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Inspiring - Randy Pausch

smeurisch — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:27:57 +0000

Hi there,

in the near future I will show you a couple of very inspiring speeches and other good stuff who help me to think big and keep focus to the real important things in life.

I want to start with a so-called ”last lecture” of a remarkable man who got so much energy.

Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture is a tradition at the CMU (Carnegie Mellon University). Age-old question: What would you say if you knew you were going to die and had a chance to sum up everything that was most important to you?

That question had been posed to the annual speaker of this lecture series. So the title of the speech had a twist. For Pausch, though, the question wasn’t hypothetical.

Randy Pausch had pancreatic cancer. At the time he gave this speech he had just 3-5 months to live. But he do not did grim. He’s dying and having fun.

He talk about your life. For 90min. he give lesson about livin’. And about facing death. He is a reminder that we all have a limited amount of time. And it’s so important to just push on and pursuit our dreams in every minute up right now. A very inspiring speech.

You can find the script of this speech here.

9 months later, May 2008 he give another very inspiring speech:

Randy Pausch has passed away at the age of 47. But not before he had one more smile. I cried for a man I never knew.

Thank you Randy.

How the youthful me influences the bridal me

nelzbels — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:21:28 +0000

I always wanted to be a ballerina as a child. And if I actually became one that could go on pointe, this is the picture I would want on my wedding day.

Earth Mama Photography

Instead, I come from the world of figure skating. I spent nearly 10 years of my life completely devoted to it. And no pointe shoes to show for it.

source

This move probably won’t look so good in a wedding dress in the summer time will it?

or my favorite on ice move.. the layback spin

source

So what is a gal to do? How can I use this awesome talent that I once possessed? I’m having a summer wedding, so any type of figure skating is out. Boo! I can’t do these moves to create any fun bridal pictures.

And then it hit me. Do what any good adult does when they can’t live out the dream they have always had… make the kiddies live it out for you. Oh yes… this is how it shall work. I will put my little flower girl in a tutu and let her twirl to her hearts delight. Problem solved. I will live vicariously through her. Aww.. to be an adult with power to dress others. Muwahhahaha.

Ok, so it’s not THAT mean. Seriously, it’s not. Look at these cutie patoties.

Tutu's Chic on Etsy

Simply Sweet Shoppe on Etsy

Tutu's Chic

ok fine. I’ll let you see one picture of my figure skating days. Just one though.

personal photo

How will you live out your childhood dreams? or is the wedding itself THE dream?

I Don't Wanna Grow Up

theyellowfever — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:08:16 +0000

Everyone had childhood dreams. That is, unless you missed out on your childhood, in which case I’m deeply sorry you missed the years of security and comfort. But anyways, dreams. We all had them. Most of them were probably outrageous and pretty far-fetched, because that’s just how the mind of a child works. We were constantly told, “You can be whatever you want to be” and we really believed it.

The mind of a child is such a beautiful thing. Being innocent with no concept of all the junk grown-ups have to deal with is a wonderful gift — no politics or social classes or racism. No boundaries, no limits. Imaginations running wild. No wonder Jesus wanted them to come learn from him. Can imagine how easy it would be to teach them with no pre-conceived notions of how they were supposed to live? No trepidations or fears or responsibilities to hold them back?

What’s sad is that somewhere along the way we lost that. We lost our sense of adventure and endless possibilities. Somewhere someone hit us with a “reality check”. I remember handing a cashier a dollar once as if I was going to pay for my mom’s basket full of groceries. They played along but I saw my mom hand them the rest of the money and I knew something was up. What I had wasn’t enough to get that food. It took more and I didn’t have it. Learning the “worth” of money is a sobering experience for children. Assigning value to these pieces of paper and metal coins is such an abstract yet seemingly necessary concept that changes everything. It puts a huge damper on those dreams.

Why do we nearly always have to give them up? Partially because our tastes change, we start to get an idea of the world and our place in it and we scale back our goals to more reasonable, accomplish-able terms. And that sucks. The reality is, that means we’re simply not willing to put in the work. Take, for instance, being an astronaut. Pretty lofty goal, is it not? How about being President? Both of these things are so selective and take years of training and experience and work, and even then they aren’t guaranteed. It would be a tough pill to swallow if all of that ended up not paying off. And more often than not, it won’t work out how we want it to. So instead of investing the time and energy into that dream, we settle for less in favor of better odds. How sad is that? We can be so terrified of failure that we don’t even try. I’d start giving examples of things that never would have been accomplished if people hadn’t persevered against multiple failures, but they’re fairly obvious and it could take way too long.

So I encourage you to take a minute and remember something you wanted as a child that still excites you today, however unfathomable it might appear to be, and start working towards it. Today. Big things don’t happen all at once. They take time, and if you start making little investments now, they will pay off down the road, even if you don’t end up meeting that goal.

Kreativ Blogger Award

katiemccullough — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:46:54 +0000

The Lovely Jessica over at Writer’s Little Helper has kindly nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award. In her words…

“Katie over at Katie McCullough Talks and Writes – Her writing motivation and chirpiness is inspiring”.

Huzzah!

