our place in the universe...

Photo of Earthrise courtesy of the astronauts of the Apollo Space Program and NASA

Two nights ago I had the fortune to see a total lunar eclipse. It was quite amazing. There is something about the moon, our silent neighbour on our journey round and round the sun. The moon has that magic quality to it. Since the early days it has captured the imagination of scientists and philosophers, writers and dreamers. Humans went there but have yet to go back but we are still innately curious about its origins and the adventure that its exploration presents. One of the most stunning views from the entire moon programme is the one I’ve included here. Not man walking on the moon, but man looking back at the Earth. The world is bigger than any one person, and yet from our nearest neighbour it looks so small and so far away.

But in all of creation this place is really quite special. The position of the Earth and its transit around the sun and the position of its moon are such that the Earth can on occasions block all the light that reflects off the moon. And on the converse (and more rare and less magical) the same is true when there is a total solar eclipse. That with all the distances and space involved it is possible for that to happen.

That eclipse was something special though. I was lucky enough to be up on Exmoor where the night sky is the blackest I’ve ever seen. It was a perfectly clear, completely silent and still. I’d almost forgotten what dark nights could look like – you see stars and constellations that are never visible in towns. The moon gradually waned until all that was left was a red silhouette against the blackness of the night sky floating amidst a sea of stars.

And a lone animal howled against the silence of the night.

It was quite marvellous to behold.

The dreamer in me didn’t know quite what to say.

if your life was a movie what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool

Opening: I have a message/ Come to Minbar - Babylon 5 Sleeping in Light Soundtrack

Waking Up: Keep on Moving – 5ive

Falling in Love: Have You Ever – S Club

Fight Song: Bring the House down – S Club

Breaking Up: Ticket to Ride – The Beatles

Prom: The Bear Necessities - From the Jungle Book

Life is Good: Design for Life – Manic Street Preachers

Mental Breakdown: Shiny Happy People - REM

Driving: Could it be Magic – Take That

Flashback: Counting Down the Days – Natalie Imbruglia

Getting Back Together: From me to you – The Beatles

Wedding: It’s the way you make me feel – Steps

Paying the Dues: Three Lions – Baddiel & Skinner and the Lightning Seeds

The Night Before the War: Unbreak my Heart – Toni Braxton

Final Battle: Music to Watch Girls By – Andy Williams

Moment of Triumph: The Closest Thing to Crazy – Katie Melua

Death Scene: You are all I have – Snow Patrol

Funeral Song: You’ve got a friend – Andy Williams

End Credits: Sugar Sugar – The Archies

There is something about music. Its got something that I think speaks to us all in different ways. I go through phases of listening to lots of music then listening to none (although the iPod has made those phases occur more often). I quite often just listen to music on shuffle andI find it amazing the different things I think about and the things I remember as I listen. Some songs take me back to my childhood, some draw my thoughts to the future, and some help ground me firmly in the present. I think music is intrinsically linked to our memories, our hopes and our dreams.

After all what are we without hopes, dreams, and memories?

on life...

Since the early philosophers, we have been seeking out the answer to life (the universe and everything). There have been a great many answers, and much discourse. In giving the answer '42' Douglas Adams had it right. We don't even know the question. But we are no closer to the 'big' answers. As humans we are all unique, and we are all different. History has demonstrated that there can never be 'one' answer to anything. So why try? Maybe, just maybe, its not all about the big answers. Perhaps it was never supposed to be.

I think the meaning of life is down to each individual. We are all searching for our own purpose, our own meaning of life. We make choices and decisions every day in our own personal quest for 'the' answer. Our unique answer. Its the decisions we make every day - big and small. And its all ours.

The answer may have been there all along. We just didn't ask the right question.

losing the magic in the 21st Century...

Remember the magic of Christmas as a child? I do.

Before I went to bed we would put out a mince pie and a glass of wine for Santa, and sometimes even a carrot for the reindeer. I would be so excited I could barely sleep, and maybe only slept for a few hours, sometimes with considerable bribery from mum and dad.

Christmas morning was magical. It may not have been a white Christmas, but the presents under the tree affirmed my faith that there really was a Santa Claus, and that I was special enough for him to visit. There were always things that remained the same, year on year. Always an orange in my Stocking, the glass of wine would be drunk, only crumbs remaining of the mince pie.

For many years Christmas was a day of fun. Playing with toys, building Lego, eating Christmas dinner, watching all those old movies that are on year after year. Christmas was a time of family, a time of fun, and a time of magic.

And what has Christmas become?

The Christmas season begins earlier and earlier each year. Barely are the ‘back to school’ goods off the shelves, then the Christmas trees and musical Santa’s are there to taunt us at every turn. It is not uncommon to see Witches broomsticks alongside Snowmen. Towns turn their Christmas lights on as early as November.

