Tag Archives: Personal

Be Your Own Therapist

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ABSTRACT

We spend our lives being seduced by the outside world, believing without question that happiness and suffering come from “out there.” In reality, Buddhist teachings explain that they come from the way we perceive and interpret things, not the things themselves.

This deeply held misconception is at the root of our dissatisfaction, self-doubt, anger, depression, anxiety, and the rest. But our minds can change. By becoming deeply familiar with the workings of our own cognitive processes through introspection and learning to deconstruct them – truly, being our own therapists – we can loosen the grip of these neuroses and grow our marvelous potential for contentment, clarity, and courage, which are at the core of our being.

… very very deep!

Do what you love …

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Rob wrote a wonderful piece earlier this week on Passion, personal brand and doing what you love. We’ve both spent time reflecting, individually, on how our paths led us to Talis and the work we are now doing. We’ve also discussed this subject on a number of occasions and I think we’ve both reached the same conclusion – life is too short to waste it away doing something you dont love. It takes time to come to a realisation like this, and sadly, it often require some external event to force you to stop and reflect on your life, how you got to where you are and most importantly where is it your heading. I know some people describe this as a kind of awakening, and I guess if you honestly believe that life is a journey then it’s moments such as these that can feel like a fork in the road…

One path leads back to the world that you know, its the world that you’ve become used to, it’s the world in which you don’t have to love what you do to get by, it feels comfortable because there is no risk, you don’t have to deal with the unknown too often, you don’t have to rock the boat. In many ways you’ve already reached a destination … or is it more true to say that you’ve reached an empasse?

The other path leads to somewhere else, unfortunately you don’t know what’s down there. You don’t necessarily even know where you’re going. Here’s the thing though … maybe you don’t have to care about the destination, maybe it’s less about the where, and much more about the how?

I guess that’s how I see things these days. There’s a part of me that believes that if do what I love, then it won’t feel like my life is just slipping away, one monotonous day to the next. I lived my life like that once, it’s so easy to do, you become so used to it that you don’t even realise that something is wrong … I actually had to come to within a heartbeat of losing my life before I realised that life is far to precious a gift to waste like that. To spend so much of it doing something that I felt completely indifferent towards, even hated at times … Isn’t it fascinating how the the worst prisons are the ones we create for ourselves?

There’s two quotes I want to end with, the first is from Paul Graham’s essay entitled How to do what you love, I remember reading it a couple of years ago, and although I don’t agree with some of it, it’s still a wonderful piece. His essay ends with this obeservation:

Finding work you love is very difficult. Most people fail. Even if you succeed, it’s rare to be free to work on what you want till your thirties or forties. But if you have the destination in sight you’ll be more likely to arrive at it. If you know you can love work, you’re in the home stretch, and if you know what work you love, you’re practically there.

The second quote is much shorter, but far more profound, you see for me loving what I do is a part of a much greater truth, one that underpins everything I’ve said, and I think almost everything I now hold dear:

There is life in every breath

Anime Reviews: Sky Blue, Vexille and X

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Vexille

Set in the year 2077 relations between Japan and the rest of the world have deteriorated to the extent that the country has cut off all communication with the other inhabitants of Earth. Vexille is a female commander who leads a team of U.S. special forces, named SWORD, who have been charged with infiltrating Japan to discover the potentially dangerous technological advances the country is making. Their mission, and their discoveries, reveal that the Japanese have created a new breed of android virtually indistinguishable from human beings. I really enjoyed this movie, which came as no real surprise because it was made by the same people that created excellent Appleseed. The sound is excellent, and the visuals use the same superb blend of 2D and 3D animation that made Appleseed so memorable. This movie is not dubbed into English which might disappoint some people, I personally don’t mind watching it in Japanese with subtitles. If you like Appleseed then you’ll almost certainly love this, whilst it is somewhat formulaic the action is breathtaking.


