Last night with friends I attended the Sir Walter Murdoch Lecture for 2011. This is an annual public lecture given since 1974 in memory of the Murdoch University namesake, Sir Walter Murdoch. This year's speaker was Todd Sampson, someone I hadn't really heard of before last night (much to the surprise of my friends, I should add).

I really enjoyed the lecture and found a lot of resonating insight. A different doorway of thought drawing on aspects of thought, perception, culture and personhood that I've been thinking on. The topic of the lecture "Creativity: Balancing Fear and Success" had a lot of useful content (and though I understand it is a lecture that Mr Sampson gives regularly, it was no less interesting for that).

The following notes are what I took from the lecture, perhaps they might be of interest or use to you. (Feel free to let me know in the comments).

Creativity is a powerful force that disrespects the status quo. Disrespecting or making war upon the status quo is a subject that occupies a reasonable amount of my thinking. From this perspective I find that creativity as a concept cannot easily be ignored and the potential for impact is massive.

If you give people the opportunity to realise their ability to make a difference in their world, you tap into a well of creativity. Such a well was part of the foundation of Earth Hour - one of Todd's biggest successes. Prior to last night I didn't really understand what was being gained out of such an event. Now I get it.

• If you take a group of eclectic people and sit them down together to talk, they will come up with an idea.
• If you then take that idea and create a symbolic event, the idea becomes a kind of social activism.
• Then, take this social activism to your advertising and connect every person to the idea that they are also all people - oneness.
• Such social activism can become corporate activism multiplying the impact of that one single event on a massive global scale. 

One event. One single hour. Worldwide.

Earth Hour's impact is that it brings people together with the ability to each take one small action.

It isn't that everyone turned their lights off for an hour and that this is now a yearly event in partnership with governments and corporations globally... it's that through a symbolic event people think about the issue. They talk about the issue. They take action on the issue. It is a micro action, but such actions pave the way for other actions around environmental conservation, climate change and sustainability.

Each person with their one small action, contributes to the shifting of culture through creativity.

Another powerful force that influences everyone worldwide, is fear. I am firmly of the belief that everyday culture and conservatism condition us to fear, condition us away from creativity where we might question the world and society around us.

We all experience fear... fear of the unknown, fear of failure and fear of looking bad. In Todd's view, all fear stems from these three places and while my personal jury is out on that right now, it's a good place to start.

The answer is not to eradicate fear, but to engage with it. I liked Todd's approach which was essentially to "be brave just a little bit longer" and to remember that action is the antidote to fear.

In his experience he finds that the most successful organisations and people balance creativity and fear.

Largely this post is just about my notes from the lecture and only a little about my thinking around it. I may (or may not) come back to these concepts and talk about them a little more in the context of my own thinking and what I personally am about for the world.

But I have become aware of something, and I noticed it acutely last night. I am conscious of my sense of 'moreness' within, that something that says I still have stuff to do, to say, to learn, to teach etc... that sense of being 'called'. It bubbles below the surface of my awareness and every so often it surges, and it's almost like I'm about to cry... I feel overwhelmed and there is a rush of intense emotional insight into whatever is going on at the time. That sense of 'moreness' was there last night and it was just at that moment that I recognised and linked the physical response to it.

Whatever it is I'm about... I'm getting closer all the time to that discovery. I cannot wait.

I stumbled upon the entry I wrote at the beginning of the year about setting the space for my 2011 enquiry. I'm still in the midst of it, I can feel that there's some time yet to have this fully play out. But, I am listening to the the universe and happenschance that I looked at it tonight and thus, updating. 

Oh how difficult and sobering and heartening it is to revisit that post. The year was so full of promise and coming out of the last third of 2010 which was horrible, and it overall being a difficult year.... I wanted this year to be amazing. I also knew it would be challenging and it certainly has been. I feel like there have been glimpses of amazing... I hope it means that the really really good stuff is yet to come. 

Still, I don't think this is the update that I wanted to write. It will require me to be a little more personal than I thought I'd be in this space. However, what good is an enquiry if you don't engage with it? 

I didn't think I'd engaged with it as much as I have... it hasn't been as much in the forefront of my mind as past year themes have been. But oh, looking back on what I wrote... there's been so much to do with this theme going on. So. Very. Much. 

Conscious Faith was about my life, how I move through the world, how I run my life and where I direct my energies. I've learned *so* much. I've shifted and changed so much of what was so at that point in the year. And all of it has been inside the world of trust, sincerity to self and my commitment to my life, to the world around me. I couldn't be where I am at this point, without that being true. 

Where am I with some of the goals I outlined?