This is not because there is a desire to extend the magic, or for any other sentimental reason. Christmas has become a retail enterprise. It begins earlier only so that the unsuspecting consumer spends more. Parents who cannot afford the long build up to Christmas are made to feel guilty that they cannot provide what little Johnny wants and all his friends are going to get.

Santa is no longer cool. His credibility is lost at a much younger age than in Christmas past. Where Children as old as ten used to still believe, the loss of innocence happens during the early years of Primary Education. Children would rather be in the real world it would seem. The guise of Santa is simply flaunted as another way for the retail industry to make money.

The Nativity story is barely known. Children are as likely to learn about Hanukkah as any other festival. (Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for teaching other religions, but the traditionalist in me believes that at Christmas the story of Christmas should be taught.)

So if the story is lost, the meaning is lost. And we have a generation of children growing up believing that the true purpose of Christmas is material gain. Not magic, not family, not much of anything really.

So if the magic is gone. What now?

I’ll admit I’m struggling with Christmas this year. I really am. I have yet to write cards. I have bought only essential gifts. And as you can see, I have become more than a little cynical about the whole thing.

There isn’t anything I can do to change the way the world is approaching Christmas. I think maybe I need to rediscover the meaning of Christmas. I know I can never go back to the magic of my childhood Christmases, but perhaps there is a way to make my own magic now.

We’ll see.

perspective or perception?

Perspective [noun]… 3. Mental view of relative importance of things.

We often talk of ‘putting things in perspective’ What we mean is taking a step back and looking at our situation in a more objective manner, to try and see what is really important. The idea is we will step beyond the ‘now’, count our blessings and realise we were worried about nothing in the first place.

Yeah. That’s the theory. You just try putting that into practice.

The truth is we don’t need perspective. We need perception.

Perception [noun]…art or faculty of perceiving.

Perceive [verb] 1. Become aware of ones senses. 2. Apprehend. Understand.

Our individual perceptions of the world around us shape the reality we experience. We are coloured by our life experiences, attitudes and values, and we essentially make up our reality as we go along. It’s the joy of being an individual. And the curse.

We all say we need to get ‘some perspective’. But we don’t need to step back and see the world more objectively. Why try and see the world objectively? No one really does. Maybe what we need to do instead is change our perception, or at least try to perceive the world through someone else’s eyes. We all have our own reality after all.

So if we try and understand another person’s perception, we will understand their reality a bit better. And that may be all the perspective we need.

It gets better... right?

I’m in one of those weeks that never seems to end. How is it that there is a direct correlation between how crappy you feel and how slow time passes. Why can’t time slow down when life is good and speed past the not so good bits?

It’s like driving in fog. No matter how far you go, you never seem to come out of it. You may think the fog has lifted but its just an illusion. I’m trying to keep busy, but the second I stop, that weight comes crashing back down again. I guess time is like many things – completely in the eye of the beholder.

I’ve always been a believer that things work themselves out in the end. But my question is – Why does everything turn go wrong all at once? Is it Karma? All I could really use is for something to go right this week.

But I guess that’s hoping for too much.

on accents...

So, I was listening to the Babylon podcast earlier on - the interviewee was Claudia Christian. On the show, her accent was a a neutral American accent, despite her character being Russian. She grew up with a German-accented mother and and Irish-accented father. And now she speaks with a noticeable English accent. The Americans running the show found this quite 'odd' to say the least.

The Americans, in my experience struggle with accent recognition, and yet are immensely fascinated when faced with someone who speaks different to themselves. There is no 'one' American accent, it varies by area as it does here and elsewhere. But the fact remains, someone who talks different is going to be noticed.

Perhaps it is their lack of exposure to foreign media, movies and TV? Most Americans I know only seem ever to have heard of Monty Python and Blackadder Whereas most of the television I watch and enjoy are products from across the Atlantic.

We are more attuned to different accents in this country not only because a large proportion of our population now comes from overseas in their first, second, third generations, and some considerably more than that. Add into that we are still a Commonwealth of 53 diverse nations, with soldiers from these nations still swearing their allegiance to the Queen and settling into the economic life of this country.

And I cannot discount the European influence on our appreciation of accents. Being a member of the European Union has made it easier for travel and trade to happen across borders, and we think very little of hopping on a plane to the ski slopes of Austria, or the Spanish Costa's, or the Beer halls of Germany. Once there we are exposed to a multitude of people and cultures and languages. Hearing a foreign accent has become of second nature to us. We call our bank and we are as likely to talk to someone in India as we are to someone at home. It has become a feature of everyday life.

The more you are exposed to something, the less of an impact it has. And if you live in a country where people are less likely to travel outside their own borders and few tourists ever visit. A foreign accent is going to stand out like a sore thumb.

Whats your (guilty) pleasure?

Each of us has our guilty pleasures, whether we admit it or not. Those things we know we should not like, but for some inexplicable reason, we are drawn to like a moth to a flame.

I have to admit it – my guilty pleasure is Grey’s Anatomy.

In a nutshell, Grey’s Anatomy follows the lives and loves of the interns (and doctors) of Seattle Grace Hospital as they complete their surgical internships. Grey’s Anatomy has become immensely popular in the US, even beating long running and established shows like CSI in the ratings war. At only 3 seasons old, Grey’s is a relative infant, but it has taken the US by storm.

So the question arises – what has made Grey’s Anatomy so popular? And why is it a guilty pleasure?

Today’s answer comes from the part of me that indulges in the guilty pleasure of Greys Anatomy:

Greys Anatomy is so addictive because it is character centred. All the relationships that are so fleeting in other shows are allowed to develop and grow on Grey’s Anatomy. Why wait for 6 years waiting for Grissom and Sara to get together on CSI, only to find out that it did happen, and what’s worse, it all happened off air. In Grey’s Anatomy, we get to see it all. Feelings dictate actions, not the other way around. It is what CSI started with Sara Sidle, but those who were opposed to character-in-CSI hated to see. Whereas from the first Grey’s Anatomy episode, we knew that the long-running ‘will they won’t they’ between Meredith and Derek was going to be important. It’s a soap set in a hospital at the end of the day. And that’s what makes it a ‘guilty pleasure’ – soaps are meant to do that. You shouldn’t want to be nosy. And I think that’s why Grey’s Anatomy will be a success. Because it’s the way that who has ever wanted two characters on TV show to get together would like TV to be, and at least we can enjoy it on Grey’s Anatomy. On Grey’s Anatomy no one is perfect and there isn’t always a happy ending but the voiceovers at the beginning and end of the show have become a trademark of sorts, and highlighted the more serious character developments and issues. And most importantly, they make you think.

All I ask is a blank piece of paper and a pen to write with…

I was reading the other day that Blogging is becoming more and more popular, with thousands of Blog’s starting up everyday. And I can see why.

I have always enjoyed writing. There is something about the creative process, of transferring thoughts and idea into prose and narrative. I always thought that the best use of my love of the written word would be writing fiction, but having discovered Blogging, I realise that perhaps it isn’t. Most of my fiction remains unfinished, the muse having disappeared. I have a collection of beginnings, middles, endings, dialogues and outline ideas, but very little finished work. Most of it will never see the light of day.

In Blogging I have found a natural expression, a way of transferring my thoughts and ideas in whatever way I choose. Short or long, one sided or an in depth piece, it is mine to mould as I see fit. I may not post everyday, but I write everyday. It may be an essay on politics or a scribbled note on a scrap of paper but the thoughts and ideas are my own. I have nothing to prove and nothing to gain.

And I find in this form of expression that I can finish what I start.

watching and waiting...

Inspiration is a funny thing. You can sit for hours waiting for it to come with no success, and then, when you least expect it – it comes from nowhere and often at the most inconvenient time.

I’ve spent ages trying to write fiction, but when I set time aside to write, I am usually left with a blank page. I do my best work late at night when I really should be asleep and when I was young and at school, I always did my best work when I was supposed to be concentrating on other classes. I have come to realise that inspiration cannot be forced, and that it can come from the most unlikely of sources. In any creative activity it is outside stimuli that act as the point of inspiration, whether this is personal knowledge, an overheard conversation, or a newspaper headline. After all the use of imagination is what makes the world go round. All inventions are based on inspiration and imagination in some guise. I have learned that you just need to keep your mind open.

A little inspiration can go a long way. Just hang on in there. That little inspiration will hit, and you probably won’t see it coming. But when it does it will open up a world of possibilities.

If you truly seek inspiration, it is definitely worth the wait.

seeing is believing

Watching CSI last night I watched the episode “Turn of the Screws”, which involves rollercoaster’s. At the end Grissom is talking to the guy who maintains the rollercoaster, and they talk about great ‘coasters. Right at the end they mention ‘The Beast’ and ‘Son of Beast’, two of the ‘coasters at Kings Island, Cincinnati, OH.

I have ridden both of those ‘coasters (before Son of Beast was involved in an accident that hurt a bunch of people about a week after I rode it). The Beast was a really cool ride. It was fast, wooden, and really quite cool. Son of Beast on the other hand was too big, too fast, and too furious. I felt like my brain had been bounced around inside of my head when I got off. John had hurt his knees. I think we all felt pretty battered. Maybe a trip in a washing machine would have been more comfortable. But the park was really quite cool. It was definitely an experience to remember with lots of different rides (which really were quite different not the same on a theme like some parks.

