By mattr on February 8, 2010
Monday morning – the blank page of another awesome week stretches ahead, here are my reasons to be cheerful today…
What is keeping your chin up this morning?
Posted in reasonstobecheerful
By mattr on February 7, 2010
Sunday morning rolls around – spending quality time in the peaceful eye of the storm. I’m up early for some time in the fresh air, breaking some clays. Then its time to chill out with some great music and some slices of internet based inspiration. Our tune this week is WOLD by Harry Chapin, one of my favourite songs, telling the story of a down on his luck Radio DJ. Fire that up on YouTube and then come back for some inspirational links.
What has you inspired this week?
Posted in inspiration
By mattr on February 6, 2010
Penelope Cruz – a fantastic gallery of shots from Pedro Almodovars Broken Embraces.
Posted in muse
By mattr on February 5, 2010
“Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent” – Marlon Brando
Give some thought to that, the next time you are pushing for the next grade or the next payrise, the two things are not always related. Keep developing, keep learning and then maybe you’ll be worth it.
What are you doing to keep developing? Is it time to step up a gear?
Posted in hero
By mattr on February 1, 2010
Monday morning – sun shining, despite a light dusting of snow to the West of London… here are my reasons to be cheerful today…
What’s keeping you chipper today?
Posted in reasonstobecheerful
By mattr on January 31, 2010
Sunday morning once again – I’m waking up in sunny Lincolnshire, freezing cold but looking beautiful against a bright sky. I woke up with this song in my head, and I think it’s a marvellous Sunday morning tune – Song to the Siren – this marvellous version is by The Czars – fire that up and then enjoy some Sunday morning inspiration…
What is inspiring you today?
Posted in inspiration
By mattr on January 29, 2010
“Why the hell don’tcha, instead of keep saying it?” - JD Salinger, 1.1.1919 to 27.1.2010
And isn’t that exactly what we need, a few more people who just get on with stuff rather than writing down what they are going to do – you can invest all the time and money in the world in systems, processes, tools and fancy devices – but nothing works quite as well as writing a list on decent piece of paper, and then crossing the items through as you execute.
Posted in hero
By mattr on January 26, 2010
The Brits 2010 are on 16th Feb at Earls Court – after 30 years of ups and downs, the awards is generally quite good fun, some crazy performances – a little scandal and some funny acceptance speeches.
There is a great playlist of Brit Award nominees here.
My favourite game is try and predict the winners – sometimes I get quite a good hit rate, let’s see how I do this time round…here are the full nominations with my prediction in BOLD:
- British Female Solo Artiste : Bat for Lashes, Florence and the Machine, Leona Lewis, Lily Allen, Pixie Lott.
- British Male Solo Artiste : Calvin Harris, Dizzee Rascal, Mika, Paolo Nutini, Robbie Williams
- British Breakthrough Act : Florence and the Machine, Friendly Fires, JLS, La Roux, Pixie Lott
- British Group : Doves, Friendly Fires, JLS, Kasabian, Muse
- MasterCard British Album : Dizzee Rascal – Tongue ‘n’ Cheek, Florence and the Machine – Lungs, Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Lily Allen – Its not you its me, Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up
- British Single : Alesha Dixon – Breathe Slow, Alexandra Burke Ft Flo Rida – Bad Boys, Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love , Joe McElderry – The Climb, JLS – Beat Again, La Roux – In For The Kill, Lily Allen – The Fear, Pixie Lott – Mama Do, Taio Cruz – Break Your Heart, Tinchy Stryder Ft N-Dubz – Number 1
- Critics Choice : Ellie Goulding, Delphic, Marina and the Diamonds
- Brits Album of 30 years : Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head, Dido – No Angel, Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms, Duffy – Rockferry, Keane – Hopes & Fears, Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Phil Collins – No Jacket Required, Sade – Diamond Life, The Verve – Urban Hymns, Travis – The Man Who
- Brits Hits 30 : Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive/How Deep is Your Love, Bros. – I Owe you Nothing, Coldplay – Clocks, Eurythmics & Stevie Wonder – There must be an Angel, Girls Aloud – The Promise, Kanye West – Gold Digger, Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out of my Head, Michael Jackson – Earth Song, Paul McCartney – Live & Let Die, Pet Shop Boys – Go West, Robbie Williams & Tom Jones – The Full Monty Medley, Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama, Spice Girls – Wannabe/Who Do You Think You Are, Take That – Beatles Medley, The Who – Who Are You
- International Female : Lady Gaga, Ladyhawke, Norah Jones, Rihanna, Shakira
- International Male : Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Jay-Z, Michael Buble, Seasick Steve
- International Album : Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion, Black Eyed Peas – The End, Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream, Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3, Lady Gaga – The Fame
- International Breakthrough : Animal Collective, Daniel Merriweather, Empire of the Sun, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift
Who are you tipping for success at this years Brits?
Posted in music
By mattr on January 25, 2010
Monday morning rolls round – the start of another week, the page is blank again so this is your chance to be awesome once more. Here are my top reasons to be cheerful this week…
- New Tindersticks album gets released today – looking forward to getting a listen to that…
- I’m organised, I have a good plan and some simple priorities this week.
- The Brits are coming – I’ll be blogging my predictions this week. I love the fun and games of the Brit Awards
- The guv’nor is tweeting – worth subscribing to this one. (I’m here…)
- I’m back at the gym and feeling the benefits of the endorphins already.
What has you feeling tip-top today?
Posted in reasonstobecheerful
By mattr on January 24, 2010
Slightly later this week – I’ve had the perfect Sunday, getting some exercise and relaxation at the gym, followed by food and fun with family. Our music for the week is a little bit of fun as well – Por Una Cabeza is better known as ‘the Tango’ in Scent of a Woman, and is one of my favourite pieces of music – as well as a fantastic scene from this marvellous film.
- Inspirational young lady –some parochial inspiration, this girl from my local area is suffering, but still able to commit to raising money for others. See also this young fella who has raised thousands for Haiti – at just seven years old.
- Best sneakers of 2009 – this fantastic review of the 25 best trainers of 2009 is definitely worth a read, old school is new school is retro as you step through some fine crepes from last year. A fantastic website to watch.
- I have a dream, of social networks – what would Martin Luther King have made of Twitter? I’d have followed that account – by the way, I’m here. I cannot promise the wisdom of MLK.
What is your inspiration this week?
Posted in inspiration
By mattr on January 22, 2010
It’s hard to pay attention these days because of multiple affects of the information technology nowadays. You tend to develop a faster, speedier mind, but I don’t think it’s necessarily broader or smarter. Robert Redford
So, is he right? I find the more information I get, the more information I crave – and that leads to distraction and lack of attention on the really important things. This week I’ve been thinking a lot about the urgent and important matrix – not only am I using it on my tasks, but I’m using it on my information streams (RSS, Social Networks etc) and purging what its really distracting me.
What are you doing to stay focused?
Posted in hero, inspiration
By mattr on January 19, 2010
A new feature surfaced in Bing recently – type in a marque and model of a car, and the search returns some essential data before the standard results. Very useful if you are comparing models of cars.
What new feature is your business adding to stay ahead?
Posted in bing, microsoft
