Today Tripe, tomorrow?

Today I tripped on some tripe
and now I am falling
all not round is bright
and the demons are calling
Today I tripped on some tripe

It is hard not to treat tripe as tripe,
initially found drawing
for the world as it might
be smaller and smaller, sprawling
It is hard not to treat tripe as tripe

Who am I that I would treat this tripe
What am I to be appalling
What do I have to gripe
about, who am I blaming
Only me, only me, only me, tripe

Blue Eyes Brown Eyes. what does this mean for us?

January 15, 1929 Martin Luther King was born, he died April 4, 1968.

When, on April 5 1968, A person in Jane Elliotts class at junior school wanted to know why he was killed. She wanted her class to understand why Martin Luther King was killed .... the strangest things began....

A simple separation of the class by eye colour and in 15 minutes personalities changed, at lunch a fight broke out between a blued and browned eyed kid. The blued kids came up with ways to punich the browned eyed. The performance starts to change. Kids are now not performing as well or are performing better depending on what we are told them about what it means to be brown or blue eyed.

The keaness to pick on specific examples and translate the whole group. Speed with which perpsectives are changes. The use of the arguement to suggest that that is meaning full. ie blue eyed people that argue are proving that blue eyed people are argumentative and uncooporative.

And then there are the adults reactions.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/

• Who are we?
• How much do we really know?
• What do we think?
• Do we need a guide to help us how are feeling and fears into perspective and check (an inner light perhaps if not a God)?
• This is so much more than just descrimination, it is about how we define ourselves and how we interact with people and how are brains actually work.
• Is this how terrorists happen?
  
• Do we really need to be protected from our selved like this?
• Who is in control really?
• What is freedom if this is possible?
• Leadership is everything every day perhaps
  

EQ - Top 10 Suggestions

Top Ten Suggestions

First seek to understand, then to be understood.

1. Label your feelings, rather than labeling people or situations.	"I feel impatient." vs "This is ridiculous." "I feel hurt and bitter". vs. "You are an insensitive jerk." "I feel afraid." vs. "You are driving like a idiot."
2. Distinguish between thoughts and feelings.	Thoughts: I feel like...& I feel as if.... & I feel that Feelings: I feel: (feeling word)
3. Take more responsibility for your feelings.	"I feel jealous." vs. "You are making me jealous."
4. Use your feelings to help them make decisions.	"How will I feel if I do this?" "How will I feel if I don't"
5. Show respect for other people's feelings.	Ask "How will you feel if I do this?" "How will you feel if I don't."
6. Feel energized, not angry.	Use what others call "anger" to help feel energized to take productive action.
7. Validate other people's feelings.	Show empathy, understanding, and acceptance of other people's feelings.
8. Practice getting a positive value from their your emotions.	Ask yourself: "How do I feel?" and "What would help me feel better?" Ask others "How do you feel?" and "What would help you feel better?"
9. Don't advise, command, control, criticize, judge or lecture to others.	Instead, try to just listen with empathy and non-judgmentally.
10. Avoid people who invalidate you.	While this is not always possible, at least try to spend less time with them, or give them psychological power over you.

William James

William James said: I have no doubt whatever that most people live, whether physically, intellectually, or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness... much like a man who, out of his whole body organism, should get into the habit of using and moving only his little finger... We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon, of which we do not dream.

William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist philosopher. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism.

Inner Light to guide us (The Quakers)

Inner light

The concept of the Inner Light is central to many versions of Quaker (or Religious Society of Friends) theology.

It refers to God's presence within a person and to a direct and personal experience of God.

Quakers believe that God speaks to everyone, but that in order to hear his voice, one must learn to be still and actively listen for it; what Paul Lacout called a "silence which is active." They believe not only that individuals can be guided by this Inner Light, but that Friends should meet together and receive collective guidance from God by sharing the concerns and leadings that he gives to individuals. In a Friends meeting it is usually called "ministry" when a person shares aloud what the Inner Light is saying to him or her.

Apparently today many Quakers report that they believe in the inner light without believing in God.

Today

Your assignment in the coming week, on the other hand, is to joke about spiritual matters with a more generous attitude. It's prime time for you to be humorously amazed by the tricky enigmas of creation.

Samuel had a high IQ (low EQ).

o He could reason, was analytical and logical, and had a steel-trap focus on tasks.
o He learned new things quickly.
o However, he ignored how he was feeling and how others were feeling.
o If things didn't do the way he expected them to, he would lose his temper and lash out at others.
o He was unable to relate to people who weren't as smart as he was and lacked empathy.
o This limited his ability to be effective in team situations even though his IQ was very high.

Jose had a high EQ (lower IQ).
o He got along well with people, and managed his own emotions well.
o This made him highly effective in his work, even though there were others in the firm with higher IQs.
o Jose was able to consider the emotional component of interactions, using both his cognitive abilities and his understanding of emotions.
o He was able to influence and motivate people because he understood what mattered to them and was an excellent communicator.
o His authenticity and integrity made him a natural leader. He was flexible and creative when faced with a challenge, and resilient in the face of temporary defeats.
o He was well-liked and well-respected.

Aristotle Angry

Anyone can become angry – that is easy.

But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way.

ARISTOTLE…The Nicomachean Ethics

EQ vs IQ

IQ gets you through school vs EQ gets you through life. Your EQ has more to do with your success and happiness in life than your IQ and it can be learned.

Focus on authenticity, integrity, flexiblity and creativity when faced with a challenge, and resilient in the face of temporary defeats.

In Dreams the Animal rule

Animals are feelings in a dream - picture of person walking alone surounded by animals. Animals tell the story of the person.

What are the animals doing?
What kind of animals are they?
Do they interact with each other?

Love and Friendship

When we are loved -- loved in spite of ourselves or better loved for ourselves, idiosyncrasies and all.

When knowledge is cold comfirt

Knowledge is or can be cold confirt. there will always be what we know and what we don't know.

• What is your relationship with what you don't know?
• Do have a need to explain and rationalise everything you come accross?
• To match it to your current frameworks for how the world works to safely package and categorise the new?

We can learn and we can also accept.
If we cannot accept what will the learning be like?
What is ther relationship between what we can learn and what we accept?

Might the learning be hollow and ineffective.....

Learning at the edges only?

Research suggests that we can only learn effectively if what you are learning is within reach of what you already know. Not sure what this means. if it means that I cannot comprehend complex maths without going through some principles and some simply math then that seems reasonable. But also a little linear. Is all learning linear like this our can we job and around and connect the dots later?

Better Buddha

Those indeed are conquerors who, ......, have conquered the intoxications (the mental intoxication arising from ignorance, sensuality or craving after future life).

Evil dispositions have ceased in me; therefore is it that I am a conqueror !

