A couple of nights ago, I caught the last 45 minutes of George Carlin being posthumously awarded the 11th Mark Twain for American Humour on the Knowledge Network. I never paid much attention to George Carlin in my younger years. I was raised in a household where I received regular ruler hits on the hand for using the words “Damn” and “Crap”. So, it’s no surprise that I would have been in deep trouble for listening to Mr. Carlin. His observations and social commentary on the world are sharp. He has incredible insight on the peculiarities of the English Language. He’s good at testing your beliefs and challenging everything.
Free this Saturday, Nov 7?
Come on down to The 6th Ever! Hot One Inch Action at W2 Perel Gallery, 112 w Hastings. The one inch button trading starts at 8pm. I am one of the fifty artist to be part of the show!
Above is this year’s button design.
My “le bon lapin” button was part of the 2007 show.
I’m finally getting regular exercise. Our self-named friday morning badminton club is called Bad Mitten. Go figure, we’re a bunch of art school peeps and I have a love for mad gab. My first few attempts at badminton sucked but with the encouragement and help from some awesome badminton players, I’ve upped my game. C sent me some really excellent badminton instructions. He’s a good teacher but the sound quality could have been better.
If you’re free friday morning, you should join us at Richmond Pro. The morning crowd is pretty friendly.
This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better. The Fun Theory.
Great ideas to inspire change and bring a smile to people’s faces. One of my fun theory idea would be to decorate the Canada Line tunnel into a giant haunted house (with spiderwebs, monsters and all) to make it fun for people to take transit. However, people wouldn’t be very happy if tax payer’s dollars were spent on that. What’s your fun theory?
I was listening to the radio when I came across an interview with Robert J Sawyer, author of the book FlashForward (now, translated to TV). Flashforward is a science fiction story about an event where everyone in the world passes out for 2 minutes and gets a glimpse of themselves 21 years in the future. The story line that intrigued me the most was about a couple that was about to have their first child. They flashforward to see that their child grows up to be a vicious criminal. How does the couple reconcile that with the excitement they are feeling in the present? What would you do, if you knew your child was going to be a horrible person?
This concept reminded me of a short story called Genesis and Catastrophe (true story) by Roald Dahl. The only difference is that these parents don’t know that their child will grow up to be an awful person. Google Genesis and Catastrophe and you’ll be able to download a pdf of the story. It will only take 10 minutes to read. It will be worth your time. Roald Dahl is up there on my favourite authors list. He is the master of the unpredictable and his writing is addictive.
A note of interest, my friend blogged about Flash Fiction (not related to FlashForward). Click here to read her article. It’s a great idea to get the creative writing juices following. I’m excited about tomorrow as I already have my next story ready to post. Feel free to join in too!
My day was spent in bed sick (again!), listening to the radio and drinking a lot of fluids.
Listen to an interesting CBC show called Gratitude.
Two words: Thank you. They sound simple enough. But in the hands of Margaret Visser, nothing is simple for long.
There is always more to a topic, phrase, or ritual than one might think.
T and I decided to go on an underwater photography adventure in her parent’s pool. We were inspired by T’s Alice in Wonderland post.
Here are two of my favourite photos we captured. I’m still editing the rest. For our first attempt I think we did pretty well.
I randomly picked this documentary up at the library.
“In a small, rural community of less than two thousand people nestled in the mountains of Tennessee, citizens are almost exclusively white and Christian. In 1998, the children of Whitwell Middle School took on an inspiring project, launched out of their principal’s desire to help her students open their eyes to the diversity of the world beyond their insulated valley. What happened would change the students, their teachers, their families and the entire town forever…and eventually open hearts and minds around the world.”
I think the filming style will put some people off as it’s shot very simply. The documentary dragged at times but the content is heartfelt and genuine.
I think it would be fun to do a toy designer workshop for kids. Came across Caleb Chung’s talk on Ted. He’s the mind behind Furby. Click here to watch his talk.
