(Part of the retro blog recovery series...also posted at original retro date July 15th, 2007)
So… it’s been a while - believe me, I know it has and it grates on me, but here I am.
I was talking this evening, with someone more definitely worthwhile talking to, about the latest Pixar release. The details of that part of the conversation is not pertinent at this juncture, but what popped up during that, is.
Pixar was a little fish. Pixar was eaten by The Big Fish; Disney.
Now there are some, quite seemingly, valid arguements to make this actually a good idea. Almost, actually quite possibly, a case where the small fish steers the big fish in a positive direction. But I don’t care, on principal.
What got me ranting today was when I found out that Pixar/Disney has now gobbled up another smaller fish; Zemeckis’ CGI house “Imagemovers”.
I don’t like conglomerates. Conglomerates are bad.
The argument was made to me that Lasseter wanted to aquire some talent because he needs more people and I am not at all denying that is the case but I don’t care. And I don’t care in a 'quite frankly' kinda way.
Conglomerates are bad. And here is why.
Because mediocrity sucks.
Conglomeration is how everything gets sucked into being the same. It is how one person/mindset gets to own everything and everything we get is a filtered down version of the same one mindset. What they like, what they believe in, what they think is ok for us to see. It is how great shows like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip get canned after one season.
Conglomeration is how The Big Fish gets to eat all the little fish and the uniquely special parts of the little fish are disseminated and filtered through to become just parts of the big fish and the small fish is no longer around to be appreciated and compared to other fish and the big fish gets all the credit for those little tiny sparkly bits that were much bigger on the small fish and quite unexpectedly beautiful.
Do you know what the land does? What the wind and erosion and the rivers and the rain do? The ultimate goal of those processes is to smooth out the land. To remove the variations and this is what I am talking about here.
Conglomeration is what wrecked Route 66. It is the antithesis of “variety being the spice of life”. There is a reason that saying was invented you know! Because variety is good and great and just and supports our growth and development as people.
Conglomeration is the creation of mediocrity.
Conglomeration is mediocrity.
A mediocre man is always at his best.
And that is BAD.
Conglomerates suck
on principal
I don’t care that I love Pixar.
racism sucks too and I don’t think any individual racism is ok even if it serves a good purpose.
mass controlling and buying up and driving towards mediocrity is bad.
mediocrity is bad
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Ego and the Attachment to the Perception of Others
For your own sanity you must give up this ego need to understand people.
You can't ever really understand the thoughts and motivations of others and you don't need to.
Heck - I have enough trouble working out and understanding my own motivations a lot of the time - let alone trusting that someone else has any sort of honest concept about why they do what they do.
You don't need to understand people.... you just need to be you.
Other people's crap is their own and not something that is your responsibility or that you need to understand.
If you can manage to react to and approach everything that comes your way from a foundation of good intention that is the very bestest thing you can do.
Give up that struggle to understand others.
Release yourself from that task.
Give responsibility for other people's stuff back to other people. It's not yours.
You really are of no real good to anyone else if you are no good to yourself and that is only a decision away.
I say this in an EMPOWERING way - the only thing you can control in this world is you and your reaction to the stuff that happens.
Sometimes when you are in a place in your life where you are ready to move forward into something more than you have experienced - that can feel like a struggle when the people we are attached to are not moving or at least not going in the same direction.
Sometimes moving forward can mean you need to let go in order for the things that are trying to get into your life, and make it less of a struggle, can come in.
It's challenging but there are always choices - (sitting on the fence is one by the way and if that works for someone and makes them feel fulfilled and at peace, then it's valid and where they are meant to be for the time being).
Some things to remember
What other people think is none of your business
What other people think OF YOU is none of your business.
You can't control it, so give up living your life trying to. People are gonna think what they want no matter what you do because - and this is the imporant part to under stand - what they think of you (and the things you do) has NOTHING to do with you or the things you do!
The way people perceive things is based on their own emotional baggage and past experiences.
You can't be the you who you are meant to be when you are busy trying to be what you want other people to think you are.
You can't ever really understand the thoughts and motivations of others and you don't need to.
Heck - I have enough trouble working out and understanding my own motivations a lot of the time - let alone trusting that someone else has any sort of honest concept about why they do what they do.
You don't need to understand people.... you just need to be you.
Other people's crap is their own and not something that is your responsibility or that you need to understand.
If you can manage to react to and approach everything that comes your way from a foundation of good intention that is the very bestest thing you can do.
Give up that struggle to understand others.
Release yourself from that task.
Give responsibility for other people's stuff back to other people. It's not yours.
You really are of no real good to anyone else if you are no good to yourself and that is only a decision away.