Sky Blue
An environmental catastrophe has left the future of mankind in the year 2140 fighting against extinction. Slaves inhabit the outside world whilst the lucky ones live in comfort in Ecoban. One man dares to fight against the injustice – he enters the city to find its secrets and bring freedom to the slaves who have been consigned to an early death. This movie had me captivated from start to finish. The animation is flawless and the attention to details is absolutely breathtaking. This film also uses a blend of 2D and 3D animation and actually surpasses almost every other such anime I’ve seen ( yes that includes Appleseed!). The plot is somewhat convoluted and the ending did leave me with more questions rather than answers, yet to me that didn’t take away from how much I enjoyed the movie.


X
I have no idea where to start with this. It has to be one of the most confusing anime’s I have seen, yet it’s absolutely briliant. This falls squarely into the realms of old skool anime. Yet I have to admit I enjoyed it. It is pretty violent, so I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is squeamish. In a nutshell its about good vs evil. Tokyo is the city where the final battle between the Dragon of Earth and the Dragon of Heaven will take place The Dragon of Earth wants to wipe out humankind because of the damage people have inflicted on the Earth, while the Dragon of Heaven is fighting to protect civilisation. At the centre of all this is Kamui, the chosen one, who must pick a dragon to fight for. It’s a deeply philosophical movie, far more so than I expected. It also has that eerie haunting beauty that makes it so memorable. Definitly one to watch.

The Lucifer Effect: How ordinary people becomes monsters … or heroes

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Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge. Some of the imagery in the talk is disturbing, yet for all the horror Zimbardo describes to us, his overarching message is one of hope.

Why do some people always complain about something, yet do nothing to change the situation?

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By far the simplest answer to this question is: complaining is easy but actively trying to change things requires work!

I always hated it when people start off a diatribe by saying “There’s two kinds of people in this world …”, yet I find that I’m about to do exactly that. It feels to me that you’re either the kind of person that see’s something that’s wrong and decides to do something about it openly and honestly… OR you’re the kind of person who sits there whining and complaining about things but doesn’t have courage or the conviction to get up off your ass and actually do something about whatever it is that is bugging you.

If you disagree with something, if you think you’re being treated unfairly, or you perceive that there’s some kind of injustice being perpetrated then, grow a set of balls, find you’re voice and confront the issue. You might actually find that other people lend their voice to yours and you can actually effect change, or at the very least they’ll respect you for speaking up.

I don’t require or expect anyone to agree with me over anything I do in life or write on this blog … I always speak my mind, openly and honestly, my words are my own and they reflect what I believe, and how I perceive the world around me. I hide behind no-one. I always try to change those things that I disagree with, I don’t always succeed but at least I speak up. If you don’t like me, or you feel differently to me then find your own voice, and make yourself heard and fight to change that which you disagree with … but in doing so, please, have the courage to do it openly rather than cringing like a coward behind the anonymity you’ve chosen.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
            Mahatma Ghandi

It ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit!

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Inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places occasionally you read something or in this case hear something that resonates so deeply that you can’t help but smile … 

I'd hold you up to say to your mother, "this kid's gonna be the best kid in
the world. This kid's gonna be somebody better than anybody I ever 
knew." And you grew up good and wonderful. It was great just watching 
you, every day was like a privilege. Then the time come for you to be 
your own man and take on the world, and you did. But somewhere along 
the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger 
in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you 
started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you 
something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. 
It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will 
beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, 
me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya 
hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How 
much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! 
Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. 
But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you 
ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do 
that and that ain't you! You're better than that! I'm always gonna love you 
no matter what. No matter what happens. You're my son and you're my 
blood. You're the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in 
yourself, ya ain't gonna have a life.

