"Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell" Billboard

If you live in Atlanta or LA, you may have seen a new black-text-on-white-background billboard that merely says "Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell --Satan."

I don't know who to credit this photo to--it was on Facebook.

I assume from the style that the creators intended to spoof the God Speaks billboards, which have white text on a black background and share various "messages from God" such as "Need a marriage counselor? I'm available" and "We need to talk." According to GodSpeaks.com, an anonymous person in Florida started that campaign in the 90's. After the initial run, Eller Media, a billboard company, chose to keep displaying the messages, and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) used it as their national public service campaign for 1999.

I can imagine that many people seeing the "message from Satan" would guess it is sponsored by a group such as Westboro Baptist Church or some cult. But in fact, it's part of the marketing campaign for a new TV show that will air soon on Adult Swim. The show title is "Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell". 

(Musician Iggy Pop has a song with this same title, and references to him are the most frequent search result if you google it. The creators of the TV show, Dave Willis and Chris (Casper) Kelly, contacted him and his team to get permission to use the title for the show. I don't know if the song itself has any relevance to them, or if they just liked the title.)

As a follower of Jesus, I liked the "God Speaks" billboards, though I don't know what impact they had on people in general. I'm not sure what to think of these new billboards. They could have a positive effect in getting people to think about the afterlife and their own spirituality or lack of it. Or they could have a negative effect in making the whole concept more of a joke, something to not take seriously. I have the same thoughts about the TV show itself.  


The billboards appear to be the second phase of Adult Swim's marketing campaign for this show. Around March 26, they released a promotional trailer/preview for it during their regular programming. They posted the trailer on YouTube on March 27, and to date it has had over 36,000 views (several of which are from me watching it and showing it to my friends.) 

I think the trailer is really well-made (kudos, writers and editors!), and have heard positive reactions from everyone I've shown it to. I think it is particularly funny/ironic/interesting that they used such upbeat music for the end of it. I think it says, "This show is about a pitiful demon who has to deal with all kinds of obstacles and suffering, but it's going to be fun to watch it."

The show airs Thursday, April 18, at midnight. (My husband and I debated on whether that meant the midnight that comes at the beginning or end of Thursday, and finally decided it must mean the end.) I will be watching.

Save time--don't dry dishes

I've enjoyed using those new "disposable" plastic containers from Glad and Ziploc--the poor man's version of Tupperware. Of course, I don't dispose of them. I wash and save them like any dishes, and if they get broken, I recycle.

One thing I don't like about them, though, is that the ridges and crevices in the design (especially the lids) make them hard to dry. I usually let my dishes air dry after running the dishwasher (to save energy), but even when using the heat drying function, the plastic ware comes out wet. Using a towel to get all the little droplets out of the crevices was tedious, to put it mildly.

This all changed the day I got a dish drying rack (or drainer, as some call it). I had been thinking of one for a while. I had already realized the joy of putting a wet dish on a towel on the counter and letting it dry on its own. A drying rack was the next step. I picked up a cheap-o one at a dollar store that was going out of business, so I think I paid about 50 cents. It's the kind that's basket-shaped, with a few slots for standing up dishes and a small compartment for silverware. It has been wonderful. Whether I wash my plastic ware in the dishwasher or by hand, I can just pile it up in the drying rack, leave it overnight, and it's ready to be put away in the morning. This has saved me a lot of time and frustration.

If you'd like to get one, I recommend looking at local dollar stores or places like Dollar General first, and if you don't find one, move on to pricier stores.

Is This Credit Card Bill Going to Matter in 100 Years?

As a Christian, I know that I am going to spend a lot longer on the other side of death than I do on this side. One technique I use to keep a more "eternal" perspective on life is to ask myself, "Is this going to matter in 100 years?" When I start to worry about things like health, or confusing relationships with the opposite sex, or my finances, I remind myself that in 100 years (barring a medical breakthrough) I will no longer be in this world. I will be in a much better world where I don't have these concerns. I feel comforted by this thought.

That said, there are quite a few things that we can do in this world that will matter in 100 years, both because the impact of our lives can last longer than our lives on earth, and because God says he will judge and reward our actions.

One verse I'd like to look at today, that really caught my attention a little while back, is Luke 16:11. It says,

"Therefore if you have not been faithful in the {use of} unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true {riches} to you?" (NASB)

This comes right after Jesus' story of the shrewd manager, who lowered the debts of people who owed his master money so that they were ingratiated to him and gave him a place to stay when he lost his job. It is questionable whether Jesus approved the manager's tactics, but the verse above does make an important point. Handling money is practice for handling true riches.

God is watching us all to see if we are responsible with money. If we are, He is more likely to entrust us with things that matter--whether this be an assignment in heaven or the salvation of people here on earth. (The passage is not clear on what specifically the "true riches" are.)