I say this in an EMPOWERING way - the only thing you can control in this world is you and your reaction to the stuff that happens.
Sometimes when you are in a place in your life where you are ready to move forward into something more than you have experienced - that can feel like a struggle when the people we are attached to are not moving or at least not going in the same direction.
Sometimes moving forward can mean you need to let go in order for the things that are trying to get into your life, and make it less of a struggle, can come in.
It's challenging but there are always choices - (sitting on the fence is one by the way and if that works for someone and makes them feel fulfilled and at peace, then it's valid and where they are meant to be for the time being).
Some things to remember
What other people think is none of your business
What other people think OF YOU is none of your business.
You can't control it, so give up living your life trying to. People are gonna think what they want no matter what you do because - and this is the imporant part to under stand - what they think of you (and the things you do) has NOTHING to do with you or the things you do!
The way people perceive things is based on their own emotional baggage and past experiences.
You can't be the you who you are meant to be when you are busy trying to be what you want other people to think you are.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Changing Consciousness
I was at a seminar on Friday where a panel of local people (MPs, local government, business, “green teens”) spoke on the question “What does a sustainable future look like?”
It was an interesting thing to listen to – as what seemed to emerge out of all the different people’s comments was the need for a change in the way ‘we’ (as a collective modern western society kind of entity) think. A change in the very nature of what we habitually do, what we hold important, what we strive for.
It made me think about how there is a growing movement around the world of people that believe there will be some sort of an “event” near the end of 2012 (some even narrow this down to Dec 21 2012, in conjunction with what equates to the final entry of the Mayan calendar). Some people believe this will be heralded by calamity – a huge series of natural disasters that will devastate the entire infrastructure of the modern ‘western’ world – a situation many of them refer to (somewhat ironically in my opinion) as a “reboot”. Some of these people believe that this event is actually about a shift in consciousness.
I have been pondering what important components of this consciousness shift might be or rather, what I would hope they might be.
So far I have loosely come up with;
• becoming more mindful of why we think what we think and do what we do
• living more meaningfully
• practising what you preach/being the change you want to see
• sharing more of self (ideas, believes, actions) in local community
On deeper delving I have come up with the following.
This consciousness shift is something humans are capable of.
I think the general (and increasing) lack of this now is easily attributed to the society we have created for ourselves in the modern world**. In a culture where money and stuff is the measure of success it PAYS to complain, take things personally, be defensive and/or aggressive and have almost a victim attitude. It does not pay, in that materialistic way, to be compassionate and forgiving to those people you judge to have transgressed against you. You can sue, you can be recompensed, you can get newspaper articles written about you and get a gang of followers supporting you with an atmosphere of "poor you" further perpetuating your disempowerment and literally keeping you down.
This, in my opinion, tends to be a negative way to live, the way most people do it (which is in that disempowered victim type way and not the positive empowered standing up for your own rights way).
Perhaps this is one of the options for the consciousness shift - coming to terms with this balance between standing up for your rights/being compassionate to the motivations of others (positive) and whinging about everything that seems unfair and taking everything as a personal attack (negative).
I see it even here on this website and of course it is a natural normal human reaction and if that is where you are in your personal development and you are happy and content to be that way, that's fine and dandy (and normal) - we do what we know how to do and when we know better, we do better - and this is what we are discussing here - the opportunity to transcend the natural normal human reactions and utilise the new abilities that evolution has brought to this human creature. Mindfully becoming more than we have been before and are now.
This is the new evolution.
Feeling empowered and positive is a far more energy efficient way to live than having a negative, poor-me, everyone-is-against-me, look-it's-happened-to-me-again, oh-I can't-do-that-coz-I’ve-got-< insert condition here> attitude.
The human being is equally able to choose to take a positive compassionate attitude as they are to choose a negative attitude. I know which one puts a genuine sincere smile on my face and gives me more energy and motivation to get out in the world spreading the love and being of meaningful use to others.
And that is what it is... a choice - meaning that YOU are in control of you, learn to be worthy of that and live up to all that it means.
I would like to see more people choosing the positive on a more consistent basis and in the very least take a NEUTRAL stance, if you can't assume the positive at least do yourself a favour and don't assume the negative.
If you perceive someone is being an arse to you
* firstly, remember that that IS your perception and it could well be that they aren't even talking about you and it's just your ego and perceptions of your self that make the cap fit (so to speak)
* secondly, detach yourself from you ego and actually look at what they have said and see if it has any merit or is even an attack and not just a comment of fact that you have taken a dislike to because of your own emotional baggage (something helpful here coudl be - does this situation occur with other people, is it a familiar thing that always seems to happen to you whereever you go?)
