Finally! A Car Horn For Your Bike

FINALLY!!!! I’VE FOUND WHAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!!!

As someone who commutes by bike daily and encounters measly whiny pedestrians blocking the bike lane and obnoxious heinous cab drivers cutting me off I’ve wished and wished for a car horn to scare the bejesus out of these idiots so they’d get out of the way.

I often fantasize that the cars who done me wrong receive their punishment thru my magical powers flattening their tires to their utmost dismay. At the moment their tire explodes their subconscious gives them a little scream: “Be careful next time you think of committing that asshole move and blocking the lane.”

Considering this is unobtainable in reality, the Loud Bicycle would be a superb alternative to ensuring safety during my ride. Not to mention it’d be a great release of road rage if abused without consequence.

Their Kickstarter project ends in a few days. If you’re a fellow frustrated bike rider just IMAGINE the heavenly feeling of watching pedestrians whither into the sidewalk as you whiz by in gleeful liberation.

Swissmiss and the Importance of Side Projects

For those of you as obsessed as I am about Swissmiss, you very well know who Tina Roth Eisenberg is. This talk she gave earlier this year during Typo SF about the importance of side projects inspires me to no end. Contrary to what most wax poetic about kids and the suicidal plunge it takes on your career, Tina was inspired to do more and better, to love what she does and not take a minute for granted by the time her first child joined the world. A little over a year into my own marriage where my body has subsequently transformed from that of a sexual being to that of a wannabe birthing mother Earth, I’ve wondered and have suffered both fear and joy with the thought of having a baby and how beautifully he/she will meld into my life.

That being said Tina here takes her role as a mother as the jumping point for this talk and provides tips that she would preach to her kids and share here with us. Those tips include:

1. Love what you do. Love going to work, set goals not for what you want to be now but later, indulge in side projects.

This for me has started Greenpoint Food Market and Greenpoint Open Studios and Work It Brooklyn where I took an idea and a passion for forming supportive platforms for creative communities and launched them into these events. Where Tina has found a way to be the “Queen of Accidental Businesses” with small income generators though, I am yet to make a dime off these wonderful side projects.

2. Don’t be a complainer. Make things better. Do something better. Generate passive income. Challenge status quo. “The best way to complain is to make things.”

This is a particular challenge for me as I can sense my friends and colleagues steering away from me as I go about oversharing my insecurities and challenges and don’t stop complaining about how pitiful I am. I’m too broke, I’m too jobless, I’m too impressionable, I’m too compulsive. Before even watching this video today though I made a quiet vow to myself to not complain so much and just do shit. It made for a much better and productive day.

3. Trust your intuition. Don’t just trust data and numbers. Trust your gut.

Not having grown up in the most encouraging household I tent to second guess myself, all the fucking time. It’s annoying and feeds my fears, anxieties and insecurities. This is a great reminder to fuck it all and trust my gut. This to me means going ahead and pitching freelance writing stories to major publications despite feeling horribly insecure about my writing.

4. If an opportunity scares you, take it. There’s a reason it scares you. Don’t be scared of failing. You can probably grow with the experience.

This rings relevance especially considering my gut instinct despite some trepidation about applying for jobs I feel totally unqualified for.

5. Find like-minded people. Foster local communities. Be a maker and doer. Real connections are made in person, don’t forget that. Don’t underestimate the access we can have to each other.

I am very keen on learning about how online experiences can be fostered but executed offline. We hear so much now about deals and “experiences” within shopping sites and marketing but I want to find ways to really foster EXPERIENCES.

6. Collaborate. Especially with people that have opposite skills. Do cool stuff together, it’s contagious.

Over the last year I’ve become more reclusive and shy about socializing and networking. I find it hard to engage with people with as much ease as I used to. This makes it hard to find collaborators and spark inspiration but it’s so easy for me to be inspired that I’m sure I’ll be coming out of my closet in no time.

7. Ignore haters. Haters’ gunna hate. Don’t be fond of disliking things. Be a fair judge of yourself.

I’m not a fair judge of myself at all so Joann, don’t hate.

8. Inspire others with what you do. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have an impact on other people’s lives, even if it’s just a fraction.

I often scold myself for not being good enough, not having an original idea, not doing something that hasn’t been already done, not being critical or articulate or skilled enough. This is a great reminder to lighten up and think of others when I think of what it is exactly that I love to do.

What are your tips? What triggers gut instincts for you? What are your side projects?

Rad Tutorials and Downloads for Bloggers

I just discovered a super resourceful website for bloggers called Pugly Pixel.

Run by a woman named Katrina, it’s a blog where she shares her “2 cents about web graphics and blog technology, principles of web design and the machinations of Photoshop”. This gratuitously generous gesture is much obliged by someone as allergic to css as this humble blogger. Even when she tries to simplify basic css by comparing it to fashion blogging as she does in the video above I tense up and curl my eyes back into my socket in boredom. Still, there’s an abundance of tutorials, downloadable images and layouts for your site and resources of other sites and links where you can find odles of fun decorative designs. AND, if you have a measly five by bucks you can be a premium member of her blog and get access to a load of other goodies.

Some precious finds:

– Download instagram filters as Photoshop actions.

– Download crafty, patterned, vintage inspired photo templates.

– A tutorial to make textured text with clipping masks.

– Download sparkly glitter textures.

Now, I’m not much for girly embellishments, I like to stick to simple and minimal with a burst of color here and there. However Pugly Pixel provides ample inspiration and practice to fiddle around with Photoshop and create your very own original design content for your blog. It might, just maybe, inspire me to create my own website from scratch.