The world is nothing but my perception of it.

The world is nothing but my perception of it. I see only through myself. I hear only through the filter of my story. - Byron Katie
When I first heard this it pushed all my buttons, there is objective reality, things actually happen, not everything is my perception...

But the older I get, the more this feels true to me. 10,000 things happen around us every day, and what do we recall? what catches our attention? we seem to remember only the things that confirm our beliefs, give energy/attention to what filters through our story. It's true, objectively true. The death of our pet dog speaks to us more than that of 100,000 strangers. Do we remember that someone smiled at us on the subway, or bumped into us? Do we notice the bad boy or the sweet smile? We are filtering information every second, and who controls that filter? We can only see through the glass darkly. It is ironic that the more clearly we know that, the more we can see.

Kindling fears

Every so often when I switch on my kindle there is a pause, often no longer than a heartbeat, and then the machine decides to switch on. But each time it happens I create a dystopian future fantasy, where the satellites go down, the electricity is off, and we can’t even access the books to fix it, because there are no books, only these electronic versions, and power isn’t on.

It worries me this reliance on things in the ether - that we will have our version of the catastrophic fire in the Great Library of Alexandria, but in our case, it will be that the machines won’t switch on, and then where will we be? I’m surrounded by technology that I cannot understand. I never knew how a microwave works and don’t even know how a toilet flushes, what will I do if books no longer light up for me?

I think I’ll keep some basic text books on hand, just in case…

My year in facebook status updates

this is a new idea on facebook, randomly taking your updates and mixing it into some kind of text that sounds a bit like poetry... you might have to make the screen bigger to read it all, (really showing my age here!) but I like it...

Dancing with Matt

I could put this up on my facebook page, but then, I would lose it as time when on, and if I put it here, I will revist it from time to time... and smile again. I've seen bits of this video before, but love this finished product!




Dance on!

Blueberries and blogging

Two things... I am not putting up enough stuff here! I went back and reread quite a ways back and was surprised by how much I liked the stuff I had collected here. I've let it go and there's no reason for that... So now I am committed and will do better!

Secondly - someone emailed me this story and it's true in that Jaime Robert Vollmer really did write it, and also, in that a school is not a business and the essence of a business model actually doesn't help. It helps in the peripheries, but not at the core... so here's his story:



The Blueberry Story: The teacher gives the businessman a lesson

by Jamie Robert Vollmer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn't be in business very long!"
I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of in service. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife.

I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that became famous in the middle1980s when People Magazine chose our blueberry as the "Best Ice Cream in America."

I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change; they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging "knowledge society". Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by tenure and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous improvement!

In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced - equal parts ignorance and arrogance.

As soon as I finished, a woman's hand shot up. She appeared polite, pleasant -- she was, in fact, a razor-edged, veteran, high school English teacher who had been waiting to unload.

She began quietly, "We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes good ice cream."

I smugly replied, "Best ice cream in America, Ma'am."

"How nice," she said. "Is it rich and smooth?"

"Sixteen percent butterfat," I crowed.

"Premium ingredients?" she inquired.

"Super-premium! Nothing but triple A." I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming.

"Mr. Vollmer," she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, "when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?"

In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap…. I was dead meat, but I wasn't going to lie.

"I send them back."

"That's right!" she barked, "and we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all! Every one! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it's not a business. It's school!"

In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, "Yeah! Blueberries! Blueberries!"

And so began my long transformation.

Since then, I have visited hundreds of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream, and they are constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer groups that would send the best CEO screaming into the night.

None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when, and how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a post-industrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these changes can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission and active support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America.

Originally printed March 6, 2002 in Education Week

Copyright 2002, by Jamie Robert Vollmer

Boundaries

In April I bought a Kindle. I was unsure at first, but then dived right in. I was a bit worried about how much I was actually spending, and the download accounts on amazon are not easy to read, so last weekend I bit the bullet, pulled out every email that Amazon had sent me and started an excel chart.

In 6 short months I had spent close to my entire annual budget on books. I felt a bit sick. But knowledge is power. I did some math and decided, right, from now on, it's a maximum of $X p/w on books, no more, no excuses. And I immediately felt better. I had a clear boundary, I felt in control and I know me, I won't break it.

