Processes are important, but processes without spirit are fundamentally useless.
— Tom Peters

It’s easy to forget that the most beautifully designed systems are still generally executed by people. And if your people don’t believe/love/become-impassioned-by what they’re doing, you should just go ahead and call it a day. Lack of passion loses.

Thelonious says, “It must always be night, otherwise they wouldn’t need the lights.” and “Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music just imagined. What you don’t play can be more important than what you do play.”

Of course he’s talking about music here, but he’s also talking about taste. And good advice about having good taste is relevant to just about anything we do.

I want to finish and release two (most likely self-published) books, get posters/prints/t-shirts selling, help my wife launch a viable online store/brand for her awesome craftiness, fully implement the new identity for my sister’s business, and add at least one amazing web developer (if not two) to our team here at NewSpring so we can do some seriously great stuff.

And lose 20 pounds, of course.

What do you want to do in 2009 that you can actually execute?

For our Christmas services at NewSpring Church, Ken Wilson made samples in Reason, loaded them into the iPhone app Beatmaker, and then we used them to “DJ” opening sets as everyone arrived to the service(s) at our campuses.

Ken and Daniel tagteamed it at our Anderson Campus. I was on at our Greenville Campus. I replaced a few of Ken’s original samples with some of my own (handclaps, Charlie Brown, George Carlin, etc.) for a slightly different flavor. Ken has lots of details and source files here and here and here, or you can download my Beatmaker kit here.

I hope your stocking
is filled with cheer. Your belly,
goodness. Also, ham.

Rent is not “throwing money away” anymore than buying food at the grocery store is “throwing money away” since you didn’t plant your own garden and raise your own livestock. Shelter is something you consume; it’s not an investment. Bailing out homeowners is rewarding the people who treated housing as an investment and not a consumption good…
—Rob Horning

I’ve never heard anyone talk about housing as a consumption good. I’m not quite sure what I think (says the renter, who strongly desires a place of his own to piddle in and around.)

1. Sam Sparro — Sam Sparro
2. For Emma, Forever Ago — Bon Iver
3. Sycamore Meadows — Butch Walker
4. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust — Sigur Rós
5. Nine Inch Nails — The Slip

I wanted to love Jim by Jamie Lidell, but I just didn’t.

I’d love to know the thought process that resulted in this. I have musician friends who occasionally do savantish things like call out the pitch of industrial objects; I wonder if this was “Hey, my microwave dings an A note when my HotPocket® is done!” However it came about, amazing creativity from AKQA. (via AV Club)

At some point this week it dawned on me that I haven’t gotten much non-work-related email lately. Then I realized I hadn’t gotten any. Apparently we’ve been so busy at the office (which has its fair share of email to slog through anyway) that I didn’t notice something went haywire with my domain forwarding and MX Records after the server switchover in late November.

If you an email to joshua@joshuablankenship.com anytime from November 24th until about 20 minutes ago, it probably bounced back to you. Or it didn’t and you just think I’m a huge jerkface who doesn’t answer his email. I apologize for either.

Said emails will most likely eventually trickle into my inbox, but if you have a pressing, lingering question/comment/etc. that was sent to that email address, could you please resend it? Many thanks. You’re patient with me when I’m an idiot.

“Viral Marketing” is the wrong kind of virus when you insult small business owners and act smug, condescending, and bullying. When the biggest pizza chain in the world makes fun of local pizza shops, the little guy isn’t the one who looks bad.

Not that I would eat at Pizza Hut anyway,
Joshua

After some massive office furniture destruction in our team’s area, there is only one wall left in my “cubicle.” On the other side of said wall sits RoseAngela Merritt. I give her a hard time (often) about practicing, but she puts her skills to good use. For example:

All I Want for Christmas on Vimeo.