A thought just came to me, well it's come to me many times , and to others. I'm one of the people who uses public transport rather than having my own car. However when you are on public transport everyone is just scanning their phones, even when they are with friends. Sometimes this is a good thing, it ,means you can get information about what's happening in the world, you can even phone a friend, but you will often see friends together ignoring each other because of their phones.
The mobile phone is effectively a personal computer and connects us to each other and to news streams, but sometimes they do stop us from engaging with our friends and definitely from engaging with strangers. You wouldn't interrupt someone you didn't know if they were engaged with their device.
I've used the excellent "Come Talk To Me" by Peter Gabriel from "Secret World" before, but we should all engage and talk to each other much more, it makes life so much more fulfilling and enjoyable.
I do like meeting new people, even if it's just for the duration of a bus or train journey, sometimes you make great connections that lasts beyond the initial meeting , sometimes it just makes the journey fly by , usually both. This TED talk here demonstrates the joys to be found from taking that step:
Reading is good for you. It can educate you, inform you and take you places that don't exist, except in the imagination. I love Bill Hicks response when he is asked:
"What are you reading for?"
And then accused of being "one of them readers". You can hear his response here if you don't already know it. During my life I have often been denigrated for reading, having books (or the wrong sort), or not following religiously TV like X-Factor, BGT , Soaps and the like. Even today people still regard readers as something to be avoided.
I can't say I am a fast reader, and sometimes I don't finish books such PJ O'Rourke's "Don't Vote, IT Only Encourages The Bastards. PJ O'Rourke is very right wing, very intelligent, and eloquent talker , a great comedian , but like say Richard Dawkins he can get evangelical about certain views and the becomes a huge turn off for me. The book starts off well , again opposite to my views but well argued, presented and funny and readable. But , in my opinion, it descended into an anti Democratic government / Obama rant about the fact that he shouldn't be taxed or kept in line by government rules so it was donated to the Westgate Ark Charity Shop.
Next in line was Pete Townshend's "Who I Am" , a 500 page autobiography, by one of my favourite artists. All my life I've thought about Jim Marshall of Marshall Amplification fame as an American, and the fact unearthed from this book is that Jim Marshall is actually English. Now this is a very small insignificant fact, but if I didn't read I would probably never have known that, but now I do.
I try to encourage reading in others, my daughters are avid readers, and for the past four years I have given away books for World Book Night, but I am still aware of people who are actively opposed to books.
When I started Primary School, I was able to read, that was my mum who taught me to read, and my girls could read when they started school but some teachers actually berated us for having taught them to read.
Reading should be a pleasure and should be natural and everybody should do do it and encourage others to do to it, but I know for some people reading is getting their daily fix from their Red Tops (I don't want to even mention their name)
But anyway, I think you should pick up a book and , broaden your mind. I've included Mac Barnett's TED talk which is a great reason for reading.
And as this has been inspired by Pete Townshend, I've included this acoustic performance of "So Sad About Us" with Paul Weller , a good version of a wonderful song.
When I write blog posts I often get sidetracked and end up writing about things that weren't there when I started writing. This is just to see if I can write something reasonably focused.
People have described be as a Corbynista , because I am generally left wing. It's more about caring that people get the best and are not mistreated and stay under the heel of privileged classes. I will expand this in my new blog And Annoyingly but I started out as a Tory voter (my dad still is) , and recently watched an excellent TED talk by a right wing conservative here which rightly points out that in the modern world we need to work together , watch it here it's excellent.
I'm also reading PJ O'Rourke's "Don't Vote, It Only Encourages The Bastards" which again has a lot of useful and pertinent points in there . His one paragraph evaluation of Donald Trump is brilliant which is basically "if he didn't have paroled Enron accountants he'd be worth less than your cat"
The title of the post is just something that came to me and basically I suppose with what I've been going on about is surreally appropriate.
Anyway there is only one song that this post can have, and that's the Bonzo Dog Band's "No Matter Who You Vote For, The Government Always Gets In".
A very short post today . Something I noticed last night. Clouds are probably the the biggest things that we see everyday . The affect our lives , blocking the sun and cooling us down , raining on us , distributing water, colours from black to white with sun influenced shades of red.
Very often I will see an amazing cloud formation and seconds later it has gone , and really sometimes life can be like that. If you don't take the opportunity when it's presented it's gone. Cloud's are the epitome of that , especially on a windy day. The number of times I have looked for a better perspective and then lost the image is countless, however because of what I have lost , and the fact I carry a phone that can take a decent photograph I can now capture images that previously would have just existed in my memory,
Work at the moment is quite intense , just a lot going on , so yesterday took time out and fancied a cooked meal . I wandered through town and decided to go to Trillians as I love the atmosphere , music is good there may be a decent film playing and the staff are brilliant , and they now do excellent food. I chatted with Barbara and saw the Bangers and Thrash , well how could I not , so ordered that with a cup of coffee.
