Author’s note: Why wait until Sunday? I’ve moved 5 Cool Things up a day.
You cool? I’m cool.
It must be time for 5 Cool Things.
Cool Thing #1: Keepsakes on Canvas
Simply telling you what Stephanie does at GeeZees Custom Canvas Art won’t do her or her work justice, but I’ll give it a go.
She takes your photographs and your words (quotes you love or things you’ve written yourself), and uses them to create a personalized work of art on canvas wrapped around a solid piece of wood.
I’d never seen anything like it before. It was love at first sight.
Check out Stephanie’s website, Etsy shop, and blog. I know you’ll fall in love too.
Cool Thing #2: Barbara’s Winning Ways
Without question, one of the coolest things I receive in my mailbox each month is the Winning Ways Newsletter.
If you’ve ever thought about doing what you love for a living, you won’t find a better source of inspiration and information.
Barbara Winter, the writer and publisher behind this little gem, is also the author of the book, Making a Living without a Job, Winning Ways for Creating Work that You Love.
And I can personally attest that she’s one of the warmest, most genuine people you could ever hope to meet. She also happens to be brilliant.
Sample some of her wisdom at her blog, rummage through the tip sheets and other goodies on her Winning Ways page, and check out her book
Cool Thing #3: Animated Music
Animusic is the brain child of Wayne Lytle who had a dream of one day synchronizing music with computer animation.
With the help of computer artist David Crognate, Lytle turned his dream into a company. That company now produces video albums (DVDs) of their stunning work. They also take on the occasional side project for corporate clients.
Like most cool things, it’s better to let you experience it than to try and describe it. Check out the video below.
You can learn more about Animusic at their website.
Cool Thing #4: Learning the Language of Music
As long as I’m on the topic of music, allow me to tell you about MusicTheory.Net.
Ricci Adams was a senior in high school when he first thought about creating a site devoted to the subject of music theory, something I like to think of as the language of music.
If you’ve ever wanted to know more about how music is constructed and how to read it, this is a great place to start.
Adams, a software engineer, hasn’t just pieced together a series of lessons in music theory. He’s also created several, very cool, online applications that will help you put the lessons into practice. These include a key trainer, note trainer, and several ear trainers. And he doesn’t charge a thing.
Check out MusicTheory.Net and the upcoming New.MusicTheory.net.
Cool Thing #5 Writing Forward
I’d stumbled across an article or two from this site before, but I’d never really explored it until this week. What a find.
Its creator, Melissa Donavan, must love everything about writing. She has an incredible wealth of knowledge and shares it in spades on this site.
She offers writing tips and exercises, covers genres and poetry and grammar (Oh my!), and basically blows my mind with her prolific production and sense of order.
Trust me. It’s a writer’s dream. Check out WritingForward.com and move ahead today.
Well, that’s it for this week. Until next time, stay cool, my brothers and sisters, stay cool.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Ken, I am honored…. thank you so much for the great write up about Geezees…. that means a lot coming from you …who is so much more than”mildly” creative..lol
My pleasure. I love your stuff.