Always More Beyond - Kianseng Ng

I decided to create a Technorati search for Billy Collins. The web sites of folks and poets who are posting Billy's poetry are plentiful. The trail here will wind amongst the words of some of them from time to time.

Today we stop in Malaysia to find Kianseng Ng. Kianseng write in his profile page:

Kianseng Ng is a physician and Presbyterian Elder. He writes poetry, prose & he dabbles in Paper Batik Paintings, Photographic Montages, ATC (Artists Trading Cards) & Cut & Paste Collages. As a Physician specialising in Internal Medicine, he believes he is called "To Heal Some, To Comfort Many, To Love All". His work as an Elder is that of Dream-Making, Image-Shaping, Vision-Casting. Poetry is his forte, he writes believing that writing poetry is using the Creativity that God has put in him to Celebrate the Creation that God has put around him. His writings have been featured in 44 different journals in Malaysia, Singapore, India, New Zealand, Australia, USA.Many of his devotional poems have been translated into Mandarin. He was one of the prize winners in the prestigious New Straits Times & Shell Poetry Competition, Malaysia, 1995. (No competition was organised after that year.) He is the author of three volumes of Poetry, White Magic, Post-Cards From Kluang and Familiar Strange Country. He is presently working on his fourth volume of Poetry, tentatively entitled "A Different Kind Of Magic".

He writes:

STILL A SMALL VOICE

“Kneeling”

“Moments of great calm,

Kneeling before an altar

Of wood in a stone church

In summer, waiting for God

To speak…………………

…………Prompt me, God,

But not yet. When I speak,

Though it be you who speak

Through me, something is lost.

The meaning is in the waiting.”

R.S. Thomas

What is this I hear above

The drone of to-day’s weather

Forecast? Is it not the beginning

Word of the breaking news

Coming from the frequency of my heart

Beats? Is it not the still

Small voice that Elijah heard?

I know it is not

A tinnitus because the ringing

Does not stop even when my ears

Are unstopped. I’m sure it is not

The sound of God taking a rib

From the side of my thoughts

And making it a metaphor more beautiful

Than Eve. I believe it is not

The hiss of the serpent

In the tree of my mind offering

The apple of the full sentence

In place of the seed

Of the singular Word.

Perhaps it is a clever trick

Of throwing the voice. The speaker

Is light years away, yet I hear

His words like the fevered throbbing

Of the arteries of my temple.

And like the dumbstruck doll

In the lap of the ventriloquist

I catch the thrown and make

It my own. Yes, my own, still

A small voice that belies

The clarity with which it largely

Stills the questions, “Am I loudspeaker

Or am I speaking aloud?

Am I prophet or am I full

Of new wine?”

For more please visit, Always More Beyond

The Painting Activist - Ashley Cecil

from the Suzuki Association

to the Food Literacy Project

to Hunger Awareness Day

to cite just a few of the most recent ones, Ashley Cecil is indeed "describing the world with a paintbrush". From her about page, Ashley writes:

Welcome to the marriage of painting and social activism. I’ve been creating art ever since discovering that my mom’s favorite lipstick made a great oil pastel. Through formal art education and years of professional experience, the adult version of this vocation has evolved into my own job title, “painting activist.” I’m addressing social issues utilizing painting as my medium of communication. Much like a photojournalist, I travel to locations/events of cultural interest and capture them, only with my brush. My talent is as an artist, my passion is advocating for social change; this is how the two work together.

All artwork is for sale, unless noted otherwise. A portion of proceeds from the sale of original work is donated to the nonprofit corresponding to each piece. So if you’re apt to support my talent and contribute to a cause, invite your art-appreciating-friends, browse, be merry, and buy great art!

Checkout her gallery of art work!

Then add this site to your RSS Reader of choice and keep in touch with her efforts.

Real Mums - Diary of a Mad Cow

The recent post at Diary of a Mad Cow loads on my screen and the first word I see is one I won't repeat here (beginning with "f"). I am already intrigued. This is a Mommy Blog (or Mummy if you are from a Commonwealth country like this Australian) - and this level of language taps straight into my empathy for a fellow parent having a bad kid day.

But is this writer one of those perpetually angry ranters or a compassionate loving mother who is simply very "real"?

A look around the site reveals that the blog is a part of a larger site by Amanda aka "Mad Cow" (I can't find her surname anywhere on the site, which probably protects her secret identity!): Real Mums.

About Real Mums she writes:

They say it takes a village to raise a child. So where the hell is everyone when we need them!! And how come soooo many Australian mums comment that they feel isolated, lacking support and inadeqate in their mothering role??!! RealMums offers a real alternative to mainstream parenting websites and magazines which can often enhance feelings of isolation, add to our feelings of inadequacy or provide "expert" advice that doesn't always cut it in the real world. This is the place you can come to get advice from the experts - other Mums who are going through the same stuff as you right now! Its the place to get stuff off your chest, chat with other Mums in the same boat, exchange ideas and tips on parenting dilemmas, and have a bit of fun.

As parenting is not always a barrel of laughs - no, really, its not - we've provided a Forum - Retell Therapy - where you may express yourself freely, totally and anonymously if you wish. And without fear of reprisal! Please check out and carefully read our Terms & Conditions before using the forum - then go for it!

