There’s no special occassion looming; all the better for sending an e-card to someone who just matters to you right now. E-cards are ace. So long as they don’t involve a dancing elf. They cut down on paper, save energy costs and can still be really creative and personal.
Bookmark these four FREE sites for moments when you feel like emitting some care.
2. The Cool Insert-A-Face Version:Jibjab does those ones where you can cut and paste your friend’s face into the novelty action. But they do it in quite a cool way. I also like the beatboxing flautist one.
Not sure if you follow The DC on Twitter. I do. Although every now and then I “unfollow” him because he is a rather prolific twit… that is, he posts a lot of tweets! This morning, he posted this: No Gotham. Reality is the perceiver. The perception is deception In response to this from Gotham, … Read more
Bit of a sad-sack giveaway, you might be thinking? Ahhhh, not so! This free download from Tracey Thorn (of Everything But the Girl fame) touched this 36-year-old in lovely, poignant ways. It might you too. Thorn is releasing her solo album soon, but is letting us download the single “Oh, the Divorces!” for free in … Read more
“In stillness the world is restored.” ~ Lao Tzu I can’t tell you how much this quote means to me right now. I’ve been moving around too much – travelling for work, looking externally for validation and stimulation, getting buzzy in my head about ideas and constantly in “scheduling mode”. I’ve been running late for … Read more
Hello, I’m a glasses nerd. I’ve worn glasses since I was 4. I’ve done the whole history of dorky glasses. Oooooh, yes: horn-rims, over-sized flastic fantastics and….an eye patch.
When I tell this story, I found most people struggle to top it: when I was 12 I had to wear an eye patch for a 18 months. Not a cool pirate one; a piece of beige tape over the left lens of my horn-rimmed frames.
It gave me a particularly BROWN and befuddled look. Yessum, I was special. Right at a time when the 6 other girls at my primary school were getting boobs and boyfriends.
Which puts me in a most authoratative been-there-done-that position to advise on embracing an awkward aesthetic fixture.
Yours might be a bald head. Big boobs. Crooked teeth. Or a “thing” for wearing combat boots that you just can’t shake.
The thing is: I could get corrective surgery. Or contacts. But I never have, despite even being offered it for free. Why? Glasses are part of me. My look works around them.
So instead I:
– don’t shirk. I wear my glasses boldly. And I wear bold glasses. When you make a stamp firmly, people believe what you’re doing is the right thing to do. People believe that my glasses-wearing is good because I don’t apologise for them. The bald man can do the same. It doesn’t have to detract from an evolutionary mating POV…it doesn’t have to suggest weakness (bad eyes, follicular inadequacies).
– work with, not against or around. I don’t wear jewellery near my face to detract from the “glasses effect”. Glasses are my jewellery.
This week I “Be Sarah” (which may or may not involve rolling around in bed in luxurious knits) I have this problem. I’m a really bad party-goer. I can’t seem to stay at them, and my personality grinds to a glazed-over halt whenever I’m forced to. Standing in restrictive going-out garb on a Friday or … Read more
It’s Friday and sunny. Who’s to complain? I hope you STILL have no plans for Sunday.
And that you’re paving your own road out there, perhaps through a green field??!!!
Me, I’m off to a wedding in Perth. My mate James Thomas, a reporter on Today Tonight, is getting married. Finally. James was the first person in the world to visit me in hospital when I was born (he’s a few months older than me; his mum and dad are best friends with mine). As he announced at his 30th birthday, after I gave the speech, “we tried kissing once, when were about 18, but it was like pashing my sister”. Which is what a brother would say, right! Ooooh, but in different circumstances. OK, I’ll climb out of that hole now…
Anyway, some nice stuff to share over a glass of pinot grigio in the autumnal evening glow, perhaps:
1. Know you’re not alone when you Just. Don’t. Feel Like being a grown up. (But learn to go there anyway): I love this quote from Julius Erving…
“Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like them”.
Kind of spurred me on this week to get real about what I’m doing. When you work for yourself you can find all kinds of sabotaging excuses for not getting stuff done on off days.
I also emailed back and forth with Seth Godin during the week. Which excited me no end. The guy is a genius.
His post “I don’t feel like it” is a reminder to pull you finger out if you really want to create great things. Seth’s new book Linchpins touches on the importance of pushing through “the resistance” and fighting “the lizard brain” so that you can deliver your artistic gift.
I lived without a car until I was 29. And last year my car was stolen and I took the opportunity to spend 6 months car-free. It was liberating. I reduced my circle of influence to a 10km radius (the distance I could ride my bike in comfortably). It limited my choices and steered things … Read more
I spent the weekend locking horns with one of the best chefs in the world. Tetsuya has ranked in the top 5 according to one of the most prestigious polls. And he’s earned a three-chef hat rating from The Good Food Guide every year since 1992. Why the clash? I was there to MC his … Read more
I feel strangely compelled to take note if someone’s name pops up three times in a day. I have to call them. My meditation teacher, for instance. He was mentioned to me by three different people. Finally I called him – his name’s Tim – and he instructed me in a technique that’s changed my life. Quite literally (more on this soon).
I’m not a “universe told me to” type. But I do think we steer our lives toward things as we need them. Subconsciously, or perhaps just on a feeling level, we “lean” toward what we know we need or want. We draw things towards us, so our rational or conscious self can get the directions it needs.
In the past I’ve needed multi-level neon billboards before I’d take notice. I was so closed. But as I started to open myself to this kind of thinking, more and more signs came forth and steered me to the right place.
Signs can also warn and teach lessons.
What about this: when I was sick a few years back I got all panicky about being idle and tried to plan a travel writing gig to the Solomon Islands to dive with sharks. Because diving with sharks is usually the best way to jerk yourself from a rut, right!
But everything went wrong. Flights, commitment from magazines etc. My meditation teacher Tim told me I should stay put. Moving about was bad for my energy levels and for my “vata”, he said. I needed to rest.