Genetics vs the environment

Genetics vs the environment is the classical arguement that have raged for 50 years.

Genetics direct the way the brain growth and functions. Environment has big impact also in how we grow, learn and react. Twin studies tell us a lot – However the issues are not resolved.

Genome – well understood. It is more than just DNA. DNA + proteins = CHROMATIN chromosomes. If DNA is hardware then CHROMATIN is the software. It can turn genes on or off. This is very important, 3rd ascept to how and who we are.

DNA replication solved in the 1950’s. CHROMATIN replication still a mystery.

Epigenetics is the study of epigenetic inheritance, a set of reversible heritable changes in gene function or other cell phenotype that occur without a change in DNA sequence (genotype). These changes may be induced spontaneously, in response to environmental factors, or in response to the presence of a particular allele, even if it is absent from subsequent generations.

A dark day today

An Age is called dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.-

James Michener

All the world's a stage

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Line Riding

The latest craze.

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/

Skill and danger in one. Go to you tube to see the experts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJSEUbAH9-M

Reality

Do you think reality is made up of matter?
Or is reality made up of what matters?


Is pain real? Then there is the answer.
Research suggested that this is very strongly held that is our realities are what matters to us and we only notice what matters to us. So there are our realities. phew.

Windmills of Your Mind - song for today

Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnaval balloon
Like a carousell that's turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it's own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream.

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle your head
Why did summer go so quickly
Was it something that I said
Lovers walking allong the shore,
Leave their footprints in the sand
Was the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And a fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circle that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

What is Music? Why is Music?

We have figured most things in our world, Music Speaks about what we have not figure out. Music is ineffable. Music is beyond rational explanation or verbal formulation or criticism. Yet, Music is accessible to everyone. Easily accessible, we all get it immediately. How can something be so universal and yet so unexplainable.

Like looking into the night sky or at the grand canyon, it speaks to us and is beyond the normal every day world.

Thanks Dr Jordan Peterson for a thought provoking lecture

What mistakes will the next generation make and y

Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door

I know that Im a prisoner
To all my father held so dear
I know that Im a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thought
Stilted conversations
Im afraid thats all weve got

You say you just dont see it
He says its perfect sense
You just cant get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defence

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
Its too late when we die
To admit we dont see eye to eye

So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
Its the bitterness that lasts

So dont yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different day
And if you dont give up, and dont give in
You may just be o.k.

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
Its too late when we die
To admit we dont see eye to eye

I wasnt there that morning
When my father passed away
I didnt get to tell him
All the things I had to say

I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
Im sure I heard his echo
In my babys new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
Its too late when we die
To admit we dont see eye to eye



Thanks Mike and the Mechanics

Free cycle

Better than eBay. Recycling one gift at a time. Remember -

http://www.freecycle.org/

The Butcher's Wife

And the therapist that knows it all......

A clairvoyant thinks she's met her husband to be because she's seen him in her dreams.
They marry and return to the husband's ("the butcher"), home in the city.
She has a big impact on everyone she meets by anticipating their questions and actions and advising them on their love life.
Her interference then brings her into contact with the real man of her dreams.

The terapist knows it all and nothing.

A great sunday afternoon in winter movie

Life

To be read carefully and slowly several times: "In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. "

Advertising and Me and Albert Lasker

Albert Lasker (1880-1952) is often considered to be the founder of modern advertising. Had the idea that it is a Contract - people watch the ad and they get something in return (a free TV show). There has to be a two way benefit of some kind for it to be effective.

Good ads:

• Spondored tv shows
• Anything where the audience is not feel short changed
• ads that are entertaining

Bad ads:

• Bill boards (nothing in return for the blocked view)
• Adding ads in the movie threatre (nothing for the time spent and paid for the Movie)
• Ad ads to rental movings (nothing for the time spent and paid for the video)
• Shortening content and longer ads (anyone can take an olive out of the Jar, but sooner or later you need to do something real to add value)

This feels like a good summary of how I feel about advertising.

We Should

WE SHOULD ENJOY HERE WHILE WE ARE HERE BECAUSE THERE IS NO HERE THERE.

Ziggy

Kindly please

Is each act of kindness really a desparate reaching out of a solely self centered sole?

Gaia for today

Mother earth, living breathing.

Is the earth itself a living organism, not just the "life", the green and the breathing stuff but everything the rocks the volcano, the tectonic plates.

Negative feedback loops, stabilize and control, Positive feedback loops create change rapidly. Tipping points exist when negative feedback loops breakdown or become positive loops.

Gaia hypothesis - is an ecological theory that proposes that the living matter of planet Earth functions like a single organism. It was first formulated in the 1960s by the independent research scientist James Lovelock. See also Lynn Margulis and Lewis Thomas.

What a great thought (or more that a thought). Let me believe and behave as the earth is life, please respectfully

Fun with Physics

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets_EL.html



Bose-Einstein condensate

Little Miss Sunshine

Was not sure what to expect. The reviews seems good, but being naturally suspicious, would it be just to quiet and corny.

Surprisingly no.

Noticed some slow silences that took me out of the show and the performance seemed predictable, but the story is great, not to ridiculous at all, especially Olive (Abigail Breslin)

Overall not to be taken seriously. Genuine feel good movie

Quiet Desperation

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them".

Henry David Thoreau

"By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before."

Needs - what are they?
Multiplication of "needs" beyond these basics results from the progressive discounting of possibilities

Living a life
You don't have to live a life of quiet desperation - you identify your mental spectators — and your interaction with them — you can move beyond vanquished and into the role of victor, a gladiator who rules your spectators in every battle.

The trouble is............

..........

If you don't risk anything then you risk everything.



Comfirt and Risk.

4 Days in Iceland

The trip

• Reykjavik
• The Blue Lagoon
• The Golden Circle
• Reykjavik

Remembering

The great coffee
The green green fields
The cars, so many cars in town
The cool autumn air and mountain streams and steam vents in the distance
The cleanness and the keeping it clean
The style of the people and the place
The people - young and blond and blue eyed, confident and quiet
The surname conventions with son and daughter
The history and the recent growth
The grass feed beef.....
The farming - heavily subsidized
The seafood (The salted Cod, fish and chips and Lobster)
The tough short horses
The silent organization

The history

Christian in 900
Split from Rome in 1542
Under Denmark rule
"invaded" by Britain in 1940.
independent in June, 1944

Rumi for Today

................

Look again, and see how much I need you;
Watch the long nights that I lie here awake.
No, I am wrong: the distance between us
Will not let me live to see you again............

The English Armada

The English Armada (also known as the Counter Armada) was a fleet of warships sent to the Iberian coast by Queen Elizabeth I in 1589, during the Anglo-Spanish War(1585–1604) in an attempt to drive home the advantage won upon the defeat and dispersal of the Spanish Armada in the previous year.