* thirdly, if they are in fact, without a doubt, abusing you, that's THEIR problem and, of course, says screes about them and has nothing to do with you personally (especially in the anonymous environment of the internet!) and don’t let yourself be drawn in to it (don't dignify it with a response).
What people believe about you is their business.
Please use your power to choose.
**This 'modern world' humans have created (the 'developed" world) is like most human led schemes - it was not well thought out for the long term and to quite a degree indulged the percieved wants and needs of the people with the power rather than the people with the appropriate intelligence.
(eg: one such scheme is european colonisation of New Zealand - a very unique ecosystem dominated by birds with only ONE kind of terrestrial mammal (teeny insect eating bats who prefer to scurry on the ground than fly) and birds who have evolved many mammalian traits and fill the niches that mammals do in other places. This influx of people led to the introduction of many mammal species that have devastated our environment. One of the things these european settlers thought was a good idea was to introduce possums to start a fur trade. Possums directly compete with our native birds for food and also eat eggs and females birds on the nest and have led to the local extinction of many native plants and creatures. Another 'bright idea' not well thought out was the introduction of stoats with the intention that they would eat all the rats. No one bothered to think from the stoat's point of view... why on earth would they bother to chase agile wily fast rats around when there was a wealth of flightless birds who's idea of defence was to freeze and camoflage.... but I digress!!!)
We really strived to create this modern 'western' society where we have all this stuff but we have not thought throughand put processes in place to constructively and purposely utlise the benefits this modern world has created for us and do in in a sustainable way that will leave the world in a better state than we found it.
It was an interesting thing to listen to – as what seemed to emerge out of all the different people’s comments was the need for a change in the way ‘we’ (as a collective modern western society kind of entity) think. A change in the very nature of what we habitually do, what we hold important, what we strive for.
It made me think about how there is a growing movement around the world of people that believe there will be some sort of an “event” near the end of 2012 (some even narrow this down to Dec 21 2012, in conjunction with what equates to the final entry of the Mayan calendar). Some people believe this will be heralded by calamity – a huge series of natural disasters that will devastate the entire infrastructure of the modern ‘western’ world – a situation many of them refer to (somewhat ironically in my opinion) as a “reboot”. Some of these people believe that this event is actually about a shift in consciousness.
I have been pondering what important components of this consciousness shift might be or rather, what I would hope they might be.
So far I have loosely come up with;
• becoming more mindful of why we think what we think and do what we do
• living more meaningfully
• practising what you preach/being the change you want to see
• sharing more of self (ideas, believes, actions) in local community
On deeper delving I have come up with the following.
This consciousness shift is something humans are capable of.
I think the general (and increasing) lack of this now is easily attributed to the society we have created for ourselves in the modern world**. In a culture where money and stuff is the measure of success it PAYS to complain, take things personally, be defensive and/or aggressive and have almost a victim attitude. It does not pay, in that materialistic way, to be compassionate and forgiving to those people you judge to have transgressed against you. You can sue, you can be recompensed, you can get newspaper articles written about you and get a gang of followers supporting you with an atmosphere of "poor you" further perpetuating your disempowerment and literally keeping you down.
This, in my opinion, tends to be a negative way to live, the way most people do it (which is in that disempowered victim type way and not the positive empowered standing up for your own rights way).
Perhaps this is one of the options for the consciousness shift - coming to terms with this balance between standing up for your rights/being compassionate to the motivations of others (positive) and whinging about everything that seems unfair and taking everything as a personal attack (negative).
I see it even here on this website and of course it is a natural normal human reaction and if that is where you are in your personal development and you are happy and content to be that way, that's fine and dandy (and normal) - we do what we know how to do and when we know better, we do better - and this is what we are discussing here - the opportunity to transcend the natural normal human reactions and utilise the new abilities that evolution has brought to this human creature. Mindfully becoming more than we have been before and are now.
This is the new evolution.
Feeling empowered and positive is a far more energy efficient way to live than having a negative, poor-me, everyone-is-against-me, look-it's-happened-to-me-again, oh-I can't-do-that-coz-I’ve-got-< insert condition here> attitude.
The human being is equally able to choose to take a positive compassionate attitude as they are to choose a negative attitude. I know which one puts a genuine sincere smile on my face and gives me more energy and motivation to get out in the world spreading the love and being of meaningful use to others.
And that is what it is... a choice - meaning that YOU are in control of you, learn to be worthy of that and live up to all that it means.
