ON BEAKER

I've been thinking of making some internet videos in my copious spare time, but I fear public humiliation. I probably shouldn't have watched this, then:

ON DISTRACTIONS

Want to write a screenplay? Wondering what's the next few years of films might be like?

ScriptShadow

Preparing for disaster

BLDGBLOG

Stepping over your grandmother's grave: Oscars 2010.

New York Magazine

The scaredy-cat guide to success: Gladwell on entrepreneurs.

New Yorker

You shouldn't be reading this. I shouldn't be typing it. Oh, man, I'm so depressed.

LA Times

No, actually, now I'm depressed.

The Big Picture

ON ADVERTISING

This ran during the Superbowl last night. It is (apparently) the first time the 'Don't be evil' gang have advertised on TV.

All I'm saying is: if you changed the soundtrack to the Arcade Fire and had the tagline: 'from the mind of Spike Jonze', you'd be in hipster heaven.

Or if the camera pulled back and John Hodgman was typing on the screen, we could be looking at the new Apple iPad ad.

I'm not saying you should, or that every advertiser chasing the hipster dollar is doing the same thing. I've just got too much time on my hands.

YOUR DAILY WODEHOUSE

"A melancholy man, [he] had the appearance of one who has searched for the leak in life's gas-pipe with a lighted candle."

- PG Wodehouse, (from The Man Who Disliked Cats in The Man Upstairs)

ON INFORMATION

Too tired and too behind to write a blog post tonight. You know what that means, ladies and gentlemen...

EMBEDDED VIDEOS! LINKS! LOLCATS! PRON!

Productivity Corner

Here's a great talk by Clay Shirky on why our problem is not too much information, but our inability to filter effectively:

Will Self on WG Sebald

Taking forward planning to predictably nerd-based ends

Some people might say: 'Hey. This is just a loose collection of impressions.'

To which I reply: 'So's your face.'