Well don’t that just warm my cockles and let’s face it they need warming after all this snow. I’m honoured to be given this award not only because it’s nice to get recognised for something AND not only because I’ve only been doing this since April this year BUT because I’m glad someone can make sense of what I write on here. It’s reassuring to say the least. And this award comes with some stipulations that I am to stick by which includes doing the following (I presume in an order of some sort):

* 1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
* 2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
* 3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
* 4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
* 5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
* 6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
* 7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

So I feel I can (politely) scrub out the first one after opening with that cracker Jess

As for number two I’m hoping it’ll appear somewhere on this here blog… Let me get my electrical rubber gloves on and root around under the sink and see what I come up with.

Number three shall be done with utmost grace and with my usual subdued manner… … GO CLICK HERE THIS BE JESSICA PATIENT AND SHE’S A WELL GOOD WRITER DON’T YOU KNOW?

Done.

Name 7 Things About Yourself That People (might) Find Interesting

Somewhere in a primary school curriculum I feature quite heavily after being asked to write and illustrate a poem in response to Ted Hughes’ ‘The Iron Lady’. I even got to analyse it as part of the submission. I was a crafty sod when I was younger. Not sure what’s happened now.

I’ve always wanted to write a musical and am hoping to crack on with that idea at some point whenever. I love my own vagueness at times, so you must adore it.

Recently I imparted some desire with school girl glee to a friend that I want to write a part in a play for Peter Capaldi. Now I’ve told you lot as well you can humiliate me at how distant a dream that is. I charge by the laugh just so you know.

I’ve not been in the black since the day before I went to university which was 6 or 7 years ago (I forget). And y’know what? I don’t care as long as I spend my monies on theatre, music and film. I’m sure my accountant would beg to differ. And when I say accountant I mean me because I’m self-employed and I still don’t care. I do welcome donations though.

I have a crazy aversion to time. Sorry, Time. I don’t wear a watch for this very reason and cannot stand to waste a moment doing nothing therefore work constantly (and I mean pretty much constantly not none of this stopping and then having a sit down to watch TV) which is more than likely not very good for me. But it’s the way I am. And it’s why I’m always early. And I’m thinking that maybe having some form of a relationship would be good for me but when I think about the amount of time I dedicate to my own work I just imagine me screeching “but THIS is important…” Doesn’t bode well. Any takers?

When I was twelve my ideal job was to be a receptionist at Abbey Road Studios. Even in my young age I was being realistic, oh no Katie did not want to be a roadie or a groupie, something more practical and within her means. A receptionist. Two years later my first job was to be a receptionist for a property developer. It was a bizarre year of my life which sometimes saw me working in his wife’s hairdressers washing hair dressed as a receptionist (long story). Then a year later I worked in an independent music shop which was to be my best job ever. I’ve yet to merge the two and fulfill my twelve year old dream. I think it’s changed since then.

I have to sleep with music on, again it’s to do with the Time thing. It’s a way for me to take note of when I fall asleep. If I put an album on then I kinda know when I’m drifting off. If I put a playlist on then I know I’ve got four hours of which I’ll be lulled into a cosy sleep. More than often I put the radio on if I’m not at home (which I’m not) and I’m semi-conscious when I turn it off if it’s distracting me too much. What can I say, I loves me music and it’s been extremely important to me in my 25 years so far. But that’s a whole other story…

Number four done and dusted and hopefully you’re all still here and not bored to tears. Now on to the most important points I feel. Five and six. Don’t they just sit together nicely.

Reason, Season or Lifetime – I nominate Jo because she has an honesty and lyrical manner in her writing that makes it easy to read and hear. Plus she’s a sucker for pigs.

Helen Thornber – I nominate Helen because I’ve never seen such an eclectic bunch of posts on one blog. You name it she’s got it; politics, writing, photography, lifestyle, gripes and much much more. She’s a Lovely girl with a cracking smile. Go seek her out!

A Gasping Little Voice – I nominate Quin because she’s fruitful with her posts, each one a nugget of sharp writing that leaves you wanting more. A prominent member of the Six Sentences crew (which is where we both encountered each other) she’s a vivid writer.

Allison Writes – I nominate Allison because I really enjoy reading her posts on what’s happening in her neck of the woods (being America) and in general how each one is carefully painted with delicacy and humour. She’s just gone to grad school and is never anywhere without her camera which is nice because we get to see the photographs. [The more I think about it the more I realise that I've been pretty much a silent reader of her blog, I like to think of it as polite stalking and I hope she's not too freaked out that I've aired her here!]

Musie – Alexandra has the knack of delivering you with tasty for the ol’ eyes meaty posts. They’re not necessarily laden with dialogue (unlike this one here) but they treat your eyeholes with gorgeous iconography or colours or pictures or anything that just looks good. And she doesn’t just post in the singular, she delves a little deeper and serves up something that will more than often make you follow it up… I know for sure I have many a time.

Planet Ressort – Another Lovely Lady who has been poor on her blog posts as of late BUT has promised to get back into the swing of things. But there’s plenty there to be getting on with till she gets back from her hiatus. She’s a brilliant explorative writer and is kind enough to post her work on her site so go and have a gander, you won’t be let down I promise.

Living Life in Tickle Belly Alley – Well what a name for a blog to begin with. Lisa is a kind spirit who is not only a burgeoning writer but a museum assistant drudging as much as she can. She got a heavenly calling from the Red Planet Prize last year and as far as I can tell deserved it by the amount of finished projects she has to her name and creative support.

