The Real Lance Brown

Did you know I write a bi-weekly column? No? Not that surprising, since I’ve been spotty about mentioning it here. I’ve been spotty about blogging overall, so it fits the motif. But I’m working on undoing said motif, and being more regular about blogging again, so I should probably get caught up with due diligence on my column too.

My column is called The Not-So-Simple Life, and it appears in the bi-weekly e-newsletter The Simplifier, published by Project Simplify. You can browse backwards through the columns over at the archive on Project Simplify’s site, or you can click over to any individual column via this list here, which starts with my first intro column and goes forward from there.

If you like, you can subscribe to the feed for my column, so you’ll never miss one again. :-) (And of course, if you sign up for The Simplifier, you’ll get each of my columns and a whole lot more!) The feed is also in the sidebar now too.

(Introducing…) The Not-So-Simple Life

The Not-So-Simple Life: Rhymes with “Mess”

The Not-So-Simple Life: Wanted – Someone to Help Me Pile More On

The Not-So-Simple Life: Upping the Ante

The Not-So-Simple Life: The World’s Largest To-Do List

The Not-So-Simple Life: Christmas in March

The Not-So-Simple Life: A Tasty Treat (That Will Consume Your Life)

The Not-So-Simple Life: A Man of Many Nations

The Not-So-Simple Life: Turning the Tables on Time

The Not-So-Simple Life: A Heaping Helping of Self-Help

The Not-So-Simple Life: Saving Money by Spending Money to Save Time

The Not-So-Simple Life: As Simple as Twitter

The Not-So-Simple Life: “Quick – We Need This Thing Thingied! Can You Help?!?”

The Not-So-Simple Life: You Left Your Oven On

The Not-So-Simple Life: Note to Self–Make Notes to Self

The Not-So-Simple Life: It Wasn’t Me! (But It Will Be)

Enjoy!

My vocabulary used to expand

But now it just seems to

What’s the word…

Contract.

John August, writer of Big Fish and Go among others, gives a 10-step procedure for how to write a scene.

Paul Rosenberg posted on Fr33Agents about how libertarians (and any other group with a like viewpoint) make some basic group dynamic errors that serve to hold them back–the biggest being that they tend to communicate mostly within their own thought-circles.

I grew bored with the endless flow of philosophical and political cross-talk that seems to dominate most libertarian message boards and email lists. Most of it is about finding divisions in between people in the movement, rather than commonalities, which is not especially helpful if you’re trying to grow the movement into something stronger. And, as Rosenberg discusses in his post, navel-gazing over the views we already hold in common doesn’t help much either.

Cheap Talk & Group Dynamics: How Libertarians Fail.

This is a cool story from Inc. about a guy who has revolutionized what’s normally a pretty standard-issue business: the local pizza joint.

Lessons From a Blue-Collar Millionaire.

Thanks to Ruth Schwartz for bringing it to my attention.

Into old-school real-time strategy games? Electronic Arts is now offering the first 3 Command & Conquer games as free downloads: Command & Conquer Classic. Have fun!

Reposted from ProjectSimplify.com:

The ninety-ninth issue of the Project Simplify newsletter The Simplifier, titled “The First Step Toward Rational Living”, is now archived on our newsletter archives page.

(There is also an audio version of this newsletter, available here.)

Here is a brief summary of the contents:

1. A Note From Shawn
It doesn’t get much simpler than this
2. Upcoming/Current Events
3. Our Featured Quote
by Eleanor Roosevelt
4. Project Simplify Says So
Getting back to the foundation; Unwanted phone calls and junk faxes; and Simplification Rules
5. Lifestyles of the Natural & Professional
Handbook Table of Contents and New Logo
6. The Not-So-Simple Life
The World’s Largest To-Do List

Read the full issue here.
Listen to the full issue here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.
—
This issue features another edition of my column “The Not-So-Simple Life”. You can read the full column here.

The most recent issue of Project Simplify’s newsletter The Simplifier (which I co-edit and write for) is online.

Here’s the web version: The Simplifier #5.3 – Clearing the Way!

And the audio version: The Simplifier #5.3 Audio Version

This issue includes the latest edition of my column “The Not-So-Simple Life”–it’s the last section.

Ensnared in my regrets, I see
A bitter face looking back at me
The face is my own, and the bitter is too
And my regrets ensnaring me is nothing new
But something is rising– or rising again
My strength is returning like a long lost friend

Like a long lost friend who has shown up too late
Who can only observe the unrolling of my fate
And sit helpless, restrained, watching through glass
As I attempt to stand, and then fall on my ass
Again and again, and again and again and again
Just beyond the reach of the help of my friend

-1/05/06

It didn’t seem super-easy to find a simple list of the Twitter accounts for the cast members of NBC’s “Community”, and since I was already following them all, I took a moment to make a Twitter “List” featuring them. You can follow it here: Tweets from the Cast of Community (@FreelanceLance/cast-of-community). The accounts of the actors are listed here: Cast of “Community” on Twitter.

I will keep it updated with additional cast members as they become available. Please let me know if you know of any additions by posting a comment below. (I don’t know all the actors’ names off the top of my head, but I don’t have accounts for the Dean, or Vaughan, or Britta, or Danny Pudi a.k.a. Abed. Or Chevy Chase, but I’m not holding my breath for that one.)

NOTE: NBC has also created Twitter accounts for the characters that the actors play; this list does not have those accounts, nor @NBCCommunity‘s, nor that of Dan Harmon, the creator of “Community”, or anyone else behind the show. It’s just the actors–currently: Joel McHale, Allison Brie, Donald Glover, Yvette N. Brown, and Ken Jeong. I thought it could get too crazy and unfocused if I opened it up to all the crew and “creatives” behind the show. But you should follow Dan Harmon too probably, right?