The expedition was led by Sir Francis Drake as admiral and Sir John Norreys as general, and is also referred to as The Drake-Norris Expedition, 1589.

- Was a complete failure
- Over ambitious
- In the spanish Armada most of the ships that where lost where armed merchant ships not the main gallery fleet
- Expedition was floated as a joint stock company, with capital of about £80,000 (1 qtr from the queen, 1/8 from the dutch and rest from private hands)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Armada

5 days in Vegas

Le Cirque, David Copperfield, O, The Grand Canyon, The fountain bar, The Beatles, Wolfgang Puck.

Some crazing sights and sounds....

The jingle in the casino. The noise of people of people winning and the silence of the loss.
The oxygen and the energy.
The noise relentless and ignored

The brain buzz from the shows. Disappointing Copperfield, somehow I expected more
The surprising Isisband

Meeting new people in Donne and Sandra and Milka, getting to know Jean, John, gary, Chris and Karen.

La cirque (Las Vegas)

Tasting Menu:

• Oyster Amuse bouch
• Warm Maine Lobster Salad
• Foie Gras Torchon with Mustard, Fruits, Dates, Onion Compote and Champagne Jelly
• Sorbet
• Truffle Resotto
• Petrole Sole with Braised Endive, Summer Vegetables and Herb Coulis
• Beef Short Ribs
• Dessert

Wines to match..........

Service and Food where excellent. A little showy, did they have to use Foie gras and truffles to make the food tasted great? Truffle Resotto was amazing.

Film Festival 2006

CANDY

Sweeeeet Candy

Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish do a great job of living and loving in addiction. Can’t help think that it is somewhat sanitized version of what really goes on, but the desperation and the highs and lows seem real enough.

Ten Canoes

Really well told story. The humour and the sense of the culture shines though. A bit of a gods must be crazy. The use of black and white and colour really worked in the Australian outback with its Olive greats and dry browns.

The Way I Spent the End of the World

Czeck Repiblic with the fall of Choucheque. A story of glowing up in the communist state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution

Venus

A 70 year old falls in love with a 20 year old. Nicely and sensitively told. Great humour and a slight sense of desperation and sadness. It kept reminding me that I was getting old and perhaps I would end up like this in a good and a bad way.

Language Limits thought, I think, perhaps, I don't know

Does Language limit thought?
Does the way a language is structured affect how and what is thought?
Does the lack of words for a specific feeling or experience reduce there impact or invalidate them?

What part do other forms of expression play?
In what language do we think about them?
What is art?
What is music and dance?
How do they help us?
Do they tap some place that we cannot find with words?
Why would we have such a place, if we do?

Cava Chris

This restaurant just seems to miss the mark.

• The waitress/server/bar tender person thought she should explan serano Ham to us (very poorly)
• The place is cold feeling with no pictures on the wall and white uninviting walls
  
• There is not enough bread to eat withhte dishes that need bread
• Food was generally good, but not sparkling, not innovative particular
• It is not Avalon
• Busy it is and I hope that it is successful, not sure it is a place to travel too
  

Market Forces at Work

Bon Cop, Bad Cop - the Movie

Good parts

• The humor
• The banter between the two cops
• the opening scene, Quebec or Ontario
  
• In the cops office the first time
  
• The acting, particularly the main to characters
  
• the way the languages are integrated
  

Not so good parts

• The way the story just does not hang together
• The ridicious TV scene
• The final boat scene, just not believable
  

Overall a good time, say 3 out of 5

Canada as Home or Hotel

Canada is, I think, diverse, accommodating, difficult to define, hollow, polite, sterile, warm, homely and more...

Does a country ever feel like home really when you are not from here? Is it only ever just a place to rest for a while on a journey? A nice place that is comfortable to relax and feels safe and warm where the services are all readily available, where there are a few pleasure surprises, new things other people of thought of and now sharing, also a little sterile where everyone is friendly but no one really connects and are actually a like afraid to.

Culture less, but full of culture. Is Tolerance a cultural icon? Where is the faith, what faith and how does it play? How will it live up to the tests that life will bring?

hummmmmmm....

Exercise Myths and Memories

1. Exercise EVERY DAY.
2. Don't stretch BEFORE exercise beyond the normal movement of the limbs.
3. Don't compare yourself to others, everyone is different.

"Blame It On My Youth"

If, I expected love, when first we kissed, blame it on my youth
If only just for you, I did exist, blame it on my youth
I believed in everything
Like a child of three
You meant more than anything
You meant all the world to me

If, you were on my mind, all night and day, blame it on my youth
If, I forgot to eat, and sleep and pray, blame it on my youth
If I cried a little bit, when first I learned the truth
Don't blame it on my heart, blame it on my youth

Thank you for Smoking

What a great movie

Funny, intelligent satire full of perceptive and thought provoking.

Story of a lobbist for the Cigarette industry. Relies on aguement and personal preference as a defence.

Bits to remember:

• The TV pannel
• The school day for this son
• The lunch time team of 3

Writing
Jason Reitman (screenplay)
Christopher Buckley (novel) - I think I might read this now.

Actors

• Aaron Eckhart .... Nick Naylor - Really makes to show
• Cameron Bright.... Joey Naylor
• Sam Elliott .... Lorne Lutch - as always
• Rob Lowe .... Jeff Megall - interesting, but not entirely convincing
• William H. Macy.... Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre
• J.K. Simmons .... Budd "BR" Rohrabacher
• Robert Duvall .... Doak 'The Captain' Boykin

Favorite Movies of all time

Why is a movie good for me? What comes to mind is it memorable, cleaver, new, unusual, funny, moving. It is perhaps have my state of mind when I saw the movie as much as anything.

In the order I remembered them:

• Mystic River
• Grand Canyon
• Pulp Fiction
• Reservoir Dogs
• The Usual Suspects
• The good the bad and the ugly
• The Matrix
• Schindler's List
• Assassination Tango
• Blade Runner
• The Usual Suspects
• Silence of the lambs
• LA Confidential

Meme

Meme - replicator of cultural information that one mind transmits (verbally or by demonstration) to another mind.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme#Memetic_evolution

http://www.memecentral.com/

Addiction - weakness or Illness

Just listened to the Science Now show on addition.

Lots of evidence that it is an illness not somekind of habit that can be changed by just stopping.
It seems that our brains are good at learning what works for survival. Once we have learned then we are programmed to repeat these things. When something goes wrong we have a need to replete things that do not help with survival (we become addicted), but the need to do them is very strong as it is part of how we are wired. For example under stress we are programmed to go back to going the survival things, which in the case of an addicted person is the addictive behaviors or patterns. The research does seem to support that once something has become an addiction it cannot be enjoyed in moderation and much be cut out entirely.

