We all make all sorts of promises to ourselves about how when we have some free time, we’re going to get to various projects. Here’s a way to keep the forward progress going: make one thing every day. Our friend Ranjit, creator of the MIDI ironing board, the Mister Resistor ensemble, and a robotic Theremin, is doing just that. Having to make one thing a day means you’ll almost certainly have to simplify what you’re doing, maybe even do some things you don’t necessarily like — but always do something, which could be a great learning experience. My favorite so far: his Matchbox Synthesizer.

thing-a-day: matchbox synthesizer from ranjit on Vimeo.

Sure, it won’t win any audio fidelity awards, but it’s great fun. It gives me some other ideas for things that could be fit into a space that small, as well. See what the other daily Thingers are doing:

ranjit @ Thing-a-day.com

We’re pleased at CDM to introduce a new verb: to Elton John will hereby mean to unplug from the Web in order to do creative work. No blogging, emergency emails only (heck, ignoring the emergency emails will be even more satisfying), no RSS, etc. In all seriousness, it’s a great idea. The Web will be used only to solve, say, bugs in my Processing code. I don’t particularly need to share my own state of Elton John, of course, but I do this only to advocate selective Eltoning to boost creativity. (I don’t think you need to Elton on a long-term basis — even just a day is often enough. A week’s Elton can also be a good idea, especially when on vacation.)

I’ll be Elton Johning today in preparation for an open house showing at Eyebeam tomorrow of a project I’m working on. Create Digital Motion has been a somewhat permanent state of Elton John, but expect it to be De-Eltoned within the week — I’ve got a backlog of stories, and Jaymis is returning, along with some other guest writers.

In the meantime, we strongly encourage you to spread both the act and the term Elton Johning when appropriate to your friends and colleagues. You can also place this on your voicemail: “Hello. You’ve reached Peter Kirn. I’m sorry I’m not available to take your call, but I’m currently Elton John. Leave a message for either of us after the beep.”

What the heck I’m on about