Small & Big

This is great. Humor writer and author Tim Bete presents:  How I converted 7,000 hours of work into $10 hard cash and then turned a single stupid idea into $37,000. He discuses publishing, editors, ideas... helpful stuff for any writer. He presented at the 2012 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop. Runs 58 minutes. Warning: Enjoy!

Update: He did it! Keith Knight got funded for his Michael Jackson project, with the help of good people like you. In fact, on April 6, 2012 he exceeded his $40K goal. I've long appreciated Keith Knight. He's the man behind one of my favorite cartoons, Life's Little Victories . Keef is giving away three old illustration sketchbooks, he will draw you into an upcoming published cartoon, he will come to your town and present his famous slideshow (I have seen it, it is great) and cartooning workshop, he will lip sync a Michael Jackson song in your living room — all because he was a teenage Michael Jackson impersonator, and he wants, no, NEEDS to share this story with the world. Pledge to support him in this 2-year endeavor the whole world needs right now, laughter, and in return he'll give supportors cool stuff like the above and more. For as little as $5! Check out the details of his project over at Kickstarter and the related news story at USA Today . Hurry! This ...

Look for kindness, for love, for hope and joy and you will find them. Here are five stories to keep you in the mood, from HelpOthers.org : Today You, Tomorrow Me Flowers That She Couldn't Smell Home Is Where The Heart Is, Even For The Homeless Remembering Kindness 41 Years Later A Beautiful Act Of Pay-It-Forward You can read all ten stories of 2011 kindnesses at  Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2011 . Do you have a kind act you've performed, experienced, or even heard of? Please share it. Tell HelpOther.org about it here. Here's to twelve months of kindness in 2012!

When I was 12 years old my horse had a stroke and had to be put down. It was a warm, green, summer morning. I looked out the kitchen window at his body, lifeless and lying in the corral. Over in the barn there was movement and I saw Socks, the white-footed tabby and matriarch of the barn cats, walk out of the barn and towards the body, followed by a single-file line of the other dozen-or-so kittens and cats. From inside the house I thought, “Oh no, they’re going to eat him.” When the slow parade reached the body, the cats sat down about two feet away, in a long, evenly spaced arc, smelling and looking. After some time had passed, Socks stood up, turned around and walked back to the barn, followed in orderly procession by the others. Even 30 years later I am touched by this memory. This horse (Bourbon Jim was his name) had been a huge high-strung Thoroughbred, but he was gentle and considerate with the cats. Once when I came home from school I found three kittens on his back. I coul...

"If you could give one piece of advice to someone who wants to pursue drawing as a career what would it be?" David of David Wasting Paper (he doesn't) posed that question to over 200 well-known-and-famous-even cartoonists, then narrowed the very best answers down to 15 cartoonists. It's useful advice for anyone interested in creativity, gainful employment, or following their dream. That's you, and you're going to want to read this even if you're not interested in being a professional cartoonist yourself. Click here to read The Best Pieces Of Advice To Someone Who Wants To Pursue Drawing As A Career. David's blog is at David Wasting Paper . Also, don't think you can draw? Ha! You're oh-so-mistaken. Read this.

They’re a quiet group. I was surprised to learn from Listen.org that: People listen at 125–200 words per minute, but think at 1,000–3,000 per minute. Most of us are distracted, preoccupied, or forgetful 75% of the time we should be listening. Immediately after we listen to someone, we only recall about 50% of what they said. Long-term, we only remember 20% of what we hear. The solution? Deep listening. Deep listening is focusing intently on what the other person is saying — no interrupting, criticizing, judgment, or verbal responses like, gulp, offering advice. It’s pure listening, letting go of any beliefs you might have about the talker or their situation. No “What should I say?” It's pure being-there. And the other person will notice the difference, just as you will. It sounds almost impossible to do (most of us have trained ourselves to do otherwise) but practicing deep listening is actually quite enlightening, even fun. I felt like I ...

On my commute home on Route 128, traffic had come to a standstill. Frustrated, I looked across the barrier to the northbound side, also not moving. Expecting to see the faces of equally grumpy drivers, I did a double take. Behind the wheel of a pickup truck was a man playing a trumpet. He obviously knew how to make the most of the downtime. I smiled the rest of the way home. —Jennifer Pope Boston Globe Magazine ’s Tales from the City

The MINI Cooper website . Here’s the legalese you agree to when you sign up: I also agree to avoid ruts. And I agree to change my locker combination to include the numbers 1964 (the year we won our first Monte Carlo rally). I agree to chase squirrels around the park every now and then and giggle like a madman while doing it. I agree to be more adventurous and try to avoid homogenized restaurant chains. I agree to name my first-born Cooper. I agree to bare the soles of my feet to the earth and feel grass, sand, stones, and streams. I agree to watch the movie “The Italian Job” as soon as I can. I agree to at least think strongly about learning to play a musical instrument. I agree to consider painting the roof of my house in contrasting colors. There is no actual award for this.

Above: Emoticons from Puck magazine , from way back in 1881 — yes, the 19th Century! :o Emoticons are a way of using letters, numbers, and punctuation to show your mood or expression. Otherwise, with email and texting, it can be difficult to tell just by words alone. I found these in this month’s issue of National Geographic . The emoticons used in Asia are cuter and more visually rich (get a load of “blushing”), but ours are quicker to type. Which do you use? Emotion East West Happy (^_^) :-) Sad (;_;) :-( Surprised (*O*) :O Winking (^_~) ;-) Laughing (^O^) :D Blushing (#^.^#) Embarrassed (^^;) Apologizing m(_ _)m Here are more Western emoticons and Eastern emoticons . They’s great fun to read through.

