My whole life people have called my lazy.  It’s true I am.  HOWEVER, there are times when being lazy is a blessing.   There are times when being lazy will save you from disaster.  Take this example from something that happened to me recently.

I couldn’t be bothered reading the map before I went to check out some land in the deep (deep) south of Brisbane.  When we got there the agent told me that I had come the long way.  Story of my life.  In her helpful discussion on how to get me back to where I came from, she told me about the route I could take to get back home which saved a shirtload of time.  Now, on the way we discovered things that were very interesting to us, a new suburb (not so feral), quiet streets and most importantly high speed internet, hot local girls, an adult entertainment venue, super IGA, reasonably priced drugs, houses.

When I say reasonable, you have to place that in context.  The houses are still four to five times my income.  However, they aren’t six to seven times my income as they are in area I am in now.   I digress.

You could argue that planning sometimes creates a frame that leads to a known solution and blocks out other solutions.  This is true… ish.  Yet, my laziness led to a surprise that the lady had for me because I didn’t bother to read the map!  This happens rarely but it’s a lesson for me that sometimes you are best to see what happens when you do stuff instead of creating a fifty seven point plan.  It’s part of the fun of choas chaos.

Nancy White from collegecrunch.org sent me this link of 15 Podcasts that will make you smarter.

Some very interesting people here… too interesting and too smart.

As part of my personal development I have decided to read and develop a literary talent.  Now, I don’t have one (it’s in development) so I thought it best to study the masters of literature in order to learn from them (yes instead of spending more money on University courses).  Usually I am a fan of horror ala Stephen King.  But, my wife, an avid reader, recommended Hemmingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. This book won both a Pulitzer and a Nobel prize for literature, no mean feat, and has earned a place in history amongst American classics.   I enjoyed it for many reasons, yet the main one was the way in which a story that takes place over two days can tell you so much about a character.

I was wondering if anyone here has read and what were your lasting thoughts about it?  I found it excellent because of the way the complex character of the old man unfolded as the book went on, even towards his eventually battering at the hands of the sea.  Thoughts?

I am a filmmaker… it’s official.  What follows is a commercial I made for a Doritos competition with the help of my wife (Cinematographer) and the sister-in-law (the ho who gets slapped).

I submitted this video to win $20,000 and it was made at home on a Macbook Pro using: iMovie HD, Boinx TV and Garageband and I used a Kodak V1073 ($300 HD digital camera).   It was the most fun I have had in a while (being a star and all ).  When I submitted it to Doritos, they raised a question about the violence.  Personally, I think it’s funny but I am fan of comic violence.  What do you think… too violent?  The word, “pimpslap” didn’t really help I don’t think…

So what are you doing for Easter?  I am staying at home… watching movies and feeding my friends cat.  I like cats.

Courtesy: http://www.austinabney.com

Whatever it is… have a safe easter and if you live in Queensland avoid the Bruce Highway.  The traffic lately has been horrendous.

All the best

Luke

To anyone who has been reading this blog for a length of stime and anyone who stumbles across this post… MERRY CHRISTMAS!  During this time you must have as must rest as possible and enjoy (if you can – releatives dependent of course) this time of year.  Although as you get older/fatter it becomes more of a drag… at least for me. So have a great Christmas and enjoy the festive season with your family.

Today we were fortunate enough to get a new trampoline from my mother for the kids Christmas present.  Yippee!  So I thought what a great idea to play on the trampoline with the kiddies and jump up and down recalling the glory days of my illustrious youth.  When I went to get off the trampoline however, I learned a very sharp lesson… I am not as young as I think I am!  I slowly put one foot on a precariously placed chair outside of the circular trampoline.   As I placed my left foot on the chair it wobbled… so very wisely thought, you know what it’s time to put the other one down… what a big mistake.

The chair decided that my heavy ass was too much for it and subsequently folded out from underneath me.  I fell FACE FIRST into the hard ground smacking my left eye and right shin firmly into the earth.  At first when I realised what happened I should have known… I am not eighteen I am thirty-one!  I am sore and have quite a serious headache as a result of this spill.  I should also mention that I was an accident prone child  which unfortunately followed me rather annoyingly into my lower to middle aged years!

My final word for this shortish post today is simply this: when it comes to stepping off trampolines I am sure to fall.  My FAIL is only related to my inability to master the exit of a metre or so (a foot and a half three feet for the overseas reader), off the groud, circular “guarded” trampoline.   Can I warn the parents in the audience that next time you THINK to dismount a device primarily designed for ages six and up that you remind yourself that your middle-aged desire to relive your childhood is in no way an indication of your ability to master the thing in question and you should at best keep your distance from said “child thing” until such a time as you are either: fully equipped head to toe with safety equipment OR as far away from the bloody thing as possible!  I am telling you the ice pack on the face and shin is NOT worth it!