It would seem that the research suggests that many addictions have a similar root cause.

Question:
What is the difference between an addiction and a like or hobby?

Anna Deavere Smith

She seems like a very intersting person I need to find out more

What I took again:

• Where is the artistic processing of our time?
• Courage that what you send your time on is……..
• Hope vs optimism. Hope looks at the evidence and says it does not look good at all but we are going to look beyond and see a better future. Optimism is more nieve as it suggests we see that it is not good and that it might bet better.
• The place where the heart meets the mind
• When you are struggling with the age and the world, look tothe arts to help you withthe struggle, others are stuggling and expressing it in the art (eg off off broadway)
• Took part in Global reality Summit
• just writen play – "let me know easy"
  

http://www.pbs.org/now/index.html

Summerworks - Other Places

Harold Pinter thanks for these 3 short playlettes

Victoria Station
A convincing performance, a late night taxi interaction and questions as to purpose remain

A kind of Alaska
The awakening in 20 Minutes, something was missing from the performance of the patient

Family Voices
The Mother and son speak to each other of the miles. A moment that has been performed millions of times is very well captured and the boy becomes man on leaving the nest. The perspectives are well understood and communicated.

http://www.summerworks.ca/

Summerworks - Invisible Atom

One men and One amazing hour. This is real theatre, a perfect mix of suspense, humour, real story (to real perhaps) of our humanity and simplicity and significant insignificance. Anthony Black an amazing job. One of the best I have seen in a long time.

In that moment the world stands still, for long enough for us to learn and indentify and be transported. We all question our purpose and existance so we all see this. He does not try for answers or explanations, but looks for patterns and coincidence where there is none up to the final comic and deeply desperate betrayal.

I have the thoughts that Anthony has, if was great to know, for sure, that I am not alone.

http://www.2btheatre.com/

The movies that are my lives

when you are an actor, like nicole kidman perhaps you get to live lives every movie you make. Are they stories or parties or a real life? Do you have trouble separating real life from the story? Based on the number of marrages to people that met in filming I think you do. It must be a strange, magical and confusing existance. Or perhaps we are all like this.

http://www.jajah.com

Free phone calls...... this is really cool

Although look out for the one hour time limit.

Art, Truth, & Politics: The Nobel Lecture

Harold Pinter won the Nobel prize for literture in 2005

In interesting speak.

He choice to report writing speach


http://nobelprize.org/index.html

thought for today

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”

Anatole France (1844-1924)

Eternal Sinshine of the spotless mind

Cool movie and concept but it occurs to me it is Ground Hog Day without the learning, less painful but ultimately meaningless.

Schrödinger's cat

What does it mean to change something by observing it. Is it there is you cannot see it, but it to look distroys it what then?

Kandinsky Cool - the path to abstraction

On Visiting the New Tate in London

On arrival my understanding of kandinsky was thin to say the least. What was behind him and his paintings? What famous stuff did he do? When did he leave and where and what was his influences?

What a well put together show. I it felt like a show, in all the good ways, with it neat media presentation of Dell Handhelds and well arranged plot.

Overall memories:

• Kandinsky heard colours
  

The new tate - what a great building, London is such a great city, a beautiful sunny day helped.

Thanks, Sue and kids for a great day.

The Catering Queen

Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival, 2006.

A bit awkwardly acted and some clunky dialogue in places but a nice story, really and believable and as the actors warmed the roles mellowed and the characters came to life. The comedy revealed itself slowly and pleasingly.

Overall an entertaining time.

3 out of 5.

An Inconvenient Truth

Just saw this moving movie...

Good parts:

• clean and easy to understand
• great to see the things that Gore has been doing
• interesting to see a bit about his background
  
• makes me realise I should do more

• the evidence is really clear, it is difficult to misinterprit if you are looking
• temperatures are out of the range they should be and is is changing fast
• weather patterns are changing, ice is melting,
• we can make a difference, but we need to change the way we do things.
  

Not so good parts:

• can't help thinking there is a bit of election positioning here
  
• "my friend" gets used a lot
• a bit irritating

Is it a movie about Al Gore or a movie about the environmental issues facings us? difficult to tell and perhaps it doesn't matter. Overall great way to spend a few hours.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inconvenient_truth/

great source of information

18,000 free books and counting -

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Cool place to hang out for a few hours.........

George Carlin

A free thinker and cool comedian of your time. Not always agreeing with him, but agreement is not required.

http://www.georgecarlin.com/home/home.html

Here is a summary of our time. I highlighted the ones that really reasonated with me.

The paradox of our time in history is that
we have taller buildings but shorter tempers,
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less;
we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families,
more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense,
more knowledge, but less judgment,
more experts, yet more problems,
more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much,
spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
drive too fast, get too angry,
stay up too late, get up too tired,
read too little, watch TV too much,
and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions,
but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and
hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way
to the moon and back,
but have trouble crossing the street
to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.

We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less.

We plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information,
to produce more copies than ever,
but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion,
big men and small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce,
fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips,
disposable diapers, throwaway morality,
one night stands, overweight bodies,
and pills that do everything from cheer,
to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is
much in the showroom window
and nothing in the stockroom.
A time when technology
can bring this letter to you,
and a time when you can choose
either to share this insight,
or to just hit delete.

Remember; spend some time
with your loved ones,
because they are not going
to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe,
because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember to give a warm hug to
the one next to you because that is the only
treasure you can give with your heart
and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones,
but most of all mean it.
A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt
when it comes from deep
inside of you.
Remember to hold hands
and cherish the moment for someday
that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak
and give time to share the precious thoughts in your min

We NEED to exaggerate and that is no exaggeration

An artistic perspective.

From Ancient art to the height of Greek and roman sculpture exaggeration is inevitable.... That is the conclusion of a recent TVO program on art.

From early figures of pair shaped females to the height of Greek sculpture something inside us needs to exaggerate for effect and for realism. We see the world in an exaggerated way, this is who we are.

What does this mean for us? I am not sure, but it causes me to wonder what reality is.

Words that are missing from the English language

It has occurred to me that there are words missing from the language that combine the action and the intent. The more I examine life the intend for an action appears to hold the real value and the real reward and so what really needs to be communicated.

To buy a gift for someone to show them you care vs to buy a gift to win favor is completely different. Or less personally, to travel in order to tick the list is different that traveling to absorb a people and a place and a culture. Neither are wrong, just different and while the language can be used the describe the difference this difference is often missed and the use of language to describe is complex.

For example:

To question someone can be good, but can also be done with malice or with predetermined message as fake questioning to get to a specific point. It seems to easy to question without the intent being clear and to easy to try to hid the intent. I have often been given the advice to ask more questions, which seems good advice, but really the advice, I think, was listen carefully to others, be open to their ideas, question for honest understanding. So why not have a word that means all that. It seems perhaps that would be useful.