So, will that credit card bill matter in 100 years? Perhaps the bill itself won't, but the way you deal with it now will affect your opportunities to be trusted as a steward of God's precious resources. And that will matter in 100 years.

Do It For 15 Minutes--or 90?

I am a big fan of Flylady, a cheerful, encouraging program to help overwhelmed procrastinators stay on top of housework and other home maintenance tasks. One of Flylady's mantras is "just do it for 15 minutes, and then switch to something else. You can do anything for 15 minutes." This is meant to combat the dread of working on an unpleasant task for a long period of time, and also to prevent burnout. I have often used this tactic to good effect when cleaning the house or doing other chores--15 minutes to clean in the kitchen, then reset the timer and spend 15 minutes on folding laundry, etc. I like variety, so this works well for me.

Recently I read an article by Steve Pavlina (I've been spending a lot of time on his site lately) called "Do It Now," in which he suggests working in 90-minute blocks. He elaborates:

"When you sit down to work on a particularly intense task, dedicate blocks of time to the task during which you will not do anything else. I've found that a minimum of 90 minutes is ideal for a single block....The state of flow, where you are totally absorbed in a task and lose all sense of time, takes about 15 minutes to enter. Every time you get interrupted, it can take you another 15 minutes to get back to that state."

Both of these approaches--the 15-minute one and the 90+ minute one--sound reasonable, but obviously they are incompatible. So how can you use both to your advantage?

After giving it some thought, I decided that working in 15-minute blocks is best for tasks like housework--things that require more physical energy than mental focus, and things that you have to do rather than want to do. The longer block is more useful for work which primarily requires mental energy and is part of what you have chosen to do with your life. For me, website design would fall into this category.

Now, personally, I don't think I have the same trouble dealing with interruptions as Mr. Pavlina has--especially if it's a little thing like letting the dog out. But I do know that it takes me a little while to get absorbed in a project, and so it's beneficial to set aside a longer block of time for activities that I want to get absorbed in. (Unloading the dishwasher is not one of them.)

Your mileage may vary, however. It's generally a good idea to experiment with different time-management techniques to see what works best for YOU.

Is Facebook a Waste of Time?

Yesterday when I set up my productivity scaffolds, I put in a note that I was not going to look at Facebook until my work was done for the day. I stuck to this, and I actually did not miss it. I realized at the end of the day that I could go ahead and see what all my Facebook friends had been up to, but I did not feel the craving to look at it like I often have in the past. I looked through the news feed, sent a gift to a friend who's having a birthday soon, and then moved on to another website.

I think Facebook is great for keeping up with people, but I decided I need to set some guidelines for myself to keep it from being a time-waster. This involves:

1. Deciding what value I want to get out of Facebook
2. Limiting my participation to activities that give me that value

For the first, my primary value is to interact and keep up with friends. Activities that do that involve wall posts, exchanging gifts, joining some groups, and updating my profile. Activities that do not fit that value include taking silly quizzes, playing trivia games, and reading about groups that have interesting names but no relevance to my life.

This simple method can work for any website or activity that you feel is a time-waster. Ask yourself what value you want to get from it, and then limit your activities to things that produce that value.

Scaffolds for Productivity

I read an interesting post on Steve Pavlina's blog about creating your own "scaffolds for productivity" to help you focus on your work. It is just another word for routines that get you in the work mood. He had samples of his posted, and here are the ones I created for myself:

Starting Work Routine
Pray for guidance and working "as unto the Lord" (5 min)
Review long term plans/priorities (5 min)
Identify priorities for the day (10 min)
Write what I expect to get done (5 min)
Make/review list of "next steps" (no more than 15 min. each) for priorities (10 min)
Walk and visualize myself doing each "next step" (10 min)
Sit down and begin working
NO PERSONAL EMAIL UNTIL MEAL BREAK, NO FACEBOOK UNTIL END OF WORKDAY

Ending Work Routine
Make list of what I accomplished, as well as notes about what to do next (10 min)
Straighten desk/office (10 min)
Pray to thank God for helping me work (5 min)

I have several reasons behind creating the steps I did. They include:

-Aligning myself with God's will and ways (praying)
-Getting my mind on work (priorities and goals, putting off personal time until later)
-Overcoming procrastination ("next steps" list)
-Creating a distinction between preparing to work and actually working (walking and visualizing)

I have not tried these routines out yet, but I will start tomorrow. I should be able to use this whether I have a whole day to work at home or just a few hours. If some steps don't help, I can modify them.

I already know that following my standard morning routine as soon as I get up (shower, dress, breakfast) helps me feel more motivated to work than if I linger over breakfast in my pajamas. So this will be an extension of that routine, happening after I turn my computer on.