I sat in the area at the bottom of the stairs and noticed there was a bag on one of the other tables, and I know sometime people don't like other people withing a million miles of them , especially when it;s me.Anyway the girl came back and was reading checking her phone so seemed cool with me being there. Anyway my coffee came , then I got a phone call. "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath was playing (which incidentally is one of the dishes that Trillian's serve featuring Black Pudding .. My mums favourite) . So in the phone I was probably talking a bit louder than I should , because of the music and the fact that Trillians is underground and you can lose your signal at any time . The thing is talking louder doesnt help and we all do it and are often too lazy to go outside or somewhere private, well I was yesterday.
After I finished I apologised for being too loud and she smiled and said was fine , the she asked me if I was having lunch and did I want to share a table, as she was waiting for her lunch too. I said yes and we got talking , she told me her name was Jane and she was waiting for a Megabus to London and thought she'd drop in here and she knew they now did food. She told me where she was from and I asked if she knew another friend of mine who lived in the same place and it turned out we had her in common.
We chatted and ate , told her about my daughters wedding , showed her THAT CAKE (if you click on this you get the instagram video), and like everyone she was amazed by it. It turns out we have a lot of common interests so I told about events coming up, and also told her this whole thing reminded me of a recent excellent TED Talk I watched about AirBnB which goes on about the modern "Stranger Danger " attitude that the media and society engenders in us , when in fact most strangers could be friends we haven't met yet. I know that sounds crass, but I've included the talk below
Yesterday I walked into Trillians and saw a stranger and when I left I had a new friend. Yeah modern technology is good for immediately connecting with people.
Have a brilliant Saturday everyone , I am going to .
I always tell people I don't do stress , I don't do anger , I don't do hate .I try not to let any negative vibes come into my life. I saw a TED talk on the positives for stress which you can watch here. Stress can be good for you if you use it to your advantage. It's like any form of training , you push yourself , often to the realms of pain , but as long as you are not pushing beyond your limits your body and mind can grow stronger from stress training.
We often become stressed when we lose control of situations , but I have always found fun in situations with lots of unknowns . I like solving problems , but if I get stuck I ask for advice , and I always try to prepare for potential mishaps so that at least I have the odd thing to help me if things go wrong. The thing is , most of the time things generally go right.
I always try and extend my circle of friends and give people respect , that way you have someone to call on if you need help . I need both of my hands and more to count the number of people who I could ask for help from if I needed it.
A friend of mine recently told me that I don't stress like normal people , but told me some times I need to just slow down because I try to do so many things at once . Maybe it's just bad planning on my part , but going back I was playing at gig and took a work colleague along , she was a quiet girl but the following day asked me "How Do You Know So Many People?" , I didn't think I knew that many people but I obviously did compared to her. I just said I speak to people and keep in contact with them.
I'm pretty unusual in that I can speak to my neighbours face to face and know their names for four houses either side. Most people barely know their next door neighbours and that can actually create stress . I certainly don't have any stress there
I remember hearing the PIL song "Rise" thinking how beautiful it was , in the chorus , but the refrain"Anger is an Energy" which is the title of John Lydon's latest autobiography that I am reading and he explains how anger can be channeled positively to create good things. The book is well worth reading as Lydon is very articulate.
Anyway what was I saying. How am I normally not stress. I prepare for situations , if things suddenly change I adapt to that change . I don't get angry if a bus or train isn't on time , I almost find it amusing when I see traffic jams full of cars with one person in them. I don't own a car and only drive when I have to.
The other night leaving my youngest daughters wedding late at night I went in the wrong direction , no one stressed , it was suggested we turned round that we did and then we got back home at a reasonable hour. I know people who would have blown up in that situation.
So look for positives , look for things that make you laugh , don't over reach or try to do the impossible and enjoy as much as you can . That way stress levels go down. Don't look for things that may never happen . Carry a spare tire if you drive , but don't think every time to start your car that you are going to have to use it.
OK that's a few that's about my generally stress free life.
We are in mid January , experiencing the Christmas and New year comedown. However this is only problem if you have nothing to look forward to. I saw an internet meme saying that "Successful People Set Goals" among other things and they are grateful. Last night I watched an episode of The Last Kingdom and Utrid's wife said "God brought you home" , Utrid is not enamoured of the Christian God and said "My sword brought me home".
