THESE ARE THE MOST INTERESTING, HUMOROUS AND INSPIRING THINGS I FOUND ON THE NET THIS WEEK. IF YOU ENJOY, PLEASE SHARE WITH A FRIEND.
Laugh. Think. Feel.
You may have noticed, I removed all ads from Ventipop when I rebooted the site last month. So...the only revenue I receive is from "Buy Me A Coffee" link on the homepage and the "Become A Patron" link on the top of every page of Venti. Last week, I received a coffee and gained my 2nd Patron which is a monthly contribution. (Thanks Lisa!) I don't expect it, but it sure is appreciated and good people affirming when it happens. If you can click one of those links and give even a little, it helps offset the costs associated with the site.
"Working in a mirror factory is something I can totally see myself doing."- Anonymous
"Charlesgate Confidential is terrific."- Stephen King
Book Recommendation - Charlesgate Confidential by Scott Von Doviak
A breathtakingly clever, twist-filled narrative that moves from 1946 to 1988 to 2014 and back again. Charlesgate Confidential is a tremendous modern-day pulp story that combines fact, fiction, legend, and baseball. It reads like an unassisted triple play and is so fun.
I'm not usually attracted to this genre, but even the Wall Street Journal gave it a good review so I decided to check it out. Read it in almost one sitting. Von Doviak does a fantastic job of creating setting, tone, dialogue and characters for each distinctive decade. From the 40's rat-a-tat-tat rapid fire made-guy dialogue to the 1980's record shop, big hair-trying to get laid in college narrative to the present day detective looking for treasure storyline, Charlesgate Confidential is a throwback and a flashforward joy of a read all-in-one.
I used to put out a Ventipop Gift Guide, but then I decided my gift to the world would be to stop putting out another gift guide into the world. There's already way too many of them. But here are my favorite go-to Gift Guides:
This little gem ran through my brain as I was attending my daughter's choir concert tonight: "I'd like to start a choir that stars only kids with speech impediments."
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Sway bells wing, aw you wistenin'?
In da wayne, snowis gwistenin'...
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Seriously, who wouldn't be entertained by that?
Pause-vertising is the latest attempt by advertisers to get tv viewer's eyeballs and ears on their commercials. Ads that only run when you pause a tv show while streaming. "Imagine an ad for soda or beer that comes on the screen just as you decide to stop the action during a run of an episode of Black-ish on Hulu to go to the kitchen for a snack, or a pitch for toilet paper that begins to move in the moments before you choose to halt the video stream for a bathroom break," reports Brian Steinberg. "And yet, there's no guarantee viewers will welcome 'pause-vertising' any more than they do the current crop of 30-second pitches." Read more about Pause-vertising... here.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel started season two this week. Here's an interview with the starring actress Rachel Brosnahan. "[Frances McDormand] said something to me that I will never forget, that there seem to be 27,000 new products a day out there to alter your face... but that your face is a road map to your life and to everything that has made you who you are up until that point. And why would you ever want to erase any part of that? That every line on her face is every smile she's ever smiled and every tear she's ever cried and frown she's ever frowned. And she wears them with pride."
This military secret formula for falling asleep in two minutes is said to work for 96 per cent of people after six weeks of practice.
Here's how to do it:
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Relax the muscles in your face, including tongue, jaw and the muscles around the eyes
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Drop your shoulders as far down as they'll go, followed by your upper and lower arm, one side at a time
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Breathe out, relaxing your chest followed by your legs, starting from the thighs and working down
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You should then spend 10 seconds trying to clear your mind before thinking about one of the three following images:
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You're lying in a canoe on a calm lake with nothing but a clear blue sky above you
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You're lying in a black velvet hammock in a pitch-black room
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You say "don't think, don't think, don't think" to yourself over and over for about 10 seconds.
Can a Windex ad move you to tears?
Nah.
Um.
Maybe.
"In a world that has decided that it's going to lose its mind, be more kind my friend. Try to be more kind."- Frank Turner