Back to the blog, here's one of my favourite entries:

Do you ever wonder how many hats a Mums can wear in one day? And do you ever
wonder how she manages not to get her hats mixed up? Like today - school drop off, chat with teacher, chat with other Mums, business meeting for morning tea, kinder gym, kinder drop off, chat with kinder teacher and other mums (with a completely different frame of mind than the school drop off thing), coffee with girlfriend - no kid talk allowed, talked about kids, school pickup, kinder pickup, dinner with friends, check emails - both personal and business - in between and respond accordingly, read to kids, perform wifely duties (ie not
ironing) …

… ever wonder why we like to be in bed at 8pm, but somehow can’t manage it?

About the blog, in her dislaimer, she writes:

Diary of a Mad Cow does refer regularly to the realities of parenting, and may contain profanity. It is not intended to be offensive. If you cannot handle reality, or insist on being offended, please feel free not to read, or visit, this blog. Thank you.

Whilst MadCow (not her real name) is a real person, Mad Cow’s Diary is based on the life of the real person. Whilst all the incidents in her Diary have actually happened, the names, dates, and places have been changed to protect the innocent. Or the not so innocent!

Go, Mad Cow, go! Keep herding those wonderful children to better and better pastures!

Mark Sanborn Blogs

I saw Mark Sanborn present many years ago at Help Desk Institute conference. He talked about the Fred Factor. His new book, You don't need a title to be a leader, builds upon the Fred Factor.

The principles of greatness are timeless, but the application of those principles changes, whether in the marketplace or our government. We can learn much from emulating what created greatness in the past, but to simply copy a formula frozen in time doesn’t serve us well.

I’ve never liked the phrase “back to the basics” because I believe the basics, applied in a relevant way, take us forward. And some if not much of what made Ronald Reagan a great leader can help candidates and citizens today, but it won’t create a return to another era. Done well, those principles can create a new kind of greatness that is so badly needed.

Read Mark's full posting on A new kind of greatness.

Add this site to your RSS Reader of choice!

Jesse James Garrett's Hidden Agenda

Jesse is a creative force in user experience. He writes in his About page:

Since 1995, I have mostly worked on the Web -- first as a writer and interface developer, then as an interface designer and information architect. These days, I primarily do user experience strategy. I started a company called Adaptive Path to help people solve user experience problems.

Information architecture remains my primary interest among all the user experience issues I deal with, and it's the area to which I've devoted the most thinking. You can read more about the field and my ideas on my information architecture page.

I wrote a book about my work in 2002. It's called The Elements of User Experience and has turned out to be pretty popular, especially among executives and newcomers to the field.

His blog page speaks eloquently about simplicity and the user experience. Just observe the layout and functionality present. Elegant!

If you are interested in user experience and do not already have Jesse's site in your RSS Reader of choice, then I recommend that you add it.

freeyasoul adventure - Gabriel Lau

.... I've had the same jeans on for four days now, I’m gonna go to a disco in the middle of the town. Everybody’s dressing up I’m dressing down .....



When Gabriel isn't training for the next Action Asia triathlon, he is into wearing the same jeans.

Of course athletes need to eat, Gabriel shows us a nice Arabic restaurant

"Been somewhere exotic lately?" No, this is just a very authentic arabic cafe opened in the middle of Tsim Sha Tsui. As you probably know that I am fond of exotic cusine and have even famously cooked a middle eastern feast for 12 people all by myself in those days in England. There is a little Arabic grocery in the seedy district of Nottingham which equipped with all the strange spice I needed then. Back in Hong Kong, I have never found satisfying middle eastern food, the up market restaurants in Soho just doesn't really feel right. My shish kebab should be down to earth, straight forwardly delivered with a street food touch. That is before the arrival of Al Petra, opened by two Jordanian and cooked by a former five star hotel Jordanian chef. The tiny cafe occupied the last shop on a dead end street and the knock down front wall layout enhance the ambiance of a street cafe from Marrakesh.

Read more of his adventures at Al Petra

And if you like what you have heard and want an excuse to wear the same jeans for four days, add freeyasoul adventure to your RSS Reader and follow Gabriel's adventures!

Letter's from a Hill Farm

Nan writes:

Gladys Taber once wrote, " I suppose I am a sparrow, a stay-at-home bird." My children are grown, and my farm and garden beckon me to "stay, stay." This is my time to garden and read and bake and, so it seems, to blog. You are most welcome to come in my internet front door, and I look forward to your visits.

Provides a weather update:

Frost!

29º. Ice on the car windshield. And not even a full moon. The tomatoes and basil are okay. We didn't cover last night, but Tom put the sprinkler on them early this morning, which is supposed to help. I don't think the ones nearer the house were hit, just those in the more exposed vegetable garden. This is the latest frost I remember.

Posts Today's poem by Billy Collins:

The Lanyard
by Billy Collins

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
bouncing from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

And today's fresh eggs a picture of 15 good looking fresh eggs. Then Nan lives on a farm, so they should be fresh!

Read more of Nan here. Add her to your RSS reader so you can get updates like these regularly.

LibraryThing Blog

What is LibraryThing?

LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth.

What software does it require?

None. If you can read this, you can use LibraryThing.

What does it cost?