Breadcrumbs – I know this will officially make this EIGHT but Brenda’s blog is something that everyone should read to dip their toe into her wonderful writings. They’re personal, jump off the screen and I savour each one. Please go looksy. Ta.

Crikey, this post has to be the one I’ve dwelled on for the most amount of time. I’m off for a cup of tea and more than likely a biscuit. Don’t judge me. Well you can, just don’t tell me about it till later. I dunno, maybe whisper it in my ear when I’m sleeping just do it quietly and don’t disturb my music.

Looking up

RobRVR — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:26:16 +0000

I still catch myself staring up at the sky, especially at night.
I can name the constellations quickly, can pinpoint the Northern Star at a moment’s glance and know that the bright orb just off the horizon is a planet, not a star. Most likely, it is Jupiter from where I’m standing.
I’m a million miles away from where my childhood resides, but I’m just one glance from seeing what I saw when I was there. It keeps me young. It keeps me grounded. It keeps me wondering what else is going on around me and away from me.
It isn’t too hard to figure out that I wanted to be an astronomer when I was a kid. My head was in the stars, flying among them and visiting the planets and galaxies that were just out of reach of a 8-year-old boy’s grasp. It was wonderful pouring over books about Jupiter, Mars, comets and the exploding stars light years away that made up the night’s sky. Space and all that it contained enveloped my dreams, my day-dreams and my fantasies. It still does to this day.
Movies also did a good number of feeding this childhood obsession – Star Wars and 2001, especially, with Battlestar Galactica thrown in from TV. I saw myself flying in a space craft, fighting the enemies and saving the day, knowing that one slip would send me into the airless vacuüm where there was no return. I imagined the planets, the people and animals within, and the sights of the galactic arms turning in the distance.
It is wonderful just sitting here thinking about it all.
Just one small problem – I have an artist’s drive, but not a mathematician’s mind. I never got past the basics, continuously tripped up over Statistics, and even struggled to get past Algebra. Yeah, I can compute a pitcher’s ERA pretty quickly and a hitter’s OBS (on-base percentage + slugging), but that’s as far as I could go. Even with encouragement and help from my parents, I was limited.
Now, I have NASA’s Web site to fuel the fires of my dreams. There are more movies to wonder over. There are tons of books – fiction and non-fiction – to keep me in tune with the dreams and the fantasies that are still in my head.
And, of course, I have the night sky to look up at, where my childhood resides, just out of reach of a 38-year-old man’s grasp.

Images from NASA and all credit goes to it:

NASA (Cassini)

NASA (Hubble)

What is your dream?

mandycooley — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:25:01 +0000

The video below highlights the challenges and successes of the Wright brothers. Today is the anniversary of their first flight in 1903. As I watched the video, I couldn’t help but ask myself – “What is your dream, Mandy? What have you tried and failed and tried again?” Well, the short answer is that Deliberate Direction is the product of my trials and failures (and successes).

What about you? When you fail while trying to accomplish your dreams to do you get discouraged or do you get inspired? When you face trials do you learn from your mistakes and tweak your next effort – or do you quit?

Dream! Try! Fail! The end result is worth the efforts. I promise!

I think you're ready for this Nelly ...

D-Rock — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:33:52 +0000

I was chuffed and stoked – which could neatly merge to become either choked or stuffed depending on what you’re into – with the responses to my last post. Sure my readership consists mostly of my friends, but as someone optimistic probably once said, you’ve gotta start somewhere. Plus, my friends are relatively discerning and even at times slightly judgemental so I’ll take whatever love I can get. I would have been quite pleased with just one happy customer sharing their pleasurednessness about even one of my recommendations. I’m relieved that it wasn’t (just) a self indulgent waste of time. A special shout out to my commenters … you are all the lucky winners of a reply. Comments – the gift that just keeps on giving this Christmas. Let’s not forget those that were honest enough to say ‘I really tried to read it, but I had abso-frigging-lutely NO idea what the eff you were talking about’. Granted, this won’t be for everyone and that’s a’ok.

So, who’s up for a bit of Nelly Furtado? I ain’t talkin’ no ‘Whoa Nelly’ Nelly or ‘Loose’ Nelly – though both worthy topics of conversation in themselves – for today I’m talkin’ a bit of old Nelly ‘Folklore’. Easily up there in many of my many top 5 lists including:

top 5 cds I own by solo female vocalists
top 5 sophomore (that’s second) cds by North American females
top 5 cds that Mike Elizondo has had his talented hand in
top 5 cds that you can usually get from JB Hi Fi for less than $10 (if this was a Facebook status I would ‘Like this’ and then probably add a comment ‘loves this’ for maximum impact.)
top 5 most underrated cds that should have been more commercially successful and weren’t which is disappointing but kind of makes them more special and subsequently allows me to put down some kind words on paper to tell people that don’t know how great it is

Who doesn’t love a ‘top’ list?! They are things of beauty and anyone can make one that includes any musical act or song. For example, I may or may not have given En Vogue’s ‘Don’t Let Go (Love)’ top 5 props for ‘Best songs by a 5 piece RnB girl band in the 90’s’. It might sound a bit ridiculous at first … until you realise that it’s undeniably true. See!

