Fiverr

What would you do for $5? I'm serious. You must have at least $5 of skills that other people would want. If so, take them to Fiverr.  It is a website filled with stuff people would do for a fiver. The creativity behind some of the offerings is priceless (or at least well worth your $5). 

For $5 you could get someone to call your kids and read them a custom bedtime story featuring their friends and pets, OR get someone to write your name on their hand for a week, OR have someone give you an emergency phone call during a bad date. If you have $5 to spend and don't see what you need, just fill out a request and see what happens.

I absolutely adore this site.  It gives me faith in the world. 

The Extraordinaries

It is easy to make excuses about not doing volunteer work, but what excuse do you have not to do a little micro-volunteering? The Extraordinaries is a group that helps everyday people do good, 35 seconds at a time. Just go to their website or download their mobile app and get access to all sorts of small activities that will help others. You can help a child out of extreme poverty by providing some worlds of encouragement, tag some photos for a local museum, or help build a database of dog shelters. Lots of the activities can be done right from your computer or phone. Most take less then a minute. You can do good on the bus, while waiting for take out, before going to bed, or in an otherwise unproductive meeting. What is your excuse now?

I couldn't be more excited about this app if I had thought of it myself.

Cardon Copy

Cardon Copy is an ongoing endeavor to show the power of good design and to beautify the streets. Designer Cardon Webb "hijacks" handmade fliers from the streets, redesigns them and replaces the originals with his upgrades.

Brilliant idea, that deserves to become a movement. I'm adding this to my To Do list. (Found through Sub-Studio).

What Can You Teach Me?

I dread cheesy ice breakers. Bonding through mutual embarrassment is just the wrong way to go about things. That's why I appreciate the brilliance of Swissmiss's technique at recent CreativeMornings. She made name tags, that don't show your name (you always get to that part in conversation anyway), but ask what can I learn from you. Looking through the Flickr set, people has some pretty entertaining skills, making it a great conversation starter.

Everything I Have

Artist Simon Evans has taken inventory of all his worldly possessions in his piece, Everything I Have. The image was created out of pen, paper, scotch tape, and white out. I have so many questions...

This idea definitely makes you reflect on your own belongings and consumerism. I'm trying to imagine how big or small an inventory of everything I own would be, and just how long it would take to catalog. I'm sure at the end of the process I would want to give away everything and move to a hut on the beach. I'll add this to my To Do List, just in case.

You can see Simon's work in NYC at the James Cohan Gallery, now until April 4th. (Found through PSFK).