As I often say, my wife finds the kewlest things, and after I awoke from a nap today, she pressed me to watch a made-in-Second Life music video called "Bounce". Have a look and tell me what's right with this. (If you're reading this in your RSS feeder, click through to view the video on my blog.)

Even better, this collaborative effort by 3 friends — Surrealia Anatine, Joga Kidd, and Faith Rosenberg, has a voyeuristic doppelganger: Joga's edit of the original footage which the trio filmed and shared. You'd almost think this could be tha flipside of a record, with original and instrumental versions. WARNING IF UR EASY-OFFEND: T&A references…

(I'm also partial to Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M." for the credz.)

MORE »

Bettina Tizzy, champion of all things Not Impossible In Real Life, recently interviewed Ravenelle and me for her prominent Second Life blog. I read NIPRL regularly to learn about Bettina's freshest discoveries. The feature is running in parts, "bite-sized fun pieces" as she puts it, and the first couple of delicious parts are up:

• Celebrating Second Life's power couple
• Ravenelle and Torley sound out on maintaining balance between both lives

Bettina had some really thoughtful questions as they relate to creativity in SL (one of our fave topics), and we were enthusiastic to answer at length. Check those morcels out, and stay tuned for more of our whimsical fun and practical insights about what could and should be done more inworld — and thank you Bettina for this opportunity to share!

^ That's the title of my newest contribution at leading productivity blog, Lifehack!

I'm a firm believer in using tools rigorously and not merely mentioning them, but going the extra miles and showcasing/featuring them if I really believe they're great. I generally don't find long lists of "X web apps" helpful, unless the author injects their (we need better pronouns) experience into the mix. Otherwise, it's just a list.

More recently, it's not just great tools, but great customer service from the tool-makers — which makes all the difference when a problem/bug is interfering with me using the tool.

Over time and having accumulated a modest wealth of inspirational posts, I decided to share some tools I use, and how I favor them. For example, motivational articles often benefit from happy imagery: where and how do you find that? I'll tell you about this and 3 more of my faves. Have a look:

• 4 Useful Tools No Inspirational Blogger Should Be Without

Next week's Lifehack post is laser-beamed at something I've long felt strongly about… wait and see!

If you wrote an inspirational book, would you prefer it to help 1 person or 1,000 people? To be more blasé, If you spent 5 minutes doing something — anything — would you prefer it to count in the grand scheme of things or not? Unless you were deliberately being contrary, I suspect you want what you do to matter.

And that's the crux of "an economy of moves", with time and space as leading currencies — space can be rearranged, but time, for our practical purposes, keeps flowing (like the sands in an hourglass…). All these things change when you make a difference, and your energy is spent to perhaps gain more space, but not time.

You don't necessarily spend time either, altho it makes sense for related analogies — time can be thought of a divisor over which the dividend is the impact you've had. Yes, in reality, we can't quantize so cleanly, but as an evocative thought experiment, it works.

So: given an equal amount of time, say 10 minutes, would you rather spend that helping someone you love or hurting someone you care about? And after you answer that with good intentions, think about how much you've actually done the latter. Some of us are more guilty than others, and we should be.

There's turmoil in the US financial economy right now, as well as various political jabs instead of focusing on issues. It's crazy that even with "700 billion dollars" and other big numbers being floated about, that not enough people are emphasizing an economy of moves. And by emphasis, I mean a "!" which stands for action. Too many are content with their arbitrary befuddlement of words and numbers, and while that's how they want the world to work, that's not how we earn happiness. We earn happiness through an economy of moves*.

* Remember how you felt the last time you spent a few seconds hugging a friend you care, or petting a pet.

We love excitement and being excited so much. So much that we're willing to manufacture it — or at least create the conditions for it to exist and thrive in. (This isn't isolated to the excitement emotion, but it's a particularly profound example.) Whether it's Hollywood blockbusters or pricey perfumes, we superficially agree with the maker (including the marketers, good and evil) that it's something worth being excited by.

Superficial because we haven't experienced it yet — we anticipate and whet our appetites with a teaser trailer or yummy sampler, yes!

We may stretch the truth for ourselves. We may very well selectively discard facts in favor of more emotions. And at the very shallowest level exists this "hype cloud", despite what is meaningful is several layers deep.

People are so predictable this way, you know?

You can repeatedly play on these sensory blind spots.

