They’re here. Should keep me busy for a while :o)
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More books
These should arrive from Amazon any day now :o)
- Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure
- Storytelling in Organizations: Facts, Fictions and Fantasies
- Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity (New Practices of Inquiry)
- The Night of the Morningstar: Modesty Blaise (Modesty Blaise S.)
- The Silver Mistress (Modesty Blaise S.)
- The Borrible Trilogy: “The Borribles”, “The Borribles Go for Broke”, “Across the Dark Metropolis”
- Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics
- A Bell for Adano
- The Consultants [AUDIOBOOK]
- Market Forces (Gollancz SF S.)
- Principle-centered Leadership
- Tyranny of the Moment: Fast and Slow Time in the Information Age
- The Getaway Man (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
- Down Here (Burke Novels)
- Smart Love: The Compassionate Alternative to Discipline That Will Make You a Better Parent & Your Child a Better Person
- Another Chance to Get It Right
- Power of Servant Leadership
- Catch!: A Fishmonger’s Guide to Greatness
- Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds
- Newton’s Wake
- Happy Mondays: Putting the Pleasure Back into Work
- The Office – The Complete Series 1 (2 Disc Set) [2001]
- Lost Horizons
- The Office Series 2 [2001]
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Alan Moore on media, fascism and more
That might be a horrifying notion but I’m sure there are people who think of television as perhaps one of their most intimate friends. And if the TV tells them that things in the world are a certain way, even if the evidence of their senses asserts it is not true, they’ll probably believe the television set in the end. It’s an alarming thought but we brought it upon ourselves. I mean, I think that television is one of the most diabolical — in the very best sense of the word — inventions of the past century. It has probably done more to degrade the mind and intelligence of its audience, even if they happen to be drug addicts or alcoholics; I would think that watching television has done more to limit their horizons in the long run. And it has also distorted our culture.
Alan Moore is the writer of many excellent graphic novels, including V for Vendetta, From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In this excellent interview on Salon, he explains (among other things) his very bleak vision of what TV is doing to us, our culture and particularly to politics. President Springsteen, anyone? Via Boingboing.
I’m not sure my view of the effect of TV is quite so pessimistic, and at the very least you have to factor in all the good that having cheap, globally accessible mass media has brought. I have a deep conviction though, that the sheer amount of time spent in front of TV’s all over the world could be used for better purposes, and does on the whole not contribute much to our happiness.
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The Daily show
Thanks to an entry on Boingboing, I just discovered that Comedy Central has 100’s of clips from the Daily Show online. Here are a few of my favourites:
Jon Stewart on conventional wisdomI would just like to add that Jon Stewart is a very funny man.
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Book review: The crimson petal and the white
The crimson petal and the white by Michael Faber is a novel that by all rights I should hate. It’s a 900 page long story set in victorian England in which very little happens. I ought to be bored to tears, but in reality the book gripped my like no other book I’ve read recently.
The reason: The characters. This book is driven almost totally by the people in it, and Faber brings them to life as deep, funny, interesting, sexy, confused, frustrated, brave, cowardly, weird and wonderful. There’s Sugar, the highly skilled prostitute who writes a secret novel in which she kills off innumerable men. There’s William Rackham, the aspiring intellectual who drives himself to take over his fathers perfume business. There’s Williams strange and beautiful wife, who teeters between high society and madness. And there’s a whole host of other human beings (not merely characters), each of whom are brought to life in front of the readers eyes. The result is, that for all their flaws and failings, you end up caring deeply about what happens to them.
The novel has another quirk: It speaks directly to the reader, and anticipating your every thought, leads you on a tour of Londons victorian stratified society. It lends a wonderful intimacy and drive to the story, and gives you the impression, that here is a tale told just for you. It’s a wonderful book, and I recommend it highly.
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Going to Goa
I just signed up for the 12th. international OSonOS (Open Space on Open Space) conference. Last year it was right here in Denmark but this year it’s in Goa, forcing me to travel to India’s most famous vacation spot. Dammit! I’ll have to take Patricia along, just to share the burden :o)
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Thrillride.com
One of my favourite websites is thrillride.com, maintained by Robert Coker. The subject is of course roller coasters and similar adrenaline machines and the sense of humour, the tone and the excellent writing all make this one of the most fun websites to visit.
For a sample, check out the review of the worlds tallest and fastes roller coaster, Top Thrill Dragster in Cedar Point:
One… We start to move. Very fast. Those who aren’t yet screaming begin doing so.Two… We must be traveling at 80 MPH and the train just keeps on accelerating like it’s got solid-propellant rockets on board. Every alarm in my nervous system is wailing at Red Alert volume.
Three… I can’t scream anymore. Unqualified terror and the forces pummeling my body literally strangle me into silence. We’re still accelerating.
Four… Knifing through the air, the train hits 120 brain-splattering miles per hour. And now things really go berserk.
Five… We rip up the first vertical curve to about 150 feet in altitude, and climb ever higher, straight into the firmament, with stupefying speed.
My adrenaline’s flowing just reading about about it :o) I’ve gotta get to Ohio one of these days. It’s one of those deals where I can hardly bear the mere thought of getting on that roller coaster – but I HAVE to do it.
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Book review: The art of happiness at work
The Dalai Lama knows a thing or two about how to be happy. Not only has he studied buddhist philosophy, psychology, history etc. all his life, he’s also a terribly nice person who has devoted his life to serving others – his own people (the tibetans) as well as the rest of us. In The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living his insights into what makes people happy were paired with those of Howard Cutler an american psychiatrist, to give us a manual of happiness based on eastern and western thought and science.
For their second collaboration, they’ve decided to look at how to be happy on the job. The Art of Happiness At Work is an exploration of the major issues confronting those of us who have jobs: Topics like stress, boredom, anxiety, meaningless jobs are given a new twist through the insights of the Dalai Lama – a man who has never held a real job. It speaks to the depth of the buddhist knowledge and his ability to apply it, that he can offer profound insights and useful advice to people in circumstances so different from his own.
(more…)
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Feeling lucky?
Ashely Revell sold everything he owned, including his house, car and clothes, and went to a casino to gamble all the money (135.000$) on red. See how it went.
Reminds me of John Freyer who sold everyhing he owns on ebay, and now travels around visiting the people who bought the stuff.
Is it art? Is it stupid? Is it brave? Is it living? I think so.
