Let's start things off right by saying this: Wow, did we love that Hand Job. Not that that's an atypical reaction for us (we'll take hand-drawn ABC's over Photoshop-perfected ones anytime), but regardless, that book just felt good in our hands.

Well Happy Friday to us, because the man behind Hand Job — the creatively inclined, Brooklyn-based Michael Perry — has just given us another. Over & Over, a book of people-drawn patterns, stays clear of the sexual innuendo that initially got our attention, but still manages to keep our attention in the same way that (your favorite punny porno title here) does. Or doesn't, or used to, or…hey. Sometimes, we just prefer a book.

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Up until a few weeks ago, there were only a few words that I associated with startup companies. One was “balls,” another was “brains,” another was “heart attack.”

There are elements that lead up to those associations, first and foremost being that I was probably in diapers when I was initially exposed to startup culture. My father, an entrepreneur to the core, would be on his gigantic cell phone spitting stress into the mouthpiece; I’d be strapped into a car seat drooling into the mangy mane of a Cabbage Patch Kid and even then, I swear I was thinking, “F*&$ this, dad, I’m going to be a writer.”

However, if things had been going then like they are now, there’s a chance that the words that I currently associate with entrepreneurialism might have formed differently &emdash; maybe even in the shape of “addictive,” “creative,” and “thrilling.” To a great extent, this can be attributed to the Internet, and to the now increased rate at which new concepts can become tangible products. However, to another smaller, but potentially as powerful extent, this can be attributed to Startup Weekends d i.e., 54 hour-long, high-intensity events dedicated to melding minds and starting companies.

We chatted with Andrew Hyde, Startup Weekend’s Boulder-based founder — and brand new community manager for Techstars.org — about the now globally occurring events, but never really found the answer to our main question: When &emdash; and how in the hell – did startups become so much fun?

Joshspear.com: Tell us about your history &emdash; how is it that you love entrepreneurialism so much?

Andrew Hyde: I remember learning how to count money from my favorite teacher, an elementary school volunteer of 40 years, Nellie Zook. At the end of the lesson she said that when we all started businesses, she would be our first customer, to check on our money counting skills. That stuck with me a bit. READ MORE…

It’s finally 2008, and we all know what that means: Dub-ya is on his way out of the White House. Most of us are thrilled about that; some of us are not so thrilled about that (ahem, some), but the fact remains that change is coming, and we’re as much a part of it as the presidential hopefuls stepping up their campaigns for the final push. One thing about this election season that has been refreshing to me is the slew of interesting candidates that we’ve had to choose from. So many different religions; the first woman; the first African American — our next president might represent something truly historical, and I find that, in itself, incredibly exciting.

Aside from environmental issues, this site has generally kept it’s distance from Washington, D.C. On the other hand, nothing stirs up a good debate like politics — and 2008’s elections are shaping up to be something impossible not to talk about. So, at the risk of getting risque, we want to know your current stance on the elections. Who’s your candidate? Why do think they have what it takes to clean up America’s current messiness? Is there one candidate that will send you to a cave should they take office? Also, if you happen to be reading from somewhere other than the US, feel free to jump in — we want to know how you think we can turn our country around, too!

I’m having trouble processing the fact that this time next week, a new year will be upon us. I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions — I’m more of a “change it right now” kind of person — but there’s some things I’ve decided to do starting now, through the next year and beyond. Some things are ongoing projects (like training the best-behaved pitbull you’ll ever meet), some are typical (more walking, less cab-taking) some have a definitive ending point (finding the perfect couch) and some are mental adjustments I’m making (refusing to ever put up with crap from anyone, ever again), and I feel like the new year and a clean calendar will only benefit them and me in sticking to them.

That being said, here’s the inevitable question: What are your New Year’s Resolutions? Saying it out loud (or, in this case, typing it out) has proven to keep you accountable for your decisions and actions, so get sharing! We promise to help in any way we can.

Whelp, it’s the time of year when we all seem to be thinking the same thought… How the hell is it almost December twenty-&%@#$%!-fifth?