• I wanted to continue developing my ability to Listen Actively

It's hard to describe where I'm at with this, because I feel like I'm better at this, but it is an overall sense rather than specific events I can point to. It's about an attitude to listening that has become part of my background thought, part of my ordinary, rather than being something I have to employ consciously and with deliberate intent. It has (to my mind) been subsumed into how I move through the world in general. 

• I wanted to look at the systems and strategies I employ, and at their effectiveness. 

I've employed some new systems and they're new enough that I can't yet evaluate them. It's all a work in progress, but I can say that decluttering has been a big part of things. I'm also shifting how I do things in my online spaces so that I can streamline things a little better... it's not there yet, but I'm thinking about it.

I'd still like mechanisms for being able to keep links together for link salad posting... currently I'm partly using whatever social networking is handy and partly my igoogle task list or just having a bunch of tabs open in my browser. See? Still a work in progress.

• Non fiction reading increase and expansion

 If I can count the amount of blog reading, then I can say this is happened. However, I know that I meant books of theorists. I've sourced several texts... but with the burnout I haven't really taken any of them up to read. I'm a little sad about this, I'd still like it to shift and do a little bit of it. I know I'll enjoy it when I get there... the big thing seems to be starting. Some work to be done there... 

• Cooking, being conscious and thoughtful about ingredients and ethical impacts...

This is a hard one. There has been cooking... though not as much as I wanted. I have been conscious and thoughtful about the ingredients and ethics. Am I any closer to a position or being definitive about what works for me? Not a bit. That said, resolution wasn't a requirement - it'd be a nice bonus though :)

• Meaningful conversations with people that will assist with them working through or shifting hard stuff.

This has been a joy and challenge this year. There's been a lot more of it than I could have conceived. I believe I've done well with it, people I've had conversations with where there was intentionality and something of a purpose in mind, there was beauty in sharing and moving through conversation and listening. I won't say more than that save that it is very rewarding and it fills me up inside with light.

The hard with this is in confronting that I perhaps have something to offer, something meaningful that makes a difference. I do, I am learning to trust this and rather than worry about being egotistical I am concentrating on trusting myself and sharing without imposing. 

• Goals and wishes and desires... 

Oh I've been listening. I've been acting on things as well. I took a chance on an adventure to Kununurra for a job. It was amazing and heartbreaking. It didn't work out... but I took a leap of faith and that felt *amazing*. I'm conscious that my time in Perth is drawing to a close, that it's time to be in a different living space, a different city space and exploring other aspects of myself and my relationships. 

Professional goals and wishes have come with some fruition despite the difficulty that was Kununurra. There have been jobs I've done and enjoyed. I've worked with great teams. I've achieved significant and measurable results. I've achieved things. I've become more aware of what shape my career might take on. It's still barely shaped... but it's there and I can feel it starting to come together. 

• Making a difference in the world... myself and others. Also here is the space where I wanted to live in accordance with my ideals that 'we're all an us' that 'anything is possible'

I am making a difference in every moment that I am myself to the best of my ability. Authentically, I am an intense person and I have an enormous impact on my world around me. I am an overflowing well of love, of wonder and of joy shared freely with those around me. I am powerful and driven by my visions for equality, for personhood, for connection, for a greater understanding and appreciation of love. I am someone who motivates and inspires, I lead people and most of all.... I am a Giant. 

I am a Giant standing on the shoulders of many other Giants, wanting others to stand on my shoulders to become Giants, all of us reaching for far away stars, creating them with our dreams. 

It's not without stumbles and falls, none of us manage to be our best selves all the time. Sometimes, I am learning, it is our less awesome selves that teach us what being sincere and authentic are really about. It is all about the journey, the destination may yet be grand, but without the journey I have no context with which to value it. 

I've seen people around me take on amazing projects, start inspiring businesses, speak truth and love, connection and community to people. I've been part of some of this and some of it just a witness to it... but oh, I get to be around some of the most amazing people who are making the most amazing difference in the world in so many different and important ways. 

• Continue to be my own best friend, to abide my my self dedication vows and promises. 

This is a mixed bag in some ways. Or maybe not... I've been very conscious of this all year. I started the year in burn out, I've discovered a heart-wound as part of my trying to recover my energy reserves (which in part explains why it's taking so freaking long). Self care and introspection have been strong motivators for me this year. I've been working so very hard in my head and in my heart. I'm not done yet. Some of what I've been working on has uncovered some really nasty and unhealthy patterns that are not at all keeping with my promises to myself. However, I'm paying that they're there and working to unhook them and let them go. 

• Know connectionism like I know how to breathe... 

This has to be one of the gifts I gave myself at the beginning of this year. I swear it's been one of the key things that's helped me to deal with all the hard and all the painful stuff. I know my connections like I know how to breathe. I can feel them and I can nurture them. For most of the year the energy has been rushing outwards in some key spaces and that tide is now turning.