So let me get back to the subject that is my girl Nelly and her second album ‘Folklore’ (see Semi Relevant Diversion #1 in the Outro). My first foray into ‘Folklore’ I think came via Video Hits in the form of the video for the first single (track #2) ‘Powerless (Say What You Want)’, which criminally didn’t even side swipe the bumper bar of the Top 50. Having been a fan of ‘Whoa Nelly’ I was more than a bit excited about the album coming out. I’m pretty sure that Cameron Adams of Herald Sun’s ‘Hit’ gave it an inoffensive yet, in hindsight, inaccurately beige grade of ‘B’ which we’ll translate to a numerical 3.5 out of a possible 5 stars for the purposes of this exercise. Bah humbug indeed my friends. With the benefit of said hindsight, this deserves at least .5, if not 1 whole extra star. Credit where it’s due, he did give the album kudos further down the track noting its major underratedness (made up word count so far in this edition: 2).

Well, here I am, dishing out 4 stars with another little half just for shits and giggles. This is what I would call the ‘real’ Nelly. It’s organic, honest, risky and a lyrical goldmine. There seems to be a flavour of her Portuguese heritage in both lyrics (see ‘Disclaimer’ at rear) – “paint my face in your magazine to make it look whiter than it seems, paint me over with your dreams and shove away my ethnicity” in ‘Powerless’; or, “my hands are dirty I like them that way it shows who I am” and “plastic on the furniture suits me just fine” from ‘Fresh off the boat’ – and in sound thanks to the deliciously folky ‘Saturdays’.

Sure Destiny’s Child were Independent Women that didn’t need their soldier to pay for nuthin’ gerrlfriend (including “own diamonds and own rings”, unless it came in the form of an engagement ring it would appear, hmm, yesss? Beyonce` I might be talking to you). Nelly’s own take on independence seems to be more aimed at those in the world of commercial music which she landed face first in, despite being apparently ‘Like a Bird’ at the time. The album opener ‘One-Trick Pony’ sets the theme for the album. Her debut album ‘Whoa Nelly’ was a commercial success selling bucket loads largely thanks to ‘I’m Like a Bird’ – a great song yes, though not actually representative of the funky and often dark edge found throughout the rest of the album. Lyrics like ‘I am not a one-trick pony, for you I will not dance, for you I will not prance’ and ‘nobody can control me, nobody can conform me’ hints at a young woman keen to choose her own path and not take the one most often trodden by those before her. The second track ‘Powerless (Say What You Want)’ continues with her views and voice clearly on display.

‘Folklore’ is both instantly catchy AND a grower which is an all too rare combination. Now onto the highlights reel …

Track 7: The Grass is Green. A very cool track co written and co produced by the one and only Mike Elizondo (see Semi Relevant Diversion #2). This was always one of my favourites off this album and I was a bit fascinated by his contribution to the track. ‘Grass…’ talks about our constant need for more and ‘better’ things and being endlessly unsatisfied with what we have. The message of “Oh yeah the grass is green, but can you tell me can you feel it?” is a relevant one (we’ll delve no deeper, I promise) and it’s accompanied perfectly by the lush and cosy layered sound.

Track 4: Try. The sound is simple and beautiful. From frustrated beginnings “then I see you standing there, watching over me – and all I can do is try” (ok, delving maybe a little deeper, thanks for your patience) ‘Try’ eventually has its own reconciliation via an optimistic love-in with “all of the things we want each other to be, we never will be, we never will be – and that’s wonderful, and that’s life”. Indeed, it is.

And finally. THE. Pinnacle. Track 12: Childhood Dreams. This is a song that is simply too beautiful for words. I won’t be noting any of the lyrics. I want everyone to overdose on their own goosebumps as they hear this one in sound and spirit. All I will say it is written about and for her daughter, Nevis. It’s raw and gorgeous and speaks volumes about a mother’s love which most of us can identify with. If you do nothing else after reading this entry you should visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGtI8m8hW3A , give yourself 6 minutes and 33 seconds, turn it up loud and listen closely. There doesn’t seem to be an official video, so feel free to close your eyes and just absorb the sound. One of the few songs that have LITERALLY brought me tears on more than one occasion. Listen up, you’ll see.

The Outro

There’s probably a bit of a ‘Nerd Alert’ vibe to this one. This is all about the stuff that I am passionate about – I’m bound to lose a few of you along the way as I indulge. It’s CDs like this one that actually inspire to me to listen, and then write. Oh shit, sorry, I got deep again. Focus dude.

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) … depends on your level of commitment. AT LEAST listen to Childhood Dreams. Maybe even a little of The XX, as recommended by ‘Hi’ from my last post (see comments on ‘Introducing..’). OR, for those of you who just totally want to overachieve and come along for this crazy ride (no one will think you’re a nerd, I promise you’re safe here) you can venture to either JB Hi Fi or Dirt Cheap Cds and purchase the whole dang cd for a CRAZY $10. Love to hear what you think.

Semi Relevant Diversion #1: Folklore was released around the same time as another awesome North American artist’s equally awesome second album - ’The Diary of Alicia Keys’. There’s likely to be more on this one in another edition. I didn’t have the luxury of an iPod to quantify my obsessions back in those days but if I was a betting man I’d put a lazy 50 on it being in the most played list still to this day. She had me at “Baby, baby, baby …” in ‘You Don’t Know My Name” – the ‘Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh’s were like actual chocolate icing on the cake that represented my love.