A free account allows you to catalog up to 200 books. A paid account allows you to catalog any number of books. Paid personal accounts cost $10 for a year or $25 for a lifetime. (See here for non-personal accounts.) I conservatively predict the revenue will enable me to recline all day on an enormous pile of gold.

And they have a blog... where they discuss new features, plans and announcements.

Check out LibraryThing and consider adding the blog to your RSS Reader of choice.

Geoffrey Chaucer hath a blog

Chaucer?

yea, verily.

Myn gentil rederes, the joly tyme of Averille and May hath not been of much jolitee to me – in feyth, ich haue had but litel tyme to look upon the newe floures and heere the smale foules doyng their thinge, for cursid busynesse hath fallen a-newe vpon me. I was prikked to take thys biswinkful newe labor by grete nede, for whan ich madde myn accountes ich discovred gret dettes and but litel revenue.

It may be a challenge to read but once you get into the rhythm, it is great fun.

Benedicitee, goode readeres all! I am burnynge the mid-nyght oil in preparacioun for a greet voyage to the gatherynge of Kalamazoo, of the whych place Geoffrey hath regaled me with many jolie stories. (Whan that I heerd of free wyne I was sold.) Verily, I have studied the lines of picke-vppe, recytyng them ynto the mirour and practisyng myne smyle and wynke. Y have even contributed a newe line of picke-vppe: "Do yow have any St Albans yn yow? No? Would yow like some?"

Read more here. Consider adding this good site to your RSS Reader of choice.

Nussbaum on Design

Continuing the design trail, we find Bruce Nussbaum writing on design at BusinessWeek.

Check out his recent posts:

• MIT's Green City Cars Could Help Congestion and Pollution.
• IN5 Goes Beyond Second Life to Other Virtual Worlds.
• 3M's Battle Between Efficiency and Creativity--Inside Innovation Issue #5.
• Will Apple's iPhone do Email?

Bruce writes

In era of process, where we do nearly all our innovation and design in teams, it is important to remember that genius can still play a critical role in creativity. Take a look at this amazing video of kinetic sculpture.

There are more videos by this creative genius at his site, glumbert.com.

I'd like to open a conversation on the role of individual genius in innovation and design today. Our language and our behavior is all "process" driven but are we missing something very important? And if genius remains critical, how can it be integrated into our current business culture?

Read his full posting here

Consider adding this blog to your RSS Reader of choice.

bad banana blog

Ideas, inspiration, ephemera. Put 'em in the freezer and bake some bread later.

Yes, good idea. I like banana bread. Do you? Or do you just appreciate good ideas on design?

How about info and pictures on the water cube in Beijing:

The Watercube in Beijing will play host to the 2008 Olympic swimming and diving competitions. The structure itself is simplicity at it finest. It's a square, which obviously makes the entire building look like a pool. Bubbles made from a Teflon material surround the entire building. These bubbles are arranged in the naturally occurring formation of soap bubbles and organic cells. The transparent bubble material is designed to react to changing light conditions. From the outside, the building glows a beautiful blue (just like a pool). On the inside, light reflecting through the bubble material creates a subtle and ever-changing light show throughout the arena.

Read the full posting here

Tim Siedell writes about himself:

I write. I doodle. I come up with ideas. I hate myself for not coming up with ideas. I enjoy spending time with my wife and two daughters. I graduated from college in four years without taking summer classes. Or any math. I'm perhaps the only person in the world who has voted for both Jesse Jackson and George W. Bush. I ate chicken wings with Daisy Duke in 1987. I live about as far away from New York and Los Angeles as you can get at the same time. I have never set foot in Texas.

Check out his recent posts:

• Underwater Sculptures
• The Pop Art of Harold Edgerton
• Sometimes it's Best to Whisper

And then add this site bad banana blog to your RSS Reader of choice.

The Golden Compass blog

Yes, the trail is supposed to resume next week but when the Golden Compass promo appeared on the radar today, and I followed the link to the film web site, found my daemon, and then found they had a blog...

Well, I am sorry, I could not resist.

If you have not read the book, I heartily endorse it. Once you step within its pages, you will not regret it. I have told the story a number of times but for all the years riding the commuter rail into Boston and back, there have only been two times where I was so engrossed in my book that I nearly missed getting off at my stop. Both times, I was reading the Golden Compass. And if you have read much of what I have written here and elsewhere, you know I read a lot.

Check out the movie blog... you'll be glad you did!

Trail resumes next week

The trail will pick up in earnest next week. While things have been relatively quiet here, new sites have been accumulating and will be shared soon.

In the meantime, feel free to cruise amongst the archives

June 2006

June 2005

Songs on the run, and more

Chris writes:

Greetings... or for those of you who don't speak formal English -- 'sup?! My name's Chris, I'm a New Englander by birthright but I grew up in north Jersey (graduated from Indian Hills High School in Oakland, Bergen County) and I wouldn't trade that for anything. Have since spent time in Salt Lake City and Missoula, Montana... now, if home is where the heart is then I'm homeless. I spend much of my time living in central Alaska and this is an amazing place if you love the outdoors, but my heart's back in Upstate New York. What's here for now is basically just a record of my running, hiking, and the music I listen to, movies I watch, plus a little of this & that, maybe a rant or twelve about how despicable selfish American society is and the need for more people to volunteer AND give away more of their money rather than wastefully spend it on pursuing nicer, shinier, newer material possessions. Anyway, also here will eventually be my Appalachian Trail journal as well as tales of my travels once I next head out on the road and/or out of the country. Au revoir.