In other spaces the flow of energy back and forth has been sublime abundance. I am surrounded by the most amazing loving friends. I cannot for a moment doubt that love and care... And even in the spaces where the energy has been in ebb and it's mostly been coming from me... there is a special kind of caringness and building that comes from that. It's not one sided, just held in trust. I've been holding close my knowledge of those connections, knowing that tides and energy flows would revert in time. Knowing connectionism has made the hard that much easier to navigate. So unbelievably easier. 

This is where I am at just now. I think the summary is really, still all a work in progress. But oh, I can absolutely recognise far more clearly 2011's theme Conscious Faith in amongst all the stuff going on this year. That's actually quite satisfying... I'm kind of delighted by the effort my subconscious has clearly made in this area. 

As a work in progress I'm very conscious that it also means... there's still a lot of work to come. But, I have faith in all the ways I'm negotiating my world and beingness. It is all coming together. I'm still learning so very much. I'm seeking recognition and reassurance in different places and I am letting go of my sense of independence as a fortress around me. I must remember that my best strength is always in vulnerability. 

Here's to the rest of 2011... bring it. I'm all over this. 

I'm well and truly daunted by the prospect of trying to dig up all the links that I've been sharing in other more immediate spaces and not here for OH SO LONG (like since last year...) I still want to do this, but I'm not sure yet the best way to approach it. I'm being gentle and sneaking up on it. 

That's why I'm doing this blog post first! It's a Link Salad! It's a special kind of Link Salad where I thought I'd share a bunch of the blogs that I'm reading. I read A LARGE number of blogs pretty faithfully I read everything from cooking and environmental and picture blogs, lifestyle and self devleopment blogs, plus a large number of feminist and social justice blogs.

Somehow I am not stressed at being 1000+ entries behind in my reading, it becomes something of a marathon challenge to work through. I enjoy getting lost in the spaces between what other people write and publish online. I'm getting closer to being in a space where I am also writing and contributing to the space with insightful and lovely things to say. (I hope.) 

I will point out that I almost never read comment streams. Sometimes that's out of laziness, but in a large number of cases, I find the comment streams a little (or a lot) toxic and I'm just not interested in *that* level of engagement. So before I go into the list, a couple of warnings...

Trigger Warning - comment streams have not been vetted in most of these cases. I'll state specifically if there are comment streams I've found valuable rather than the other way around. If you find comment spaces difficult, you may wish to be aware that I've not vetted most of these ahead of time. 

Sexual Content Warning - some of the links I want to share with you are overtly sexual in nature, I'll post those in a spaced out paragraph on their own, but if you're not interested in those kinds of blog spaces just be aware there will be a section in the post for this stuff. There is only a couple, and they should be easy to skip but I'll flag it clearly for those uninterested. 

And now... onto the Link Salad! 

First, one of my most favourite blogs in the world... Havi's Fluent Self blog. This is one of the spaces that I'm most behind on because I read it carefully and intentionally. I don't skim or rush it. I often mark posts to go back to and revisit after thinking about them (or forgetting about them). This is one of the few blog spaces where I enjoy the comment stream. I don't always read it, but whenever I have, there's never been a whisper of ick. Instead there's an awesome coming together of people all working on their own stuff and sharing accord)ingly. I've learned so very much from the blog and Havi, but also from the community of people who comment as well. 

Havi writes about her business, about being a Pirate Queen, about her community and the different ways in which she works with herself and others around biggifying and destuckification, negotiating with our inner monsters, about finding playful ways that work and not having to run her business in a traditional way. I cannot emphasise just how much I love this blog. 

Next, the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) blog. It's just an image, but it's never *just* an image. I have a deep and abiding fascination with space and the universe. Once upon a time I wanted to be an astronomer (until someone scared me with all the maths involved, which now makes me a little sad). There is an amazing array of images displayed, some more artistic, some more scientific, some telescopic photographs, some Earthscape photographs... but all amazing in their way. Getting to look at all these images reminds me of the love and the wonder I see in how everything connects in some way. I'm reminded of a Carl Sagan quote: "Within us is a little universe". 

This won't surprise anyone, but I love the XKCD webcomic! A great number of my friends also love this webcomic (not really a blog, but I follow it as faithfully!) I fell in love with this comic when I was linked to this particular offering titled 'Grownups'. Since then I've followed it's array of geektastic, romantic, sarcastic, linguistic and scientific with delight. 

I found Chally's blog 'Zero at the Bone' through reading a number of other blogs I read. In particular her posts resonate with me, make me think, make me consider the world and people around me differently. Chally's blog is one of my favourites overall for a social justice perspective, she's not afraid to have conversations or ask questions that many other people either don't notice or don't have time for. In particular I value Chally's recurring theme on identity, not so much the way we choose to form identity, but the invisible ways in which the dominant culture around us forms our identity - it also informs us how to judge others' identities.

There's a lot of interesting and insightful reading to be had from this blog, and it's worth a look - though be aware it's not discussing social justice from a 101 perspective and is instead tackling greyer and more thorny approaches to the goings on in the world. 

There is a treasure trove of geeky suggestions and 'hacks' via Lifehacker Australia to have your life run better, everything from tech choices, plans for your tech (broadband, mobiles etc), office setup, wellness and work, work life balance, travel and even home and DIY tips. There's a lot of recommendation and discussion on software particularly of the open source kind and if I want a program that does 'x' I'll hit their archives first to find out what they've had to say about the subject. I love it, but it also tends to be completely unaware of it's pivilege and sometimes that shows, but overall it's not terrible. The interesting suggestions and advice I've gotten from the site make it well worthwhile. Also, I often find comments here to be helpful, (although there are also some trolls). 

Some other social justice blog links now, first up Blue Milk who discusses motherhood in relation to feminism and social justice. Blue Milk's posts are insightful and draw not only from her own experience of the world but from academic and other blog spaces. She makes astute comments regarding motherhood and feminism, the difficulties in both these spaces and how they interconnect. This is another blog that I picked up from carnivals and other cross linking like I did Chally's. 

I believe that Hoyden About Town was the first specifically feminist blog I read, and it is still a favourite. I belive that it was through HAT that I discovered both Chally and Blue Milk's blogs. I love their broad social justice perspective - I do actually seek out blogs that have a broader view of injustice, oppession and the seeking of equality. HAT certainly has that, I've learned immense amounts from this blog with it's cohort of regular bloggers and occasional guest bloggers. 

One thing I value about Blue Milk, Hoyden About Town and Zero at the Bone is that they're all largely Australian/New Zealand in perspective - they all cover material outside of Australia and New Zealand, but I really value that they're talking about their experiences and that they're relevant in a local way. I appreciate other blogs that are mostly USA-centric, but the balance provided by these (and other Australian/New Zealand blogs) is very welcome.

I've been following the Geek Feminism blog almost since it's inception. I love it's focus on things that are geeky and that the interpretation of what constitutes 'geeky' is broad and inclusive. There is as like to be posts about knitting as there is about tech conferences. This blog is valuable in that it interrogates and discusses a particular focus of feminism that I've felt at times was missing from the other blogs I was reading. Other feminism blogs do cover the high notes of what is discussed by Geek Feminism, but this blog drills down and takes on those deeper conversations about geekdom, feminism and the interplay of privilege within. 

Another different perspective on social justice, these two blogs take on the other side of the conversation about equality and feminism by looking at what's going on in men's spaces and how the culture of oppression and inequality hurts them too. In reading both Hugo Schwyzer's blog and the No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz? blog, I've gained insight into parts of culture invisible to me as a cis woman. I've been able to consider the issues and concerns that relate to men being in the world as it is, where in one form or another privilege harms everyone unchecked.

Equality is a huge cultural soup and no one side of any conversation can hope to make headway toward that goal without the involvement of the other parties. I value these blogs as part of a movement of people dedicated to moving forward with equality in all areas, committed to learning and exploring the issues, to sharing and having the conversations and to offer critique. 

On a food related note... I have been dearly enjoying The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader blog posting not only cafe reviews (from around Perth) but also cooking adventures. I find the reviews insightful and I've found them to be useful on more than one occasion. (I still really, really want to get to Toast for example). 

I also really enjoy the reviews that come out of Crema and Crumbs. This blogger notices awesome things about cafes and talks about places I wouldn't have even thought to try, with obvious success on their part. Again this is Perth-centric, and I love it for that factor too. 

A lovely friend of mine has just started her food blog 'Get In My Belly' and so far it looks to be friendly and story telling and lovely. I'm going to enjoy trying some of her recipes as she's a  *very* good cook.

And now the picture blogs! These are general blogs that are generally speaking safe for work (your milage may vary on that though). 

Zoo Borns! Baby animals! The unbelievable cuteness! Perfect for crappy days when I need a pick-me-up. Also, baby animals! 'Nuff said :D 

Cute Boys With Cats! Kitties, and boy-identifying people with kitties! How can this not be awesome?

Pansexual Pride is not just a picture tumblr but it does have a lot of awesome images. It's a very genderqueer friendly space (to my eye at least) and there's lots of people being out and proud about their sexuality and feeling comfortable about it. I love being part of that kind of space. The positivity and the way people express themselves with pride is just delightful. I love that there's lot of different relationship and people shapes and experiences and backgrounds. The diversity is so heartening. 

This is the space bubble for the links relating to sexual content, if you're uninterested you you can finish right here, if you've got some particularly awesome blogs that you recommend I take a look out - feel free to share them in the comments. I hope you liked some of the links to blogs that I mentioned. These are a selection of some 75 ish blogs that I follow (not including my livejournal/dreamwidth). 

If you're interested in some of the more solidly sexuality based links see below. 

Bubble bubble bubble and this is the beginning of the bubble. Sexual content follows. 

Just two links, first off Sex Is Not the Enemy. I love this blog - one of the top tags is for 'smiley happy people' - how brilliant is that? There are plenty of people for whom sex is fraught with worry, pressure and other less than positive feelings. There are also plenty of people who are uninterested in sex all or most of the time and that's fine too.

There are also people who are just comfortable and who delight in their sexuality and it is this latter space that this blog seeks to capture. For those of us who are interested in, invested in and who pursue sexual partnerships with people, I think a blog like this is invaluable. I love the variety of people, relationships, shapes, of acts - the diversity here is brilliant, I love that it's candid, it usually comes across moreso stylistic as opposed to pornish - though that's a personal view and others may find that very different. 

The second link is more overtly pornish - at least that's my experience of it. Frigging is just brilliant. It's a tumblr blog from the perspective of a pansexual cis-gendered woman, it's just stuff that takes her fancy, but it's just so much of the awesome. There's a lot of different images here, some are about beauty, some are attractive for attractiveness sake, some is fashion or photography and yes, pornish stuff. It's delicious. There's again, lots of different shapes, people, depictions from a diverse space... I just can't get enough of such positive imagery. 

Bubble bubble bubble... this be the end of the bubble :)

Also, it's the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed the links and again, if you've got some particularly awesome blogs that you recommend I take a look out - feel free to share them in the comments. 

Lately at work I've been using TED talks as my background for working interspersed with music and podcasts. (I have a post about both of those brewing, with about a hundred other ideas...I'll get there one day?) 

As always, TED talks are too good not to be shared and I always like seeing links from people to talks I want to listen to that I haven't yet heard of. That said I've gone through a LOT of talks lately, so be warned that this post is rather epic.

I was thinking of trying to group them by similar topic... but I don't know that I'll do the best job of that also I tend to think inspiration, creativity and people doing cool stuff is its own category :P Even if they're talking about different subjects.

Some of these I'm going to have more comments on than others. All of them were worthwhile listening, some of them I had more wordy/thinky reactions and some of them were just interesting and different to listen to and I haven't got more to say about it just now.  

Bruce Aylward: How we'll stop polio for good

I didn't realise how devastating this disease still is, I actually thought it *had* been eradicated.

Shirin Neshat: Art in exile

This talk really did embody that statement 'the personal is political', the speaker's journey through exile and artistic expression is engaging and I was particularly struck by this statement: "Every Iranian artist, in one form or another, is political. Politics have defined our lives." I'm struck by my privilege because... that isn't true for me in the way it is true for her and other Iranians, other people who live under very different circumstances than I do. This was a good and timely reminder of looking outside my own little bubble.

Daniel Temmet: Different ways of knowing

This was fascinating - I loved for a moment experiencing the world in a very different way. What I took from the talk overall is that there are a million different ways to see and perceive something - don't limit that possibility, don't make it reasonable.

Maya Beisar(s) and her cello(s)

This is technology, music and imagination put together beautifully. Remixing, it's everywhere.

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die

I've never been a fan of Jobs', but I did like this talk about how to move through the world and work out what you'd really like to be doing, and trying to find a way to do that.

Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously

This is one of my favourite recent talks. The artistic expression on a massive level makes my heart soar. If you've recently seen those amazing paper sculptures turning up in various places, you may well enjoy this talk. The speaker discusses how she really came to understand the value of imagination being an artist, beginning with a fishing net.

Honor Harger: A history of the universe in sound

The introduction to this talk mentions that we don't know much about what the universe sounds like, which seems like a funny thing to say, but then getting to *listen* to space was amazing.

Rajesh Rao: A Rosetta Stone for the Indus script

The infectious fascination this speaker has for this particular mystery of history - what he calls the "mother of all crossword puzzles". I'd never heard of anything around the Indus script or the peoples and civilisation surrounding it. I was surprised about that, as a result I really enjoyed this talk and wondering about history in a very different way than I have before. I love how he breaks down the way they're forming assumptions and rules from which to translate from, in order to test translations and so on. Fascinating stuff.

Two talks from Stefan Sagmeister, a short talk: On what he has learned (so far), then a longer discussion on: The power of time off.

This speaker really had a way of speaking, of sharing and inviting you to consider and imagine. I loved his list of things from the first talk that he'd learned and then was amazed by some of the art pieces and installations he'd created based on those learnings. Some of my favourite things were "Being not truthful always works against me", "Assuming is stifling", "Over time I get used to everything and start taking for granted", "Everybody thinks they are right" and, "Everybody who is honest is interesting".

In the following talk the speaker talks about what value taking one year in seven completely off from his business, going on sabbatical really brings to him. He talks about it in a personal context, in a business and earnings context and other ways, it was very interesting and I found a lot of merit in what he talked about. The work I'd ultimately like to be doing could really benefit from something like this being part of my business model and my practices. Just imagine what could happen if we had more opportunity to stop, take stock, to think, to be, to reflect and engage inwardly, to explore. I love this idea so much. I'm not at all considering the reality of funding such a practice, right now that's not so much a practicality as it is a reason to never think about how I could make it happen.

Robert Hammond: Building a park in the sky

This was an interesting talk and speaks to parts of me that pull for community and transformation of conforming surrounds etc. I love his description of "a mile of wildflowers through the middle of Manhattan" and how he kept invisioning the creation of an "inner city wildscape".

Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days

This idea had a lot of merit - the examples the speaker showed were useful, within reach, both ordinary and inspiring. I may think about this a little more and try and find a way to incorporate something like it in my ordinary and my everyday.

Jessi Arrington: Wearing nothing new

This woman's delight was infectious! I loved her enthusiasm for being exactly who she is, in conjunction for how she went about achieving it. Also, I loved some of the looks she shows in the talk. I do think that her concept gets a bit more difficult for those of us with irregular body shapes - certainly going op-shopping is as much an exercise in frustration as regular shopping (though at least it costs less). Maybe I just need to practice. Regardless there's a lot of merit in this idea and I'll be thinking about this too as part of my everyday/ordinary.

Rachel Botsman: The case for collaborative consumption

This talk was another favourite, it looks to the way we as individuals and consumers are adapting to a new surrounds, how we're questioning the drive to simply purchase and consume. I love the idea that we could start to see some really obvious and amazing changes in the way we as communities and individuals engage with 'stuff' and consumption moving toward a more collaborative and less impact model. She talks about how we're now becoming "wired to share" in a "peer to peer revolution", that we are no longer passive, but have become creators and collaborators, or, groups for purpose.

Marc Koska: 1.3million reasons to re-invent the syringe

This was a mixed thing for me. On one hand, the health concerns are staggering, on the other hand, the waste impact seems to be so massive. I can't argue with the necessity, given the reports of re-use of needles and the obviously devastating effects that come from that.

Nathan Myhrvold: Cooking as never seen before

I loved that they actually cut things in half to photograph them! I love that they concentrated on the 1/100th of a second that it needed to look good for the book. I think that such a book genuinely has a lot of potential in getting people involved in cooking and understanding what's going on when they cook. 

Jonathan Drori: The beautiful tricks of flowers

This is one of those talks that I listened to because it's never an area of interest that I've taken much notice of before. Actually the way flowers do their thing with insects is pretty interesting and amusing in places. Some beautiful images in this too.

Nadia Al-Sakkaf: See Yemen through my eyes

This woman is the Editor of the Yemen Times and is flat out amazing! I am so deeply inspired by her, I love how outspoken she is, I love how powerfully she comes across and I love the way she seeks to see and speak clearly into the future about the past.

So, that's what's been going through my brain as I've been working this week (and oh how scary are my process maps becoming, plus there's been development of a business case in there too)! Hopefully you enjoy some of these too :)

Retro Fiction Review Series

"Vengance of Dragons" (1999), second book in the 'Secret Texts Trilogy' by Holly Lisle

Published by Warner Books, New York.

Retro Fiction Review Series

"Diplomacy of Wolves" (1998), first book in the 'Secret Texts Trilogy' by Holly Lisle

Published by Warner Books, New York.

In "Diplomacy of Wolves" Holly Lisle begins a story that really grabbed my attention and I practically devoured it. This review may be spoilery beyond this point so if that's important to you you may wish to simply know that I highly recommend the book and go and read it before continuing on with this review.

On the blurb it is described as: 

"...a fantastic epic of ancient curses, evil conspiracies, and the darkest of sorceries."

This is an apt description for the story. The central protagonist Kait is immediately likeable and she gives us a multi-layered insight into the world of Matrin in which the story is set. I love stories involving intrigue, politics and magic and my, this story doesn't disappoint! The politics involves the notion of a powerful aristocratic class known as 'Family', inevitably two rival Families clash over power.

