From the NYTimes:
Left unchecked, the very things that helped make your enterprise a winner can depress your employees and actually harm your business.That is the message from Marshall Goldsmith, author of one of this year’s best business books, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful.”
Here’s something you could be doing wrong:
“Adding too much value.” When someone comes to you with a solid initiative, instead of saying “that’s great,” you tend to say, “that is a great idea, but. …” The problem with that, Mr. Goldsmith says, is that your contribution could make the idea 5 percent better, but decrease the employee’s enthusiasm by 50 percent, “because now it is your idea,” not hers, and she may not give its execution her all. If you feel compelled to add value, do it in a way that stokes the employee’s enthusiasm.

- This reminds me of what it takes to be a good teacher and mentor – encourage and don’t get too much in the way. Let people be self-determined, be fired up about their ideas, and make their own mistakes…. mostly.

Here are some things I’d love to give myself

So, here’s another post with various versions of a cartoon. Post a comment and let me know which you find funniest.

This was my first beautifully written cartoon – I started out thinking I’d be decorating mugs, hence the hidden cup of tea.  For my font for the rest of the cartoons, I used most of the letters I stenciled here.  I would like all of these

This one was inspired when someone said that she was the shape of a can. Tragic. Sort of like being 006ed.

I’ve posted my sister singing on YouTube. The image/sound isn’t so great, but for a first go of things it’s not so bad.

Over the break I did a ton of organizing, including going through some of my books. Some of my favorites on writing, creativity, or psychology are:

Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg. Filled with little essays to inspire you, slow you down, help you notice the world.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. A classic in my mind for coining the phrase, “a shitty first draft.”

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Taught me about morning pages, artist’s dates, getting rid of negative blurts, and other invaluable ideas.

And the book that taught me how to organize? A straight-forward book, Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern. It’s how I redid my mother’s studio and my sister’s files: put like with like and then purge, put things in accessible places near where you will use them, label, etc. It may seem obvious, but it helped my writing as well, by helping me figure out how to get my ideas organized.

If only this were the only way to get/be dumped!

For people who like mysteries, I just finished A Conspiracy of Paper, in which one becomes steeped in the lore and textures of London and its finances in the 1700’s. The main character is a former boxer and a Sephardic Jew. Fascinating.

A plug for my old home state, Tennessee. The Tennessee arts and crafts festivals are fabulous.

In honor of the holidays, another gift-giving guide!

See if you can beat this series of riddles…. Oy! What a headache!

I made this cartoon after a series of particularly awful interactions. So, rather than flame the person, I channeled my disgust into a cartoon.

Who looks at this site from search engines? As far as I can tell, random people find me by searching: things to do when you’re bored, worst presents, and favorite hairstyles. Amazingly, I think only one person has searched for dictionary missed and found me.

I’m having fun avoiding the monsters in this pac-man like game.

Interesting links:

a hilarious eight-year-old prank phone caller here or here.

weird pencil sculpture

and a cute pencil animation.

If I had to choose, I think I’d live in the styrofoam.

Here’s a cool idea: flip books from your video!

I think I’ll be taking this class on comedy next semester. Or this one on the history of comics!

And here’s another cool flikr-based webpage: a visual way to explore the world!

In honor of the holiday season, here are some gift ideas

Some odd links:
a collection of drawings on different topics by several artists
a nice portfolio of drawings
a very strange picture of people/fishies kissing
a kaleidoscope
a really super duper cool kaleidoscope
and an actually funny page of cat pictures
such as: