I believe that writing, in a lot of ways, is like exercising. The more you do it, the easier it is and the more you see the results of your labor.
If you exercise once in a blue moon, you shouldn't be expecting six-pack abs and a gun show. Likewise, if you write only once in a blue moon, you’ll probably find your sentences and paragraphs to be a little flabby and doughy, without as much meat to them as there would be if you were writing every day.
Thanks to a semi-disciplined workout routine, I've shed about 30 pounds in the past few months. And thanks to a semi-disciplined routine, that's where we're getting with the Links of the Week. Soon the blog will be a lean, mean, link-aggregatin' machine. But this being my second blog back after my self-imposed hiatus, it may still be a little doughy, so to speak.
BUT AT LEAST THE LINKS ARE GOOD, I PROMISE!
And so on this slightly flabby note, here are your Links of the Week:
Hey! A trailer for the new Muppets movie! [YouTube]
One of my favorite Twitter feeds for a while now has been @HumbleBrag, a twitter feed started by a comedy writer (Harris Wittles) on one of my favorite shows, Parks and Recreation. A humblebrag, for the uninitiated, is:
“a specific type of bragging which masks the brag in a faux-humble guise. The false humility allows the offender to boast their "achievements" without any sense of shame or guilt.”
They’re all amazingly entertaining and I encourage you to visit the HumbleBrag Twitter page, or just check out this monthly column on Grantland of the Humblebrags of the Month. [Grantland]
Some Tumblrs are lame and pointless, and some tumblrs are really cool and pointless. This one is of the latter, featuring photos a bunch of random famous people hanging out together. Believe it or not, its called “Awesome People Hanging Out Together”. [AwesomePeopleHangingOutTogether via TheBigLead]
When I was in high school, I did an amazing impersonation of Eric Cartman. To that point, I say, I WANT MAH CHEES-E POOFS! Walmart is making actual Cheesy Poofs. [Adweek]
Impressive feat! [YouTube]
Want to get away for a while? How about forever? The New York Times had an intriguing piece this week about how you can use technology (or rather, abuse technology) to disappear off the map. Or steal an identity. You know, whatever you choose. [New York Times]
NBA 2K12, the follow-up to the most successful video game ever in NBA 2K11, will have Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan on the cover. Who needs an NBA season when you can just play with the greatest players ever, am I right? [SLAMOnline via @jeskeets]
In case you've been under a rock (actually, in case you have a life), the WWE has gone under a new resurgence thanks to a semi-real story line involving one of its more popular wrestlers, CM Punk. Punk, as the story goes, is the champion and has the WWE Championship belt, but is no longer employed by the WWE. Either way, any excuse for Bill Simmons to revisit the Top Wrestling Entrance Theme Songs Ever is good enough for me. [Grantland]
After the Major League Baseball All-Star Break, I had written a solid couple hundred words on the Cubs’ 2011 season, and things we can look forward to coming out of the break. Before I could finish the article, the Cubs promptly lost 4 of 6 in an embarrassing manner. On a related note, here is a great FanGraphs article on why the Cubs need to rely less on their incredibly mediocre General Manager Jim Hendry. [FanGraphs]
And, for your video of the week, Teasing the Dog: