With 2014 nearly come and gone it seems an appropriate time to reflect on what has come and gone, what has been and what may be.
Yesterday's favorite word: Hoʻoponopono (ho-o-pono-pono) is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.
Today's favorite word: Part of Hawaiian culture, ʻohana means family (in an extended sense of the term, including blood-related, adoptive or intentional).
As always, I am grateful for both; new and old.
Quote of the day : Once-a-pun a time a whole bunch of hominid's made-up a whole lot of shit and a lot of others believed in ~IT~ instead of themselves. The End. Q.E.D. Period." ~ Sincerely the Farce
Wednesday, 31 December 2014
Sunday, 28 December 2014
Head Talks?
A True Master Never Stops Learning?
Received an email from a friend recommending a TED Talk on Happiness, the following was my response.
Thank you! I love TEd Talks and can't imagine a better way for increasing smarts, happiness and perhaps even worldliness.
I've even been working on a new marketing angle, something along the lines of "Chainman Challenges". The concept is for participants to build a chain shirt while passively absorbing TED or other educational content. Such as VSauce (for the faster minds amongst us) or ever those neat RSA Animate white board talks.
Ultimately TED is like anything else; there will be ideas to cheer, ideas to jeer and a lot of stuff that simply blows your mind.
Some of the mind blowing ideas I've come across are:
The First 20 Hours - How To Learn Anything
Hack Schooling
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Philosophy for Happiness
An example Chainman challenge would be to knit a chain coif and passively absorb 20 hours of educational videos.
I only recently learnt about TED and discovered that there are over 900+ hours of TED material.
For the last couple of months I have been listening to as many random educational videos as possible each Saturday at Whytes on the second floor of the Gore Bay Harbour Centre. Where I mind the shop when my wife is unable.
It's been quiet on the island of late. As always this has led a great need to entertain ourselves. I don't know about you, but most modern movies and TV leave me with the same deja amnesia experience of having been there and done that all before.
Thank goodness I love learning! One of the most important things I have ever learnt is that statistically I know nothing. I consider this awesome because it means that's always something new to learn!
Enjoyed the article about Sir William Marshall, whom I had previously not come across. What a character! Thank you once again for expanding my knowledge base. Grace is something rather hard for an uncoordinated buffoon like myself to quantify.
When I was younger I can remember wishing that it were possible to know everything there was to know. Now I can't imagine any worse fate than knowing it all. As it would mean there was nothing new to learn.
Anyhow, I reckon that 900 hours is about as long as it would take a chain neophyte to knit themselves a nice chain work. Such as a hauberk;
By the end of the process not only should the reader have picked up a new skill (see The First 20 Hours) and lots of other ideas worth spreading by osmosis, but also have an chain garment of literal value. For example, I just listed the pictured XXL chain hauberk on Etsy. So at the very least there's a physical gain that can be passed on to friends, family or even customers.
Plus, if nothing else, anybody with the literal willpower to make a chain garment will undoubtedly pick up a modicum of patience. Which to my perspective is definitely virtue.
What do you think? Would there be interest in a Chainman Challenge Kit?
Instructions, materials and tools to make your own "real" chain armour?
What would you pay for such a novelty?
Quote of the Day : Bacon; because life is only black and white when developing negatives.
Received an email from a friend recommending a TED Talk on Happiness, the following was my response.
Thank you! I love TEd Talks and can't imagine a better way for increasing smarts, happiness and perhaps even worldliness.
I've even been working on a new marketing angle, something along the lines of "Chainman Challenges". The concept is for participants to build a chain shirt while passively absorbing TED or other educational content. Such as VSauce (for the faster minds amongst us) or ever those neat RSA Animate white board talks.
Ultimately TED is like anything else; there will be ideas to cheer, ideas to jeer and a lot of stuff that simply blows your mind.
Some of the mind blowing ideas I've come across are:
The First 20 Hours - How To Learn Anything
Hack Schooling
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Philosophy for Happiness
An example Chainman challenge would be to knit a chain coif and passively absorb 20 hours of educational videos.