References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_language#The_nature_of_meaning

So this is Wisdom

So this is Wisdom

Knowing how people feel without having to ask
Knowing and having to Known all
Confirming thought processes after the door is open
Fake concern for others of the worst kind
Assumptions are made and later confirmed
The worst abuse of scientific research processes
Other feels are understood, anticipated, minimized, resolved and handled, fini.

NOT, please remember.

Song for a sad day today

Beautiful

Every day is so wonderful And suddenly, i saw debris Now and then, I get insecure From all the pain, I'm so ashamed I am beautiful no matter what they say Words can't bring me down I am beautiful in every single way Yes, words can't bring me down So don't you bring me down today To all your friends, you're delirious So consumed in all your doom Trying hard to fill the emptiness The piece is gone left the puzzle undone That's the way it is You are beautiful no matter what they say Words can't bring you down You are beautiful in every single way Yes, words can't bring you down Don't you bring me down today... No matter what we do (no matter what we do) No matter what they say (no matter what they say) When the sun is shining through Then the clouds won't stay And everywhere we go (everywhere we go) The sun won't always shine (sun won't always shine) But tomorrow will find a way All the other times 'cause we are beautiful no matter what they say Yes, words won't bring us down, oh no We are beautiful in every single way Yes, words can't bring us down Don't you bring me down today Don't you bring me down today Don't you bring me down today

Beauty

"She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her."

Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

A daily review

This is kind of cool daily show to look at -

http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/

Production and film quality are excellant

Quote for today

"We all enter this world in the same way: naked, screaming,
and soaked in blood. But if you live your life right, that kind
of thing doesn't have to stop there." -- Dana Gould

The Wizard of Oz

Did you know...

The Wizard leaves the Scarecrow in charge of Oz when he departs. After a short period of attempted rule by rational thought, which the Scarecrow represents, Ozma, the personification of love and compassion, takes the throne and Oz becomes more and more an earthly paradise, a new Jerusalem, where even death is abolished. By this time, Dorothy and Toto have become permanent residents of Oz, as have Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

......

“The kingdom of Oz is within you.”

what’s in a birthday

What's in a birthday
There is life, full on
There is change, measured and unavoidable
There is friendship, pure and simple
There are dreams, filled and real dreams
There peach blush, smiling, knowing
There is pride, prudence and old spice gathered
There is anticipation, abundant and wasted
There is appreciation and love unlimited, unconditionally
There is it all, face to face, figured and final.

Sounds Simple

The biggest mistake people make in life is not
making a living at doing what they most enjoy.


- Malcolm S. Forbes (1919-1990)

Lavender Blue

Try reading this without smiling :-)

Lavender Blue


This I must say, dilly dilly, and it is true,
You must love me, dilly dilly,'cause I love you.
Lavender's green, dilly dilly, Lavender's blue.
I'll be your queen, dilly dilly, when I wed you.
Send for your men, dilly dilly, set them to hoe,
Set them to reap, dilly dilly, set them to mow,
Some to cut hay, dilly dilly, some to cut corn,
While you and I, dilly dilly, keep ourselves warm.

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,
When you are King, dilly dilly, I'll be your queen,
Who told me so, dilly dilly, how can I know,
I told myself, dilly dilly, love told me so.

When you're away, dilly dilly, work all day through,
I'll be at home, dilly dilly, waiting for you.
Lavender's green, dilly dilly, Lavender's blue.
I'll be your queen, dilly dilly, when I wed you.
While you're at work, dilly dilly, I'll brew your beer,
When you come home, dilly dilly, I'll be your dear,
I'll serve your meat, dilly dilly, I'll bake your bread,
I'll share your board, dilly dilly, I'll share your bed.

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,
When you are King, dilly dilly, I'll be your queen,
Who told me so, dilly dilly, how can I know,
I told myself, dilly dilly, love told me so.


Wedding's for life, dilly dilly, love is to share,
And love must grow, dilly dilly, with joy and care.
Lavender's green, dilly dilly, Lavender's blue.
I'll be your queen, dilly dilly, when I wed you.
If you love me, dilly dilly, never to roam,
If I love you, dilly dilly, babies must come.
Pink for a girl, dilly dilly, blue for a boy,
Binding us close, dilly dilly, bringing us joy.

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,
When you are King, dilly dilly, I'll be your queen,
Who told me so, dilly dilly, how can I know,
I told myself, dilly dilly, love told me so.


Close we will live, dilly dilly, and when we die,
Both in one grave, dilly dilly, close we will lie,
Lavender's green, dilly dilly, Lavender's blue.
I'll be your queen, dilly dilly, when I wed you.
If I die first, dilly dilly, and that may be,
You must live on, dilly dilly, thinking of me.
If you die first, dilly dilly, maybe you will,
I will live on, dilly dilly, loving you still.

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,
When you are King, dilly dilly, I'll be your queen,
Who told me so, dilly dilly, how can I know,
I told myself, dilly dilly, love told me so.

Song for a sunny day today

Feeling Good song by Nina Simone and others

Birds flying high
You know how I feel
Sun in the sky
You know how I feel
Reeds driftin' on by
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea
You know how I feel
River running free
You know how I feel
Blossom in the tree
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you know
Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when the day is done
And this old world is a new world
And a bold world
For me

Stars when you shine
You know how I feel
Scent of the pine
You know how I feel
Yeah freedom is mine
And I know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me

And I'm feeling good

Wisdom

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

- Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE (Mister In-Between)

By Johnny Mercer / Harold Arlen. Song by Bing

 You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?

(Oh, listen to me children and-a you will hear
About the elininatin' of the negative
And the accent on the positive)
And gather 'round me children if you're willin'
And sit tight while I start reviewin'
The attitude of doin' right

(You've gotta accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between)

You've got to spread joy (up to the maximum)
Bring gloom (down) down to the minimum
Otherwise (otherwise) pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate (well illustrate) my last remark (you got the floor)
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they say (what did they say)
Say when everything looked so dark

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No! Don't mess with Mister In-Between

Tuesday -

Coffee and juice to start the day

This is a cool movie

• Interesting Documentary - http://www.blackcoffeemovie.com/home.html

More on Happiness

Physologically can we every gain happiness?

Corticosteroid is apparently the only class of harmones that we cannot do without. They regulates our routine, throught the day and sleep. Corticosteroids are involved in a wide range of physiologic systems such as stress response, immune response and regulation of inflammation, carbohydrate metabolism, protein catabolism, blood electrolyte levels, and behavior.

They apparently play a key role in your overall happiness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol

Happiness is good for you, happy people are sick less. but are health people happier?