I would like to see more people choosing the positive on a more consistent basis and in the very least take a NEUTRAL stance, if you can't assume the positive at least do yourself a favour and don't assume the negative.
If you perceive someone is being an arse to you
* firstly, remember that that IS your perception and it could well be that they aren't even talking about you and it's just your ego and perceptions of your self that make the cap fit (so to speak)
* secondly, detach yourself from you ego and actually look at what they have said and see if it has any merit or is even an attack and not just a comment of fact that you have taken a dislike to because of your own emotional baggage (something helpful here coudl be - does this situation occur with other people, is it a familiar thing that always seems to happen to you whereever you go?)
* thirdly, if they are in fact, without a doubt, abusing you, that's THEIR problem and, of course, says screes about them and has nothing to do with you personally (especially in the anonymous environment of the internet!) and don’t let yourself be drawn in to it (don't dignify it with a response).
What people believe about you is their business.
Please use your power to choose.
**This 'modern world' humans have created (the 'developed" world) is like most human led schemes - it was not well thought out for the long term and to quite a degree indulged the percieved wants and needs of the people with the power rather than the people with the appropriate intelligence.
(eg: one such scheme is european colonisation of New Zealand - a very unique ecosystem dominated by birds with only ONE kind of terrestrial mammal (teeny insect eating bats who prefer to scurry on the ground than fly) and birds who have evolved many mammalian traits and fill the niches that mammals do in other places. This influx of people led to the introduction of many mammal species that have devastated our environment. One of the things these european settlers thought was a good idea was to introduce possums to start a fur trade. Possums directly compete with our native birds for food and also eat eggs and females birds on the nest and have led to the local extinction of many native plants and creatures. Another 'bright idea' not well thought out was the introduction of stoats with the intention that they would eat all the rats. No one bothered to think from the stoat's point of view... why on earth would they bother to chase agile wily fast rats around when there was a wealth of flightless birds who's idea of defence was to freeze and camoflage.... but I digress!!!)
We really strived to create this modern 'western' society where we have all this stuff but we have not thought throughand put processes in place to constructively and purposely utlise the benefits this modern world has created for us and do in in a sustainable way that will leave the world in a better state than we found it.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Bip Bippadotta
fat
cat
sat
hat
fat fat fat
cat cat cat
sat sat sat
hat hat hat
A fat cat sat on a hat, saw a rat on the mat, got a bat, had a chat with a gnat that he'd pat in a vat that was flat, oh yeah!
oh yeah...
sorry about that
small
ball
tall
wall
small small small
ball ball ball
tall tall tall
wall wall wall
see a small ball on a tall wall see it fall in a hall see it crawl give it's all and call hi y'all! see it stall, wear a shawl oh yeah!
oh yeah...
red
head
fed
bread
red red red
head head head
fed fed fed
bread bread bread
see a red head being fed bread on his sled made of led as he speed to be wed he fled instead out ahead up to Ted in his bed and he said
Red, head, fed, bread
Small, ball, tall, wall
Fat, cat, sat, hat
And that's that!
SCAT!
cat
sat
hat
fat fat fat
cat cat cat
sat sat sat
hat hat hat
A fat cat sat on a hat, saw a rat on the mat, got a bat, had a chat with a gnat that he'd pat in a vat that was flat, oh yeah!
oh yeah...
sorry about that
small
ball
tall
wall
small small small
ball ball ball
tall tall tall
wall wall wall
see a small ball on a tall wall see it fall in a hall see it crawl give it's all and call hi y'all! see it stall, wear a shawl oh yeah!
oh yeah...
red
head
fed
bread
red red red
head head head
fed fed fed
bread bread bread
see a red head being fed bread on his sled made of led as he speed to be wed he fled instead out ahead up to Ted in his bed and he said
Red, head, fed, bread
Small, ball, tall, wall
Fat, cat, sat, hat
And that's that!
SCAT!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
ORANGE RIBBON Campaign
NZ Friends of Tibet are launching the Orange Ribbon campaign here tonight - 08/08/08 to remind China that we have not forgotten the illegal occupation of Tibet while China enjoys world attention from the Olympics.
“Light Candle4tibet and wearing of Orange Ribbon on Friday and during the term of the Olympics are reminders that, all is not as harmonious as China is promoting, and that the people of Tibet will not be forgotten “ said Thuten Kesang, the Chairman of Friends of Tibet (NZ)."
Early this evening I will be wearing orange, lighting a candle and attending this talk
Life in Tibet Today with Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche
Rinpoche will give an up to date account of the current situation in Tibet, the progress and changes that all Tibetans face in the modernising Republic of China and how it affects the Tibetan people across the country. Ju Mohor Monastery, Rinpoche’s spiritual home, is situated in the upper reaches of the Dzachuka Valley, Sichuan Province close to the recent earthquakes. He will talk of the Vista Project which is helping young Tibetans retrain to support themselves in a changing world.