I only recently learnt about TED and discovered that there are over 900+ hours of TED material.
For the last couple of months I have been listening to as many random educational videos as possible each Saturday at Whytes on the second floor of the Gore Bay Harbour Centre. Where I mind the shop when my wife is unable.
It's been quiet on the island of late. As always this has led a great need to entertain ourselves. I don't know about you, but most modern movies and TV leave me with the same deja amnesia experience of having been there and done that all before.
Thank goodness I love learning! One of the most important things I have ever learnt is that statistically I know nothing. I consider this awesome because it means that's always something new to learn!
Enjoyed the article about Sir William Marshall, whom I had previously not come across. What a character! Thank you once again for expanding my knowledge base. Grace is something rather hard for an uncoordinated buffoon like myself to quantify.
When I was younger I can remember wishing that it were possible to know everything there was to know. Now I can't imagine any worse fate than knowing it all. As it would mean there was nothing new to learn.
Anyhow, I reckon that 900 hours is about as long as it would take a chain neophyte to knit themselves a nice chain work. Such as a hauberk;
Plus, if nothing else, anybody with the literal willpower to make a chain garment will undoubtedly pick up a modicum of patience. Which to my perspective is definitely virtue.
What do you think? Would there be interest in a Chainman Challenge Kit?
Instructions, materials and tools to make your own "real" chain armour?
What would you pay for such a novelty?
Quote of the Day : Bacon; because life is only black and white when developing negatives.
Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Know such thing?
Beardcember 17th, 2014
(nü Icon Campaign Final Day)
Well, with the exception of an über generous 11-hour donation it seems that the nü Icon program wasn't form me, at least for the time being. The amount of learning and positive energy simply from participation was honestly overwhelming.
Not sure exactly which project I'm going to focus on next, other than regular Diary of a Chainman entries.
Last night I dreamt of the most incredible chain shirt ever woven. Each link of the intricately fine mesh was microscopic in size and inscribed with a unique piece of wisdom.
The shirt was virtually weightless and magically imbued with the ability to perfectly counter any number of blows and neutralize any effects, granting the wearer effective immortality. As a bonus, the wearer was literally able to bend photons in such a way as to seamlessly render the wearer's avatar as anything imaginable. From invisible to resplendently flamboyant and everything in-between.
Mostly uneventful morning, did get a great beard self with some of the CMZ hairclips that we carry at the shop. Kind of a counter to all those beards I've seen woven with flowers or splendiferously adorned with Christmas ornaments.
Spent the afternoon working with Dad, we're ahead of schedule and our project is looking really good. Also got caught up on some other secret publisher business and learnt that one of my D.I.Y. titles is going into soft cover.
Rather reflective on the last time I visited New York City in 2000, can't believe it's been 14 years and that I haven't been back since 9/11.
Doing lots of reading this evening, trying to absorb as much information as possible. Keep meaning to absorb a speed reading course in order to increase reading speed and retention.
Apparently my mom's memory was excellent and so I've also had a life-long fascination with eidetic memory, also known as perfect recall.
One of my favorite books on the topic is Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein. Part of this title reminds me of an excellent Ted Talk entitled "The First 20 Hours - How To Learn Anything." The old paradigm was that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at a particular craft. But new research suggests that the first 20 hours of learning constitutes 90% of the importance in picking up new skills.
This means that simply by dedicating oneself to a particular topic for 45 minutes a day, a new skill can be acquired every month. Not quite the blistering speed of a Matrix skill download, but still better than your average RPG grind.
The more I think about this the more I'm convinced that I'm better here, online, playing my favorite game of Internet fame. As opposed to any of the purile and unimaginative derivative remakes that have flooded the market.
Why? Because I'm convinced that real VR is just around the corner and by the time it becomes widely available I want to be an early "full-dive" adopter with my eyes on the prize of virtual world developer. Heck, virtual and augmented realities may be key to mutually assured survival.
Watched The Maze Runner, wasn't as impressed as I hoped I might be. Seriously, if you want a real twist-ending read 419! Definitely need to lay down some digital ink to real labyrinthine stories. After the number of dungeons I've crawled though, I just might have something more original to add to what has become yet another tired genera.
Quote of the Day - "When I was a kid I used to think sponge taffy was made from real sea sponges and that's why it was salty."
What question would you preferred to have encountered in this space?
(nü Icon Campaign Final Day)
Well, with the exception of an über generous 11-hour donation it seems that the nü Icon program wasn't form me, at least for the time being. The amount of learning and positive energy simply from participation was honestly overwhelming.
Not sure exactly which project I'm going to focus on next, other than regular Diary of a Chainman entries.
Last night I dreamt of the most incredible chain shirt ever woven. Each link of the intricately fine mesh was microscopic in size and inscribed with a unique piece of wisdom.
The shirt was virtually weightless and magically imbued with the ability to perfectly counter any number of blows and neutralize any effects, granting the wearer effective immortality. As a bonus, the wearer was literally able to bend photons in such a way as to seamlessly render the wearer's avatar as anything imaginable. From invisible to resplendently flamboyant and everything in-between.
Spent the afternoon working with Dad, we're ahead of schedule and our project is looking really good. Also got caught up on some other secret publisher business and learnt that one of my D.I.Y. titles is going into soft cover.
Rather reflective on the last time I visited New York City in 2000, can't believe it's been 14 years and that I haven't been back since 9/11.
Doing lots of reading this evening, trying to absorb as much information as possible. Keep meaning to absorb a speed reading course in order to increase reading speed and retention.
Apparently my mom's memory was excellent and so I've also had a life-long fascination with eidetic memory, also known as perfect recall.
One of my favorite books on the topic is Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein. Part of this title reminds me of an excellent Ted Talk entitled "The First 20 Hours - How To Learn Anything." The old paradigm was that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at a particular craft. But new research suggests that the first 20 hours of learning constitutes 90% of the importance in picking up new skills.
This means that simply by dedicating oneself to a particular topic for 45 minutes a day, a new skill can be acquired every month. Not quite the blistering speed of a Matrix skill download, but still better than your average RPG grind.
The more I think about this the more I'm convinced that I'm better here, online, playing my favorite game of Internet fame. As opposed to any of the purile and unimaginative derivative remakes that have flooded the market.
Why? Because I'm convinced that real VR is just around the corner and by the time it becomes widely available I want to be an early "full-dive" adopter with my eyes on the prize of virtual world developer. Heck, virtual and augmented realities may be key to mutually assured survival.
Watched The Maze Runner, wasn't as impressed as I hoped I might be. Seriously, if you want a real twist-ending read 419! Definitely need to lay down some digital ink to real labyrinthine stories. After the number of dungeons I've crawled though, I just might have something more original to add to what has become yet another tired genera.
Quote of the Day - "When I was a kid I used to think sponge taffy was made from real sea sponges and that's why it was salty."
What question would you preferred to have encountered in this space?
Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Other Worlds?
Beardecember 16th, 2014
(nü Icon Campaign Day 7 of 8)
Well, the original plan was to blog daily updates for the duration of my campaign, but somehow life got in the way once again.
Just finished watching Sword Art Online, which may just be my new favorite anime! In case it's not obvious from the content of the majority of my spec fic stories; I've been obsessed with the potential of virtual and parallel realities for as long as I can remember. This of course means that SAO strikes very close to home. Not to mention being a beautiful, well-acted and damn interesting series of speculative fiction stories within a mostly believable VR story MacGuffin.
All this got me thinking back to some of my earliest memories. Such as typing spec fic on a portable typewriter borrowed from my Grandfather.
I couldn't have been very old (maybe 8) and it seemed like the biggest treat in the world to be allowed a sheet of paper and access to such a mysterious creative implement.
Pecking away, one key at a time I recall writing a couple paragraphs about a boy my age that could visit a parallel dimension.
The boy went to a school that was fancy in comparison to my own and even featured a full-size swimming pool. The story started with the boy jumping off the diving board and deciding to visit the other reality where time passed more slowly than in the real world. Here he visited with strange alien friends before returning to the real world just in time to hit the water.
I think that the boy also visited the other world a second time before surfacing from the dive and that's all I remember. Not sure where the idea came from. All I can imagine is that I simply absorbed a huge amount of sci-fi ideology from my parents via osmosis.
Something about storytelling had me hooked and my first publically performed work was a puppet play in Grade 2. All the students had a chance to write a story, but only 4 plays were selected for performance. I don't recall anything about the story. Except that I thought it was funny to give my puppet the empty tube from a roll of toilet paper to use as a faux leg cast.
Other than the usual schoolwork, I can't think of anything else interesting I wrote while in public school. Although, some old newspaper clippings indicate I was actually winning money for poetry contests run for special occasions, such as Remembrance Day,
Later (after I'd left the public school system to be home-schooled) I took a creative writing course from a local journalist and author who's still involved with the Manitoulin Writer's Circle.
At 12, I was the youngest participant in the course and enjoyed the various assignments. I recall that one of them was to record a dream. The dream I chose was about a very vivid encounter with a character named the "Bag Lady Kitty" on the mainstreet outside the Community Hall.
This was so long ago that I remember nothing else, except for wondering about the contents of some of the more adult books at the library where we met weekly, such as Pet Cemetery.
Next time; how the virtual quest led directly to the discovery of Magic!
Quote of the Day : The deference between reality and virtuality is tenuous at best.
What's the first story you can remember making up?
(nü Icon Campaign Day 7 of 8)
Well, the original plan was to blog daily updates for the duration of my campaign, but somehow life got in the way once again.
Just finished watching Sword Art Online, which may just be my new favorite anime! In case it's not obvious from the content of the majority of my spec fic stories; I've been obsessed with the potential of virtual and parallel realities for as long as I can remember. This of course means that SAO strikes very close to home. Not to mention being a beautiful, well-acted and damn interesting series of speculative fiction stories within a mostly believable VR story MacGuffin.
All this got me thinking back to some of my earliest memories. Such as typing spec fic on a portable typewriter borrowed from my Grandfather.
I couldn't have been very old (maybe 8) and it seemed like the biggest treat in the world to be allowed a sheet of paper and access to such a mysterious creative implement.
Pecking away, one key at a time I recall writing a couple paragraphs about a boy my age that could visit a parallel dimension.
The boy went to a school that was fancy in comparison to my own and even featured a full-size swimming pool. The story started with the boy jumping off the diving board and deciding to visit the other reality where time passed more slowly than in the real world. Here he visited with strange alien friends before returning to the real world just in time to hit the water.
I think that the boy also visited the other world a second time before surfacing from the dive and that's all I remember. Not sure where the idea came from. All I can imagine is that I simply absorbed a huge amount of sci-fi ideology from my parents via osmosis.
Something about storytelling had me hooked and my first publically performed work was a puppet play in Grade 2. All the students had a chance to write a story, but only 4 plays were selected for performance. I don't recall anything about the story. Except that I thought it was funny to give my puppet the empty tube from a roll of toilet paper to use as a faux leg cast.
Other than the usual schoolwork, I can't think of anything else interesting I wrote while in public school. Although, some old newspaper clippings indicate I was actually winning money for poetry contests run for special occasions, such as Remembrance Day,
Later (after I'd left the public school system to be home-schooled) I took a creative writing course from a local journalist and author who's still involved with the Manitoulin Writer's Circle.
At 12, I was the youngest participant in the course and enjoyed the various assignments. I recall that one of them was to record a dream. The dream I chose was about a very vivid encounter with a character named the "Bag Lady Kitty" on the mainstreet outside the Community Hall.
This was so long ago that I remember nothing else, except for wondering about the contents of some of the more adult books at the library where we met weekly, such as Pet Cemetery.
Next time; how the virtual quest led directly to the discovery of Magic!
Quote of the Day : The deference between reality and virtuality is tenuous at best.
What's the first story you can remember making up?
Saturday, 13 December 2014
Ask me anything?
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