This is for the runner, the music lover... Enjoy!

Read more of Chris here.

Samatha Larson to Everest

Samantha Larson is the youngest person to have climbed Everest. She achieved this new height this week in a climbing party along with her father.

She is blogging about the experience here.

The Boston Globe article with some additional background can be found here.

Happy Mother's Day

Wishing a happy, healthy and enjoyable family day to all the Mothers in this wonderful world!




Technorati Tags: family, Mother's Day

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Bad Dad Radio

Sometimes in your cyber wanderings, you come across something that makes you stop and say “Wow!" It’s usually something that not everyone will be taken with; but for the right person at the right time, it’s significant. I had one of those moments when I first visited Bad Dad Radio.

Sometimes the thing you come across fits into the Highly Imaginative or Technologically Novel category, while at other times it fits in the Simple Yet Profound category. Browsing Roland’s site, I came across page entitled Anonymous Confession. This is what I read there:

Have you done something that makes you feel like a bad parent? Then use this
opportunity to confess anonymously.
Write, record or draw what you did and
what you wish to do about it to make things better. It might make you feel
better and relieve a bit of pressure.
It will be published [anonymously] in the podcast or
blog for others to hear, so we may all learn from the experience and provide
advice and support.
Suggestions:- Be brief.- Be honest.- Don’t be afraid to
be creative.
Rules:- Don’t lie.- Don’t provide your real name/contact info.-
Web sites will not be published.- Vulgarity will not be published.

The reason this impressed me so much is because I know that every parent (who loves their kids) regrets something that they’ve done – and the weight of carrying this regret can make life incredibly unpleasant and undermine their relationships in the Now. It’s not that “Bad Dad” (as he labels himself) is fishing for sinister stories of abuse or of satanic rituals held in someone’s basement; but most Dads have had one of those moments where they fed the kids too many cocoa puffs for Breakfast, then hours later found themselves smacking the kid for their ADD-like behavior and suddenly realized “ Oh, no, I caused this in the first place”; or had an inappropriate relationship outside the home; or wounded their child with critical words – and wish they could rewind and do it differently.

How liberating to have someone to get this off their chests with. And how cool to have someone willing to listen with no strings attached.

But this is not the only string in Bad Dad’s bow. There are a number of laid back, thought-provoking, humorous and informative podcasts posted on the site, where you can hear the man himself. My personal favorite was his podcast about the Church’s negative [and somewhat historically outdated] opinion on heavy metal music. (Complete with a nicely put-together heavy metal soundtrack).

The subject matter for a slightly older cast reads as follows:

In this podcast episode:
- How to check for sex offenders in your neighborhood.
- 29 year old sex offender posed as a 12 year old.
- Consumer Reports retracts infant car seat danger claims.
- Graco Contempo Highchair safety recall.
- Making sense of MPAA movie rating definitions.
- How to buy a notebook computer.
- Fuzzy Wuzzy family reward system.
- My kids are currently obsessed with Disney’s High School Musical.
- How to combat toilet clogs.

Something for everyone...

So if he’s such a good guy, why is he called Bad Dad? I’ll let him explain in his own words ...

I’m a 'bad dad'… My kids tell me that so it must be true. Sometimes I feel that way. But ultimately I try to do the right thing, and hey, that’s what counts, right?
We have four boys. We’ve learned the hard way that once you're outnumbered, you are constantly on the defensive trying manage the chaos.
Truth be told, I’d probably rather be sleeping all day and watching TV all night. But I’ve been *blessed* with children and responsibility.
These are my mis-adventures in parenting. It’s been bumpy. Maybe you can relate to them. I hope you enjoy the ride. Perhaps we’ll both learn something along the way.

syntax and soul - Dick Richards

Dick Richards has added an outlet for his writing and the new site happens to focus on writing; Syntax and Soul.

Enter into writing to find release from cultural intoxication, from impulses to imbibe of sedatives freely offered: consumerism, entertainment, and violence. From ego gratification. Beyond the point of entry lies a gentle force that will employ you as an instrument of its aims.

Enter into writing to find heightened perception. Alertness will descend unasked for. Your entire world will inspire you. Lobelia and wrens will offer keys to what is unwritten.

Enter into writing to find what you believe. What you believe gives shape to what you see, and to what you say and do. What you see, say and do gives shape to what you receive.

Enter into writing to find community with like-minded others.

Read the full posting here.

This particular post is very similar to what Terry wrote and I responded to.

Check out Dick's new place for writing.

From the archives

While busy with the Franklin (MA) budget problem, and while the GEL related web sites are gathered, you can always go exploring in the archives.

A good cruising exercise would be to go to April for 2006 and see what you can find.

If you are really daring, dip into April of 2005 and see what you find there!

The trail is still open, all it takes is a click to get on your way...

Man-o-Pause - Nicolette Beard

The trail takes this 40 year-old hiker to a place with the fetching title of man-o-pause - a place where Nicolette Beard aims to provide "insightful commentary on issues facing men (in) midlife".

A woman writing about male midlife crises and challenges? I'm intrigued...