Semi Relevant Diversion #2: Mike Elizondo. This is a man that is most famous for being a hip hop producer jointly responsible for both ‘In Da Club’ by 50 cent and ‘the Real Slim Shady’ with Eminem and Dr Dre. Most impressively, he co produced Fiona Apple’s ‘Extraordinary Machine’ which is a phenomenally sharp album which I love as much as a first beer straight from the tap. Not familiar? Try ‘TYMPS (Sick in the Head Song)’, ‘Extraordinary Machine’ or ‘Better Version of Me’.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about ‘Portuguese heritage’ so any reference is derived solely out of uneducated speculation. In my defence, there is definitely a language other than English mixed in here and I can add 2 and 2 …

That’s all today folks, thanks again. More lists next week. Awesome!

Travel

erinpack — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:24:00 +0000

I hope your stomachs have adjusted to the massive influx of food. Happy belated Thanksgiving.

During this time of year, I like to reflect on what I’m thankful for (just like everyone else in the United States.)

Although I’m grateful for many, many things in my life, travel is on my mind at this moment. Not many people get to see new places on a consistent basis.

When I was a small child, I dreamed of going to all 50 states and all 7 continents. I come from a solidly working class background, one that doesn’t involve much travel. In fact, I didn’t go outside of Texas until age 9 (to Louisiana) and I didn’t ride on an airplane until age 14 (to Colorado.)

But things changed. At age 17, I financed my very own European vacation by selling candy bars and working long hours at my minimum wage video clerk job. It was a blast and I felt as thought I truly earned that fun trip. As of now, I’ve been to 10 foreign countries and 30 states. Even in my most far-fetched childhood fantasies, I couldn’t have ever imaged covering so much ground. Better yet, I still have a large list of “must see” places, waiting to be explored.

Yes, dear readers. I am thankful for my travel opportunities.

The following photos are my own, taken at various times during said adventures.

Moulin Rouge- Paris, France

Central Park- New York City, USA

Lincoln Memorial- Washington, DC, USA

Buckingham Palace Lawn- London, UK

Yartzeit for John

Sara Fryd — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:02:49 +0000

A generation of hearts

Died with you November 22, 1963.

All these years have passed

I close my eyes

I hear the radio playing

In the Phoenix College cafeteria

Two thousand students eating lunch

Deathly silence, only hushed weeping

Walter Cronkite barely whispering

Incredulous “The President is dead…”

I don’t remember the rest

Maybe if I keep breathing the tears will stop

Maybe if I keep moving my feet

I will find my way through the parking lot

I will find my car, find my way home.

Where is my car?

Where is my home?

What has happened to my world of hope,

Of possibilities?

What has happened to my joyous country?

The generation who believed…

Believed that we could make a difference

Had our dreams, our lives, our hopes shattered

Buried along with you in Arlington

And nothing much has seemed familiar

Since the world stopped spinning in 1963.

Life Purpose

madintl — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:57:01 +0000

Just came across this cool blog post about life purpose/dying happy from zenhabits.net (I cannot remember how I found it now). This post struck me as something special. Again it is common sense, but when I get caught up in normal everyday activities I forget to concentrate or even think about my life’s purpose because I am too busy focusing on the next thing the boss wants me to do “yesterday”.

Well, I have been looking for my life’s purpose for a long time. When I was a kid, it was to be a hairdresser – I let myself be talked out of that one, and I often wonder if I had stuck to my guns, how would my life have turned out? Would I be happy and content living my childhood dream? Possibly, but there is no point in dwelling on that. My responsibility now is to keep looking until I find it. I am starting to get an inkling… I am going to take Leo’s advice and take a few minutes to just think and write about what I think it is, based on how I would like to be remembered at the end. Here goes:

She left the earth better than she found it
She inspired others to leave the earth better than they found it
She was happy and content
She made her family happy

That is all my brain is stretching to currently, as to how I want to be remembered. How do I get there? Well the first point I think can be achieved through permiculture and ensuring that whatever spot of the earth I occupy, I cared for and improved – be it soil enrichment, tree planting, composting, no eating or using animals or animal products, keeping my rubbish to a minimum – stop with the plastic bottles!!!!

The second point, well, I am not that great at promoting myself. I keep hearing and seeing that the best way to inspire people is to just do what you do well and look happy and good while doing it and in turn people will be inspired to act to achieve what you have achieved. Sounds simple enough.

Third point. Well my current situation certainly isn’t providing that – the most time consuming bits anyway, like work and living location. So, I guess I better get my a in to g and sort that. The wheels are in motion, but nothing decided yet. There are of course things on the periphery that give me great joy – it is just how to bring them to the forefront that I need to work out how to do. Keep watching to see how I can manifest this!

I am NOT a fighter pilot!

mandycooley — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:44:20 +0000

When I was in elementary school I LOVED Top Gun. Besides the fact that Tom Cruise was soooooo cute (I say in my best 10 year old crooning voice), I thought it would be super cool to fly planes like Iceman, Slider, Hollywood, and Merlin or get a job like Kelly McGillis had. If you watched the trailer above, you saw the planes doing lots of tricky maneuvers – spins, flips, sharp stops, etc. There is one HUGE problem with my dream of flying Naval jets and working as a flight instructor – I get terribly motion sick! That would create a significant limitation in my ability to fly a plane, flip it around, or be effective as a fighter pilot.