My goals are to be happy by planning events to share with my friends , and make sure I have things to look forward to with the special people in my life , do a decent job , and be grateful when things go well. It's very seldom that good things just happen to us , but by taking certain positive steps and not sitting at hope you can end up coming into contact with people who actually make your life far more excellent because they introduce you to new things and new people and bring a light into your life.
Anyway it's the middle of the week, and this week I will see people , talk to people who will make
me smile and tell me new things and that will make my life better. Work is scary at the moment because I am dealing with a landslide of paperwork , but it's just a challenge and I will use this to put things in place so that next time I will be able to deal with it. The first time can sometimes be daunting.
But I am already planning things for this year, visiting different parts of the country and just having a brilliant time , and it is going to start today.
I thought I would include a TED talk on smiling , smile more it will make you feel better.
There are lots of bad things in this world , make sure you are one of the good things. and most of all be happy.
It's dark when you leave for work , it's dark when you get home , but really your day can be improved by smiling at people. A lot of people have been smiling at me over the past couple of days. It could be that Christmas is coming , it could be they are just happy , it could be that something good has happened to them , it could be that I smiled at them . Smiles are infectious, and while bad things are happening in the world , smiling can make you feel much better about yourself and it can have the same affect as a nice bar of chocolate. If you smile you are better to deal with mundanity.
I looked at the clock when I took my Samsung Note 4 out of my pocket, waited while it did it's stuff , updating again , downloading , waiting finally pressed the first app and 3 minutes had elapsed.
I do like my phone , watch iPlayer programs and TED talks and read the odd book , plus check news , though I am thinking of ditching Twitter as I virtually never use it. But it's in the long list of apps on the phone that I never use.
Anyway be wary of how much time your phone actually takes.
Luckily I was boiling the kettle and making tea while that was happening but I was thinking how many people just wait for their phone and lose that time completely ?
Though I still use Facebook and Instagram is probably my most used social media app.
Anyway we're up to year 36 in the Odyssey and this was the year that KLF's Amerika - What Time is Love hit the charts , though I used it two posts ago , so I missed stuff from the Shamen's En-Tact , one of the greatest albums ever but have taken Boss Drum by the Shamen for this year's choice.
Enjoy the rest your Monday , this afternoon I go for some unspecified minor surgery .......
I want to do a TED talk based on this idea , that we should talk to each other more , even if it seems irrelevant or trivial I will do it soon have it ready to submit when they are looking for speakers.
Very often if we don't talk , especially if things aren't going well , things seem to get darker, some times you can't do things on your own and you need a helping hand.
A while agao the was a lovely shop called Cake in Newcastle , and one day it wasn't there. I lost touch with the owner , a totally lovely girl, and as you know I don't take losing friends lightly , especially if they may be experiencing hardship.
On Friday I was chatting with people at work about the fact it's my birthday and I may get cake from Pet Lamb , and said that I had been upset when Cake shut. The girl I was speaking to said she knew the proprietress and is going to get her details for me. She has probably forgotten me but it would be nice to be in touch again.
The thing is I suppose I am a devil for not asking for emotional support when I need it but I make sure I am always there for others, but writing this has lifted my mood, and today has been a great day seeing friends and chatting with them and the more I think I about what has happened today the better I feel. I do have people I can talk to , and recently our head of finance threatened me with a severe talking to if , as expected , my presentation over ran it's allotted three minutes.
So please talk to someone , even if you don't feel you need to , you may find something useful , you may feel better , you may make them feel better. Just do it.
There's only one song for this isn't there , it's this.
The weekend is here , Autumn has come , the mornings are dark , but you are probably lying in bed as I write this as really I should be , but I just thought what could make a good thing a little better. I'm actually doing something for work this weekend , it's not been asked and actually gently discouraged , but the people I work with are great guys and I am happy to put in a little extra effort because I know that they would do the same for me. I brought in cake yesterday because that's the sort of think we do , except I got mine from Pet Lamb in the Grainger Market as the cakes have maltesers , chocolate orange and all sorts of goodies. Love treating my friends.
And really it's always good to give someone a call ad a hug because that makes you feel better and them feel better. It's to easy to put things off til next week or next month which turns in to next year. Do it now , reach out to someone, it will lift both of you and you never know your friend my need it , you don't know what's happening unless you talk, which is vaguely the subject of my TED talk submission which I will send off when they are next looking for speakers.