We’re thinking that just because it’s the season for sharing and all — and just in case someone put off their shopping until the last second possible — that it could be pretty interesting to hear what some of you will be sneaking under the tree tree this year. Did you carve a bust out of a huge chunk of fruitcake? Is his/her face going to look like the last five seconds of a DeBeers commercial? Were you already blessed with the worst present ever? Whether it’s sweet, funny, or totally effed up (Yes, I am cussing a lot today — I’m not done wrapping — I’m stressed out), we want to hear about it, so let ‘er rip – and then keep the person you’re giving the gift to completely away from JoshSpear.com. Our lips are sealed!

You know what’s freakin’ incredible? Sparkly lights. You know what’s even better? Getting to use them indoors without looking like a college student. Yep, decorating season is here, and unless you’re the type that pulls your holiday box out of storage the day after Thanksgiving, you’ve probably just recently put the finishing touches on your home sweet home. Or maybe not; maybe you’re the anti-decorating type, maybe sparkly lights hurt your eyes, and maybe your house smells more like hot dogs than pine trees. If that sounds like you, hey, no judgment, but we’re hoping some of our readers did get into it. Actually, we’re even hoping that some of you got extra creative this season and took advantage of things like LED lights (which look very manly compared to ordinary sparkly lights) or an ecologically friendly Christmas tree. Whether you turned your apartment into Bethlehem, hung a menorahs like chandeliers, or did something even we couldn’t think up, we want to hear about it. What was your best decorating find this season?

It’s that time of the year, good ol’ Black Friday where things around here start to get very gift-oriented, as we do our darndest to help all of you score the ultimate present for yourself or loved ones. But, as we go about our work, we need your help! Other than this site, where are you getting inspiration for gifts this holiday season? Drop us a note or leave a comment here and we’ll keep this post updated with peoples responses as a one-stop master list of inspiration. We want to know, and so will all your fellow readers!

I’ll kick us off…

1. NOTCOT’s Holiday Gift Guide (Awesomely laid out and lots of fun)

2. TreeHugger’s How To Go Green Gift Guide (Eco-gifts!)

3. Core 77’s 77 Design Gifts Under $77 (Last years guide, but still awesome!)

4. Cool Hunting’s 2007 Holiday Gift Guide (Our friends at CH always have great finds)

5. Design Public’s Holiday Gift Guide (Browse and buy design gifts in one place)

6. ThisNext’s 2007 Christmas Gift Guide (Nice guide of user-contributed gifts)

7. Gizmodo’s Old Gadget Gift Guide (An oldie but a goodie)

Little Friends of Printmaking, the husband-and-wife silkscreening team based in Milwaukee, have been making poster art since 2003. Their name should ring bells for you, as their work is well known, well loved, and has been published in several recent, well distributed books. Their name certainly rang bells for me, so when I saw that a reader had suggested we check them out, my first reaction was, “Silly, we already did!” However, after sifting through the site, I found that, yes, Little Friends of Printmaking had been mentioned, but deep within other posts, and never in a post of their own. In other words, it’s about time for us to formally introduce you to the slightly irreverent, considerably talented pair, and we can’t think of a much better way to do so than to A) Tell you that they’re awesome; and B) Point you to the Winter Cavalcade of Awesome, a poster sale currently happening at Little Friends of Printmaking’s online store. If you’re the sort of customer who is concerned about the paper stock on which said posters are printed, you’ll have to send them an email (because I don’t know the answer), but if you are solely concerned about the visual success of said posters, I think you’ll be one happy camper.

On this side of the blogosphere, we find a lot of awesome things to share by a simple method of “friend stealing.” What this means is; should a day come around in which the world seems dismal (ie, sneaker collabs suck; the day’s tees look tired; a talented designer’s site is frustratingly written in Mandarin) we head to a site we know well and click on every single link we can find. In this way, we find friends of friends; people who deserve all the love that “hype” has yet to hand them. This shows us a few things; firstly, that there is a lot of incredible stuff in this world, but secondly that real relationships might be the best way through which we can find real talent. Here’s where you come in: If you know of someone (with a webpage, please) who’s doing something great/making something great, tell us about her/him/it. If you leave us a link to their work, we’ll check it out, and do what we can to help you give your talented buddy the respect they deserve. An explanation would be excellent, but a link would be sufficient, so go ahead — tell us who to love.

