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).

Ways to be Cool

I was considering working on a Manifesto, but I've decided to scrap that idea and just work on a list of ways to be cool. Inspired by this list. It is funny how some things are just eternally cool and others are very temporal. I wonder who Steve is... (Found through BB-Blog).

Time Tagged To Do

Jack Cheng points out that we all spend more time dreading the items on our To Do lists than it would actually take to complete them (guilty as charged). He decided to increase his own productivity by doing something about this. His solution - time tagging his To Do list. For each item To Do he writes down, he adds an estimate of how much time it will take to complete. That way when he has 20 min free, he uses is to complete a 5, 10 or 15 minute task, instead of avoiding the list all together.

I like the thinking behind this idea. It is simple, with just the right amount of responsibility and guilt built in. I'll try this out and let you know how it goes...

I Left This Here for You to Read

Oh my... an underground secret magazine, that you can only get for free, by happenstance... I love it! I Left This Here For You is a magazine created by Tim Devin. You only get to read it by luck. Tim only publishes 50 copies, no reprints, distributed in 25 countries across North America, hidden on park benches, bus stops and dentists' offices. Brilliant idea. I'm adding this to my To Do list (To Do Item 1: find copy of secret magazine. To Do Item 2: Start secret magazine).

The Photographic Dictionary

The Photographic Dictionary defines words using photographs to accompany words. They are not your everyday A is for Apple type of dictionary photographs. The meaning of the word is photographically described through literal, figurative or personal interpretations. The photographs manage to give some emotion to the definitions. Definitions of everyday words like "lonely" or "home" are so beautifully enhanced by a descriptive photograph. I'm inspired to start my own personal version.

Jumping in Art Museums

Oooo, yet another deliciously brilliant idea to add to my To Do List... Jumping in Museums. Allison Reimus has a blog dedicated to her love of jumping in art museums. She says "Sometimes, while visiting art museums and galleries, I am so excited by what I see that I have to jump for joy". Allison encourages readers to send in their own jumping in museum photos with info about who they are, what museum they were in and the painting they chose to jump in front of. She also organizes jumping events. One such event happened this past week at MoMA in NY. I might just have to swing by the local art gallery tomorrow.