We should all talk more , hug more , spend time together more , and we will enjoy life more. So Saturday starts here , and if you want a hug from me me let me know , I always have one for my friend , family and those I love.
Someone at work checked out my blog this week and they said that they found it remarkably uplifting, I do hope they read this as well , but what better , more uplifting start to the day could you have than Elbow's One Day Like This , wouldn't you just give that guy in the video a big big hug . I would!
Just woke up , and it's 2am here and I'm just posting because I can. I feel wide awake , but 2 am is not a good time to be wide awake unless you're at a party. But there's no work tomorrow so I can do this. It's also an excuse to include a brilliant TED Talk on the "science" of happiness and it is worth watching. One of the reasons I blog is so that I can remember things that I've enjoyed, sometimes it will be a gig , sometimes something I've seen on the web , meeting with friends and lots of things and that's why I leave it open to the public because others my find itinformative and worth reading.
I'm a fairly public person on the web, easy to find if you want, but I suppose the blog is fairly selfish and self centered, itn that it's essentially for me, and if others want to come along for the ride then so be it.
I really didn't intend this post to be much more than a sentence , but it's amazing how sometimes once you start writing words seem to just flow from your fingertips. Whether those words are worth committing to some permanent medium is a different matter (M Knight Shyamalan and Dan Brown I'm thinking of you, but it's made you both a hell of a lot richer than most people, so as usual I'm in the tasteful minority here).
Anyway I'm going to try and get back to sleep, but really check out Dan Gilbert's talk, be happy and have a great weekend.
This week has been manic since coming back from holiday leaving the house at seven and not getting back til eight at night and I noticed a couple of oddities. We tend to trust the GPS on our digital devices (in this case my Samsung Note), but when in Whitby a couple of the photo locations reckoned I was in Kazakhstan and Речная ул (which I assume is in Russia or east of the UK anyway.
Речная ул
But anyway on Tuesday I used Facebook to check in at the Royal Victoria Infirmary Newcastle , and I didn't notice I'd selected the Montreal version!
While this doesn't create a problem as such it is quite amusing , turning me into to a globe trotter withing a radius of less than a hundred miles.
Also a thing about this blog , for some reason the word TED doesn't turn up in the tag cloud even though I tag this post. Click on the tag below and it will bring back all my TED related posts.
This morning I have a fleeting visit to the Freeman Hospital (another part of NUTH) before going to Darlington so we shall see where it says I am then!
Anyway I hope that tonight I will be back at a reasonable time and I can make my own tea!
I think this will be short. I've finished my first book of the year, started on the second , both by Stuart Maconie incidentally and started making inroads into the TV backlog on BBC iPlayer on my phone. How do I do this?
Basically book on way to work, means I feel I've done something worthwhile and learnt
ed something and made an effort, then coming home I watch stuff on the TV (well my Samsung Note 2). Having said that I do need to fit the TED talks in there somehow as there are a few that I really want to check out, but I will find time somewhere. There are 24 hours in a day after all.
Only one song give the title of the post. From the Moody Blues album A Question of Balance.
A quote from the series Frasier made my Doctor Crane. Last year was my highest number of postings since I started blogging. The first year (2007) I did six posts , last year it was 244, roughly two every three days, swollen by three months where I set myself a task of doing at least one post a day. My most prolific month was May 2012 where I posted 37 times.
Last January I posted 14 times and this is my 16th post so far this year. So really the more I post , the more I get to say and get to record. It's also therapeutic, although I try not to post about things that annoy or upset me, just things that inspire me and make me feel good, so I often include TED talks and songs that I really love.
I just went to TED and saw the talk above and , as usual , I've downloaded it because it just interests me. Enjoy the rest of the weekend
This week I've used my traveling time to just read, no catch up TV , no TED talks , just reading. I don't know if that's calmed me down or not , but the benefit is that you can read and listen to music simultaneously. That's two things you engage with at the same time.
You can't watch TV and listen to music at the same time without losing track of one thing or the other.
This doesn't meant that TV or TED is bad, it just means you have to watch and listen , whereas a book the whole of the experience comes through your eyes leaving your ears to engage in aural stimulations.
Itn other news I've been reminded it's Australia Day tomorrow which is a great reason to celebrate and that in turn reminded me it my dad's birthday in two days time. So that's an excuse to reproduce my Australia Day playlist from a couple of years back which you may or may not enjoy , but there is certainly a lot of great music come out of Australia. I still remember ordering The Saints "I'm Stranded" on the EMI Import print sometime around 1976, and it still sounds brilliant today.