You see, as children, we are often told that we can be anything we want to be. At risk of ruffling a lot of feathers, I don’t think we can be anything we WANT to be. We can only be the best versions of who we are DESIGNED to be. I was not DESIGNED to be a pilot. No amount of dreaming, training, practicing or goal setting would have allowed me to overcome my physical reaction to being in a plane that moves like fighter jets do. However, I am a really good teacher; I excel in positions where my organizational skills, attention to detail, and customer service focus are keys to success; I have a passion to learn. I am focused on my strengths, talents, and abilities and am becoming (day by day) the best version of who I was designed to be.

I will continue to experience professional (and personal) success because I am chosing a Deliberate Direction for my career that is based upon, among other things, my DESIGN. How about you?

When I Grow Up..

haluings — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:55:07 +0000

What did you want to be when you ‘grew up’? Or when you grow up?

I went through a series of phases like everyone else. The Marine Biologist. The Nurse. The Rugby player (I played till I was around 14 when we got too old and the guys were stronger so weren’t allowed to partake anymore. Yeah, bit of a rough nut), a Photographer, a Journalist, to fly to the Moon, a Dancer, an Acrobat in a circus, a Psychiatrist, a Masseuse, a Nutritionist, a Vet, on stage improvising, an Artist, in advertising and marketing, events (I loved to throw parties and still do, lots of work functions and events for clients, great at it). Anything I enjoyed really or thought I might do. I can’t remember the half of it.

I did know that I did not want children or to settle down. Many around me as I have gotten older, even in my teens were popping out bubs and I just knew it wasn’t for me. I feel like i’ve raised kids for half my life anyway so no desire to go there any time soon, to say the least. I do however wonder what goes through kids heads, I find them interesting.

I still don’t know what I want to BE. It confuses me a lot. I think the pressure that is put on kids at such a young age to decide what to do with their lives is bollocks. This isn’t about that though. I’m talking little’uns.

Do you have to be anything 9-5 with X qualifications and X amount of cash, to make you happy though? I do know what some of my greatest passions are and what I want to do with a lot of my life. I’ve never really wanted anything more but times are always cha-cha changing us and if you want something you’ve just gotta figure out how and take the dive. I keep telling myself.

Sometimes I feel like i’m just watching life pass me by

and I have wasted a lot of time already.

I often watch children and wonder, when taking shots on the street. “What do I think he or she want to be when he grows up, at the moment?” They’re kids, it’s unimportant but I still wonder when I see things through a view-finder that i’d not have contemplated before. The finer details would have escaped me.

I still don’t know what I want to be. Does this mean i’ve not ‘grown up’? I don’t think so. It can be a bit stressful and defeating at times though. In all honesty I don’t think I want to be stuck here BEING one thing in particular. Money makes the world go round though, right? A pinch of Love, too.

Joomla Course; Fulfilling My Childhood Wish

Lee — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:15 +0000

Alright, we have this funny term up here which 3 months ago I had no idea what it was about. But it is one of the most powerful open source software that enables almost anyone to set up a website in 20 minutes. Well, at least my course teacher say so.

You know that feeling when you always wanted to do something but never got round doing it? Like learn to play a piano since young? Learn to do animation or a website? Either it you will find 101 reasons you are too busy for it or you feel it is basically not going to be useful in your lifetime so you never bother to do so.

Well, learning to do a website was like one of those things that I always wanted to learn but never got the chance to do so. My path of studies took me more towards the side of arts and business rather than science and technology. As grew up, science and technology became more and more remote to me as I go deeper into the arts. I became more and more afraid to sign up to learn as I thought it might look pretty embarrassing in class. But then again, the later I am to start learning, the more unwilling I became to even consider doing so.

With some encouragement from my lovely girlfriend, I decided to start taking up classes to upgrade myself. I took the plunge and signed up for Joomla class which I know nuts about it. Btw, its this content management system that allows me to manage contents of a website easily. And I plan to use it on my new blog site once I get familiar with it. It wasn’t that bad really, in fact it felt really great to be learning something new, even better, a step to fulfilling a childhood dream to learn web design and management. It is a simple class, but I guess it is a first step. And I am pretty interested thus far into the course and I hope to pursue it further after the beginner class.

Sometimes it really isn’t that hard, but to just take the first step, and passion will drive you through the rest. I still have lots of wishes I want to fulfill and I look forward to them. I want to play the piano someday. =)

Take the plunge, before it’s too late. =)

What is your childhood dream? Are you missing out on something?

Cheers,
Lee

Pink Elephant Car Wash

Rick — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:28:04 +0000

Posted by Rick.

I grew up in the Air Force, and we moved around alot. But when I was five we lived in Everett, Washington, and we occasionally went to Seattle. All I asked of my parents was this: I want to go up in the Space Needle, and I want to go through the Pink Elephant Car Wash. This was before I-5 was built, and the road into town went right between the two. I remember being in the back seat, getting very excited seeing these places, and probably saying things like, “There’s the Space Needle!” and, “There’s the Pink Elephant Car Wash!”

