I’ve been inspired by Marissa Bracke’s Friday Menagerie, Havi Brooks’ Item! posts and Eric Cressey’s Random Friday Thoughts, and I want to play! I tried to come up with a good title, but words like smorgasbord and random miscellaneous came to mind, and that just wouldn’t do. Anyway, here’s my collection of random thoughts, observations and recommendations.

Life Skills
I went to Chris Guillebeau’s Unconventional Book Tour in Minneapolis last Sunday night. Chris wrote this amazing book called the Art of Nonconformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World and is currently in the process of visiting all 50 states and 10 provinces on a a whirlwind book tour which you should check out if he’s coming to your town. It was nice to see so many people come out to hear Chris’ message of living a meaningful life of purpose, and I was particularly moved by seeing so many young people there who are already asking the right questions and trying to figure out how to set their own terms for living–but in a thoughtful and nonconfrontational way. (I did the nonconformity thang as a teenager, but didn’t pick up on the latter part until much later in life.) Anyway, I’d highly recommend the book, and wrote a review up on Amazon.

Creative Writing
I am teaching a series of three creative writing workshops in Chippewa Falls, starting tonight, for the next three weeks from 6:30 to 8. I’ll be drawing on the work of  Natalie Goldberg, Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge and Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (aka SARK). I am pretty excited about helping people turn blank sheets of paper into those filled with prolific, insightful prose… in three very different ways. If you know of any other writing experts with great practices, please leave their names in the comments.

Contemporary Social Issues
I actually enjoyed the book Eat Pray Love, but I also thought this interesting article, Eat Pray Spend: Priv-lit and the new, enlightened American dream, offered some pretty thought-provoking analysis.

Sociology
I found an interesting article on what is called Suburban Warrior Syndrome in Psychology Today. It describes how fantasy movies can tap into our impulse to be heroic. My favorite quote? “Quiet heroism is showing up for your child’s school play when it’s  difficult to get off work, or being honest and ethical in the face of  someone’s disapproval or scorn,” says Tessina. “That’s the kind of  heroism that really counts in life.”

Psychology
Dean Rieck wrote an excellent post on Copyblogger entited 8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity and Stifle Your Success. Definitely worth reading.

Phys Ed
Got tight hip flexors? Check out some tips from Coach Keats on assessment and self-massage.

Computers
Wired magazine had an amazing article entitled Sex! Hackers! Embellishment! The Inside Story of the Facebook Movie. Not only was the movie fascinating, this article is so craftfully written that it made me wish I only read Wired and magazines like it.

Extra Credit
I wrote a guest post on ProBlogger, Five Ways to Prevent E-mail Overload, which you may want to check out if that’s an issue for you.

Thanks for reading and, as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments–feedback on these articles or anything else I posted, interesting items you’ve found so far this week, or anything at all, really…