Any illusions Kait may hold about the sanctity of family or purity of her Family the Galweigh's motives over the rival Sabir Family's are quickly shattered. Kait's place and understanding of the world around her is pulled apart and she is left to make the best choices she can to serve her Family after a brutal attack on one of the prestigious Galweigh Family Houses.  

I also love stories with romance and in this there is also no disappointment. What I love about this book and the romance threads is that Kait gets to be a sexual being. She does struggle with this as her Karnee nature lends itself to intense sexual desires leading up to the time when she Shifts. However, this is not the struggle of a young woman in the grips of a puritanical view, rather her own moral code that would see her sleep with people for a genuine connection or preferably not at all.

Kait makes her choices to engage in or not engage in sexual connections without the condemnation of those around her for the reasoning of sex for it's own sake.Strange that this is refreshing, but it is. Too often my eyes glaze over reading about yet another female character being punished because she dared to be a sexual being. That Kait is always in fullness 'herself' indcluding in a sexual sense makes the book and it's romance enjoyable to read. Other romantic threads also include such ability to choose freely and not be punished for it so the surrounding impression is that there is no sexual war of consent being fought between the characters. 

Ry as a Sabir Wolf treads a fine line in places in this book where he brushes against being a Stalker, it is only Lisle's deft writing of his character and how he interacts with and thinks of Kait that steers this story thread away from a toxic interpretation. You can absolutely see the unhealthy patterning around relationships that seems to be almost a defining trait within the Sabir Family, but Lisle is careful not to give that reasoning any permissability. I also really enjoyed Ry's relationships with his friends, their camraderie is believable and made me smile many times. I could actively believe in them standing with him despite the dangerous and in some ways foolhardy courses of action he proposed to take.

The counterpoint to the 'hero' protagonists is the characters who are the villains. There are several ways in which individual character's roles change throughout the story but some of the true villains are easy to pick from the very beginning. You're given an introduction to certain characters that very easily identifies them as 'evil', not through convenience but believably through the character actions and justifications for their actions. Some of the other villain characters were more ambiguous in their presentation, though there was always a sense of being wary of them. It makes you think... but not too hard about it. 

I won't say much about the story itself, but as a 'quest story' it is interesting and both familiar (tropes are like that) but also engaged with interestingly, at no point was I bored by the procession of the story. The story itself is intricately linked with sorcery and the system of magic and religion is believable and not so all powerful as to be irritating. I particularly like the way the notion of consequences for actions are engaged with. The decision to keep one's 'Word' or not, the fact that in asking for help from a God one forgot to ask for a clear sign of support. Little things that just really allow me to relax and enjoy the story.

One favourite aspect I really enjoyed was the emphasis on Love as the underpinning of  Peace in the wake of the Wizard War that events in the story herald. 

If you're someone who enjoys the epic fantasy style of book, enjoy magic and political intrigue with a side of shape shifter magic and romance, I recommend this book (and the trilogy) to you. I'll be interested in thoughts from other people who've read the series about their impressions of it. 

The good thing about using TED talks for background music/company while I'm working is that they're inspiring and often very motivational. I got a heap of work done on Friday because I was listening to these. I love TED talks - I've got a whole other bunch of talks that I've yet to listen to, so more posts like these are planned.

First of all Stanley McChrystal talking about leadership: 'Listen, learn and lead'. This quote really sums up what I got out of the talk: 

"Leaders can let you fail, and not let you be a failure.”  

This talk came from a military background of experience, I don't usually find myself in a space where I find that inspiring or motivating. However, there were interesting insights around leadership and how people who are so very different can find a commonality with which to come together as one unit. I appreciated this. 

This next talk almost brought me to tears for it's beauty and vision. Harnessing the internet for the powers of breathtaking connectionism and creativity. Composer and conductor Eric Whitacre presents at TED talking about his experience creating a virtual choir: 'A virtual choir, 2000 voices strong'. This talk really gives you an amazing platform from which to truly appreciate these virtual choir performances. 

His first piece titled "Lux Aurumque" involved 185 voices from 25 countries around the world, is an amazing proof of concept. Its success inspired Eric to create an even larger virtual choir using his song "Sleep". The result was an epic music experience, a virtual choir 2.0 comprised of over 2000 voices from over 58 countries around the world. 

Although I'm disappointed in Google as a organisation at present, I was impressed by Sebastian Thrun's presentation to TED: 'Google's driverless car'. After losing a friend to a car accident, Sebastian says that he "decided dedicate my life to saving one million people every year." Sebastian reports that he's not there yet, that this is just a progress report.