Humans (as a species) have a big blind spot when it comes to driving through the oncoming waves of novelty, churning to mature. And we, in our paradoxical nature, love surprises, but only when part of them is what we secretly desire. Everyone (I generalize) loves to be surprised by a fat bag of cash. No one wants to die in an agonizing, suffering way. "Expect the unexpected" is hence selectively true.

If you don't apply hype to a product or service, then hype isn't relevant to you. Think about Google's Gmail and how its unorthodox, massively-scaled beta shunted generic expectations of growth. Remember, since hype is a superficial agreement, it takes two (you and the maker/marketer) to tango/tangle at the surface. If you reject the hype, then you may be seeing through some trickery, or are just very jaded.

By creating the right flavor of your own hype, you don't just "set expectations". You manufacture excitement (and that's by no means a bad thing — deliberate candlelight adds romantic mood to dinner), and it's the right flavor which makes a valuable experience that much more exciting for you. An experience which would've been meaningful without additional excitement, but now has added value because of your choices.

Believe the hype — but only if you control how you receive it.

No! I'm not advocating some ghastly, strap-down, barbaric torture. This is much more fun: gauge how someone sees the world.

Each of us has our own limited experience. Through circumstance, like friendship or even marriage, we put our worldviews together. We may become aware of what we were previously ignorant of, while sharing our similarities.

Still, it is really useful to see where fellow humans' minds fall through the cracks. (We all have them.)

For example, say you're a stereotypical emo-goth and you're at a gathering with friends. You're joshing about fave music with your chums, and you declare:

"I love Madonna!"

Some musicians are better at polarizing than others. Madonna's a fantastic example, because there have, in fact, been many 'Madonnas' over the years — the lustful, the spiritual, and the downright weird. Some fans love this phase but hate that one. But if you're not a Madonna fan, you only know this at the glib and superficial level. You don't know (or care) what effect Stuart Price and Mirwais had on her music.

But before we go to far, "I love Madonna!" is a nice net to catch reactions in. People can't help but blurt out what skims the top of their mental ocean. Even if it's a text-based medium like Digg comments, the rush to get your opinion out there is on.

Given the above context, I would expect a sadly copious netful of generic reactions like "Ewww!" There are bound to be fewer honest "What do you like about her?" questions in return, let alone "Which 'Madonna' are we talking about?"

The quality and uniqueness of response will key you into astute — eccentric — minds who are bound to be key influencers, independent thinkers, etc.

Therein lies the psychological test, which reveals more about your pals through their reactions than Madonna herself (after all, it's highly improbable she'd be present for this party).

"Who matters" isn't about discounting someone as worthless should they not pass this one-question test. (As Walter Bishop says, "That's preposterous!") It's about revealing, through a single question, a valuable sliver of someone's deeper analytical processes. The "matter" here is about the quality of the answer.

As we've seen on my own blog (check out the comments), it's all too easy to limit yourself based on word labels. Recognizing that and transcending our differences to bridge the mental gaps is what really matters. It opens up possibilities for discovery, and that's what great explorers and tastemakers are made of.

By the way, it's exceedingly rare to find someone who likes both Britney Spears and [INSERT X STYLE OF UNDERGROUND MUSIC], and can explain the connections between them. Beyond music trivia, this indicates a resourceful mind that almost certainly excels at cross-disciplinary problem-solving.

• Our new pet, Sushi the cat: We love Sushi.
  Not just the food, the cat!