In general, I am not into Rachel Ray. I like Giada because she’s pretty to look at, Emeril because he’s feisty, and Paula because she makes me feel good about eating butter straight out of the tub. Rachel just giggles and says e.v.o.o. too much (which bugs me, because the point of abbreviating something like that is to abstain from saying the elongated phrase — which she does anyway, right after saying e.v.o.o.). However, yesterday my fingers were too sore from, uh, typing? — to change the channel, which is why I let Rachel teach me how to make candy sushi. Watching her smush all that sugar into bite-sized pieces had the odd effect of reminding me that Halloween is next week, which then reminded me that I still don’t know what kind of whore I’m going to be this year. A Nurse whore? A Nerd whore? The Sheriff of Ho-Town (again)?

Today, we had two options: Talk about mimobots just by talking about new computer software, we decided to roll with Halloween. Here’s how it’s going to work: Tell us about your costume. We’ll give you points for creativity, presentation, and the amount of spandex used, and then (assuming you get the most points) we’ll give you a King or Queen mimobot. You won’t get points for telling me what to be, but hey, do it and I might just poke you on Facebook. Easier than making sushi… right?

There is a Starbucks in Boulder, CO that is open 24 hours. At inopportune moments, and generally those containing some degree of panic, this Starbucks offers a degree of convenience that independent coffee shops typically can’t– which is to say, the ability to find an internet connection when your own decides to die at 3 a.m. (which only seems to happen when the consequences of having no internet also mandate your own death). I would be grateful for this but for one thing: Darling Starbucks still charges for internet. The responsibility for this disservice is actually shared with T-Mobile, a partnership communicated as groundbreaking yet realized as a classic example of corporate ignorance. Every time I have to pay for a 24-hour internet pass, I’m reminded of why Pumpkin Spice Lattes will never measure up to locally brewed americanos, and for some reason, this makes me hate both of the companies behind the $9.99 charge (…and in a weird, aggressive way that manifests itself in away messages involving Catherine Zeta Jones and scalding cappuccinos).

The Starbucks/T-Mobile alliance is only one of several corporate partnerships that make little sense to the people supposedly benefiting from them. Today, in a totally opposite approach to that situation, we want to ask you: If you could meld the power of any two companies together in order to do something good, what would it look like? Who would the companies be, what would their alliance do, and how would it help? Because the truth is, there’s power in collaboration, and even though Starbucks and T-Mobile don’t get that, we do.

Bonus reading: How I’d Communicate My Feelings About Starbucks’ Wi-Fi if I were a Soap Opera Writer, a Hollywood Screenwriter, A Sci-Fi Writer, A Playwright, or an Email Writer @ McSweeney’s

I — for the most part — adore working at home. I am lucky to have a big space, by New York city standards anyhow, all to myself, but I still lack a dedicated office space. My dining room does double duty as my office around eighty percent of the time, but I’m okay with that; I get a decent amount of light, I rarely feel stifled and everything I need is within reach. A life of freelancing took some getting used to, and while I found distractions (like television, noisy kids off school during the summer, the desire to bake instead of work) a bit rough at first to zone out, once I dedicated a space to work in, things were a million times easier for me, and my productivity and ability to multitask grew exponentially. I’ve included a full list of my workplace staples after the jump, but tell me this: what kind of environment do you need to work in to be the most productive you can be?

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I’m going to take a little risk. It’s a tame one; there’s no jagged cliff or potential pregnancy involved, but it does involve a bit of assumption on my behalf. The thing is; I think you know about Threadless. I think you’ve visited Threadless, I think many of you own shirts you bought from Threadless, and I think many of you have submitted designs to Threadless. Some of you may have even been among the posse that packed out the first Threadless store in Chicago earlier this month. I can say this because, if you do fill that criteria, you are just another example of the kind of design-savvy, creatively driven reader we are blessed to have*. Taking that into consideration, I’m not going to thrown down a long introduction babbling about the magnificence of the of the site’s founders (particularly Jeffrey Kalmikoff, to whom we owe this interview) and the wonders of screen-printed cotton. In fact, all I’m going to say is that this interview is glorious, mainly because it is, but also because it’s Friday, and you need time to get your drink on. So read it, then drink (or drink, then read it, or drink while reading it).