* Image courtesy: Travel Blog

Over the past week or so I have had the pleasure of staying in Christchurch for work.  Sure, it’s fairly short flight at 3 1/2 hours … it still counts though as my first trip outside of Australia.  The food was great and the people were friendly.  The picture shown above comes from a little seaside town where I had the pleasure to have dinner.  Although I had come from 31 degree heat (that’s celcius) to 19 odd… I aclimatised very quickly.  Now, why am I telling you this… well because I had to tell someone.

The highlight of the trip was driving up the hills and taking in the scenery of Christchurch.  What a beautiful sight it was.   I also went there for work to watch my co-presenter deliver a paper on Feral Systems which was also good.  So the point of this little post is to say how much I enjoyed it and how much I am looking forward to my next trip overseas.  The one thing it did for me was give me a great deal more confidence when it comes to travel because I had, up till this point, been quite scared of taking a trip.  Sure, it was only a short trip “across the ditch” but it showed me what comes next… a trip to a non-english speaking country… NO!

So I would recommend Christchurch (bring a jacket Australians living north of Sydney) as a destination of choice and no this is not a sponsered post!  Now, to cook up another paper for my next trip *rubs hands*.

Well not really.  I am just in a limbo as to what I want to do next.  Since I started about a year or so ago I had envisioned making in a “business only” site, then it became a “personal development” site.  After that well… it was sort of about problem solving.   Since then I haven’t really followed the golden rule of blogging… stay within the lines of your niche… don’t stray to the left or right… stay still don’t move.  The problem?  I can’t just write about one thing… I am a generalist not a specialist!  I am impressed with the way things of gone and I am happy enough with it.  However, something is missing.  There is no emotional engagement on this website as such and I think the posts have become mechanical.

I had thought of closing down or starting over but I just don’t want to!  The thing is, when you build something up from scratch or start a big project from beginning to end, you really have a hard time leaving it all behind.  So I have been pondering… what do I do?  So I decided to renovate.  I started this site as an experiment and I am going to continue it as an experiment.

So while I decide what I am going to do I will continue to post my usual random trains of thought … or find a ‘niche’.  Perhaps finding a niche works when you can create a very straightforward plan on how to write about what you love… me however… well I like so many different things.  I find it hard to simply ‘build a niche’ and ‘thrash it out’.

Some ideas I have are:

1. Getting a swish template

2. Writing shorter posts more often

3. Integrating a forum (time is a real bastard here… I’ll be honest.  If you want to make a forum that does well… you will have to find time and energy to build it)

4. Integrating more web 2.0 stuffs

5. Adding everything I do (i.e. short stories/fiction, hackademic stuff etc)

If you have any suggestions on renovating this site I would love to hear it.   Anyway I am going to brainstorm ways to improve this site… though I am happy with my progress so far.  Would love any kind of guidance… oh I said that already .

I was getting extremely annoyed at Firefox 3 this past week for not letting me install the latest flash player.  You might be wondering, “what the hell has that to do with funny childhood memories.”  You’ll see.  I was sent the following video by my sister in law:

After ages of stuffing around I did what I usually do, stumbled upon the folder that held the flash files and forced an automatic update.  It worked!  I then beheld the above and what happened next is largely due to my strange ability to make connections between things that have none.  Yes, I thought of G-Force.  Here’s what I grew up watching:

Ahh the memories came flooding back.  I was taken back to a simpler time when life the most exciting thing in life was a morning cartoon.  But that isn’t the weird part… what amazed me was the fact that I could remember something special.  No, I am not talking about the cartoon either.  I could remember what it felt like to watch it.  I could remember the same excitement I felt every time I switch the cartoon on.  It is the same today when I watch it.  Sure, it’s crap but the same emotions come flooding back. I thought I’d take a look at how old it was… 1985.  That would have made me eight years old.

This got me to thinking (of course).  Courtesy of a recent email conversation I have come to understand the human differently.  I think perhaps information is stored in our minds in whatever format we choose to store it and it never goes away.  How often have you walked through a shopping centre and you catch a whiff of some woman’s perfume and it reminds you of a past lover?  What about when it rains?  Ahh… this is just a Houghton thing isn’t it?  Then again… maybe it isn’t.

Anyway this is just a random thought for you.  I enjoyed watching those videos again… it really took me back!