Now if only I could do that with food!

Gail Ann Dorsey ,David Bowie - Under Pressure

I so loved David Bowie at one point in my life and I  haven't listened to him for a long time. Then I came across this - him singing Under Pressure with Gail Ann Dorsey.  Amazing.  Makes me fall in love again...

Begin it Now

I was looking for the real words to wonderful Goethe quote today and thought, as always,  that I should have it as a link here.  I don't want this blog to only be a repository of inspirational quotes,  but this is such a fine one,  and true!

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.. The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred... Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

Life Lessons learnt...

I quoted this to someone the other day and then thought I would put it up here,  to share with everyone...

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS


by Portia Nelson


I

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I fall in.

I am lost ... I am helpless.

It isn't my fault.

It takes me forever to find a way out.

II

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend I don't see it.

I fall in again.

I can't believe I am in the same place

but, it isn't my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

III

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there.

I still fall in ... it's a habit.

my eyes are open

I know where I am.

It is my fault.

I get out immediately.


IV

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

V

I walk down another street.


I love that final line... there is another street (of course it has it's own holes,  but some are easier to avoid than others...)

And speaking of holes in the street,  there is the most amazing chalk art out there!  Julian Beever is a new favorite!

Rules for Being Human

I did a Tarot reading the other day and quoted from this passage, and then wondered if I had got it right and went and looked it up (do love the Internet!) and found it to be as profound as I had remembered.  I thought I would share it with a wider audience - so here it goes:

The Rules for Being Human


1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."

4. A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better than "here." When your "there" has become a "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie inside you. The answer to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. This will often be forgotten, only to be remembered again.

(Cherie Carter-Scott)

I just love no. 10 - because it is forgotten but lingers,  and once you know it,  you can draw on it again.  Very nice piece,  glad to remind myself of it.

The Bechdel Test for movies

From chocolate to movies...  and now for something completely different:

Watch this youtube clip and see if your favorite films pass the test...

All they need to do to pass is

1. have 2 women in it
2. have those 2 women have names
3. have those 2 women talk to each other - but not about a man. 

Or ask yourself... is there any movie going where there aren't 2 named men talking about something other than women...

Lots of interesting commentary about this (and the other rule - have 2 minorities in it,  talking to each other,  about something other than race..) here

The Chocolate Calculator

Someone sent this to me,  and it's fun and it works and you get to look at pictures of chocolate... what more could you ask for!

YOUR AGE BY CHOCOLATE MATH

Don't tell me your age - let the Chocolate Witch figure it out...

YOUR AGE BY CHOCOLATE MATH

This is fun.  DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!  It takes less than a minute ...

Work this out as you read ..

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1760 .   If you haven't, add 1759..

6... Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this was your original number

(i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

The Chocolate Witch knows all... except that apparently this is the only year (2010) that this trick will work,  so do it while you can  (and enjoy all the chocolate porn!)

Why are you still carrying her?

Zen Buddhist story of the day:


Two monks are walking from one monastery to another. Along the way they cross paths with a wealthy woman who is rude to them. They meet up with her party again at the river, where she clearly needs assistance to get across. The older monk offers to carry her across the water and at some risk to himself in the swirling waters, he gets her across. She doesn’t even say thank you properly, and leaves. The two monks continue walking for a few more hours until the younger one bursts out ‘how rude that woman was, first she didn’t acknowledge us properly and then she didn’t thank you after you carried her across the waters.’ And the older monk looked at him and replied, ‘I put her down hours ago, why are you still carrying her?’

Ah those elder monks.. always so wise!
 