What I couldn’t understand was how my parents weren’t interested. I begged for it, but they always had a reason why not, or else just said no. It seemed to me that this was where it was at, this was where the fun was to be had. You can’t tell me you don’t want to go up there. How can you look at that car wash and not want to go through? There’s probably a party going on right this minute. Why couldn’t they see this? It wasn’t until years later when my father retired, and we settled in Spokane, Washington, that I finally went up the Space Needle as a tourist. There’s a rotating restaurant at the top.

Now I live in Seattle, and I have my own car, and I’ve been to the Pink Elephant Car Wash. You give them your car, and they drive it into a darkened room where you can’t see what’s going on. When it comes out, it’s clean. Even the floors have been vacuumed. It’s a little mysterious.

Wheel or No Wheel

Jean — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:22:30 +0000

Saturday ~~the hubs and I headed~~ I practically dragged the hubs to the next town over to take a crack at the Wheel Mobile. It was a good thing it was at a casino that was close cause that was the dangling carrot to get the hubs to go.
We were supposed to show up an hour before the first “game” to fill out the little application to toss my name in the hopper and hope for my name to be called. Of course since we are not ones to follow the rules, we showed up about 10 minutes before, and I luckily had seconds to fill out my quick entry and get it turned in.
I wanted to give you a small background of how I mentally prepared for this day. You know like how Tiger Woods prepares for a big round of golf. I knew that I was going to have to bring my game face. That meant getting way over excited than I normally would. I also knew projecting my voice was going to be key…something I’m not blessed with as I’m pretty soft spoken. I also played mental “interviews” in my head. I did not want to just stand there and say duh… I’m just a stay at home mom and uhm yeah that’s about it. I wanted to show the Wheel Crew that not only was I an exciting person on the outside, I also had a fascinating life, at least I want to sound exciting on the inside. Believe it or not there were moms that went up there and said “I’m a stay at home mom.” Mr Announcer guy would ask “What do you like to do for fun?” “Uhm I don’t know” is how they would respond. I was so ready to spill my story. This is what I was going to say; “I’m Jean a S-A-H-M of 3 boys(yes I was going to spell it out…cause I’m the epitomy of dorkness) that lives under the ground, then he would ask “What do you do for fun?” “I’m a mommy blogger, yes we have our own special category. I also love to play fantasy football.” I then was prepared to answer anything about blogging and anything fantasy football. I will admit that I practiced my little spiel each and everytime a new player went up for their interview, yet sadly my name was never called.
I will say that I’m thrilled that we went, as it was a lot of fun. Once you got over the initial blast of gameshow cheese from the host and “Vanna”, it was so much fun. Yes even the hubs started to really get into it.
The next part was the players just trying to solve the puzzles. I know what everyone says, it’s so easy when you’re not up there in front of the crowd, and once you’re up there it’s so much harder than it is. Folks the puzzles were really fairly easy and they really weren’t looking at how good you could solve puzzles. I was going crazy trying not to shout it out and there would only be a 3 or 4 letters on the board. I literally was shadow boxing the hubs to try not the spill the beans.

The crowd was really not that big of an issue. The really interesting thing was how small this casino was. We decided to take a small risk of gambling for fun once we got over the fact that it wasn’t meant to be for me to be on the wheel. We came out nicely ahead (nicely is a little too nice), but it was certainly more than we came with and at least we came home with something, which is always better than nothing.
I mentioned in an earlier post my video issues, so obviously I didn’t get to VLog it. I also didn’t bring the camera cause I’m just dumb. The hubs did get my pic with Vanna but it’s on his phone which doesn’t help matters for this post.
Oh, and you needs to know I’m marking this off my 40 at 42 list.

Childhood Dreams...part 2

mouthhorsesmouth — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:27:39 +0000

Wonka Remix

colexico — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:25:32 +0000

This YouTube Film maker, Faggatron (respectfully) gives me an interesting perspective on remix culture and why in the future, shortened, creative infused bits of ‘childhood’ will be valued.

The original Willy Wonka is classified by many as a ‘childhood favorite’. And It is my belief that as children, media impressions last longer and cut deeper due to our age and innocence. Scents, sounds, etc, form a lasting record that recall pure feelings. In tandem, is the fact that we as older adults simply don’t have time to wade through the entirety of Willy Wonka to feel them. Which is precisely why I love this video-within two minutes I can feel the childhood celebration of candy and music.

Childhood Dreams!

ladonnalynn — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:53:31 +0000

Childhood Dreams!
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Friday, August 28, 2009 at 12:22pm | Edit Note | Delete
As a child, I used to dream that I could fly almost every night. I would fly clumsily dodging houses, trees and power lines, but I never hit anything. I would start out running and if I flapped my arms hard enough I would actually rise off the ground and start flying! It was an exhilarating, joyful and liberating experience. As I grew older it became easier to get off the ground and I could fly slower and enjoy the scenery. Sometimes I would fly to get away from threatening situations. I always associated it with God protecting me and keeping me from harm. I have not dreamed of flying for a long time, but I have learned to trust in God and put my faith in him.

Bu, just for the sake of research, I looked it up online and found this on Dream Moods. It has significance to me because my business is Health and Wellness, and that includes the body, mind, and spirit. It says…

“Remember that a dream unifies the body, mind, and spirit. It provides us with insight into ourselves and a means for self-exploration. In understanding your dreams, you will have a better understanding and discovery of your true self.”

