5 great things about the last 2 weeks

Well, it’s been an interesting last 12 days. I think I Twittered a few days ago that there’s a 7-day period in there that will come to be known in my memoirs as “The Week of Cookies, Doctor Who, and Positive Thinking.” I’m transitioning right now from a full-time office job back into a couple of consultant and freelance roles — all things I’m really excited about. That last 12 days, have been so epic, however, I thought they warranted a few shout outs to the Internet nitros that kept me stimulated and good-humored.

1) The Dr. Who Wiki – A good pal of mine asked me a couple of weeks ago why I wasn’t a Doctor Who fan. The simple truth I just never had the occassion to sit down and look at it. Well, streaming Netflix came to my aid here, I watched the first season of the new series, and now I’m pretty much sold. There was a good 5-hour period the other night where I just swam through all the associated links with Satellite Five.

2) Webcomics about layoffs – I have a couple handfuls of friends, particularly in publishing, who have been directly affected by current economic conditions coupled with the poor conditions of the book market. Thanks to the Diggers who pushed this collection up to their front page. Here’s my personal favorite.

3) Chris Hastings doing karaoke with Bill Murray – I actually didn’t find out about this via the stupendously watchful Gary Tyrrell or the Dr. McNinja creator’s LiveJournal like a lot of people probably did. There was a quick Twitter update a few nights ago that I was able to catch thanks to the late hours I’ve been keeping. It put me to bed with a smile on my face. I love that we live in a world where this can happen.

4) Johnny Ryan comics at Vice Magazine – This is incredibly NSFW and adult, but I have loved Johnny Ryan’s sense of humor since the moment my old pal Rickey introduced me to him back at the New York job, and it makes me kind of excited to see a magazine like Vice using him well.

5) Great freelancing tips, also via Digg – I think a lot of these tenets are ingrained into my seasonally penny-pinching and celebratory when appropriate mindset, but given the demands of things, this piece should be a useful checklist for anyone needing to understand how being a freelancer or contractor is approximately like running your own business.