(I couldn't find an image of a monk wading across a river,  but loved this misty one so included it.  I love how their saffron bright robes contrast with the surroundings)

Thoughts on Change

I was reading somewhere (who knows where, I read so many blogs and magazines and books, I really lose track) Anyways, I read that people’s memory today is appalling compared to those of trained folk in ancient Greek. Then actors, who were not always literate, could recall and declaim verses thousands of lines long. Today, we can barely remember the lyrics to an entire song, but we can find them, with two clicks on our iphone. In Holland, their high school graduates are being tested not on knowledge, but on access. They go into the test with all their computers and gadgets and then are given a topic about which they know nothing, and are timed to research and create a paper/discussion about it. I think that’s what future knowledge is going to be – not memory but access. I look at my son, all of 12, who checks on his phone what rating a restaurant received, and then matches his experience against the Zagat numbers, to see if he agrees or not. No one needs to remember phone numbers any more, we just press contacts and the name pops up. Even with Kindle, (which I just got and love, but more of that another day) my main problem with it is in the recall system – it relies on me remembering a book just by the title - without cover or blurb; and the title is rarely enough for me to remember the book. Sometimes it is, but not a new author, or a series author (I don’t know which Prey book is which, the titles are meaningless to me there.)

 So I think the future is all about knowledge and access. Stories that made sense even 25 years ago, don’t make sense anymore (he moved away so she couldn’t find him.. in today’s world, she could search for 30 mins on google and there he would be) People can aggregate around the weirdest/most poignant issues – read Sufi poets in a Midwestern town of 600? I can find you 600 likeminded friends, only a chat room away. As we become more and more individual in our quirks and needs, we are less and less alone, finding people just like us no matter where we (or they) live.

And I like that. This is change I can live with. You can buy the clothes you like, the books you like, even the food you like (steaks? Marshmallows? And williams Sonoma site will send you the most amazing things) You can find the information you need and the people like you,  and without being limited by geography.

Beading Frenzy

I've written about this a long time ago,  but a few years ago I found the perfect storm of hobbies for me - combining my love of color from make up and my love of small sugary tempting things from sweets - beads!  I love beads,  the potential that each bead has to create something amazing.  And this week,  I went on a beading frenzy,  creating 4 beautiful (imho) necklaces,  using my beads for the first time this year (very bad!)  When ever I go to a beading show (there are 2 of them a year in nyc) I shop very carefully,  making sure I don't go crazy, and when ever I get home,  I wonder why I didn't let myself buy more!  So here are some not great photos of my work this week:

this one is my current favorite, a nd took forever!  I think I worked on it for over 4 hours  but I'm very happy with it.

these are honey colored pearls, which make a very dramatic collar necklace

these are all very soft pink shades which the camera kind of washed out,  but looks very feminine and pretty.

and these are a gorgeous lavender blue rondell, with Italian glass accent beads.  I'm sorry the color didn't come out so well in these pictures!

and finally this is the one DS designed and strung,  very classic.

I also photographed some older stuff that I have made,  but I'll put them up another day,  the computer is being tricky and doesn't appear to like having so many images uploaded...

But busy and productive times!

So funny I cried...

Had a long day today... went to the Aquarium with DS and 100 other, mostly very well behaved children (the occassional stranglehold not withstanding) and 2 other lovely moms (one of whom is setting up the perfect fantasy band - The Suspicious Moms. I just loved it! 45+ rocker moms, belting it out and being right, can't get anything by those suspicious moms...) Anways, despite everything being as it should, I came home exhausted, it's just the energy of those 100 teens is wearying.

And then I came across this perfectly named site - Awkward Family Photos.  It had so many great images, that I was literally crying with laughter, so I'm sharing some of them now with you.  Some of them were just so revealing of the family dynamics,  others you wondered why anyone would set them up and still others were just so painfully,  truly funny.  Visit and enjoy

Dancing all the time

So a few blogs ago I mentioned discovering that the AMNH throws a party once every 2 months or so, to raise funds and get new bodies into the building. Without doing too much (or indeed, any!) research, I just got a small group of people together and we went. (as an aside, people tell you that they want to dance, but life inevitably gets in the way, in the end there were 5 of us, and that is actually a perfect number, enough for a group feel but not so many that we pulled in different directions)

Anyways, we were driven there, which is untold luxury in new york city by one of my friends, who then parked in the AMNH, really, I realize that I drive everywhere in Sydney and to non Manhattanites this may not be such a big deal, but I'm never driven anywhere within the city, so that added to our excitement.