As for me, I believe that true self discovery comes from discovering who we are in Christ and his will is for our life.

Now I dream of tornadoes but they never come too close or cause any damage. I see from Dream Moods that dealing with moody people can cause you to dream about tornadoes, but as always… God is watching over me!
I CAN FLY!

One of these days I am going to take flying lessons!!!

He will be an Engineer

Closet.Monkey — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:41:29 +0000

As a kid, I often got asked, ‘So Sharad, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ Well

Hopes, Dreams and Disclaimers

Sarah — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:59:09 +0000

When you were a child, what did you aspire to become? An astronaut or firefighter? Maybe a teacher o

A Translation from Augusten Burroughs to Daniel Defoe

exclamate — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:34:31 +0000

“The bookshelves of mine, which were of a high quality, glossy with a sheen that reflected light much as glass does, were lined with the various trinkets and, in my mind, treasures that I had collected over the years. There are cans now empty, their papers removed to let them shine, this shine enhanced by the help of silver polish. While I know such things both do not exist and are exceedingly impractical, I always yearn for the cans to be pressed from gold. I also have a collection of rings that I acquired on a voyage to Mexico when I was but five years of age. I also have various other things, presently: first, diagrams of jewelry, viz. necklaces, bracelets, diadems, carefully cut from magazines and pasted to cards, which are propped upright; one very good spoon that my grandmother had presented to my mother and father on their wedding day, made from the purest silver that my grandmother could obtain at the time; silver of a more reprehensible quality (“Not at all to my liking”); and a collection of pieces of eight, doubloons, and gold coins, each of which have been boiled in a cast iron pot and shined to a nearly reflective state while I mused upon my relationship with the Lord.”

Also, today Cornelius and I had this conversation at the Gaming Club table at the activities fair.

C: How’s Crusoe?
E: Kind of a dick. He’s hanging out with his slave and all.
C: His slave!?
E: Yeah, Friday.
C: Friday was a slave? In the children’s edition, they were really good friends!
E: When they first met, Friday fell at his feet and Crusoe taught Friday to call him Master.
C: I mean, he was always sort of a butler, but never a slave!

At this point, I picked up one of the balloon animals he had made, a butterfly, and told him, “This is your childhood.” I then popped the balloon.

APART: Childhood Dreams

dolldalera — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:55:57 +0000

Of Childhood Dreams and Brick Walls (Thoughts on "The Last Lecture")

Island Girl — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:35:11 +0000

“Whatever my accomplishments, all the things I loved were rooted in the dreams and goals I had as a child…” wrote the late Randy Pausch on his book The Last Lecture. Taken from the main topic of his Last Lecture at the Carnegie Mellon University entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, the message of the lecture turned book has reached global success.

The Last Lecture was a pleasure to read, more than a self-help book, it was a legacy of one man that he now leaves to his children. Despite being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he chose to take on the challenge of preparing his lecture and eventually the book that would talk, not about dying but about living.

And live he did. His list of childhood dreams and how he lived his way towards it was both amusing and envying. From authoring an article in the World Encyclopedia to being (or at least meeting) Captain Kirk and becoming a Disney Imagineer, Mr. Pausch had dreamt and done it all.

Someone recently asked me what my dream was in life and I remember going on and on about my career goals. He asked again, “Yes, but what is your dream?” I sat there, with random repetitive words, but not a dream in sight. Was this why I sometimes feel lost, unsure of where to go next? Was this why when I attempted to reach for the stars, I often fell on the roof?

While I never really dreamt of being in zero gravity or working for Disney, my childhood dreams were quite simple: to find a playmate, to get new things once in awhile instead of the usual hand-me-downs and to learn how to express myself so that my insights were considered instead of overlooked.

Being the youngest, my sister had moved on to newer toys and interests by the time I was born. So playing alone with old hand-me downs had been a staple. Growing up, school has been one big process of fitting in and finding good friends.

After learning my lesson of being myself and staying away from the troublemakers, I had found a lot of good ones along the way but it wasn’t until I started working that I found great playmates whom I share a lot of things in common with. To this day, they remain one of my bigger dreams realized.

As my income and confidence grew, I found myself able to acquire new toys effectively letting go of my hand-me down habits.

Often during the course of mildly fulfilling these two dreams, writing was the closest that I got to expressing myself, being able to control the thoughts and place the words to where I want it to go, effectively conveying an insight.

Now that I find myself starting over, the search for these dreams begins again. In the pages of The Last Lecture, the author talks about his challenges or “brick walls” that were not there to block his dreams but to prove that he can still find a way to reach it. “Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”

And as I am surrounded by my own brick walls, I begin to write on it, feeling and scanning the surface to reveal its cracks, in search of a way through it. So far the challenge is still daunting, but still quite inviting.

Randy Pausch passed away on July 25, 2008. But his message continues to inspire and encourage people, like me, to dream our way into our future.

A Personal Dream Fulfilled

2inspired — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:30:43 +0000

One of my dreams is to see my name in a magazine. My ultimate wish is to be a magazine columnist. That’s why I was over the moon when I finally saw my name in print. It may be a small step in the publishing world but a big step for a small town girl like me.

If you are interested in reading the full article, go here.