Scott had two years of mechanical drawing in high school. He didn’t go to art college, not even to a two-year community college. Yet today Scott is a successful cartoonist, teacher, and caricaturist. He draws Scooby-Doo, Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd n’ Eddy, Dexter’s Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, Winnie the Pooh, Pokemon, Strawberry Shortcake, Shrek, and others. Obviously he has skill galore. But he also has something inside that led him onward, that lifted him during the times when others didn’t notice his skill: inner drive. He says: No one was really on my side when I set out to do it. Once I made it, then everyone was on the Scott Neely Train... but there was like seven or eight years that I alienated everyone just chasing the dream. At a point it was like being in a rock band and you knew that you were going to hit it big. You just knew it and I can't explain it anymore than that. I felt strong about it and just stuck it out and worked a part time job to susta...

I am beside myself. (I’m standing next to a mirror.) About the Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum in Cheshire, CT. My pal over at David Wasting Paper said it’s “the country’s largest collection of comic strip, cartoon, TV, western and advertising collectibles.” At first I was like, “Uh, okay. Sure. It’s probably all right.” Then I saw... this : Just one little itty bitty Popeye display case at the Barker. Jeepers. And admission is only $5. What a deal! See more photos and read about David’s visit to the museum. Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum ( BarkerMuseum.com ) 1188 Highland Avenue (Route 10) Cheshire, CT 06410 Here’s a Google map for you. View Larger Map

Here’s a nice story from an author and artist I enjoy very much, Sark , in her book, “ Eat Mangoes Naked ,” where she discovers something about receiving: I was on my book tour and in Washington D.C. to do the radio show, NPR. My limousine driver was named Muhammed, and he had heard my interview on the radio and said he'd felt very moved by what I’d said. Muhammed then declared, “You are very gifted and I really wish to serve you today.” I explained that he was serving me by driving and asked him to take me to a park. I got my tennis shoes out of the trunk, and Muhammed ran over and said, “Please allow me to tie your tennis shoes.” He dropped to his knees before I could even answer. As he tied my shoes, tears came to my eyes as I remembered that the last person to tie them had been my dad. I am embarrassed to admit that I then noticed that he wasn't tying them very well! They were loose, and the shoelaces were too long. I suddenly realized that I felt extremely unco...

Okay, this link is just plain interestin'... Evolution Timeline: From First Life-forms to Homo Sapiens — Where one inch equals 2,160,000 years and one foot equals almost 26 million years. That’s how Steve Rose depicts it in his timeline of life on planet Earth. His timeline is drawn to scale, so if you go to that link there, you keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling right, going through the years. It gives a realistic, and precious, perspective on Time and Life, methinks. Why, we humans are mere babies! (Explains why I like mashed carrots with my bottle.) As Rose puts it, “I notice that there is an amazing life force in the Universe, and I am sure it is not limited by our inability to comprehend it... Call it whatever you like.” I call it amazing. Steve Rose is a web designer in Atlanta, Georgia. His website is simplyfull.com .

The wonderfully uplifting writer and artist known as Sark is offering a deal during February of 2010: save $20 off her eProgram, SARK's Awesome Anytime Adventure, an inspiring 30-day tour of joyfull self-care, surprise and wonder. That makes it, like, $39. Click here to visit Planet SARK. Ahhh! Color that lifts the spirit just lookin’ at it! Why yes , I am a fan. Remember this “How to Be an Artist” poster from the 1980s or 1990s? It was hers.

“I thought if I got into a fight (with the burgler),” said 82-year-old cartoonist Bill Green, “I’d lose my dressing gown and I’d end up starkers.” So instead, he took a couple of seconds to draw up a cartoon of the thief’s face. Bill explains: “I have an affinity for faces and I can remember faces even hours after.” Police used the cartoon to catch the burgler within 15 minutes. Yay, cartoons! Read the full story here.

They don’t call her Dangerfield for nothin’. Alice Dangerfield celebrated her 100th birthday by soaring 2,000 feet up into the blue, not on the wing of an angel but of a tandem hang glider. And yes, she wanted to. “I’ve been in a hot-air balloon, and I’ve always loved to fly," Dangerfield said. “They hooked us up to a little plane and flew way up into the air, and then they just cut us loose.” Her granddaughter said, “Now she wants to go kayaking... she said she can do it. I’m going to take her after she works on her arm strength for a while, so she’s been lifting soup cans to build up muscle.” Full story on mlive.com . You go, Alice Angel!

“These are the kind of numbers you deal with only on a cosmic scale... (it might make sense if) Bank of America has branches on every planet in the cosmos.” — Sylvain Cappell New York University’s Silver Professor at the Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences Although it seems like a story made up by The Onion , the tale is true. ( More info here. ) Dalton Chiscolm is suing the largest U.S. bank, Bank of America, demanding “1784 billion, trillion dollars,” plus an additional $200,164,000. One billion, trillion is a 1 followed by 22 zeros. That’s larger than a sextillion, or 1 plus 21 zeros. That’s also larger than the world’s estimated 2008 gross domestic product: $60 trillion. A trillion has 12 zeros. May this lawsuit result in better customer service for us all, in every solar system.

Because they have a manifesto and pretty cloud pictures: Cloud Appreciation Society .

Does your skin tend to be green or is it red? It turns out you that it’s one or the other. Why? It’s science, my dear Watson. If you possess a greenish complexion, you’re not sick, but simply female; if the latter, well, you are not tinted red due to anger or sunburn, rather it is on account of your being of the male persuasion. Also, as long as your nose is in the middle of your face, we’re good. Read the full story on this at Boston.com: Have we met? As facial recognition technology advances, new research sheds light on how we ‘read’ faces.

It’s a longy but a goodie. “ You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. ” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967 Why yes, I am desirous of that piping hot cup of cocoa. Thanks to the Global Goodness Blog ...