We got there, and I realized that I had no idea what was meant to happen. I thought there would be a dj and lots of dancing. Instead there was some music, but there were 3 acts and a focal stage point. DH's immediate criticism was that the lighting was awful, especially when the potential was so high. The room is so interesting and you could do all sorts of things, but they did the most minimal, and it was way too light from the ordinary lights upstairs.

And then the first act came on. Everyone sang to click tracks, so they weren't bands strictly speaking. I thought that was a bit odd, but no one else seemed to mind, so they must be used to that concept.

The first act was called ninjasonik and they were just appalling. So bad they were like a send up. They had this kind of beat back ground and would shout 'fuck' every second word, and had lyrics like 'I want a fuck, someone's gonna get pregnant' and that was the entire song, just repeat for 3 mins.

I had that dreadful embarrassment you get when you set something up and it becomes your responsibility if it was good or bad. DH went and looked up on his iphone if there was somewhere better near by. But thankfully their set ended and some danceable if bland music came on, and so we bopped and waited to see what would happen next.


Thankfully the next guy - Theophilus London- was much better. He sang some songs that I actually liked, especially the humdrum town song, and had a lovely smooth voice and was danceable. So we stayed and danced some more and thought, well, that was an experience.



But then the third and final act came on - the Very Best (such a stupid name!) with people from all over, but with a real African flavor. So it was African hip hop and it was just amazing. We were all jumping by the end, they had such energy and an fantastic sound, so much better!

So I'm going to try for the next one... because I'll dance every chance I can get!

jobs I couldn't do

I have 2 new television passions - I'm so enjoying the newish series The Good Wife, and I've fallen in love Johnny Weir in Be Good Johnny Weir. So in total 21st century obsessed fan mode, I've become fans of them both on Facebook (yes, it's true)

And then today they had a puff piece with the Costume Designer of The Good Wife and I thought, that is a job I just could not do. It is just totallly outside my skill set. The obsessive attention to detail and shopping all day every day to clothe other characters just makes me feel exhausted and a bit sad. And yet meeting strangers and talking to large groups - no problem. Everyone has their strengths...



Johnny Weir also designs his own costumes, and I love the drama of them. His aesthetics is a cut above what I see all the other ice skaters wearing. He says he wants to be a fashion designer when he finishes with ice skating, and I think he would produce amazing stuff.

Enjoying my teenage passions...

new types of learning

So while encouraging my son to learn how to type we have this conversation:

'I learnt how to type using a book.' I inform him.
'Why would you use a book? Why didn't you go online?' he demanded
and I looked at him and started to laugh and said 'I learnt to type before the internet.'

Here I am, older by the minute!

In the meantime, I'm also on amazon, researching best learn to type cdroms. I didn't like any of the free downloadable stuff available. (for those who long to know, I eventually went with Typing Instructor Deluxe V17, doesn't that sound fancy!)

Also found this site and am now testing my speed and accuracy (neither of which were as good as I hoped, I'm averaging 70 with 5 mistakes, I thought I was faster than that!)

My Prediction for the year 3010

I had a very funny interaction with an acquaintance the other day. He is a journalist and knows me as a community activist and I told him that in my professional life I was a tarot reader, and he said, “Really? And you come across as so intelligent!’ and I laughed and replied that I am intelligent when I give readings as well… but it got me thinking… and here are some of my thoughts, this post is going to be longer than usual, so please bear with me:-

My prediction for psychic phenomena –



Let’s go back in history for a minute. People always saw blood and had theories about blood, but until much later than you would think (1919) they did not know about blood groups. The rudimentary tools for blood transfusion were around in the 1700’s and the first human to human transfusion was recorded in 1818.



When doctors first had the technology,  they tried blood transfusions from strong people to weak, even from strong animals to sick humans.  Unsurprisingly, most humans died, even after a transfusion, though more mysteriously for the doctors at the time, some did not, and in fact got better… because the doctors didn’t know about blood groups, they couldn’t make sense of their results. Indeed early transfusions were from animals to humans (and why not, we eat and digest animals, there was no obvious reason why we wouldn’t be able to take their blood directly) but of course most of the humans died, and those transfusions were soon banned throughout Europe.

