Month: May 2010

do i dry my hands or use a paper towel?

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Here’s a dilemma solved for you…I’ve often wondered whether it’s more environmentally sound to dry my hands with a dryer or paper towels in public loos. Because, of course, we all wash our hands when visiting the toot, don’t we! Quelle quandary! Well, turns out, someone thought so. Climate Conservancy, a US emission counting nonprofit … Read more

Sunday life: a cup of tea with Edward do Bono (tell me your take on this one…!)

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This week I meet Edward de Bono, the world’s most well-known thinker.spaceball Sunday life: a cup of tea with Edward do Bono (tell me your take on this one...!)

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So, it’s arranged we meet at an outdoor swimming pool on Friday morning. Which is a little odd. Edward De Bono, the world’s greatest thinker, is 75 and arrives with his aide, wearing a full suit and a superbly garish tie. He’s not here to swim. Odder still, he kicks off by grabbing my hand, leaning in close and telling me a really, really terrible… penis joke. The kind your Uncle Kevin tells at Christmas. He then suggests I marry a 6’4” Ugandan basketball player. Which, according to his aide, is what he tells all the girls.

Admittedly the penis joke loosely segued to the theme of happiness. Which is why we’re sitting poolside on a Friday. De Bono’s in Australia to talk at the Happiness & It’s Causes conference this week about how thinking makes life better. Me, I’m enduring penis jokes to ask, how so?

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every week my dad writes this letter…

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Mike’s his name. This is what he does: he calls all of us (his six kids and various partners) to get an update on our lives. Then he writes a group email, dot-pointing the highlights of our lives, so we’re all in each other’s loops.

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Dad, me and my beautiful, long-suffering Mum

I’m sharing this because it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday and (loose-ish segue) I reckon if you’re a dad or a mum, or you’re thinking of being one one day, then you might like to try it with your kids. As a recipient, I love it. My brothers and sister live around the world and Dad’s emails unite us in a flurry of quick replies and smart-arse comments. When you have a big family, and one dominated by brothers, smart-arse comments are the currency. All affection comes by way of a dig in the ribs. Or a wrestle.

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the one thing you’d keep

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If you were stranded, or homeless, or if the house burnt down, what’s the one thing you’d keep? It’s a great question. It’s a question that leads to so much whittling down of things. Once you whittle down, where do you stop? Artist Susan Mullaly posed the question to a bunch of people in Waco Texas and photographed the results. Many are homeless or disenfranchised, for various reasons.

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Fred Albreight is a homeless carpenter. He says:

I pick up stuffed animals all the time, I got a truck in here too. I found him, this little dog in a dumpster down in the projects in the South Side while I was pickin’ up cans. The reason I picked it up is because whenever I see a little child I give it to him. That’s why I collect them.

When I was a kid, Dad kept our photo albums next to the front door

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a socrates quote…just because

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“Beware the banality of a busy life.” –Socrates

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And a pretty Autumnal picture, just because.

But a few more words from me: Right now I’m way too busy. I’ve been busy all my life. I thrive on it. Being busy fills the gaps. And the gaps are scary. Void, nothingness, weightlessness…scary! So when I fill gaps, I feel safe. For a brief, frantic moment or two.

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why i really don’t like snark

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I don’t usually comment on nasty stuff in the media. It’s usually best left to fester without further stoking. But I feel compelled this time. Because it’s an example of something that’s been bothering me for ages.

Snark. I really don’t like it. Gawker started this bitchy style of commentary. Perez Hilton perfected it. And bloggers and tweeters have tried to emulate it. 68379_2_468

Snark has become a “voice” that many people find comfortable to slip into. It’s easy to replicate. Just look down your nose and spew forth. It’s mistaken for critical thinking. It’s not. Critical thinking is productive. Snark separates you from me. It creates distance, which is destructive. It makes none of us happy. It’s human behaviour at it’s most base and fearful. Which is so disappointing.

Snark is not hate speech. It’s more cowardly. And it attacks individuals on personal fronts. See this New York Times article on snark for more.

And note: the great writers and reviewers don’t stoop to snark. They don’t need to or wish to. Their aim is to share and connect, ultimately.

I rant, of course, following the attention Wil Anderson and Catherine Deveny’s Logie tweets have attracted. It’s just been announced Catherine’s been dumped from The Age (their words, not mine) for her contributions.

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how conservative are you? (a fun test)

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I just found this great little widget, developed by Slate, that – in a press of a button – can determine how conservative your online news reading habits are. And how open-minded you are. And whether you can see both sides of an issue.

Get your reality check here. Fun! (Don’t we just love a test that tells us something about …us?)52173_4_468

Slate writes:

Maybe democracy will survive the Internet after all. Many hands have been wrung over the supposed tendency for consumers of online news to seek out sites that validate their own political opinions. Like minds, the theory goes, surf alike.

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fully sick rapper….does Fashion Week. gorgeous, darlink!

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A few weeks back Fully Sick Rapper Christiaan van Vuuren and I chatted via email about his 106 days in hospital quarantine. And how boredom, and a wish to share his TB story, led him to write crazy-head raps. The kid is so heartfelt and switched-on. I rather love him. And the post was re-posted around the world. Hoorah!

He’s now 126 days in …and he’s been driven to produce this distracted fashion clip:

Now, I think I love him even more. This clip’s friggen gold. And as someone who finds the whole Fashion Week caper a not-so-pleasant exercise in The Whole World Worrying About What Everyone Thinks of Them…it’s timely. (As an aside, Fashion Week has always distressed me because I usually hit a point where I look around and see everyone miserable because they are forced so violently into ego-tainted disconnection…but that’s another story).

Paris, London…Hospital!!

“This is the future of fashion. And it is the past of fashion. It is both the future and the past of fashion. It is the forever…. It’s fucking fashion infinity.”

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