2010 and the Absence of New Ideas
I had really hoped to spend today gloating.
And really, I totally should be. I should be talking about the total success of a little idea that dawned on me back on January 2, 2009 to run a new Transformer entry each day for the 365 days that was 2009. And with a few hiccups, I did too, until December 1. Who knew that a new, faster, shinier computer would completely knock apart my efforts due to incompatible software (and the inability to get my ten year old toaster to read a memory stick.)
Nevertheless, I do want to claim a partial victory on making it through 334 days and pledge to round out the 2009 year soon, as well as a review of the effort including metrics (yes, I am just that bureaucratic…) Maybe I’ll even find the time to put something more permanent together based on my efforts over the past year.
There are no new ideas.
Changing the subject, I noticed something this week that is the title of this piece, mainly the absence of new ideas. I don’t mean to say there are no new ideas but rather that the ideas are not as “new” as we think them.
At the end of the day do any of us truly have original ideas or are we simply mislabelling just mashing preconceived thoughts and contexts from around us and calling them new.
Case in point, I was reading Dark Horse’s Dr. Horrible one-shot yesterday and, in the editorial section, my eyes fell on a new tag line for the company: “You Love Comics. We Love Comics Too.” And my mind wandered back to my original fairplaythings.com business cards, the ones I’d put together back in fall 2008 and had been using until Teresa put together the specs for my new cards (with the new logo), which can be seen in the attached picture.
The old tag line? “You like toys? We like toys too.”
But there are new configurations.
Despite December’s challenges, the TF of the Day was a very satisfying accomplishment, a way to show that I could have something ready on a (mostly) regular basis for readers. So I thought I’d learn from it to undertake a new exercise for 2010.
GIJoe of the Day…
Just kidding. While I’d love to do a project like that, given the nature of the Joeworld, it would take a lot more planning. So I’ll shelve it for the time being and announce the real thing for 2010. It ties into a pledge I am making this year to take the collection, scattered throughout the house in boxes and half displays, and do something meaningful with the best parts of it, while cataloging the rest, and putting some pieces up for sale. And to use this website, which I hope to reconfigure and refresh, as it was intended - as a place to show off my custom works and celebrate toys of the past (and present), as well as provide an avenue to sell and trade doubles and items procurred just for this reason.
What better way to encourage the organization of the collection than to showcase a part of it. In that vein, I am unveiling this weekend the Collectible of the Week. The Collectible of the Week is something or somethings in my collection of which I think is particularly rare, unique or just cool that I want to show off and to hear discussed. It won’t always be toys and it won’t always be Transformers, but it will (try to) appear every Friday and hopefully be something fresh. And it will be weekly, instead of daily, so that I don’t underwhelm the collectible (to say nothing of my other posts) by knocking it out of its spot with a new collectible each day. And, admittedly, to aid me staying on track this year.
The first one will be up this weekend. Do come back and check it out. For it is the year 2010. Happy new year!