So my prediction for the years 3010 – so grateful if someone could keep this alive in the internet for that long for me to be vindicated – my prediction is that there will be a strong and solid science for psychic phenomena, and they will have a reasonable explanation as to why sometimes studies worked and sometimes they didn’t.

Perhaps, like blood types, there are psychic groups, and some groups enhance each other and some negate each other and the types of people who become scientists fall more into the group A mental abilities, and the types of people who work on their psychic abilities are group B and Group A and Group B negate each other…



There have been studies on prayer and bacteria. I’m wary of the word prayer and would prefer a study of meditation or focused thoughts and bacteria. However, it has been shown that bacteria that is focused upon by human brains grow better. Yeast seeds focused upon grow better, Yeast seeds with negative thoughts, grew worse than the control group (yeast seeds which were ignored) We get lost in the idea of prayer but I’m interested in what the human brain is doing here, what signals it is giving out, and how it is impacting on the world.

There are many, repeated studies, showing that meditation (focused thought) has a real, measurable impact on blood pressure, heart attacks, anxiety (which seems like cheating, because that’s a mental issue to begin with, but it has physical symptoms which meditation can allay) What we think about these automatic systems in our body, can affect those normally unconscious processes.



All of which brings me back to Tarot. The theory of Tarot is that while shuffling the cards, the person imbues their energy into them. That energy then affects which card goes where, and then when you read the cards, you see what is going on in that person’s energy.

Doesn’t sound like it makes too much sense, does it? And yet, time and again, I see it. I see people with money worries draw only money cards; people with relationship issues draw cards exactly about their particular relationship. A woman came and saw me and I said, your house card is in disarray and your lovers card is upside down. And she said, she had just moved, because her husband had an affair and the divorce was just finalized. I promise you that I don’t say that to every person who comes for a reading. Each time the cards fall into a different pattern, and that pattern reveals something true and real about what is going on in that person’s life. I don’t have the science to explain it, but then again, I don’t need it. I can see the reality in front of me.

Science Cafe at the American Museum of Natural History

If you are a parent of small child in New York City, especially if that child is a boy, you have been to the American Museum of Natural History. In fact, I've been there so many times I know where many of the exhibits are. They also have special exhibits to lure you back in when you are tired of the regular ones. There was a film set in it - Night at the Museum, which was fun because it played into the fantasy of what might happen there at night... One summer DH even did summer camp there for 2 weeks and loved it.


Which all goes to show how I think about this museum - as a child's mecca, where I float along on his interests. Then, after the summer camp I think, I got on their mailing list and they sent me emails about their science cafe, something for adults only. I sent it to some friends of mine I thought would be interested and for months the first Wednesday of every month rolled around, and for months none of us could do it, and finally we committed and said, next month, no matter what, we are going.

So of course the one we could absolutely go to, was in time for Valentine's Day and was about Why Humans have Sex. It was our first time and apparently the largest crowd they have ever had! David M Buss, a renown author and someone I had never heard of, gave a very entertaining talk about mating rituals amongst seals and insects and how they correlated to mating rituals amongst humans. It was fun, though I did say to my friend who came with me that next time I want to go to something I hadn't read so much about, because he didn't really tell me anything I didn't know. It's such a juicy topic that most interesting psych studies and results are reported in the papers. He mentioned again the t-shirt experiment, where women could actually get information about immune system compatibility through the smell of a sweaty t-shirt - though of course they didn't know they were doing that, they only had to rate how attractive or repellent they found the smell of the t-shirt and the scientists worked out the rest. But that's an amazing piece of information, and shows that attraction processes are far more sophisticated and subtle than we ever knew.

I'm very glad we went and we will definitely go again.


But what really changed my perception of the museum from a child's playground to an adult dream, is that in the line for the wine tickets, one man told us that on one Friday night a month, the museum hosts a party in the Rose Centre - (where all the planetary displays are) getting famous DJ's, the dancing starts at 9, and stops at 1 am sharp, they get around 1,000 - 1,200 people, and it's amazing, he loves it. And I thought, what a perfect use of the space! Visiting lectures is one thing, but this was great out of the box thinking. The next on is on March 12th, and I will definitely be there!