  We adopted a black cat with big ye.. http://tinyurl.com/4y9j8w #

• co.mments.com has been defective and unresponsive to me, gravitating towards BackType… #
• Nifty to see the interface refresh @ DealNews: http://dealnews.com ! #
• What's your fave URL-shortening service and why? I've liked snurl.com 'cuz of name, sleek interface, and limited stats. #
• Second Life is the most popular virtual world on Flickr:
  Should-be-better-known fact: Second Life dominat.. http://tinyurl.com/48r94l #
• Pro is usually better than con, but a contest is better than a protest. #
• Nifty tool to explore Flickr tags in a rather circular fashion: http://www.quasimondo.com/tagnautica.php #
• The healthy price of growth: Although you may not realize it at the time, the healthy price of growing as .. http://tinyurl.com/43vklq #
• So usefully cool, it's Practicold! #
• I was looking @ http://tinyurl.com/43xgc6 and think it'd be nifty to have a hard drive in the form of a VHS tape. With label. #
• Badass remix of "Tubular Bells" with stonkin' big snare drums and awesome tom fills! http://tinyurl.com/4fjlxe #
• @Filterraum Yes I can hear you… in reply to Filterraum #
• Zai Lynch's new video tutorial: how to translate Second Life Wiki pages (for localization!) @ http://tinyurl.com/3un4uf #
• One of the most beautiful-looking Flickr usernames: http://tinyurl.com/4qakgt #
• Did you know "bollocks" also can mean "priest" and "nonsense"? I learned this from Richard Branson's book. #
• Great explainers needed: You can count on humankind always having a hunger for great explainers. People li.. http://tinyurl.com/4l73w6 #
• 4 free Sony Vegas plugins you should know about: As much I like Sony Vegas (and I do, very much), it gets .. http://tinyurl.com/3vnqtp #
• @SonjaFinney I look at Ryuichi Sakamoto's gray hairs and he looks so dignified. By then, no, I wouldn't count. in reply to SonjaFinney #
• @hotspurOT I wish Wax for Vegas worked with Version 8. Sadly does not. Thx for the link there, video plugins need something like KVRAudio in reply to hotspurOT #
• @SonjaFinney Yes! Currently testing SL mobile client from Vollee. in reply to SonjaFinney #
• @PatchouliW Not yet but I heard the music in-game when I was playing the Stubbs demo. And yes I logged into Google. in reply to PatchouliW #
• @hypatiaa I <3 the TR-808 drums in "The Pyramid" from Beyond the Mind's Eye. Has such a crisp, catchy riff. in reply to hypatiaa #
• @torridluna Thx for letting me know about that SL toolbar… *checks it out* in reply to torridluna #
• @joiedevie Thanx for listening to my music! =) in reply to joiedevie #
• @hvxsilverstar Aw why thanks so much! Gotta have a sense of humor. in reply to hvxsilverstar #
• @LottieMessner Friendly greetings to you too! Several days later… but no less fresh! in reply to LottieMessner #
• How to beat-sync songs to video in Sony Vegas: Torley posted a photo:

  Watch this tutorial @ torley.com http://tinyurl.com/4naluh #

• How to beat-sync songs to video in Sony Vegas: Matching music to visuals is fun and pretty easy to do in S.. http://tinyurl.com/3ewl5u #
• Put the fun, not a ding, in "funding". #
• Looking in the mirror, counting my silver hairs. #
• We are stranger than we think: "Normal" is not what we think. We will never be able to tell for su.. http://tinyurl.com/3gztcr #
• Now hanging out in Second Life @ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Here/64/50/47 if you wanna chat with me! #
• Frank Klepacki's "Harkonnen Force" combines two of my fave things: rocktronica and Dune! Motivational doing-email music. #
• Got suggestions for best free Sony Vegas plugins? Let me know! #
• Why I admire Steve Ballmer: I'll preface: if Steve Ballmer really threatened to physically harm Eric .. http://tinyurl.com/4n2xeu #
• Retro computer graphics moment! <3 the music (Jan Hammer of Miami Vice fame) and design: http://tinyurl.com/4rs3ay #
• Wondering why Google keeps resetting my search preferences… this never happened before. #
• Hm, someone should make a Second Life Firefox add-on. For what? Maybe easier access to SLURLs… #
• The 2 kinds of criticism in this world: There are exactly 2 kinds of criticism in this world:

  That which .. http://tinyurl.com/4mfcum #

• DBD = Defective By Design #
• What do you call a group of rich rabbits eating varieties of food? Warren Buffet! #
• How to stop your avatar's head from moving: It's important when you're doing photo shoots and ha.. http://tinyurl.com/ … #
• heroes: Torley posted a photo:

  Posted by Second Life Resident Torley Olmstead. Visit Intemptesta Nox. http://tinyurl.com/43gf4v #

• What would you like to find easier here?: I have 1,875 blog posts and as that number mounts, it gets incre.. http://tinyurl.com/4h9xfs #
• NPIRL = Not Possible In Real Life / ISISL = Is Possible In Second Life, hahahaaaaaaa #
• Adobe CS4 is coming! So this is what Photoshop Godfather Russell Brown was working on! http://tinyurl.com/3o59ma #
• Miyaoka Hitchcock has a brilliant collection of delightfully bizarre, memorable machinima-things @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/miyaoka/ … #
• Destiny & Zorsy perform "The Games We Played": Torley posted a photo:

