For what it's worth, I now have a blog over at Tumblr (I think it's technically called a tumbelog or somesuch). It's here: http://mattlowe.tumblr.com/
I think that's where I'll post most things now, as it's very easy to post photos, clips, music, web snippets etc even from your iPod Touch or iPhone (so it'll probably mean a few more posts). It also has a very slick interface and the Dashboard feature lets you see all the new posts of people you follow in one cohesive view...
I might still post here for the long, rambling things I trot out from time to time...
M
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Discuss|TED
Don't know if you've caught up with - or even heard of - the TED conferences (TED = Technology, Entertainment, Design), but they certainly produce some excellent, food-for-thought messages. And not just in the limited spheres that the acronym might suggest.
Some are inspiring, some confronting, some are funny, some just take a simple idea (like "slowness") and expand the discussion around that theme with some novel insights. Some you certainly won't agree with, of course, but that's precisely what's great about it: diverse but passionate people getting together to share ideas and present contrasting views. I love hearing people articulate what they are passionate about, and what they believe in, even if (no, especially if) I disagree: the process of them articulating their view forces me to rethink and better articulate mine and - in some cases - to meld the two to a greater or lesser extent.
The messages are freely available on the TED website (you can subscribe via RSS or via iTunes), and many, many of them are well worth a look. Such diverse topics from Dodo birds to de-stressing our busy lives to finding your creative voice to behaving ethically and morally in a modern world to living in strict literal accordance to the Bible for a full year to poverty and disease in Africa to letting-go of God to...well, you get the idea.
The conference tagline is "Ideas Worth Spreading" and, from what I've seen, that's usually the case. So I will...spreading just a few to get you started...
This one (above) is on Schools killing creativity: "if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." "We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we are educated out of it". Have you ever thought of Shakespeare as a 7-year old in somebody's English class? Very, very funny (very British humour eg. "when my son was four, in England...actually he was four everywhere...if we're being strict about it he was four everywhere we went that year") and a very valuable, important message.
On women being better at multi-tasking:
Here are some others on creativity (I don't agree with some what she says, but it's an interesting view), on the loss of wisdom, on a very obscure but sweet love story from a man to his wife (the excellent John Hodgman - yes, "PC" from those Mac ads), on an experiment to live biblically for a year and finally, i'll link to a fantastic young orchestra and their young conductor. There are hundreds more for you to navigate through and even download to your iPod etc.
Enjoy.
ML
Some are inspiring, some confronting, some are funny, some just take a simple idea (like "slowness") and expand the discussion around that theme with some novel insights. Some you certainly won't agree with, of course, but that's precisely what's great about it: diverse but passionate people getting together to share ideas and present contrasting views. I love hearing people articulate what they are passionate about, and what they believe in, even if (no, especially if) I disagree: the process of them articulating their view forces me to rethink and better articulate mine and - in some cases - to meld the two to a greater or lesser extent.
The messages are freely available on the TED website (you can subscribe via RSS or via iTunes), and many, many of them are well worth a look. Such diverse topics from Dodo birds to de-stressing our busy lives to finding your creative voice to behaving ethically and morally in a modern world to living in strict literal accordance to the Bible for a full year to poverty and disease in Africa to letting-go of God to...well, you get the idea.
The conference tagline is "Ideas Worth Spreading" and, from what I've seen, that's usually the case. So I will...spreading just a few to get you started...
This one (above) is on Schools killing creativity: "if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." "We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we are educated out of it". Have you ever thought of Shakespeare as a 7-year old in somebody's English class? Very, very funny (very British humour eg. "when my son was four, in England...actually he was four everywhere...if we're being strict about it he was four everywhere we went that year") and a very valuable, important message.
On women being better at multi-tasking:
"If my wife is cooking a meal at home...which is not often...thankfully...(she is good at some things)...if she's cooking she's dealing with people on the phone, she's talking to the kids, she's painting the ceiling, she's doing open heart surgery over here. If I'm cooking, the door is shut, the kids are out, the phone's on the hook. If she comes in, I get annoyed. I say, "Terri please, I'm trying to fry an egg in here, give me a break."Well worth watching.
Here are some others on creativity (I don't agree with some what she says, but it's an interesting view), on the loss of wisdom, on a very obscure but sweet love story from a man to his wife (the excellent John Hodgman - yes, "PC" from those Mac ads), on an experiment to live biblically for a year and finally, i'll link to a fantastic young orchestra and their young conductor. There are hundreds more for you to navigate through and even download to your iPod etc.
Enjoy.
ML
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Post? Traumatic stress.
My Mum and my younger sister have a thing at the moment where the words "Should" and "Try" are verboten. Evidently, both are extremely negative, self-defeating and close neighbours of guilt, failure and depression (the words, that is, not my Mum and sister). So, with that in mind, I won't say that I should have posted something by now, or that I'll try to get back in the habit. "Do or do not, there is no try", as some wise old Jedi once said.
So if it's OK with you, I'll just press on and we'll forget about the whole hiatus thing: you don't want to read paragraphs of me apologising, and I don't want to write them.
OK, so what has happened since the last update? Soooo very much. So much that I think just listing the events in even one or two words might have to suffice. There's been...OK...I started listing things, but stopped because:
1. There's just too much
2. I wouldn't do anything justice just by listing it here
3. I'd miss some things and don't want to unintentionally offend anyone by leaving out anything important
4. I'm not sure there's much point looking backwards over the last few months, when there are so many interesting things to talk about that are happening right now
5. Lists are overrated (and even this one is no exception).
So I'm going to end this post, rather than dwell any longer on what I haven't done. Seems a bit more positive, and I'm sure it's the approach that my Mum and my sister would gently encourage me toward. I'll save the energy, time, and keystrokes for another, more topical post soon.
ML
So if it's OK with you, I'll just press on and we'll forget about the whole hiatus thing: you don't want to read paragraphs of me apologising, and I don't want to write them.
OK, so what has happened since the last update? Soooo very much. So much that I think just listing the events in even one or two words might have to suffice. There's been...OK...I started listing things, but stopped because:
1. There's just too much
2. I wouldn't do anything justice just by listing it here
3. I'd miss some things and don't want to unintentionally offend anyone by leaving out anything important
4. I'm not sure there's much point looking backwards over the last few months, when there are so many interesting things to talk about that are happening right now
5. Lists are overrated (and even this one is no exception).
So I'm going to end this post, rather than dwell any longer on what I haven't done. Seems a bit more positive, and I'm sure it's the approach that my Mum and my sister would gently encourage me toward. I'll save the energy, time, and keystrokes for another, more topical post soon.
ML
Thursday, January 01, 2009
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