Funny Little Creatures

A friend told me of this site. It's a showcase site for Japanese beads artist, Akiko Isono. Just liked her work, as it reminded me of a friend's pieces. The creatures look almost life like with the photography.

I think the pic on the left best sums me up. Sleepy looking and sometimes elusive.

Some Blog SEO Tools For Ya!

Came across this one on the Beta News. Had it in my to do list, but as usual got pushed way down and lost amongst all the other thousands of tasks that keep popping up.

As the Beta News describes it,

BlogRush is very similar to BlogBurst, except everyone can instantly get access to BlogRush and everybody has written about it. The whole concept of BlogRush is pretty simple, you place a widget on your blog showing articles from other blogs within your blog’s topic. You earn syndication credit each time the widget is loaded, used or by referring users.

This means I'm gonna have to add this to my blog right now since I've posted it. Man, more work :(

Life's Too Short: Change Your Job

This is a great one I spotted from the Beta News. Ideal post for a rainy Friday afternoon.

The images are from a German ad-campaign for a jobs database. I love the creativity that comes out of some campaigns, and images like these make me wish I did a stint in advertising. Did I say that?

Anyway my favourite is the roll up guy. The look on his face is fantastic. :-)

Real Leadership is Influence not Control

Spotted this one on LifeHack.org, and thought pretty useful to share. If you're an office or mid-field General and constantly feel frustrated that those around you cannot see your vision or implement what you request, then maybe the issue may lie with you and your communication rather than with those around you.

Michael S. Hyatt here promotes the effectiveness of influence as opposed to control, with a few simple tenets to help you along the way. Nothing new here, but by focusing on yourself, as Saint Seraphim of Sarov said, “Save yourself, and you will save a thousand.” and casting the vision, you will soon have the world eating out of your hands.

The Seductiveness of the Internet: Or how not to get caught in the Web

No I'm not promoting anyone's book, but this guy Andrew Keen is pretty much interested in the same things as me. Namely, the impact of the internet and wider technology on our culture and society. However, where I generally see both the positives of empowerment of the masses and the negatives of disconnection and dumbing down, Keen seems to promote a pretty hopeless picture, where authoritative integrity (if there was such a thing) is swept aside by the tide of individual opinions.

Whereas much of his argument is sound, I find it hard to wholeheartedly agree, as I feel the challenge of traditional business models a refreshing thing, since now the dis-empowered no longer have to face those old barriers to entry. Now anyone with an idea can put it out there, and in doing so, challenge the status quo. Thus, new forms of power are created which exist outside of the traditional's dynamic.

The internet or more generally, technology, is a good thing, if only we understand it's power and learn to shape it, rather than allow it to shape ourselves.

Notting Hill How it was. Where's Hugh?

One of the faces I bumped into at the London Freewheel was photographer Charlie Phillips. A charming and tricky character, Charlie's spent a lifetime documenting our social history in the UK and worldwide during his travels, through his lens.

If you travel around London today, you'd be amazed to see how much life and our surroundings have changed over the years. Just like everywhere else Notting Hill has undergone fundamental changes. So much so, that it is almost unrecognisable now. The photo depicts a 'stylish lady' on Portobello road circa 1972. Despite the problems of the time, the sense of community is very evident in the scene. With many new residents now pressing to move the Notting Hill Carnival from the area, that sense of community is perhaps a little harder to find now.

Charlie can be seen at various events at the 198 Gallery in Herne Hill London, County Hall and the BFi this month and throughout Autumn.

Freewheeling London Goes Crazy!

Had a wonderful Sunday freewheeling around London at the London Freewheel. It was a fitting climax to an event packed weekend for myself, which started on Thursday, and can't believe a Friday night out, one football match, craft exhibition, meals with friends, and party later, that I'd have any energy left for Sunday's ride. But maybe due to my new bike exercise and crashing out regime I managed to dig deep into my energy reserves and enjoy the day.

It was well worth it, apart from Hovis's pitiful sandwiches, it was a day of total fun. Bumped into a few old faces and even enjoyed the hazardous adventure riding in with strangers.

Get on your bike!

The Jena 6

What role is the media actually playing here in a democracy? To quote Dex Digital:

If any of this is news to you, it's not necessarily your fault. The media has decided that the Duke Lacrosse players are important, and the actual racism at play is not. That Michael Vick is important, and 6 kids doing up to 22 years in the pen is not.

Sexy Google All Pervasive

I recall those early days of the net way back when in the 90s when everything was fairly amateurish a la CraigList and the familiar modem squelch sound when dialling in. Back then when searching for anything, you had a choice from the likes of, AltaVista, HotBot, Excite, Yahoo, AOL, Jeeves, Webcrawler, InfoSeek, and Lycos amongst others.

Those were just some from the top of my head and ones I recall using all the time. Then fast forward circa 1999, I'm working for a large IT and business services firm, and I'm stuck on some design issue so I visit the web design department and seek some help. My colleague suggests why don't I try Google. "Google?" I ask. As she lost her mind? "Yes" she says, "Google.com." That was the first I ever heard of Google. Despite my introduction to the web over the previous few years, many changes were brewing that I was barely aware of. Now we find ourselves squarely in the 21st century, I hardly use any other search engine, apart from the odd shopping directory for bargains. Google has become my benefactor and pervades so many aspects of my digital life. Why even now I am writing this Blog from my Google Blogger account (yes the chip's firmly in the back of my head). Similarly, a recent post on Digital Journal details many of the pervasive and practical applications Google now provides. I sometimes finding myself, just checking one of the alternative search engines just for a change but the results don't seem to be as comprehensive. Why bother leave the comfort of your Google armchair when Google can solve everything for you.

Why stop there? Why don't they just buy out Vodafone, Tesco and News Corp, and clean up all the worlds issues whilst they're at it. Gattica here we come...

Feeling those L.A. Nights

Been spending quite a bit of time of late checking my RSS feeds and enjoying the beauty of music casts. Saves trawling around, when everything is all in one neat little place. Listening to one cast from Warrior FM I came across the name of Yasuko Agawa. A classy Jazz vocalist from the 80s for those who don't know, she had recorded one of my favorourite tracks, L.A. Nights. I did a quick search as I had never read up on her before and discovered she had quite a comprehensive body of work, spanning three decades.

I found a copy of L.A. Nights on YouTube and as soon as I played it, the memories came flooding back. I recall as a teenager back then, that I didn't know too much about Japan or L.A., but the words of her song always conjured up moody images of sophisticated cross-Pacific travel that I could only dream of at the time. Even though I had never experienced that world, I understood instantly at the time, and was right there in the taxi with her, just in from Tokyo. I never imagined at the time that Japan would feature so significantly in my life.