She says of herself:

I am a woman who, through hard won experience and sincere striving, has learned from life and wants to provide some answers to your deeply held questions.

From a young age, I sought the deeper meaning of life. And my life did not dissapoint.

I learned about the nature of addiction, anger, building a business, bosses & bullies, childbirth, career & competition, death, depression, divorce, failure, faith, fear, friendship & goodness, hope, injustice, jealousy, joy, love & marriage, mental illness, motherhood, patience & pain, opportunity, relationship, sibling rivalry, success,
suffering, teen angst, tolerance, worry and work. Not necessarily in that order.

I am a wife, mother and entrepreneur. To be a bridge-builder between men and women, parents and children, community and the world-at-large would be my greatest joy.

When asked by a Canadian journalist (about midlife crisis) "Do you see this passage as a spiritual crisis?", Nicolette replies,

All crises, on some level, are spiritual. It's an attempt of the human being (the Self) to transcend the strictures of the past, the limitations of his personality and to evolve to become better than he was - to serve in a greater capacity in the future.

Crisis is an indication that something isn't working. The struggle comes with the "deciding" phase. A teenager is deciding who he is, a parent is deciding how to parent a difficult child, a college graduate is deciding what profession to pursue, and a midlife man is deciding what his future will look like. These are daily struggles we all experience.But once you've made a decision, then you experience a breakthrough to a path that serves you and, ultimately, humanity better.

For the whole interview, read the full posting here.

Categories include:

Baby Boomers Finding Life Purpose Leaving the Rat Race Male Humor Male Menopause Masculine Virtues Men & Money Men & Self-image Men's Movement Men Stuff Men & Women Visionary Men

Light blogging alert

Franklin is facing a budget override and I anticipate that I will be busy helping to get the vote turned out for May 22.

It really is a mayday call to Franklin. The Town Council decision to put forward a $2.7 Million Proposition 2 ½ override still leaves all departments short of their budget requests and will require cuts to the services provided for in the current fiscal year.

Exactly what that means to Franklin is still being sorted out. Amongst the items discussed IF the override passes would still be approx 25-30 school personnel cuts, Fire, Police, DPW cuts, library shut. Stay tuned for the details.

IF the override fails, the picture gets worse real quick!



PS - check the scrolling headlines for Steve's 2 Cents to keep up with the override.

Easter Welcome

Easter Welcome 1
Originally uploaded by shersteve.

The story has it that the pineapple was a "welcome" symbol for the clipper ship captains when they returned home from a voyage to their New England home port; Boston, Salem, Newport, etc. The captain would stick a pineapple on the front stair post and thereby neighbors and friends would know the captain was home.

It is cool today in New England, about 35 F so it won't be too inviting to sit outside and have a conversation.

If you do visit, make yourself comfortable amongst the archives.

Think or Thwim -- Jeff Buscher

The Trail swings by Jeff Bushcer's place at Think or Thwim.

The qualities I like most about Jeff are that he's smart, he's interested in everything, and he's funny. Just take a look at an excerpt from his About page, and you'll see what I mean.

My name is Jeff Buscher. I’m a 440 month old boy. I don’t wear a watch, and I’ve never peed in a swimming pool.

Karma: Neutral

Bats/Throws: Right/Right

Special power(s): Superhuman hearing (only used for good)

Residency: usa… Shut up. I didn’t vote for him.

Favorite Pick-up Line: “I’d like to check you for ticks” -Brad Paisley

And then take a gander at some of the topics he blogs about. Talk about an inquisitive and lively mind! He'll haveyou laughing while you learn.

humor documentaries investing insight innovation art presentations politics neurologymusic applications comedians energy architecture things ive learned technology researchmedia google computers ze frank scott adams parenting elections design writing wikipediavoting stanford spirituality open source interviews fairness education congress chinablogging bittorrent advertising time lapse videos the daily show the colbert report stephen colbert robotics personal development iraq housing green energy google techtalks dilbertbikes time this american life the show the mit media lab the hive mind stratfor slow motionsavants quotes my son meditation inspiration how tos graduation fish firefox drawing darpacommencements classes charts cars california bill clinton barry ritholtz autism appleanimation 3d printing youtube world development wordpress woodworking wireless powerwhiteboards websites voting machines viacom travel trains the urban challenge the grand challenge the bbc tesla roadsters sustainability stewart brand startups stanley solar powersketch understanding shanghai self esteem seizures second life search revopower rapid prototyping radio lab praise poetry po bronson picasso phychics philips penn and teller pbspbase paul graham open source npr netflix movies michael chorost math maps makelinerider kevin kelly ken wilber jon stewart john mccain john walkenbach jimmy wales jeff han james randi ira glass intelligence inspiration hans rosling haiku guitar graphs google maps google trends fusion free speech

Jeff's the kind of guy with whom I could imagine talking late into the night on all manner of serious and silly topics, and coming away the wiser and wittier for it.

Cribbaholics Unanimous

The trail shuffles the deck to find a site devoted to an old faithful card game: cribbage. Yes, cribbage, where 29 is heaven, 28 is almost heaven and 19 is impossible.

Joe's recent posts are titled:

• Catholics, Cribbage and lazy wives...
• All things great and pegged...
• Cribbage keeps your brain young...

You get the idea. If you have a fancy for a peg, this is one site to visit.