  Check it out! torley.com/destiny-z.. http://tinyurl.com/3le3bl #

• JC Denton… in da fresh! #
• Torley's movie-making guide is in the making…: See it right here, tentatively titled "Movie help"… http://tinyurl.com/4njdpt #
• I help solve your everyday problems in Second Life. #
• Smarts through the wire being stolen: BANDWITS #
• I <3 it when I get "Friendly greetings!" said back to me! #
• Torley's weekly Twitter for 2008-09-21:
  @dizzybanjo I'll have to check that out. I didn't play .. http://tinyurl.com/43qwmq in reply to torley #
• 9 sublime cyberpunk songs you need to hear: When "cyberpunk music" gets mentioned, classics like V.. http://tinyurl.com/44att5 #
• US Patent & Trademark Office's design search is archaic! They'd benefit from Flickr tags & Like.com-matching! http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmd … #
• Reading forum posts I made over 4 years ago is weird but kewl! http://tinyurl.com/3lukjk #
• Eclectic interview with Alexander Brandon, game music composer behind Deus Ex (I <3 "The Synapse!") and more titles: http://www.vgmru … #
• Reading insightful interview w/Mark Kingdon aka M Linden, CEO of Linden Lab @ http://tinyurl.com/4qzqlz #
• Eye-catching photo from Timeless Prototype of what appears to be a real life shop featuring furries: http://tinyurl.com/4wepbr #
• Enjoying great posts on the virtual worlds blog, Hiperia3D @ http://news.hiperia3d.com/ #
• Suggestions for Second Life products/services with great video tutorials that helped you learn how to use 'em? #
• My wife has a new blog: Photo by Ravenelle Appropriately, Ravenelle.net! She labored on it for a stretch o.. http://tinyurl.com/4ztmpf #
• Thanx to you Hobos and Mental Mentors (and friends) for this! http://tinyurl.com/3vw9br #
• A question I can't answer (most of the time):
  "Torley, do you think Linden Lab will ever do X?"

  .. http://tinyurl.com/4tlkpe #

Daft Punk defied odds to become one of the most recognizable music groups in the world. These "odds" included an unconventional heritage (French — not many Francophones get big in the US), an initially awkward name following failure, repetitive loops, and facelessness (which worked to their advantage, as we'll see).

The collapsed Stateside electronica "revolution" happened in the late 90s, and I remember first hearing about Daft Punk in 1997 when their debut album, Homework, was released following some singles.

Here's what they've done right:

1. Catchy tunes

When a lot of folks were making a fuss about electronic music being so different than rock music (it isn't — most of it is image and packaging), Daft Punk kept a focus on hummable riffs people can relate to. In an era of soundbites and Internet shorthand, this ain't surprising. It didn't hurt that the growly TB-303 of "Da Funk" sounds more like a heavy metal guitar line than the farty acid noises 303s are usually used for.

MORE »

If you see someone madly cackling as they trot down the street, loose change tumbling out of their pockets, their hair a wiry mess, you could snap-judge: "They're crazy!"

And what if they knew you were going to say this? What if they didn't do it just as an act (as Andy Kaufman might have), but they really behave that way, and they know it? How does that awareness change how you feel?

Does it change how you feel if you know your judgement of someone else will cause them pleasure or pain? And once affected, they'll tell it to your face?

Often, conflict can be alleviated by having a word with the source. Instead of crapslinging behind their back or venting it to a gossipy "friend".

But most humans, courage-challenged creatures we are, don't do that. Instead of taking what's essentially the surest path, we complicate matters and thorn the long, hurtful labyrinth of putting down someone in sneaky ways. On the Internet, that involves talking about them in channels which are the least likely to be seen by the subject… until, oops, they find out! We behave emotionally and irrationally, playing "he-said/she-said" until relationships are irrevocably damaged through the barbed wires of un-communication and misconstrued intent.

Nasty!

Instead of going behind someone's back, I like to approach someone personally and understand who they are and where they're coming from. Better to kill my foolish prejudices than let them fester. Yes, trust, reputation, and what you "hear" about someone may matter (or may not), but like I said: use the surest path.

If someone has a problem with me, I'd rather have a direct conversation than have it come back to me through the cluttered and sour grapevine. Wouldn't you?

(And before you answer, think about how you'll feel afterwards.)

Not-over-yet side benefit: it speaks highly of them if they're earnest about it. It's even more true if instead of a problem, someone has a solution with me — meaning they have kind and helpful things to say but may've been too shy.

This is precisely why I invite sharing. As I quip:

Thanks for letting me know, because otherwise, I wouldn't know!