open. The tone is the most grating, aggravating sound I can think of, and impossible to ignore. I set it in 30-minute increments and focus on one task at a time. It helps!

Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategy Generator. Eno and Schmidt are a musician and painter, respectively. Brian Eno is the most famous for having produced U2 and the Talking Heads, and you may know his song "Needle in the Camel's Eye" from the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack. Schmidt, I know a lot less about.

But I digress. The two artists developed a pack of cards meant to jog the brain while stuck on a creative problem. The above link goes to a web-enabled version. Some strategies may not relate, but others will hit right home.

Every blogger runs out of stuff to write about, or wants to be more interesting than he is. These Oblique Strategies are, in my mind, a great tool for applying pressure to a stuck mind when pressure is needed, and relieving pressure when there is already too much.

Let me know how it works for you. If you like, use the Strategy Generator for your next post and leave me a link to it in the comments.

Or, you could just tell me to stop being all artsy-fartsy and I'll understand.


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