You might also want to explore Crash Cribbage, a variation on the old game!

So with this shuffle of the deck, you get two sites, three posts, and the right variation or in cribbage scoring vocabulary: 15 for 2, a run of three, and the right jack for a total of six.

CoComment removed due to problem

You may have noticed some long delays loading the page today. I am not sure when it started but was at least occurring during the time I was blogging this Tuesday evening. Near as I could tell, the page load slowness was due to CoComment having some problems. Their site was not reachable. Their blog was not accessible. So for the time being the widget was removed.


We'll see what CoComment says about this when they get back online and determine how to proceed.


Technorati Tags: CoComment, problem, widget

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Out of the Cube - Verna Wilder

The trail turns to Out of the Cube, where Verna writes on her experiences in this new non-corporate world. For example, she writes:

My young friend is 20. The best thing I can do for him is listen, agree that breaking up sucks, and share my own experiences, some of them recent. I realized when I was talking to him yesterday that the one thing I could offer him that he might know was that he will be happy again. Experience teaches us that feelings are just feelings, and no matter how awful they are in the moment, they pass. He may not know how to hold hope, so as an older person who loves him and who knows, I can hold hope for him. I can say, "Hey, if you forget, call me, OK? Any time, even in the middle of the night."

Read Verna's full posting here.

She writes about trying to remember how to dance the Mashed Potato:

This is not a day I would want to find anyone looking in my window to see what I'm doing. Not that I'd welcome that on any day, but today I'm trying to remember how to dance the Mashed Potatoes. OK, ask the obvious question: So Verna, why are you trying to remember how to dance the Mashed Potatoes?

Read more to find out how Verna did here.

Consider adding Verna's site to your RSS Reader to follow her escapades "Out of the Cube"!

NeverEndingSearch - Joyce Valenza

The trail stops in the library to read what insights Joyce Valenza is sharing on her blog, NeverEndingSearch.

Like the new rules to survive:

Ask Later: Don’t say, “But I can’t” or “But what about. . .?” Many of us are working ahead of the rules. So, if what you plan to do is instructionally sound, if you are not breaking any rules, and if no children will be hurt in the process, then exercise some academic freedom. Do it. Make it a success. Do it before someone thinks of a reason why you should not. If you wait for explicit permission, you will miss the bus.

Train Thyself: The stuff we are working with is pretty new. Don’t wait till the big expert comes to town with the most convenient workshop. You cannot wait for the annual conference. Visit any conference that interests you via webcast or podcast. Find someone else who wants to learn, who may know a little more and train each other. Seek the training you need and learn it yourself. And this is related to another new rule. .

Read Joyce's full post here.

On using tools like Flickr:

I was showing a teacher Fastr yesterday. (Fastr is the game that pulls together Flickr images as you rush to guess how folks have tagged those images.) We are starting a new project and we wanted to introduce the importance of good tags, or lots of tags, to improve access.

Then it occurred to me that was thinking inside the box again. I was playing in English! I ran down the hall to visit with the German, French, and Spanish teachers and they went nuts over Fastr as tool to introduce and reinforce target language vocabulary, and to discuss nuance in language.

Read Joyce's full posting here.

If you have interest in improving education, then add Joyce's blog to your RSS Reader and hang in there for the ride!

It could get worse 2.0 - Marcus Brown

The trail finds itself in Germany today. How it got there, it cannot recall but look what it found!

Marcus Brown has a partner in Sacrum who says:

I have mission! I want to leave Europe and work in Great Empire where advertising goodness happens. So I pack bags and go when called. I apply to your agency and you employ, yes? Yes! You call I come and bring cognitive knowledges and pencils.

Marcus has started week one:

If you've never been here before you may want to read this first. If you can't be bothered I'll tell you anyway. Paul Colman and a friend had a run in with an avalanche and got lifted of a mountain by mountain rescue. I've pleged to paint a painting, document it here and then sell it, with the money going to the gentlemen in a helicopter that saved them. Today is week one.

Check out the work in progress.

Consider adding this site to your RSS Reader.
Consider adding Sacrum to your RSS Reader.

How about that, another 2 for 1 deal!

2000Bloggers

What was once a fun thing to join is now continuing to grow. The count when visiting to draft this posting was already at 1730 pictures and growing. Pretty soon, 2000Bloggers will really be 2000!

Welcome to 2k Bloggers

Ever wondered what the blogosphere looks like? Well, this is what it looks like. See the blogosphere.

We're bloggers from all walks of life, from mommy bloggers to marketing bloggers: Some are SEO experts, some are writers, some are sports enthusiasts, some are affiliate marketers, some are business professionals, some are political... ALL HAVE OPINIONS!!!

We're a community of bloggers dedicated to sharing. Our writers write on various topics; we're all about variety and diversity.

I for one, have appreciated the traffic and the opportunity to go exploring. Were there be one post per, it would take 8 years of weekday posts to cover the 2000! And yet the blogosphere continues to grow...

Add this site to your RSS Reader and appreciate the diversity!

Freaked Out Fathers - Peter Aldin

Sometimes the Hitchhikers don't have to go too far to find a good blog. Sometimes, the blogger finds you. Such was the case when Peter left a comment about Sgt Pepper turning 40. His grandparents gave the album to him when he was 11. Now that is a set of grandparents! It is no wonder that Peter is a remarkable guy.