Happiness - Not an evolutionary Goal but Everything else

Emotions - guidance system for people based on key evolutionary needs. We are wired for wants, but happiness is not a goal of Evolution as such, it does not directly help us survive. Needs can never be satisfied really, as we are decided to keep moving the goals. This is important for evolution and keeping us alive.

Happiness is not something you get and then own. Emotions are intended to move up and down and around. Like a compass that is set on North is not any good, emotions set on happy are not useful. We are therefore perhaps designed to seek happiness not get it, nessarcarily.

Stumbling toward happiness - Things that don't make you happy:

• Money (Happiness from Money comes very quickly - after basic needs are met)
• Children (People with Children are no happier than people without)
• Intelligence or Education (ditto above)
• Youth

Stumbling toward happiness - Things that Do make people happy:

• Community (Appears to be very important)
  
• Good food, sleep, exercise (Physical and Mental exercise are key -(Mental and physical states are very closely linked))
• Being happy - biofeed back - taking a moment to be happy and thankful for your life
  

Interestingly the unhappiness countries are Russia and other Ex soviet block people in these countries are even less happy than poorer countries. It is believed that this is due to breakdown of social activities and the mistrust that was created.

Some research (on Twins for example) suggests that people are naturally happy or grumpy - ie genes play a key part. Like physical fitness we can move inside the band through practice and exercise. Happiness exercise might be called cognitive behavioral therapy. We cannot however become olympic happiness runners unless we are genetically wired for that.

There is an area of the brain that is very active in happy people - it is the Left frontal cortex - People with active left frontal cortexes are engaged and enphusiastic. Buddish monks are highly active in this area.

How do we become happier? Exercise and Practice.

Vacation

Coco (Keating) Islands - a place with brackets in the name...hummm

http://www.cocos-tourism.cc/

Interesting place for a relaxing vacation perhaps

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis De Bernieres

Took a while to get familiar the style. The starts with violence and it is difficult to read.

Soon the humour and the human touch shine through. The characters seem real and the village life with it petty arguments and relationships seems familiar. The observations on life in South America are educational and appreciative. The straight forward attitude to sex and the perspective on life was fresh for me. Although it did occur to me that is may not be so interesting so some reading this book in South America, perhaps this is naive and simple from that perspective. The spiritual mystical, the coincidences are believable for me.

In the end the story generally ends happily for the core characters and .

Would like to read Captain Corellis Mandolin I think......

Cool for the curious

The earth mother moves. All we can do is watch, a learn and hope and dream.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/

On Finding Ground and Feeling Grounded

Bed Rock, what is this, not bed rock surely, that suggests sleep, passive nature, no this is alive and feeling and talking, I can hear it and I am hurting, deepening my sadness of the live essential.

The world is not angry, it bleeds, not sleeps, there is no symbiosis here, no mother nature warmly brooding, just use and abuse, I am sorry, but not so sorry to avoid the pain and stop the abuse.

Is this how abuses feel, guilty by continuing and never ending. It is not the permanence, but the pain that seems to ring out silently deafening all.

This is wrong just wrong in a way that few things are wrong and I must do justice to the pain.



(On drilling into the granite to fix the cottage dock)

Tasty

I chew my tongue from time to time.... this person seems to enjoy also.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhez9muaUS8

Mary Mary by James Patterson (Bla bla bla)

Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, MARY, MaRY, MAry, Mary

Say it enough and it starts to sound familiar, odd, affected. Like the book.

Seems like there are a lot of these crime novels out there. This is another one. They seem to be the same, but different. What is it that attracts us to them? There are crime novels, true crime novels, crime novels based on period actual historical events (thoughts on Mary Mary by James Patterson).

In Mary Mary the end comes quickly and one is left feeling a little empty by the whole experience.

The Formula seems simple. Always a case that is complex (ish) with a twist at the end, some sexual tension, detail that brings the characters to life, a family life, superficially good observation of people, the conflict between law enforcement agencies, attractive people, person dedicated to their job. Short chapters that that switch between the various characters that you know inevitable circle the plot like a vulture with the usual result.

Some kind of crime is inevitable given the genre; this one seems particularly light weight, the observation of the story tells are interesting but in the end the motives are passé.

This was interesting:

A woman’s Mother dies. At the funeral she meets a man that she is attracted to and immediately falls in love with, but does not get any person information a week later she murders her sister. Why?

Answer: in the hope that the man will show up to the funeral……… if this is you, then you are a psychopath.

Others read recently include:

• Devil in the White City by Erik Larson – greater suspense and depth, a good read.
• Every breath you take - Anne Rule - average
• In Cold Blood - Truman Capote - good (not great)
  
• The Last Juror by John Grisham - similar to Mary Mary isn't it John John
  

Song for today - Everytime we say good bye...

Everytime we say goodbye I die a little
Everytime we say goodbye
I wonder why a little
Why the gods above me
Who must be in the know
Think so little of me
They allow you to go

When you're near
There's such an air
Of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere
Begin to sing about it
There's no love song finer
But how strange the change
From major to minor
Everytime we say goodbye

There's no love song finer
But how strange the change
From major to minor
Everytime we say goodbye

On a clear day

Why do I like these little English films so much? There is little excitement, the story is simple in the extreme with a corney ending, but overall the package is real and entertaining.

A nice script with some simple humour and observations. The characters we have all seen before, but the actors really bring them to life (Peter Mullan and Brenda Blethyn particularly). Well directed (Gaby Dellal) and filmed.

This is odd

I have heard story before, but not really believed it.

This seems quiet interesting I think - perhaps there is more to this.

http://www.pentagonstrike.co.uk/flash.htm#Main

Art School Confidential - The Joke just doesn't land

Hummmmm..

Acting poor (John what are you thinking and Angelica please), Very poor scrip, no direction (Terry Zwigoff is apparently an eccentric filmmaker and lover of comic books and blues music, sorry just dont get it. Terry, great to try movie making, but just go do something else)

Some funny moments but

• Art was bad bad art
  
• Broadway bobs was completely unbelievable – take out coffee for students with white linen table clothes.
• Unnecessary vulgarity that added nothing
• There is no connection between the leading love interest. You really cannot understand why they get together.

Yet again I am reminded that I should trust Rottentomato for my reviews.

I am Back now

Been away from this for a couple of months. Missed writing it.

Been to Central America and Italy in the meantime.

Time to start recording the joys again....

On being a genius

Some interesting quotes:

• Everyone is a genius once a year, a real genius has his original ideas closer together.
• Everyman is a potential genius until they do something.
• Everyone has one great idea, a real genius has two
• We spend the first 2 years teaching our kids to walk and talk, we spend the next 12 telling them to sit down and shut up. (on why we are not all genius's)

The River

Pulled a rock out of the middle of the Athabasca river.

