#69 - Stolen Ideas

Motto: Today was a two-fer

I was thinking recently about some of my favorite things I've ever created. This list includes (but is not exhausted by) the checklist of things a good person does every week, the old video scavenger hunts I put on with my friends in high school, the time log that I used to track every half hour of 6 straight weeks, and, most recently, the second-a-day video that has been a time capsule of my life for the past 7 months. 

 These were all fantastical projects that took many, many weeks of preparation and execution. They took lots of energy and focus. The yielded some of the best results and the most fun experiences I've ever had in my life. They are all things I would suggest for anyone to do at some point in their life. There is also something else all of these projects and ideas have in common - they were all directly and blatantly stolen.

 Well, adapted, maybe.

  • The list of things a good person does in a week - adapted from an idea by Demetri Martin (who probably adapted it from Benjamin Franklin).
  • The video scavenger hunt - adapted from an episode of Viva La Bam (I'm embarrassed to admit I watched that).
  • The time log - adapted from an assignment that was given to Melissa in college.
  • The second-a-day video - adapted from the video "This is what Madeline did".

You could look at this as a bad thing - "Aaron, why don't you come up with an original idea every once in a while?". I would argue, though, that I have the capability to recognize good ideas and the courage to implement them in my own life.

 I used to carry around a quotepad (play on "notepad"). That was a stolen idea from someone at some point in time. Forgot who. Now I just write down quotes on my phone.

 If you see something someone is doing and you like it, maybe you should give it a shot.

 Here's a picture, unrelated to the rest of this column:


Top 5: Results from things I've adapted
5. I have been doing the Demetri List for 15 weeks. I average 98.25/175 tasks. There are way more results, but that's probably the big one.
4. The Scavenger Hunt Highlight Film - the best moments from all three years

upon further consideration - this video was removed for not meeting the quality standards of this blog

3. The Time Log - I spent twice as much time doing the things I want to do and half as much doing the things I should be doing. Also, I spend about the right amount of time sleeping, but its distribution and consistency was horrible.
2. The first half of my 24th year (it has kept going, but I refuse to show a video that's over half done)
1. I'm awesome.

Quote:
“Tell me how to get that laid back... OR I'LL KILL YOUR FAMILIES”
- Community Season 2, Episode 7 - one of the best ones I've seen -

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#258 - Feature: Notetaking Platform Anxiety

Image
Motto: Writing for Me, by Me Melissa is going back to grad school, she's taking her Mac Air & iPad with her & utilizing Microsoft OneNote. While she was setting up her notetaking environment, I started thinking about how I would architect my "idealized system for handling graduate school". Fair warning, this is a bit of an epic. A system for succeeding in higher education is defined in several broad categories: What would I physically bring with me to class? How would I take notes that are relevant immediately and in the future? How do I manage time & tasks? Answering these questions is the purpose of this Column. I'm going to do so both "in general" and given my specific (more interesting to me, but less interesting in general) case. 1. What would I physically bring with me to class? Obviously I would bring with me a bag. I'd probably just keep my current messenger bag for simplicity sake. Anything could work. In all...
Read more

#42 - Life, The Universe, and Everything

Image
Motto: Don't Panic. BSOD My current computer is crashing on a multiple-times-per-day basis now. It's a little over 4 years old and has been needing to be put to rest for a while. Given that I know technology and what-not, I've decided I am going to build my next computer myself. Seems obvious now, I don't know why I didn't think of it before. It's going to be built specifically to suit my needs. This essentially means I'm going to build a computer specifically for video editing. There will be more on this at a later date... I have a couple of Nexus devices I want to get before the computer time ever comes. Having a job and money is so much better than college was it's not even funny. Whoever said "college is the best time in your life" must have not went through an engineering program. Don't get me wrong, college as great... but would I rather be doing that than what I'm doing now? No fricken way. Most negative words seem to st...
Read more

#22 - It's my party and I'll cry to get attention.

Image
Motto: Two days ago, I was 23. Then I was 24. I aged one year in a day. Yesterday was my birthday. A few friends of mine helped another friend of mine move from Lawrence to Kansas City. The trip up there was hot and windy and stressful. We lost a pillow out of the back of the truck ( not entirely my fault), but otherwise had no casualties. The rest of this story will be told in bullet-point fashion: We relaxed in the air conditioner. We ate Minsky's pizza. We held the first meeting of my secret society that has been held in probably a year. Nobody knows that but me. We threw marshmallows into each other's mouths. We eventually built a slingshot and started using it instead of throwing them. We walked around a really nice apartment building. We were denied access to the pool or the movie theater room on account of them being previously engaged. We got lost (mildly lost) driving around looking for a convenience store.  We saw what is apparently "the bad part o...
Read more