He writes in his about page:

My name is Peter Aldin, married man and father of two boys. Apart from my contribution to populating the planet, I’m also founder of Great Circle Life Coaching.

My greatest success in life has come from empowering others to succeed. The last 12 years have found me…

• Life-coaching and counseling - over 6 years in areas of business communication, family communication, leadership, motivation, vocational guidance, time-management, personal boundary-setting, instructional design and goal-setting
• Delivering and designing courses and workshops for a variety of participants from professionals to church leaders to parents
  
• Delivering and designing competency-based training in tertiary colleges and retail businesses (for franchisees like Subway, Mitre 10 hardware, McDonalds and Mobil Quix convenience stores)
• Delivering Call Centre induction training (yes, I have a lot to answer for there, don’t I?)
• Developing a youth mentoring network (Nexus Youth Keysborough) - which still operates in my absence
  
• Supporting the needs of a small community of Cambodian migrants through pastoral care
• Co-designing and co-facilitating the Opening Doors program for longterm unemployed - with emphases on motivation, goal setting and jobseeking strategy - with successful placement outcomes

So you get two blogs for one click today. One humorous one at Freaked-out Fathers and one more serious one at Great Circle.

I like the part about

Why “Great Circle”?

Great Circle refers to the method sailors and pilots use to navigate their way around a sphere ( the Earth!). Great circle navigation requires both factual knowledge of earth geography and a willingness to think “counter-intuitively”. In a complex world, instinct and habit often drive us off course rather than steering us toward success and satisfaction. Our instinct is to plot our course in straight lines, but the world simply doesn’t operate that way. Reality often demands that we find ways which run contrary to our instincts when trying to reach our goals and aspirations. This is why some of our best ideas and best intentions are often frustratingly slow to achieve or even - sadly - unrealized. Great Circle is about re-learning and re-thinking our approach to family and business dynamics and relationships. In this way, we actually get to where we want to go and we often do so faster…

Check out Peter's sites. You'll be glad you did!

Teaching with Aloha blog

The Hitchhikers found Rosa Say and her Talking Story blog once upon a time.

Dean Boyer found Rosa and Managing with Aloha once upon a time.

Together they have created "Teaching with Aloha".

Dean writes:

I have always loved school, even my eleven years in college! I had difficult experiences like everyone else but I enjoyed learning. Memories include field trips to Helm's bakery, seaside tidepools and a naval aircraft carrier. Teachers like Mrs. Hurt, who seemed to like you as long as you were not her student, Mr. McClure's plastic bat which he would use as a pointer and "wake-up" tool (the class pooled their money to buy him a new bat at the end of the year), Mr. Steele's "heads will roll" and Mrs. Schweitzer's first day opening comment, "Good morning ladies and gentlemen...and others." Yes, I enjoyed school.

I still enjoy the exciting school atmosphere where hundreds of children's lives collide and blend with each other. After a 30 year career as a teacher, principal and superintendent, I remain energized. I expect schools to provide cultures of transformation, healing, counsel and wonder. For this deeper work to occur, teachers must teach and administrators must lead from their hearts.

Teaching with Aloha encourages educators to do their challenging, inestimable work from the heart so that some day, perhaps 40-50 years later, their students will be able to say, "I loved school!"

Rosa writes:

Teaching with Aloha was created as a resource for all who teach as an expression of the aloha they wish to share with others. If you teach, instruct, educate, train, coach and mentor, Teaching with Aloha is here for you.

We are a collaborative work in progress, just recently created in February of 2007

There have been some thoughtful posts on:

• Ordinary into Extraordinary!
• Valuing the Whole Child
• Lockdown!
• Four Days with Rosa!
• Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Peppermint Patty

If you are any fan of Rosa, you will want to add this site to your RSS Reader. She and Dean are off to a great start. Join the conversation!

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

The trail was winding it was along and came upon this as a link within another blog. Followed the link. Had a devil of a time trying to find out what ASCD was an acronym for? Only was able to find it on the footer of the web site. Anyway, they had a conference in Anaheim, CA recently. There are lots of good postings on their blog which is what we will focus on here.

Recent posts include:

• Stand and Be Heard: Edelman's Ed. Advocacy
• Partnering to Provide Formative Assessments
• The Best and the Bard
• Around the Conference: Sunday
• Shaping the Story of the Whole Child
• Four Acceptable F Words in an Urban High School
• An Inner-City Success Story
• Around the Conference: Saturday
• Why Can't Schools Be More Like Businesses?

If you are interested in maintaining some currency with educators, this would be one place to visit.

episteme - Mike Murray

So, if you're not sending a resume, how do you do it? (I could just stop here and say read my book) Really, it comes down to two skills, which are the opposite sides of the same coin:

1. Build a personal brand: as Jory says in the article, use social media, blogs, podcasts, industry groups, articles, etc. to get known.

2. Meet people who are looking for people like you and find alignment between their needs and yours. This is really the key that leads most people to say that networking is an important job skill. If you know enough people (and enough people know you), you'll be top of mind when it's time to hire someone.

This is how most "successful" (defined by me as "people who are doing what they want to do") people are getting their best jobs.

Read the full posting here.