                                                       - Rocky Balboa

Some quick Anime reviews

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Afro Samurai
I really enjoyed this movie, it’s several genre’s rolled in to an action packed animated film. It’s not difficult to tell that the film is heavily influenced by Blacksploitaion Films, Standard Eastern Anime and Japanese culture. The visuals are exceptional, the animation is amazing. The story is simple – Revenge, ’nuff said’. I have to say though that it certainly isn’t for the feint hearted or the squeamish! Be prepared for blood, dismemberment, and some pretty strong language. The voice of the Afro Samurai is provided by the uber-cool Samuel L. Jackson, and the voice of his nemesis is provided by the bone-chillingly evil Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Alien Resurrection). At 175 minutes long the movie was originally a short series, but I actually preferred watching it in one go.

Appleseed
Based on Masamune Shirow’s acclaimed manga, APPLESEED is a haunting and thrilling vision of an apocalyptic future in which human life is slowly being controlled by a new breed of Biodroids, creatures that are half android, half man. In this future, the remnants of the world’s governments create a city named Olympus designed to be a utopia. However, this utopia is controlled by the Biodroids, and soon the human population has had enough. Rallying together a band of terrorists, the humans decide that they must destroy Gaia, the computer that runs Olympus, thereby freeing themselves and delivering a fatal blow to the reeling superpowers.
Visually this film is stunning, the semi-cell drawn animation gives it both a 3D feeling but also allows the movie to retain a strong sense of a traditional Anime. It’s so good I converted the DVD to put onto my iPod so I can watch anywhere!

Appleseed – Ex Machina
This computer-animated feature continues the story of Deunan Knute, a woman warrior whisked away from the ruined battleground where she lives to a distant city in which mankind seems to have put its destructive past behind it. The utopia of Olympus is maintained by the Bioroids, artificial people whose emotional capabilities are diminished in order to balance the careening passions of regular human beings. As a member of ESWAT, Deunan finds herself threatened by cyborg terrorism, a surprise attack on Olympus, and the appearance of Tereus, a human doppelganger for her cyborg lover and partner Briareos. Whilst I didn’t think this was a good as the original it’s still a stunning movie that remains true to the Manga.

Lady Death
This was a pretty dark movie – Hope is a young noble woman living in 15th century Sweden who has no idea her father Matthias is actually Lucifer. When the town priest discovers his secret, Matthias escapes to Hell, leaving his daughter behind to pay for his evil. As her execution draws near, she is given a horrific choice by Pagan, one of Lucifer’s minions. When she takes Pagan up on his offer, she quickly learns why her father is “The Lord of Lies”, as she is sent to Hell, betrayed, beaten, and left for dead. Her soul undergoes a transformation and becomes vengeance incarnate, a being with awesome powers, and a strong fighting prowess. She becomes “Lady Death” and vows to overthrow Lucifer himself. Whilst it all sounds pretty silly, it was fun, I wouldn’t rate it as an Anime masterpiece but it was entertaining.

CK-12 Next Generation Textbooks

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Came across CK-12 whilst looking for information on tools and approaches used to help learners achieve their goals. It also appears as though their textbooks are available under a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike license, but I need to confirm this. It’s a really interesting project and one I’ll be watching closely:

Our mission is to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the US and worldwide, but also to empower teacher practitioners by generating or adapting content relevant to their local context. Using a collaborative and web-based compilation model that can manifest open resource content as an adaptive textbook, termed the “FlexBook”, CK-12 intends to pioneer the generation and distribution of high quality, locally and temporally relevant, educational web texts. The content generated by CK-12 and the CK-12 community will serve both as source material for a student’s learning and provide an adaptive environment that scaffolds the learner’s journey as he or she masters a standards-based body of knowledge, while allowing for passion-based learning

Also found the following Google talk that provides some useful background information from the creators of the project

… on the subject of science

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Since I’ve been ranting about the importance of science today … I recalled the following …

"The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, 
which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To 
raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new 
angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science."
   - Albert Einstein

It’s so easy to become disenchanted due, as a species, to our seemingly limitless apathy, yet what is truly regrettable is that because of that apathy it’s often hard for us to remember our achievements, and the limitless potential within us.