It reminded me of you:

- it was deep
- smooth and sensual
- it has seen things that can never see or understand
- it is on journey
- do not know if I changed the direction of the journey that it was on or was I always a part of its journey?

Getting Smarter and feeling for alive - in a week

Everyday do something different - break the routine, simple as that.

Brush your teeth with your 'wrong' hand;
Take a shower with your eyes closed;
Do the crossword or Sudoku puzzle;
Take a brisk walk;
Change the food you eat - perhaps have oily fish for dinner (omega 3's for your brain);
Cycle, walk or take the bus into work;
Select unfamiliar words from the dictionary and work them into conversations;
Go to yoga, Pilates or a meditation class;
Talk to someone you don't know;
Take a different route to work;
Avoid caffeine or alcohol;
Memorise your shopping list.
Take a different route to work;
Use your mouse with the other hand;
Close your eyes and walk around your home;

Others......

http://tailrank.com/posts/562949953495154/Simple_ways_to_make_yourself_far_cleverer

Matchpoint

Welcome back Woody.

Kind of slow to start this movie really heats up. Follows the usual Wood formula - 2 female personality traits: one a spontaneous, energetic, offbeat artist and the other a motherly care-giver type and his main male character will have to chose between the two.

Nice twist at the end but never really gets going. 3 out of 5 seems about right

Average only performance from Jonathan Rhys Meyers, a little wooden at the start and somehow missed the potential that this role had. Scarlett Johansson was excellent.

Worth seeing but not at the top of the list I think.

Plot Summary - At a turning point in his life, a former tennis pro falls for a femme-fatal type who happens to be dating his friend and soon-to-be brother-in-law.....

Some funny blogs

The Dog
http://blog.alfiedog.me.uk/

Interesting Movie reviewer:

http://www.bacheson.com/reviews.html

Orbiting the big giant hairball.

This is a great little book - a series of thoughts, observations and learning from a life at Hallmark Cards - a company that needs creativity to live and where 5% of the employees are in the "creative" department. Here is a summary of the lessions:

Orbiting the big giant hairball.

Goal to be a person orbiting the organisation as hairball – in the effort to be different, but close enough to be attracted by the gravity of the organisation but not absorbed into it. Concepts of Normal, original and Create.

The Pink Buddha

The leaders without leading. The visionary, the administrator of chaos

A chickens fate

Chickens memorized by the chalk line on the ground – We can all become memorized by the line (the line is policies, procedures, politics). This is simply the way we are.

Thou shalt not have it easy

Cultures and assumptions. If a person makes a job look easy then perhaps that is because they have mastered it.

Heroically overloaded – make your job difficult, stretch yourself then, stress yourself out and eventually you too may be honoured with executive approval. If you desire the blessing of the almihgly fathers then work longer (that is sensible), take on more responsibility (than is sensible) and make your job harder ( that is sensible). Do this and your sacrificies will be celebrated and your worth confirmed.

Pool wizard makes pool look easy and crushes you.

What your don’t see is what you get

Creativity is mostly invisible - Cow is working on producing / creating the milk. To many people have concluded that if you cannot measure it or see it then it is not real.

No Access

Climbing down the cliff – getting stuck – finding it difficult to say I am stuck. Courage to admit idiocy.

1st there’s grope. Then there's rote

Course on creativity – goal to have the team going “what the hell was that all about – 1st time no agenda. 2nd copied the 1st and did not work – Rote – the hairball is real and alive.

Entropy – the degradation of matter and energy to the ultimate state of inert uniformity – (bureaucracy)?

Containers contain

Roles and responsibilities are container – we all need containers from the dawn of time. What about dancing – less rules but we still don’t bump into each other and can live together and work with boxes

Cage Dwellers – Did not really get this one

About Teasing

Big stop sign – Stop risking, Stop Growing, Stop sharing, Stop Living so that you are no longer a threat to me.

Is teasing how you show affection? – if so FIND A BETTER WAY

High Tech Peaches

Peaches are not like they once where. Not juicy and tasty. Like the business world – monomania for tough minded, cold blooded competitive correctness.

Milk cans are not allowed

People view different as bad and don’t look at the facts (office space was cheaper but different – all kinds of resistance). People did not like the milk can gabbage containers or the wall colour etc etc.

Babies

Fun Commercials

Take a look

http://funnycommercials.blogspot.com/

This is funny

http://jokesandfunnypictures.blogspot.com/

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink is about our hunches, how they arise, and how their reliability can be enhanced or diminished by our experiences. He sets out to understand how and why we make snap judgments and leap to conclusions - both good and not so good - and why some people are much better at this than the rest of us.

Examples:

Ancient Greek statue for $10M and proceeds to spend 14 months assessing its authenticity. It consults with many art experts to certify that the statue's features reflect its purported era, and hires scientists to estimate the statue's age using electron microscopes and mass spectrometers When an art historian takes just one glimpse of it, it's a fake. Realized that the statue was fake when he looked at its fingernails. He felt something was wrong - he could not articulate why. Pentagon officials recruit a retired general and Wall Street traders to play the role of a rogue military commander in war simulation. By linking weapons, sensors, and other theater assets to a vast information system of databases and computer models, JFCOM would be able to "read an enemy like a book" and deploy the right assets at the right time and place to inflict predictable reductions in the enemy's capabilities. General believes that the military functions best when decisions are pushed out to commanders in the field. Within days of the exercise's opening, the general's team hands JFCOM a rapid and surprising defeat, sinking 16 US ships. Tennis coach figures out he can predict doubt faults – but he does not know how he is doing this. John Gottman has figured out that we can predict is a couple will stay together. He knows what to look for the key elements that count and the key ones that don’t A hospital emergency manager figures out heart attacks will happen based on 3 criteria, if not present then the patient much go to their doctor

Gut feel, which Gladwell calls the adaptive unconscious, arises from our ability to "thin-slice" a situation by focusing only on the data that matters most. Our ability to thin-slice can be hampered when we force ourselves to rationalize every decision and overload ourselves with more information than we need.

But Gut feel is affected by perceptions that ingrain us

Examples –

• Car salesmen – offer better discounts to white mans – successful saleman make not assumptions up front
• Word association tests. http://www.implicit.harvard.edu/
• Ekman is one of the world's experts on the physiology of emotions. He studies how emotions trigger contractions of facial muscles in set patterns.
  He studies how emotions trigger contractions of facial muscles in set patterns. In other words, a person's facial expressions are a signature of what is going on in the person's head - at least emotionally. While a person can hide their emotions, they cannot do it perfectly or instantaneously, and so learning to recognize these patterns allows one to essentially read another's mind.
• Blacks do worse in test when they are reminded of there ethnic background are the start of the test

What I would have called the devil in the detail now I call them key understanding of the system under review:

Examples

• More consumer choice can lead to less sales in Jam test 3% buy with more than 6 varieties and 30% buy with less than 6 varieties
• Kenna – singer – not successful because early testing did not have context needed to make good decision
• Speeddating
• Coke vs Pepsi – sip test – bias toward sweet (pepsi), but Pepsi market share not growing
• Louis CHESKIN – Sensation transference - product and the package are one. Colors have symbolic meanings. Asking customers what they think of a package design is not a useful way to measure effectiveness. Eg 7up adding yellow to label – more people thought added lemon/lime flavour

Summary – successful decision making:

• Balance of deliberate and instinctive
• Needs to be good in the moment (ER and War games)
• Frugality matters – look for the underlying patters - Codifying key rules works
  

Your Beautiful

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw you face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw you face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.