I will not be watching the olympics.
The Olympic Handshake -"With this handshake, we reach out to one another as citizens round the world in the Olympic spirit of friendship and excellence, committing to hold all our governments to a higher standard of peace, justice and respect for human dignity wherever they fall short – be it in Tibet, Iraq, Burma or beyond. Dialogue is the best way forward,
for China, and the world."
“Light Candle4tibet and wearing of Orange Ribbon on Friday and during the term of the Olympics are reminders that, all is not as harmonious as China is promoting, and that the people of Tibet will not be forgotten “ said Thuten Kesang, the Chairman of Friends of Tibet (NZ)."
Early this evening I will be wearing orange, lighting a candle and attending this talk
Life in Tibet Today with Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche
Rinpoche will give an up to date account of the current situation in Tibet, the progress and changes that all Tibetans face in the modernising Republic of China and how it affects the Tibetan people across the country. Ju Mohor Monastery, Rinpoche’s spiritual home, is situated in the upper reaches of the Dzachuka Valley, Sichuan Province close to the recent earthquakes. He will talk of the Vista Project which is helping young Tibetans retrain to support themselves in a changing world.
I will not be watching the olympics.
The Olympic Handshake -"With this handshake, we reach out to one another as citizens round the world in the Olympic spirit of friendship and excellence, committing to hold all our governments to a higher standard of peace, justice and respect for human dignity wherever they fall short – be it in Tibet, Iraq, Burma or beyond. Dialogue is the best way forward,
for China, and the world."
Thursday, August 7, 2008
08 08 08
8 is my favourite number.
I remember the 8th of the 8th '88 and I remember it being a special day for me.
Tomorrow I plan on having an especially amazing day!
Below one of my fav 8 logos...the space programme ROCKED.
Jackson Pollock's number 8
You can bet I am gonna be watchign a bunch of antique sesame street tomorrow because antique sesame street makes me happy!
Monday, August 4, 2008
"My Penguin Is Filthy!"
well... he is!!!! Just check out his flipper!
People look at you funny when you suddenly realise such things and are so shocked you blurt out that kind of sentence in public, by the way.
People look at you funny when you suddenly realise such things and are so shocked you blurt out that kind of sentence in public, by the way.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
nothing will ever be the same again...
this evening
I
M A D E
C H E E S E ! ! !
I feel like Chuck Noland in Castaway when he made fire...
Below is what I did and to be fair, it was MUCH easier than making fire (sorry, Chuck) and I am surprised, being the huge cheese addict I am, that I have not tried it before...
1. Place one cup of milk in the saucepan, slowly bringing the milk to a boil while stirring constantly.
2. Turn off when it boils, leave it on element and stir in two teaspoons of vinegar - leave to sit for 5 to 10 mins
3. Put curds and whey onto paper towel (tuffy works just as well as cheesecloth or hanky!) and press, squish, squeeze to get as much of the moisture out as you can (I used a few paper towels)
4. Open cloth and add some salt, mix it in and squish moisture out again
5. Form into shape you want, put in mould or cling wrap and put in fridge for a while
I
M A D E
C H E E S E ! ! !
I feel like Chuck Noland in Castaway when he made fire...
Below is what I did and to be fair, it was MUCH easier than making fire (sorry, Chuck) and I am surprised, being the huge cheese addict I am, that I have not tried it before...
1. Place one cup of milk in the saucepan, slowly bringing the milk to a boil while stirring constantly.
2. Turn off when it boils, leave it on element and stir in two teaspoons of vinegar - leave to sit for 5 to 10 mins
3. Put curds and whey onto paper towel (tuffy works just as well as cheesecloth or hanky!) and press, squish, squeeze to get as much of the moisture out as you can (I used a few paper towels)
4. Open cloth and add some salt, mix it in and squish moisture out again
5. Form into shape you want, put in mould or cling wrap and put in fridge for a while
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Things That Are Important
yeah there was an eclipse, the whole water on mars thing has been confirmed, nasty storms hit my town (and the rest of NZ!), a farmer had a double arm transplant, someone is paying 14million dollars to be first to publish jolie-pitt baby pics, live fish were found at record depths, California had a pretty good sized quake, jesus' face was seen in cat fur, and Sir Richard Branson unvieled his space plane
But... instead of all that - go play with this!!!
(my fav is classic)
But... instead of all that - go play with this!!!
(my fav is classic)
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