In my listening his work on the driverless car has a number of potential positive impacts on society. Not the least of these is the potential to massively reduce traffic accidents; plus, the ever persuasive money maker in saving people time - he estimates around "4 billion hours per year" in the US. He also comments on how it will contribute to environmental initiatives to reduce pollution by reducing time spent waiting in traffic - his estimate for the US is that it would save "2.4 billion gallons of gasoline per year". This car looks pretty nifty - I wonder how far we are from cars like this being 'ordinary' and part of the everyday landscape?

"Wrongologist" Kathryn Schulz talks about how we engage with being wrong, or rather how we avoid it at all costs focusing only on being right and in many cases not taking the lessons that come with being wrong into account. Her talk 'On being wrong' is well worth a listen. Also, how cool is her job title 'Wrongologist'?!

I really enjoyed David Meslin's talk on 'The antidote to antipathy', He talks about how people in general aren't uninterested or uninvolved with politics because they don't care, or because they're stupid or because they're lazy... but that "apathy as we think we know it doesn’t actually exist ... that people do care, but that we live in a world that actively discourages engagement by constantly putting obstacles and barriers in our way." From intentional exclusion, unprofitable messages with the economy of freedom of expression to the cynacism provoked by political parties who all say similar things and are unwilling to engage genuinely outside of the politics machine. 

In another fascinating talk, David Christian discussed 'Big history', and how the increasing complexity surrounding conditions for the universe involves amazing instances of vulnerability and fragility. This was one of those talks that makes me swoon over science and physics and cosmology. To think about the universe with this kind of breadth leaves me breathtaken. 

Forth grade teacher John Hunter presents about 'The World Peace Game' and his experiences of teaching in classrooms with it. He talks ofchildren's ability to act on far reaching vectors and affirm their actions as the right thing despite the disagreement of others. He talks about his student's understanding of war and it's cost when they write condolences letters to the families of the soldiers who are killed when they 'go to war' on another nation.

The World Peace Game's board has 4 levels including a deep sea and deep space level, as well as a land and sea level with four nations both rich and poor. The way he talks about all he's learned from children's engagement with the game is truly humbling, I love that he's created a trust between himself and the students in order to achieve the potential of what the game has to offer. I also love that the concept really does engage with real world issues that we're unable to solve as adults - hearing children's perspectives on them is amazing. 

Caroline Casey tells the story in her talk 'Looking past limits' about how she became Mowgli from 'The Jungle Book'. She's had an amazing and far reaching career, but everything all came together for her with an intense authenticity when she trekked across India on the back of an elephant. This was a beautiful story, and reminds me of the notion of considering what I would do, if I knew I couldn't fail? I don't have an answer in words yet, though my heart knows the words. 

Silence is the subject of Anil Ananthaswarmy's talk on 'What it takes to do extreme astrophysics', he visits some of the most remote and breathtaking locations in the world and the astrophysics projects going on there. I am so very excited by the passion and dedication with which teams of people all over the world undertake to take us to new levels of understanding about the universe and our place in it. 

Retro Fiction Review Series

"Queen City Jazz" (1998) by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Published by Voyager, London.

'Queen City Jazz' is an interesting book, it has a great premise with exploring a distopian future using a melding of giant bees and hive like 'alive' city networks and the post effects of a 'nano war' on the people surrounding and within one of those cities, 'Cincinnati' known as the 'Queen City'. 

The protagonist Verity is the reason I read it all the way through. As a character, being young and quite ignorant of her history and with selective teaching of her history around her she has startling indpendence and the ability to act autonomously. Her choices are her own all the way through and she is clear about her reasoning for things throughout her journey. It is delightfully refreshing (still) to read a believable female character as the protagonist in a novel where it's not playing too much up to tired tropes for female characters. 

For example, playing into the trope, Verity is 'chosen' for a particular destiny, but the way in which the author uses that trope interestingly and allows Verity to interpret for herself what being 'chosen' means. While there were romantic threads in the book it wasn't a strong theme and the story was stronger for it.

On the less positive side of things, I didn't really enjoy the 'god/prophet' thread. This thread involved the story of a middle aged male character who was responsible for early programming of the cities, him and his issues leaked through a little bit to strongly and made my teeth hurt a little. 

Overall I liked it and am glad I read it, but it was a bit of a slog to get through and I was committed to finishing it rather than really wanting to read it all the way through. My reasons for doing so, such as the interesting premise, the female protagonist and her story remaining central, her independence, resilience and autonomy reinforced the entire way through made it worthwhile. 

I'm really glad the book exists and that I read it. It is a solid science fiction novel and it pressed a lot of my reading desirability buttons gently, but without ever really hooking me. Still, that's my experience of reading and your mileage may vary.