I don’t like advertising. Marketing is more powerful than the average person suspects. Marketers are armed with million-dollar budgets and decades of research. We defend ourselves only with our experience. It’s not a fair fight. I wince every time I hear somebody brag that ads don’t affect them; it’s my guess that ads affect these …

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Christmas 1950

At Get Rich Slowly, I often share old videos. If I ever get Vintage Pop off the ground, I’ll share many there, as well. Here’s a nice one about Christmas from 1950: Merry Christmas, everyone. Be safe.

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By Any Other Name

Kris and I went to the local Methodist church rummage sale last weekend. I found a 25-cent label maker, a “cartigan sweater”, and a hideous lime green-and-yellow turtleneck. Kris found some treasures of her own. For some reason, I took my camera, but the only thing I found worthy of photographing was the attendance chart …

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The Snowflake Method

The snowflake method for writing a novel seems needlessly complex. In general, I think elaborate mind-mapping systems for writing are counter-productive. When I write a story, I have a clear picture of who my characters are — I don’t need to write pages of notes about what they eat for breakfast. At the same time, …

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Lawbreaker

From Slate: Which laws we’re allowed to break in America (and why) — for future reading.

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The Einstein Principle

From Study Hacks comes The Einstein Principle: Accomplish More by Doing Less. Einstein’s push for general relativity highlights an important reality about accomplishment. We are most productive when we focus on a very small number of projects on which we can devote a large amount of attention. Achievements worth achieving require hard work. There is …

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Rescue Me

via Amanda

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The Neon Bible

The Arcade Fire — The Neon Bible

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The Water of Life

Paul J. passed along a New York Times article on independent bottlers of Scotch whisky. These folks buy premade whisky from distilleries an then work new magic on it. Suffice it to say, this isn’t your usual Macallan or Glenfiddich. And because of the intricacies of American importing laws, these gems rarely wash up on …

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Now that I lease my own server, I should find things to do with it other than host a blog, yes? Lifehacker has 10 ways to put a remote server to good use. Good to save for future reference.

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