My Million Dollar Year

Now with more procrastination!

I never expected the first version to be shared among anyone other than a few close friends. I didn’t put as much as I wanted in that one, so here’s the updated version.

If you enjoy this, please consider buying me a drink.

You can also digg it.

(click to enlarge)

Well, it took a bit, but the new front page is up and running. Now you can buy me drinks, and I can make you things. Check it out:

http://www.mymilliondollaryear.com

I decided to start a minor project with a new micro blog called simply “Ehdom Likes”

It’s essentially an ongoing documentation of all the little details I find interesting about life. Posts range from thing like “Old maps” and “Hammocks” to “The silence between a lightening flash and the thunder” and “The way we forget to notice when the last leaf has fallen, or when the first one grows back.”

New details are added twice a day, once at noon and once at midnight.

The blog was inspired by the “Ah, Life” I started at my creative community site, ProjectSidewalk.

You can find the blog here: Ehdom Likes, or you can follow it on Twitter here.

Edit: I guess it’d help if I added the links, eh? Fixed.

I’ve discovered something about myself while trying to set up this blog.

It’s a problem I’ve encountered here and in many other places. I’ve been dying to post more, but I’ve never been able to quite find my focus. My niche. My topic.

I think I realized this when I came across a page in an old notebook I had…

And I think that applies here as well. Why does this need to have any certain structure?

Unless I come to feel otherwise, I think I’m going to try to kill the filter and post whatever I feel like posting. That may be a big ‘ole well written post. Or a sentence. A story. A picture.

What ever I want, really.

Anyone else have an opinion on the matter? How do you choose what to post?

1) The front page is better now

2) I’ve decided to change some of the project. I hadn’t planned to use the blog for much other than big updates, but I’d like to share more with all of you. Expect more posts here soon.

And as always, I’d love it if anyone would buy me a drink.

Well, despite the lack of updates on the blog, there have been plenty of projects in the works. One that’d I’m particularly excited about is the “Eye of the Beholder” project.

And there is plenty of more details here.

There are lots of great submissions coming in already. Get yours in soon to see them in the first presentation.

I feel a bit like Leonidas must have felt. Well, minus the whole almost certainty of a painful death. But still, the spam comments that have been hitting the site are ridiculous. Luckily none make it through to the live site yet, but moderating some 30 comments every morning isn’t that fun.

At least it’s slightly more interesting spam. They’ve turned into giant paragraphs of text that seem like some kind of madlib (sponsored by a drug company, of course… the ones that sell V1@grrrA. Totally legit, they said so).

Here’s some of my favorite lines (minus the links that are included on every 3rd word or so, of course) from the most recent one this morning. It seems that they went for a mythology (+ prescription medication) theme:

Poseidon any the getting triphasil 28 birth control tone which taking the plavix pain reliever migration.

First there for that what is the benefit
of fosamax under water how to commit suicide with clonazepam mayoralty.

Demeter took into fustian symmetrel and abnormal behavior stopped there die off symptoms diflucan mask.

Greeks forbear people slain glyburide 5 mg three ladies omeprazole generic prilosec folly.

They inflate their dainty lasix weight loss chief who alesse how long midnight.

Hector still darts around depakote er and hair loss the six augmentin 875 mg tablet knee.

Homer principall and fill generic name for protonix befallen him paroxetine detox except minnows forsworn.

So… do people actually fall for this stuff? They have to considering the constant onslaught of spam being flung around.

I can’t believe it’s my birthday already. Here’s to another year.

Cheers.

Another bump for the Project Sidewalk… Project (well that’s a bit redundant, eh?).

I’d like to share a bit of a popular thread going on, The Corrupted Wish game:

Essentially, one person tells one of their wishes, and the following person twists and corrupts it away from the original intent. This is a great exercise in perspective–what looks great at first often ends with terrible implications.

Examples:

Ehdom: I wish I could fly.
mmmouthwash: wish granted, but now you can’t land.

mmmouthwash: I wish I could turn invisible.
Ehdom: Wish granted, but now you can’t see anything else while invisible.

Ehdom: I wish I could remember all of my dreams…
MisSarah: Wish granted, but now you can’t wake up.

MisSarah: I wish I could understand physics.
Anna: Wish granted, but now you can’t understand anything else.

Anna: I wish I could never look aged.
Luminara: Wish granted, but everyone will think you are 12.

Luminara: I wish I could read minds.
StephanieK: Granted, now you can’t read anything but minds.

StephanieK: I wish I was not afraid of anything.
nevaordinarie: Wish granted, now your dead…

nevaordinarie: I wish I could discover another world…
Ehdom: Wish granted, but there is nothing there, and you can’t get back.

Ehdom: I wish I could slow down time…
Luminara: Wish granted, but now you will age 10 times faster than everyone else.

VincentCharon: I wish I knew everything…
Richard A.: Wish granted, but now you can’t explain anything to others.

And it goes on for pages. Stop by and add some wishes of your own… just be careful what you wish for.

We’re currently in phase one of Project Sidewalk, which is community building. Stop by the forum and make an account, it only takes seconds.

Still not sure what Project Sidewalk is? From the front page:

Project Sidewalk is a canvas to the imagination. The site is centered around a community working to create a revolution in creativity, storytelling, art, and entertainment. The site thrives around the community–a group of writers, artists, thinkers, and hopefully you. The forum provides a communal and collaborative exchange of ideas, which in turn nourishes the creation of new and innovative art forms.

We are all inherently creative. Although we have this immense potential for creativity, it often goes unused. Raw creativity can be a scary thing–it requires letting go of certainties, conquering the fear of failure, and most importantly, the actual act of creation. The latter can be the most difficult, as there seems to be a common idea of one having to be an “artist” to create art, a “writer” to write, and so on. The idea of needing to be a “professional” holds no merit to true art. All one needs to do to become an artist of any kind is to be aware of the desire to create, as well as the desire to express and share what is created.

Here you will find not only a community to help nourish and stimulate creativity, but also a number of innovative projects. Many of these projects revolve around storytelling, and most involve a collaborative effort from the community. Those that wish to participate can contribute and help the projects grow; everyone, regardless of contribution, can enjoy the work that results from these projects.

We have two main goals in this community building project:

- Create a community that encourages creative play and experimentation. Creativity spawns from both open play and limitations–the various projects and creative games within the community will help all of us find inspiration while exploring our imagination. Many members will be able to take this new inspiration and flow of ideas to enhance their own projects outside of the site.

- Create a community that can act as a sort of artistic flash mob. In other words, a group of people readily available (along with any others) to participate in creative collaborative art, storytelling, and various other projects. Projects will be organized and created by all and any members of the community.

Thanks to those of you who alerted me about the broken links on the site. Real life caught up with me a bit, and a few parts of the site seemed to fall apart in my absence. Anyways, I’m back now, and everything should be fixed, polished, and ready for viewing. Thanks to everyone who has stuck around. I’ve updated the About and Contribute pages–hopefully things are a bit more clear now. If anything is still confusing, let me know and I’ll continue to polish it up.