Peace and tranquility please.

My eyes now open,
Fear rules my everything
What will does that man think?
Why is he motionless?
Why am I hiding? Why am I alone?
Each sighting calling me down
Down to the River, calling

My eyes wide open now
Alienation abounds, lifeless meaning nowhere and everywhere
Affectionless, powerless, drifting, motionless
Where angry and fair collide

My eyes wide open now
I don’t know how to say anything, how to be an equal
How to create sentence, how to ask a question now eludes me
Fear rules, my heart shivers
Somewhere there is peace but I cannot driver there, not get a plane or a train
Down by the River, calling me to a new home in the sun, there is peace

The my eyes are shut and the ice is thin.
I am frozen to unknown depths. I am lost in the depth.
I can walk with my eyes open, not to the trees but walking talk.

Eyes now I see.
Fear of abandonment, the empliness, where neglect is more than abuse
Fear of acceptance, acceptance of fear
I am scared. Nervous,to the horror
Fear drives speed
Down by the river of my life the purple water runs
Down by the river I am desparate and empty

Run yes run like the wind and
Run and be free, Run Run Run and leave this all around me.

Anselm Kiefer

First impressions are this is a little messy, with obvious thought or meaning, but look closer, stare for a while in the detail, let your mind wonder and wander. These really need to be seen in person to appreciate them...

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kiefer/

Also try:

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/kiefer_anselm.html

Leaders

Leaders are individuals who make ordinary people do extraordinary things in the face of adversity. - Andy Grove

I likes this when I read it, but now I am not sure.

The Architect we all claim for our own

Architect Frank Gehry's creation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stata_Center

Christians and other scared people

Test yourself:

www.implicit.harvard.edu

This test cannot be fooled, it really knows you. , welcome.

Days turn to weeks

San fran is cold and crazy and charismatic and courteous and comfortable and charm and cultural and cool and blarrrrrrrrrrr. Buckets and beret abound.

Weakening and the week is ending. Relationships change. Sadness and openness fade and grow.

Rumi for Today

...........

Give me the gift to blend and bond with a friend.
Give me the brains to stay away from love.
Give me the strength to challenge my own fate.
Give me the feet to walk from this tangled state.

What a difference a day makes

Why is it so hard.

Bravery and cowardice seem such close bed fellows. Not to mention stupidity, weakness and self loathing...........

Malnourished

The Malaise has descended. The fog in clear. I am alone in my boat. Without direction or line of sight, free and unable to escape.

The worlds Longest URL

Now this is Cool!

http://twas.brillig.and.the.slithy.toves.did.gyre.and.gimble.in.the.wabe.all.mimsy.were.the.borogoves.and.the.mome.raths.outgrabe.jabberwocky.com/


ok, not really cool, but kind of fun

Jabberwocky

"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's rather hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas--only I don't exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed something: that's clear, at any rate---"

The Bellman carrying the Banker

"by a finger entwined in his hair"





















Seems like a good way to carry a banker. This banker looks strangely familiar. An ex CEO perhaps.

Tennessee Williams Thought for the day

"There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go."

Picture of the day

One Angry Man Left

Cool Photo Blogs

This is a good browse any day of the week:

http://200602021145-topphotoblog.blogspot.com/

Get A Human on the phone

Hey this is cool and a cool use of the web.

http://gethuman.com/

I recently had to make an insurance claim and discovered the IVR at the insurance broker was set up to go in circles so that you could not make a claim by IVR. Quick frustrating given the time urgency.

(From WSJ)

Jet Lagged

Little angels Whisper softly While my heart melts For you and I'll see Only sunshine Only moonlight For the first time its real And the higher you take me The more that you make me Feel so hazy Tell me what this means I got jet lag and I never even left the ground See it's like that every time you come around Oh, I'm so hung over and I never even touched a drop See I can't get enough This must be love How the time flies When you're near me Get those butterflies Inside and I'll be Where the stars shine Where the birds fly'Till the next time you're mine And the higher you take me The more that you make me Feel so hazy Tell me what this means I got jet lag and I never even left the ground See it's like that every time you come around Oh, I'm so hung over and I never even touched a drop See I can't get enough This must be love Whenever you're with me It feels like gravity Ain't got no hold on me Tell me what does this mean This must be love Love I got jet lag and I never even left the ground And it's like that every time you come around I'm so hung over and I never even touched one drop See I got jet lag Baby don't cha know You really really got it goin' on Baby don't cha know You really really got it goin' on Baby don't cha know You really really got it goin' on Baby don't you know Baby don't you know I got jet lag and I never even left the ground See it's like that every time you come around Oh, I'm so hung over and I never even touched a drop I never even left the ground I never no no Jet lag, jet leg

Humm Humm

Humm Humm

• Existentialism - the ultimate, certain, indubitable reality is not thinking consciousness but, according to Heidegger, "being in the world.


• Rationalism - states that the only authentic knowledge is the scientific knowledge. humanism is centered on the dignity and worth of people. While rationalism is a key component of humanism, there is also a strong ethical component in humanism that rationalism does not require. As a result, being a rationalist does not necessarily mean being a humanist.


• Positivism - the only authentic knowledge is the scientific knowledge, a natural law exists
  

Every Breath you take

Ok I am off true crime novels now. This was a good book, but Ann Rule is no Capote.

Well Written, but you know the answer at the beginning and so the story unwinds slowly and inevitably......

Now more than ever.....

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.



Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.




Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.



Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.



Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.



Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Something is Rotten

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark


More power to the people from beyond
More to give to the rightful only one
You look at me then you look into the sky
I lie I lie I lie

I keep on searching for a better way to live
The hardest time is the hate I always give
I wanna hold you, but there ain't no other way
I pray I pray I pray

Can that be right, have I lost so many times
Is this the fight where I'm facing all my crimes
Or is there someone who's only left for me
You'll see you'll see you'll see

What you say, becomes me
All I am, don't you see
To the people from beyond
Living life isn't always all that fun
In your domain, you only hear my cry
I die I die I die



http://www.allshakespeare.com/hamlet/309