I think the main thing about my trip was the variety of things I did. Much more than I would have done back home in the same amount of time! I went to places I have seen on TV, and I now here them talk about on shows. How cool is that?! Same sort of thing with New York and Chicago – I now see those places on TV and in movies.

moments in time...

Firey Sunset,
originally uploaded by moonshine037.

There is something about the sky that fascinates me. Not just the science behind it (although that is interesting), but the 'fluidity'. I've been taking photos of skies for a while and something about them has been bugging me.

A photo of the sky is like a snapshot of time, like moments, they can only come once, and will never be the same again. The sky moves, it is always alive. If you take a photo of the sky, its liek you are preserving that moment, to share it with people not lucky enough to share that single moment in time. Time is fleeting, and as I get older, it seems to go quickly, even on a really slow day it is soon past. Every time I see a stunning sky I am reminded to treasure every moment, because it can never come again.

Plus - skies are just really cool!

opportunities and ideas

While I was working in America, every morning at breakfast, somebody had a big idea for the day. The idea is to inspire the boys, to give them something to think about as they start the day. I gave a big idea once a week. It is something I really do believe in.

I’ll tell you my big idea for today…

“My big idea is… ‘To take advantage of every opportunity’.

At Camp – to do merit badges and other fun activities

Through Scouts – to do fun things, see places, and grow as a person

In life – seize new challenges and experiences and make the most of them

So take advantage of every opportunity and you never know where you’ll end up!”

I did the same big idea each week for each new group of boys. I always did it on a Wednesday, in the (probably futile) hope that it would inspire just one boy to come to my presentation on the UK that evening. What I didn’t realise was quite how much of an impact it had on the other staff members. I guess I noticed that a couple of people started saying “take advantage of every opportunity” in a very ‘English’ accent for a couple of weeks but in the last week I was lucky enough to have my Big Idea stolen and given to the entire breakfast sitting in an ‘English’ accent.

It seems that my idea really did get remembered. Maybe because I have a different accent to everyone else, or maybe because it is actually a really great piece of advice.

So there you go – take advantage of every opportunity and you never know where you’ll end up!

Thinking....

I just realised that I do have a really great life!

Off to enjoy the weekend.

perspective...

I've been feeling a bit down and lonely this week. Then I thought long and hard about what was bugging me, and having got it all off my chest (and my future being in someone elses hands). I just realised how much in my life I have to be thankful for:

I have a loving family, a great guy, a roof over my head, clothes to wear, food to eat, a job that keeps the wolf from the door, and my family's health.

There are plenty of people in the world who don't have any of that, so what on Earth was I worried about?

Going nowhere fast

Do you ever feel that you can work really hard, and yet do not seem to make any progress.

Or is it because at the end of it there is one big task that awaits you, and the longer you leave it, the bigger it becomes.

Guess who's timewasting again. :D

To do....

Goals are something that I never really think about. They are just there, in the back of my mind. I try to relate what i am doing each day to how these fit with my long term goals. A lot of my Uni work at the moment is based around the idea of goal setting and purpose. It's made me think. Which I suppose was the plan.

I spoke to someone today who said that "goals should be as specific as possible" otherwise you'll stagnate, never knowing quite what you are aiming for.

So, in no particular order, (and not exhaustive) my goals are:

• Graduate.
• Achieve Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
• Achieve Black Belt.
• Write a book.
• Travel the world.
• Own a Peugeot 206.
• See a shuttle launch.
• Visit Disney World in Florida.
• Retire to Exmoor.
• Own an Old English Sheepdog.

TBC...

The next step, of course, is to work out how to get there... So watch this space!

Time flies...

I graduate in July. It's a terrifying thought. I finish Uni in June. Where have the last three years (nearly) gone? How is it nearly April already?

These are life's eternal questions.

I think uni has changed me. Tomorrow I have to host a visiting speaker. Introduce him to the class, prompt the questioners, and play 'host'. Two and a half years ago, the though would have terrified me. Last week I volunteered. I am a new person. I even surprised myself with that.

I have hope for the real world after all.

Opportunity Knocks...

A while back I received the best piece of advice ever:

"take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to you"

Its true. A random conversation at the weekend, and I've been offered the opportunity for a work placement. I know it will cut short my Easter break, but at the end of the day, if it helps in the future, then its worth it.

All of life is experience. Every little thing builds on another. If you don't seize opportunities, you can be certain someone else will. There are so any students who graduate with nothing on their CV. No hobbies or skills. It show that all you did at uni was read books, or that you were too lazy (like a lot of students are) to get up and do something with your time. This was my problem in my first year, however in my second year I joined a society, got involved with volunteering and Tae Kwon-Do and haven't looked back. I realised that my CV needed to say more. And that is the most important thing about going to university - life experience. (Oh, and the degree as well!)

And that, said John, is that.