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My knickknacks are getting a veritable sheen with all of this polishing… so I’m probably going to ditch the polishing metaphor. There’s only so much Carry On style humour that even I can get away with.

So, what goodies do I have to share with you this week? Behold and feast your eyes upon these wares!

A letter to my auntie

More emotional than my usual pieces perhaps, but I really liked it. Every week The Guardian publishes an installment in their series called, “A letter to…” featuring “the letter you always wanted to write”. This week’s letter was really moving. An homage to a relative that became the “first liberated woman in [the] family” and the positive effect that this had upon her nieces and nephews. A touching piece.

Everyone’s mix tape

There’s something that’s always rather charming when it comes to digital replications of analogue memories. Whether it’s Instagram adding lovely vintagey filters to your shots or this lovely site that take Youtube, Soundcloud or Vimeo tracks and adds them to a mixtape – you can even have your friends (and others on the site) add tracks too.

I’ve started one called Northern Soul Stompers if you fancy having a look out for it over on everyonesmixtape.com … and perhaps even add a track or two that you think should be on there too.

#twittermixtape

On a similar note, @dababarian over on Twitter has set up #twittermixtape where she’s trying to get people to actually make up real mix tapes (or, more precisely, CDs) for people. Lovely way to introduce people to new music, get to know some new music and even get to know a few new people too.

Someone makes a mix and gives it to another tweeter. They listen to it and then pass it on, and make a mix of their own and start the process again. Really lovely idea borne out of nothing more than a desire to get people to do a nice thing for someone else and I really hope it takes off.

Michael Jackson’s anti-gravity dance move revealed

Bit of a myth-buster, this one, and therefore a little bit on the bittersweet side of things, but over on Retronaut they have the patent information that helped MJ do this move…

Now I don’t feel quite so bad about having a really shitty set of Achilles tendons and being top heavy. I just didn’t have the shoes!

Why am I unlucky and you’re careless?

Tom over at Mindhacks wrote a column for BBC Future that did the rounds on Twitter last week as it provoked a bit of thought.

“From lost keys to failed interviews, we blame other people for mishaps but never ourselves, because assuming causes helps us to make sense of the world.”

Have a read and let it poke your brainy bits a wee while. On a similar note…

The dangers of self forgiveness (and how to avoid them)

It’s important to be kind to yourself and to cut yourself some slack when you fuck up. But there are pitfalls to it too. Yes it can ease your guilt and shame, but it can reduce the amount of empathy that you have for others and lessen any motivation to make amends.

So, y’know, check yo’self before you wreck yo’self.

The earth at night from the ISS

Full screen. Sound up. Sit back. Watch it. Drop jaw.

Michael Andrews – Bubbles

Over 100 high school students drew 3000+ frames for this new video for the new single “Bubbles In Space” by Michael Andrews. 

And one last thing…

Rob posted this and I agree with him – it’s worth remembering.

Well that was a very emotive peek at my knickknacks, this week. Sorry about that (not really).