That was a question asked by Anne in a recent post on Enthusiasm. In context, Anne stated:

"So it all comes down to this: how do you define a whore. I guess you define one as somebody who sells themselves more cheaply than you’d be willing to sell yourself. And where you draw the line depends on the opportunities before you. So those that have tons of opportunities look at those that have only a few and think: “they are whoring themselves” because they’d never sell themselves for so little."

Read Mike's full posting here.

And if these teasers have wet your appetite, then the trail stop here at Mike Murray's episteme might be worth your while and you should consider adding this site to your RSS Reader.

Daniel Goleman - Emotional Intelligence

The trail makes a stop at the blog of Daniel Goleman where his bio reads in part:

Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist who lectures frequently to professional groups, business audiences, and on college campuses. Working as a science journalist, Goleman reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times for many years. His 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books) was on The New York Times bestseller list for a year-and-a-half; with more than 5,000,000 copies in print worldwide in 30 languages it has been a best seller in many countries.

His latest book, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, was published in September 2006. Social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence, can now be understood in terms of recent findings from neuroscience. Goleman’s book describes the many implications of this new science, including for altruism, parenting, love, health, learning and leadership.

Recent posts were titled:

• The Trouble with IQ
• Inspired Learning
• Resonant Leaders
• The Day Care Debate
• Flame First, Think Later: New Clues to E-mail Misbehavior
• A Safe Haven for Learning
• Emotional Contagion and Customer Satisfaction

Where a good number of author or book blogs are simply placeholders and infrequently updated, this site is active. If emotional intelligence is an area to follow, then this site is a must stop for you!

Behind the Glasses

The trail makes a stop in Croatia where Grigor writes on his about page:

My name is Grigor Ćorić and I was born 38 years ago in Zagreb, Croatia.
There is not much to say about that.
That’s past, anyway.

Now

I still live in Zagreb, Croatia together with my better half Marijana and daughter Tamara.
Part of the day I spend working as an IS Performance Manager in InBev.
Rest of the day I continue trying to improve.
I even bought a recorder (you know: small wooden tube with holes) recently and I learn how to use it.

Someday

I have stared blogging recently in a hope that I can share some of my thoughts and ideas to make both weblife and reallife little better.

Grigor writes about presentations

A better preparation consists of following steps:

1. Prepare the presentation.
2. Prepare the setting.
3. Prepare the audience.
4. Prepare yourself.
5. Prepare the collateral material.
6. Prepare for questions.
7. Prepare for next time.

Of course, know the subject you present.

Read Grigor's full posting here.

Grigor writes about using GTD at meetings:

There is a way to improve the way you conduct meetings in your organization by applying GTD methodology from the other side. In usual GTD implementation you would process items which came to your inbox and decide how should you treat each of them: do something with it, delegate it to somebody else, deffer it or delete it. We can say that you would pull items from inbox and process them. If we look from the other side of the inbox, where the bunch of things exists, we can ask ourselves whether we can use the same method to somehow extract those things that are worth our attention.

Read the full posting here.

Consider subscribing to Grigor's "Behind the Glasses".

TailRank

The trail stops this time at a memetracker called TailRank where their about page says:

What's Tailrank?

Tailrank is a memetracker which finds the hottest posts from thousands of blogs so you don't have to!

How does it work?

We find the hottest stories by tracking conversations between blogs.

Tailrank takes into consideration linking behavior, the text of the post, links in common with other users, text relevance, weblog ranking, past performance, and various other factors for recommendations.

You can review the top memes in General, Technology, Politics, Entertainment, or Video.

For example, did you hear about the USB version of DDR?

Do you want to hear about the latest in politics?

Do you know this was L'Oreal Fashion Week?

If you did not, but want to, then TailRank is the site for you!

Sharp Brains

From a MyBlogLog reference picked up via my review of "This is Your Brain on Music", I find this site and blog focused on the brain and activities to keep it healthy; Sharp Brain.

Recent posts include:

• Training the Brains of Fighter Pilots and Basketball Players
• Training the brain with a computer workout program: MindFit
• Brain Fitness: Shift Happens
• I have to exercise my brain, too
• Brain Teaser: how are Memory, Stress, Exercise, Brain Games, Stanford and Harvard connected?

The mission is:

Our mission is to make Brain Fitness available to all by raising public awareness and helping bring to market neuroscience-based products and programs, a.k.a. "brain gyms".

If you would like to keep your brain healthy, check this site out!

the accidental yogist - joni

The trail takes a turn in Los Angeles where we find joni who writes at the accidental yogist:

i write about all the facets of yoga life in los angeles: the studios, the teachers, the events, and everything else that continues to make LA the yoga capital that it is.

so go ahead and try something new. it just might spice up your yoga practice!

why "the accidental yogist"? after seriously injuring my knee in a skiing accident in december 2004, i started dabbling in yoga classes while taking a prescribed break from long distance running. in time, i found that not only was yoga good for my knee and the rest of my body, but it was also good for my mind. -- this is a chronicle of my journey so far...

joni writes:

after publishing my last post on this weekend's peace march which will mark the 4th anniversary of the war on iraq, i found this piece about how yoga has been helping war vets cope with post traumatic stress disorder. it aired on NPR's morning edition last march 1st.

Read joni's full posting here.

Consider subscribing to the accidental yogist.