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The Sudokomic Game

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another_fun_game_is_comic_tac_toe
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bronk
3761 days ago
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popular
3767 days ago
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"I was the first of the Potter actors to learn to drive. I passed my test at the second time of..."

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“I was the first of the Potter actors to learn to drive. I passed my test at the second time of trying. On the set, there’d always be a lot of talk about cars among the cast, although Daniel Radcliffe never joined in. He’s never been into cars at all. My first ambition was to become an ice-cream man, which is why I bought the Bedford van. Not long after I first got it, I pulled into a pub to do a U-turn and there were eight kids with their pocket money out, hoping to buy a 99 or whatever. But I had nothing to give them. I’ve learnt my lesson since then. I keep my van well stocked. It’s got a proper machine that dispenses Mr Whippy ice cream and I buy my lollies wholesale – 50 for a tenner – so I never run short. I’m not allowed to sell my merchandise. I’d need a licence for that. I tend to avoid July and August, but the rest of the year I’ll drive around the local villages and if I see some kids looking like they’re in need of ice creams, I’ll pull over and dish them out for free. They’ll say, “Ain’t you Ron Weasley?” And I’ll say, “It’s strange, I get asked that a lot.” The van often comes in useful. I drove it up to the set on the last day of filming on Harry Potter. The cast and crew were having a barbecue and I supplied the lollies and ice creams.’”

-

Rupert Grint. 

This man is better than you.  (via theuncultured)

This is awesome

(via diniknits)

oh my sweet ginger prince

(via casterley)

Attn champagnecarnies
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bronk
3761 days ago
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3762 days ago
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4 public comments
MaryEllenCG
3762 days ago
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OMG. Is this true?!
Greater Bostonia
lywyn
3761 days ago
Yes. He was on Top Gear once and they asked him about the ice cream van.
lywyn
3761 days ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcCBRpIfYnk&feature=kp
satadru
3762 days ago
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.
New York, NY
bibliogrrl
3762 days ago
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THIS IS THE BEST AND HE IS THE BEST
Chicago!
grammargirl
3762 days ago
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HEARTS FOR EYES
Brooklyn, NY

How To Lose Friends Playing Catan

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How To Lose Friends Playing Catan

If you do this, we can no longer be friends.  Tell us other sneaky game moves you’ve encountered on our Facebook page.

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bronk
3808 days ago
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zippy72
3828 days ago
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alt-text: The only effective response to this move is to flip the table over and ruin the game.
FourSquare, qv

Comic for May 4, 2014

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3810 days ago
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Google Disrupts the Nest (Comic)

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Joy of Tech 1949

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bronk
3920 days ago
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3920 days ago
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7hunderbird
3918 days ago
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So sad that this rings so true. I kinda don't want a nest, now big brother (aka google) gets the data.
American Fork, UT
_jk
3919 days ago
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hehehe.
berlin, germany
jimwise
3919 days ago
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Heh.
smadin
3920 days ago
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Basically correct.
Boston
Courtney
3920 days ago
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It's true - I immediately stopped wanting a Nest. (And I REEEEEEALLY wanted a nest.) Now I kind of want an Ecobee?
Portland, OR
RedSonja
3920 days ago
My first thought was getting ads for new toasters and fire extinguishers.
chrisrosa
3921 days ago
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perfect commentary on the google>nest topic.
San Francisco, CA

16 things I know are true but haven’t quite learned yet

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Post image for 16 things I know are true but haven’t quite learned yet

There’s a difference between knowing something and living as if it were true. At the end of 2013, these truths are all lingering on that awkward threshold, for me anyway.

1) The sooner you do something, the more of your life you get to spend with that thing done — even though it takes less effort (or at least no more) than it will later. It’s the ultimate sure-thing investment and I pass it up all the time.

2) I never regret working out. I can’t count the number of times I’ve negotiated with myself to work out the next day instead of today because I’m worried it will be a “bad workout.” I seldom have a bad day on a day that I work out.

3) Whenever I’m playing with my phone I am only shortening my life. A smartphone is useful if you have a specific thing you want to do, but ninety per cent of the time the thing I want to do is avoid doing something harder than surfing Reddit. During those minutes or hours, all I’m doing is dying.

4) Nothing makes me more productive and in-the-moment than a clean house. There is mind-clearing magic in cleanliness. Waking up in a house where everything is put away is a glorious feeling. There seem to be more possibilities in the air, and all my things seem more useful.

