Matthew Stibbe is giving away his ebook on his website, BadLanguage.net. No, it isn’t about that. It’s called 30 Days to Better Business Writing.
All posts by philwade
Friday Fight: Longspear
With Lars going to the Festival of Nations, leaving the blog to me, and with May coming tomorrow and it being National Honesty Day today, I think I need to post a live steel combat video. Here’s one from the Skjaldborg group.
Theory Into Game
Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do is a guessing game from Albert-László Barabási who claims that “despite the seeming randomness of human behavior, humans actually act in very predictable patterns.” Looks like fun.
Modern Day Solutions to Fiscal Irresponsibility
Disney to buy Greece for $120 billion – Alice Schroeder writes a column she anticipates being published in eight months:
Morgan Stanley topped 2010 global debt-and-equity league tables and broke banking records by representing Walt Disney Co. in its $120 billion acquisition of Greece.
… Already under construction are Space Mountain Olympus, the Pirates of the Aegean water theme park covering hundreds of nautical miles, the Little Mermaid Harpoon thrill ride, and “Trojan,” a multimedia adventure that the company reassured shareholders yesterday will not be adult-themed. . . . The market was filled yesterday with speculation about similar deals, including reports that Diageo Plc is in discussions with Ireland, Spain and Portugal, three countries known for their alcohol production and consumption.
There Was an Old Man from . . . Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One
It’s still April, National Poetry Month, so I am compelled by the forces of nature and nature’s stewards, your neighborhood climatologists, to post a substantive poem for your cultural enrichment. What better choice could I make than an Edward Lear limerick.
There was an Old Person whose habits,
Induced him to feed upon rabbits;
When he’d eaten eighteen,
He turned perfectly green,
Upon which he relinquished those habits.
But wait! If you act now, you can get two limericks for the price of one.
There was a Young Lady whose eyes,
Were unique as to colour and size;
When she opened them wide,
People all turned aside,
And started away in surprise.
Genius & Diligence
Are We Powerful Beyond Measure?
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
I heard part of this quote in the good movie Akeelah and the Bee. Akeelah was told to read it from a framed copy on her spelling coach’s wall. They attributed it to no one, and I see that some people falsely claim it comes from Nelson Mandela. But the quote comes from a motivational speaker named Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love. She is extracting an idea she draws from A Course in Miracles, which is New Age self-help material from the 60s.
Having learned that, I guess I’m a little embarrassed the quote resonated with me so much. Continue reading Are We Powerful Beyond Measure?
Overstreet on Paying Attention
Jeffrey Overstreet talks art all of the time. Find him at a coffee bar, and you’ll hear him talking art. He doesn’t give directions to his dry cleaners without literary allusion. Here’s a quote from an interview with Heather Goodman:
If an artist focuses on the idea, the compulsion, the inspiration, then questions about how to engage the audience will probably find their answers along the way. I think a great deal of contemporary art is compromised and weakened by too much concern about who’s out there paying attention, and what they want to see. An artist’s first responsibility is to listen, and then to engage whatever questions or ideas or mysteries they’re encountering.
My favorite stories and movies don’t give me a sense that an artist is eager to please. They give me the feeling that I’ve stumbled onto a project that has the full attention of its artist. . . .
The Auralia Thread is being criticized by some readers of Christian fiction because it contains things that readers of Christian fiction don’t like to read. And it doesn’t have feel-good conclusions or obvious allegories, which readers of Christian fiction sometimes want. Well, perhaps that’s because I was just writing the story that seemed best to me . . .
A Modern Hamlet
Sir Patrick Stewart and David Tennant will portray Claudius and Hamlet in a BBC production of Shakespeare’s play to be shown on PBS’ Great Performances tomorrow night and online afterward. Watch a trailer for it on the Great Performances site.
Stop Tweeting Your Life Away
Miley Cyrus is coming to grips with life in the 21st century. She has stopped tweeting and uses the web less often than she used to. “I’m a lot less on my phone, I’m a little bit more social,” she says. “I have a lot more real friends as opposed to friends who are on the Internet who I’m talking to — which is like not cool, not safe, not fun and most likely not real. I think everything is just better when you’re not so wrapped up in [the Internet].”
Of course, she doesn’t read BwB, so that part of her life (that very small part) is malnourished.