Name must also be creative

I read about a service in California (thus far) that provides vetted teachers and nannies to offer safe rides home for kids.

The name of it? SHUDDLE.

Pretty close to "shudder" and the white van, if you ask me. I know it's supposed to be a spelling of SHUTTLE, but that isn't what it "says."

I also read about a questionably advised device you wear on your wrist and it zaps you when you miss your fitness or other goals.

The name? PAVLOK. Pavlov's dog--get it? I liked that one.

I used to "name" for a big NY agency--drop me a line if you are fretting over a name.

No reason--just creative...or is that crazy?

From a site called Barnorama, come these coffee mugs--if you like them, that says a lot about you.

Me, I am freak Velcro.

For more, go to: 

http://www.barnorama.com/let-your-creativity-soar-by-using-these-24-incredible-coffee-mugs-is-my-favorite/

Wow--now THIS is a pen!

I can't decide. Is this a solution looking for a problem? Whatever it is, it is smokin' hot!

It's called Scribble--and it's a pen with a scanner on one end. You move the scanner over an object and the pen mixes hues from the five printing colors--cyan, yellow, magenta, black and white--to match the color of the scanned object perfectly.

Sixteen million shades!

You can also attach the result to a Bluetooth or micro USB and the color can be used digitally. It store 100,000 shades.

The pen is about $150 and the stylus $80. A Kickstarter campaign will be started soon. Investors get the low prices.

Go to www.getscribblepen.com.

I could see a paint brush instead of a penpoint--no more palettes! And maybe that is too mundane--what uses and adaptations come to YOUR mind?

Please--call it gestating

Vincent Walsh, professor of human brain research at University College London, said people should be allowed to take naps on the job.

We are obsessed, the reasoning goes, with sleeping only at night.

You need to give your brain downtime by having one or two "sleeps" during the day, as the Brits phrase it.

A nap can be between 30 and 90 minutes.

People need to do less to be more creative, the prof says. Hmmmm.

Also--and this might convince you--undersleeping all week and then catching up on weekends, or social jet lag, could be responsible for increased rates of cancer, dementia, and diabetes.

I know it is responsible for lots of yawning--especially when I am speaking. There must be some reason for this. We need to get to the bottom of it.

Don't forget the Muses

Press photo--Erata

Where do ideas come from? A great corporate environment with lots of beer parties on Friday afternoon? Or maybe from some half-draped, rosy figures perched on a mountain above us, drinking wine, lounging, and shooting out ideas?

Adam Haviaras, WritinginthePast.blogspot.com, reminds us that the Muses may still be around someplace. Why should the Ancient Greeks have all the luck?

Those Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus, apparently reached out to Hesiod and gave him "a rod of sturdy laurel, a marvelous thing, and breathed into him a divine voice to celebrate things that shall and and things that were aforetime."

So he wrote the biography of the gods called Theogeny. Ghostwriter to the gods! Cool gig.

Before that he was a shepherd.

The Muses more or less dictated, he said. In the Greek and Roman worlds, the Nine Muses were credited with most inspiration. These were, after all the offpsring of Zeus and a goddess named Mnemosyne (Memory).

Homer gave them a hat tip. They specialized in such things as lyric poetry, song and elegiac poetry, tragedy, hymns, dand, comedy, astronomy. Erata over their helped with lyric poetry.

So when you are in the Zone, satisfied with a great day of creative work, remember--the Muses may be just out of reach someplace watching over you and maybe slipping you a smokin' insight once in a while.

Ideas, ideas--get your free ideas

Ideas to Steal.Today is a website of creative leavings. These are ideas people had but didn't feel like developing--maybe you can do them one better. All brainstorms, great and small, are available for the taking. The site is not even copyrighted, no rights reserved, have at it.

The one drawback for me was it is done through Facebook. I don't Facebook. Bleh to Facebook. But I got the gist of some of the ideas at your disposal anyhow.

What I do for you people!

First, cartoon duct tape (Donald Duct Tape). Why not? Or maybe why?

There is some substance to clean undies of Skidz, which I guess is about what you would think.

There are work-related looking screen overlays you can have on while you read books at work.

There is a tweeting arrangement for your lonely, gabby hamster.

And, of course, a talking pregnancy test.

I guess I could contribute my idea--Valet Cat. Cute guys in shorts who bring kitty litter to the cars of aging cat lovers.

Cheers to creativity!

According to the New Scientist, Mar 2012, a small amount of booze can help with creative problem-solving.

Some researchers at the University of Illinois gave 40 men either vodka and cranberry or plain cran. Then they took a test.

The drinkers solved 38% more problems and faster, too. They also said the answer just came to them.

Another measure showed the vodka group's minds wandered more--which is supposed to be good for hitting on creative ideas and making connections.

Of course, we've all been to parties and bars where people's minds wandered too much. And creative people such as Hemingway and Steinbeck have been linked with booze--but is booze linked with their creativity?

Have to have a belt and think about that one.