5) Minute-for-minute, nothing I do is more rewarding than meditation. Even after just a very short session, it reliably makes me better at everything, especially making decisions. It lets me do my best. Yet I still do it only intermittently.

6) Creative work is something that can be done at any time. It’s no different than any other kind of work. Inspiration is nice but completely optional. I’ve almost completely come around on this one in 2013. But sometimes the Four Horsemen still trick me.

7) Acting the way you want to feel usually works. When I feel crappy just before I have to go do something, if I decide to act as if I am happy for a while (even though I’m not) I usually end up feeling happy after not too long, or at least much less crappy. This is straight out of Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project and it’s an extremely powerful thing to experiment with. [More on this in an upcoming post.]

8) Ninety-five per cent of my happiness comes from having a home, a functioning body and something to eat. I live in utter luxury, by any sensible standard of what “luxury” is. If I am unhappy it’s because I’ve lost perspective about the other five per cent. 

9) Our minds are geared to manage much less than we typically end up managing. Modern people have so many options they conflict with each other in almost every area. The fewer things I have, the more I enjoy my things. The fewer goals I have, the better I do them. The smaller the portion size, the better food tastes.

10) The quickest and most reliable path to personal improvement is to do the things on my list that I resist most. Internal resistance should be taken as a big red sign guaranteeing rapid growth and new capabilities. Given my experience with the ecstasy that comes with overcoming resistance, logically I should be attracted to it by now.

11) All you need to do to finish things is keep starting them until they’re done. The idea of doing something in its entirety always seems hard. But it’s easy to commit to simply starting on something, and then you’re past most of the resistance. Continuing is just as easy. (Thanks to Leo Babauta for this one.)

12) Whenever I think I’m mad at a person, I’m really just mad at a situation. I’m mad because suddenly life requires something new of me, and it’s easy to implicate a person who contributed to that situation. I want the situation to be responsible for fixing itself, so I attribute it to someone else’s moral failing, and then I don’t have to feel responsible for this new problem of mine.

13) Ultimately, to get something done you have to forget about everything else while you do it. The mind is always telling you that 85 things are on fire and you need to do everything now. However you respond emotionally to it, to move things along you have to pick one to deal with, and let the rest continue burning while you do.

14) The most consistently joyful activities for me are visiting with other people and reading books. Aside from earning a living and a bit of travel there isn’t much else I need in my life. Somehow these two things are still not clear priorities. What are yours?

15) If I find myself in an argument, I’ve made a mistake. It doesn’t matter whose position makes more sense, because by the time it’s an argument any real communication has ended. Marshall Rosenberg’s brilliant method of Nonviolent Communication is a far more useful default response than argument, but I often forget it completely.

16) Few things matter long-term other than relationships, health, personal finance and personal growth. Crises in almost every other area turn over so quickly there’s not much reason to get upset at them. Interestingly, those four are the areas that probably contribute most to happiness in the short term too.

 

If this list is different at the end of 2014 then it will have been a good year. What’s in the same category for you?

Goodbye 2013, you were great.

***

Photo by David Cain
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bronk
3934 days ago
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Yemina
3929 days ago
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Some really good points!
mommybrain4
3929 days ago
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Interesting read...not sure if it's full if guilt or motivation?
New Lenox, Illinois
timlikescake
3931 days ago
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Time to print this out and stick it on my wall.
emdot
3931 days ago
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Wow. This one is really good. All truths.
San Luis Obispo, CA
lograh
3933 days ago
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Much the same here. Great list, I think I'll make one of my own.

Relevant to #3: I read this on my phone. :)
bsawhill
3933 days ago
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yerp.
Oberlin Ohio
JayM
3934 days ago
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Nice list. I can appreciate all of those. Glad I've learned a couple of them already, now to learn the rest.
Atlanta, GA
sredfern
3934 days ago
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Read this
Sydney Australia
emdot
3931 days ago
Great share. Thank you.
chuckrayusa
3934 days ago
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So True
kerray
3934 days ago
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!
Brno, CZ
ryanbrazell
3935 days ago
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//
Richmond, VA
mikejurney
3935 days ago
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Genuinely insightful list of priorities.
New York, New York
glenn
3935 days ago
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good list
Waterloo, Canada
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