Oh and the wonderful Tom Ravenscroft did an Australia Day special which you can listen to here. I've downloaded to my phone to listen to this week.
I don't if I need to be worried, or I don't know if I should be just happy. I'm actually watching more TV on my phone thanks to the fact that BBC iPlayer allows downloads on my Samsung Galaxy Note2. This week I've watched various music related progammes, and the first episode of the new series on BBC3 called "Uncle", which I found excellent. I've downloaded a few duds, but iPlayer allows me to catch up on the way to and from work.
My problem is that I feel I'm watching less TED talks and reading fewer books. I haven't read a book so far this year.
I suppose the simple solution is just to pick a book and start reading it, but it is just another thing I can do while I travel. I can also watch other channels' downloads as well but BBC2, 3, and 4 provide enough excellent quality programmes to keep me going. I can also load films onto the phone and it does have a couple of eReaders so I can actually read book on the phone if I so wish.
The title is taken from a Dictators song (lead singer Handsome Dick Manitoba!) so I have to include that don't I.
Today have have watched two amazing TED talks, one showing some amazing nature photography and the other about 64 year old Diana Nyad who has done the impossible and swum the hundred miles between Cuba and Florida. The talk is here. Then I was directed to this amazing use of 3d Printing here. , and other amazing example here.
It is truly amazing what technology and willpower can bring into being.
The Diana Nyad talk was particularly inspiring because she acknowledged that although she did the physical swimming there is no way that she could have done that without the team of thirty people supporting her. She still spent over fifty hours in the water, not allowed to touch the support boats or to rest, threatened by sharks and box jellyfish , having to swim at night in total darkness because the light attracts predators, and this was her fifth attempt at it , having been told that it was impossible.
The thing is in all our lives we can succeed if we get help and support from the people we care about and we know care for us, no matter how impossible the task or situation might seem. And as Diana states "Never Give Up" , you never know what could happen if you don't try , you know , you might just succeed!
So there's nothing happened on the horoscope front although I won a small bet on Monday night , lost a small one on Tuesday night , but didn't care because Preston won 3-2 against a decent Ipswich side in the FA Cup. So some good things have happened.
Woke up this morning (sounds like a blues song , doesn't it), and the pavements outside were white and the skies were grey. This week is going to be busy again with trips to London and a concert at The Sage to fit in, but it's only by doing things that life is interesting.
This afternoon 6Music played an excellent Nick Cave song that I hadn't heard before that seemed appropriate for the apparent inclement weather which we may soon be getting.
This weather , short days and lack of sunshine doesn't make for the greatest of inspiration.
Also I seem to be downloading a lot of TV to my Samsung Note via BBC iPlayer , which is fine but this eats into the time I should be reading or maybe watching TED talks , although it does leave more time to do things when I am at home.
Anyway still lots to do, but wanted to share this great Nick Cave song , and hope you are ready for the week ahead.
I always thought it was odd that the devil was the bad guy and god was the good good guy but sometimes he was painted as loving and caring and other times as the classic "dies irae" , angry , vengeful, and fearful . so we had to toe the line , go to church on Sundays and basically be scared of him (oh and yes he was a white man). The sequence in Monty Python's Holy Grail gave be a decent slant on this (where he complains about how depressing psalms are).
The thing is if a being is omnipresent and omnipotent then that being will not be concerned with human emotions and motivations , in fact if you can do anything , then pretty soon you would get very bored , well I would. Part of the the joy of living is the uncertainty if things and striving to achieve goals and not knowing what's going to happen next. Yes there are certain things in place and the sun tends to rise and the seasons are reasonably predictable (though still waiting for The Daily Mail & Express's ice ages and tsunamis), so you have reasonably solid foundations to build on when you want to do something.
If there is a god , and I'm hedging my bets by being agnostic, I believe that the god would want us to tho live our lives to the best of our ability, and be kind to every living thing. The insecurity of life is demonstrated in the TED talk below which I found difficult to take in just because of the concepts including the Higgs-Boson particle , and in a tangential move away the seasonal song is "I Smell Winter" by the Housemartins, which I don't think has appeared on any Christmas compilations.
Also the fact I'm doing a seasonal song a day and tagging it with Christmas , means that Christmas is now one of my most common tags on here , soon to outstrip Apple and iPhones! It's quite funny that some of my most used tags are about things that I don't particularly care about , a bit like on Twitter , where if you want your tweet to go viral usually it's a complaint , which surely is not what our god would want if that god were on Twitter.
Oh and I do follow God on Facebookhere , he is very good and I can live with this God's existence. Have a brilliant weekend everybody.