*If you suffered from the sort of monastic upbringing that deprives you of the familiarity I presume you possess, click here before forging onward.

Joshspear.com: Where did the idea for Threadless come from?

Threadless: Jake and Jacob were part of an online design & development community called Dreamless. There was a tee design competition held on Dreamless to create the event tee for the New Media Underground Festival in London in 2000. Many entered, one man won. That man was Jake. Jake and Jacob had so much fun participating in this competition for a purpose, they decided to hold their own without a purpose… a free-for-all open-to-all-ideas tee design competition. And thus, Threadless was born (as a THREAD on DreamLESS… get it?)

JS: Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like you (all) have more of an entrepreneurial background than a design background. You must have had some history in design to come up with such an awesome concept…?

T: It’s actually quite the opposite. We all come from design or development backgrounds. The only real experience we all had with business was watching the people who ran the ones we worked for. READ MORE…

Gothamist reported yesterday that the MTA (the body that oversees the subways & buses here in NYC) has inked a $46M deal to wire the subway platforms throughout the city for cell phone use. Just the platforms, not the lines themselves. For those of you who haven’t been to NYC, the subway platforms aren’t the most comfortable places in the world. They’re dark, dank, dingy, and dirty. During the summer, the only thing you want to do down there is stand as still as possible and pray for a breeze. Of course, I’m told this is all a step up from 20 years ago.

But the deal begs a question: just how connected is TOO connected? Does anyone really need to be talking on their cell phone while they’re waiting for the train, only to have to hang up as soon as it gets there? Is there a point when we’re just too plugged in and a break becomes a good thing — even if it is waiting around on a hot, stinky subway platform? Oh, and I should clarify, the MTA is being paid $46M for this “convenience,” in case anyone was questioning their crystal-clear motives.

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Yesterday evening, in the middle of too much green tea at a local sushi spot, a friend asked me what today’s interview was going to be about. I kind of mumbled the answer; “Krudmart, with this guy Steve,” expecting the response of a few politely interested, half-garbled-sushi grunts. However, I was met with the opposite reaction, as several of the table’s occupants mentioned they’d been to Krudmart, or emailed with Steve, or had “…really wanted this one v-neck t-shirt there, even though, ugh; hate v-necks.” I was kind of shocked, because Krudmart is a young streetwear shop located in Buffalo, NY — making it about 3,000 miles away from the location of our little dinner party — and a strange-ish subject on which to find common ground.

That conversation solidified what I was already thinking about Krudmart: Aside from being a ground-up operation that has made a huge name for itself (with a very un-huge amount of people power), the small store has one very big thing going for it. This is sort of a risk, but I’m going to say it anyway; that “thing” could very possibly be a man who calls himself Steve Kay. Krudmart’s founder, visionary, and voice (though in all fairness, I have to point out that the entire team over there kills it), Steve has taken a place to buy jeans and turned it into something worth knowing about… even on the opposite coast.

This interview is probably going to make you laugh. That’s an awesome thing, because it’s Friday, and we all need to shake off the shoulder tension that’s been building over the work week. If you quit laughing long enough to experience befuddlement over the question regarding a brick, it will help to note that that is in reference to a little act of vandalism that recently befell the shop. If you want the juicy details of that story, crawl over this way; if you’re ready for another tasty SpearTalks, scroll on down…

Joshspear.com: Walk us through Krudmart; its roots, its progress, its future…

Steve: I started out in 2002. I’d just come off a year and a half stint of moving around (Australia, LA) and learning a bunch of random life lessons but had no real direction, money or college education. I went back to the skate shop I worked at right out of high school and talked the owner into letting me sell some of his inventory online and taking a percentage of the sales. Shit blew up pretty quickly and even though we were friends, he and I weren’t seeing eye to eye on where to take the project so I went off on my own.

From there I started working out of my dad’s apartment. Growth was slow but steady for a year or so then it just kind of went nuts again. READ MORE…