free beer!

so we're three weeks into 2011 and with this writing i've managed to maintain the productivity levels of my lone new year's resolution: one blog post per week. it's been a grueling hell-ride so far and i'm not sure how i've accomplished so much in so little time. (hold the applause, please.)

statistics show that more than 30 percent of resolutions are broken within the first week - so i'm doing OK so far. but i have to admit that it took some serious soul searching and completely redefining my interpretation of work-ethic to realize this lofty achievement.

the blue13satellite exists to serve a creative community that shares a common desire to take our talents from under-appreciated hobby to well-recognized cash cow. (or a slightly more modest version thereof.) however, the intrawebs is loaded with publications that undoubtedly serve this need more efficiently (read: better) than our lowly blog. so it is with a certain level of resignation that i say if the satellite's "community" remains an army of one (or four, according to our illustrious list of followers), so be it.

if i've learned anything over the years it's this: few things motivate people like free booze. and while i won't be giving away any beer-of-the-month club memberships anytime soon, the satellite is going to try and do something nearly as cool: free beer reviews. ha. admittedly, posting beer reviews is substantially less cool than actually offering free beer. (see last sentence in paragraph above.)

so... "what's the point?" you ask. a valid question, as i often ask myself the same thing. well, we've all heard it before: to do a job right you must have the right tools. and it is with this time-tested adage that i reveal the satellite's newly acquired hardware on our quest to become a slightly-less irrelevant blog:

we've received an amazing set of glassware designed to accommodate even the most discerning beer drinker. so it is with great pleasure that i now say... let the beer reviews commence. (thank you santa - even if you're like, a month late.)

i imagine that if one were to return to our humble blog in the future for beer analysis, you may already know what purpose each of the glasses pictured above serve. for those of you less acquainted with the subtleties of glassware, here's a simple explanation of each vessel's intended use (from left to right).

jerry seinfeld's productivity method

this post comes courtesy of our friends at The Writer's Store. the piece didn't have a byline, so i can't give proper credit to whoever put it together. i can only thank them, pass it along to my dear satellite readers and hope that you'll forward it to as many writers as you know.

(you'll have to excuse all the proper punctuation. it wasn't me, promise.) don't forget to sign up (on the right) and "follow" the satellite. thanks!

-mc


When it comes to making New Year's resolutions, we writers aren't exactly the norm.

Most people resolve to lose weight, dreaming of the day they can hold up their "fat jeans," as if in a weight-loss commercial. We want to hold up a few freshly printed scripts and know we've created something tangible.

Others might hope to finish their first triathlon this year. We hope to finish a screenplay, a one-hour pilot, and a half-hour comedy spec.

This year, I'm gonna write more. It's a popular resolution amongst our crowd. It's a great goal, but it's vague.

Then again, maybe some of us promised to write every day. That's even better.

But just like hitting a plateau at the gym, we sometimes lose the steam that once powered a new and exciting story idea. We take one day off, which turns into two days off; eventually, we find ourselves opening up a document only to realize it hasn't been touched in two weeks – or more.

Let's say you do write most of the time, but you take one or two days off each week for any number of reasons. That's still a lot of writing. But consider this: at the end of the year, that's roughly 10 weeks, or 2.5 months' worth of days that you didn't write anything.

That's where Jerry Seinfeld's productivity tip "Don't Break the Chain" comes in.

2011: a new creative journey

here at blue13 we're working on a bunch of cool new projects for 2011, one of them being to really get behind the power of self-publishing. so we're going to be tweaking and revamping the satellite during the next several weeks with the hopes of becoming an enjoyable destination for creative people to check out.

we (and when i say "we" i mean me, really) spend a lot of time scouring the internet for nuggets that the creative community will find useful. starting basically now, we're going to do our best to share information that will hopefully help our fellow creatives stay focused, inspired and motivated to continue producing artistic works.  like this:

Grand Scheme Artist Series ft. Numskull from grandscheme on Vimeo.

we'll also try to find useful links and resources that can assist creative people in realizing some tangible benefits from their individual talents (read: fame AND fortune). bam.

we know there are zillions of amazing resources out there for people to explore. so we're going to try and focus on bringing you quality content that's not only interesting but valuable as well. the idea being that we'd like to see the satellite become a great place to interact with a community of mile-high creatives (although we're fully on board with the global community concept, too).

during the next couple months we'll be making a strong push with our own quantum T-shirts (www.quantumTshirts.com) and what we feel is an exciting audio program dubbed "the accidental taoist" -- short 2- to 3- minute audio features presenting ancient eastern philosophical wisdoms for today's modern western urbanite. you may be surprised at how useful some of those timeless teachings really are.

and, we recently moved into a new space in northwest denver along tennyson street. the area, for those unaware, is a thriving community of hip restaurants (hops and pie, comfort cafe, others), cool art galleries and shops, the oriental theater and several other local businesses making it one of denver's coolest 'hoods.

we're community-oriented folk here at blue13 (thanks, KDUR) and are really looking forward to getting involved in our new neighborhood. we're starting up as members of our locally-owned and operated, SOLAR POWERED community wireless internet network (www.meshcasting.com) and plan on working with other local businesses to fulfill our unique creative business needs.

we're also working on the beginning stages of a tennyson street cinema club, so if you're interested in learning more please get in touch. (and tell your friends.)

we're shooting for at least one quality post each week for starters. if you hear of anything inspiring or valuable to our creative community at large, we'd appreciate a heads up so we can pass it along. our reach is rather small at the moment -- i think there's ONE satellite follower at the moment. ha! however, it was the great lao tzu (widely recognized as the founder of taoist philosophy) who said:

"the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

so, it seems, we've taken our first step. here's to a successful journey.

-mc